The Importance of Right Livelihood in Modern Life
One of the tenets of Buddhism is “Right Livelihood.” In a nutshell it means working at a job that doesn’t contribute to the pain and suffering in the world. This isn’t a problem for most jobs, although a few do come to mind. One that does is performing and assisting with abortions.
I am pro-Life as is my family. We live with and bear the cost of our ethics. Dr. Wife may be a liberal but she won’t work for an institution that performs abortions, and we have made decisions and helped others in tight spots when it would have been much easier for us to walk away. I wrap my pro-Life attitude in a pro-Choice mantel because I do not believe the Government has a right to tell a woman what to do with her body, and that ceding that right to the Government makes it much easier for it to grab other rights. But the cloth of that mantel is thin; scratch it and you will find someone who values innocent life.
When I read about a Planned Parenthood employee who quit because she just couldn’t stomach it any more, I think about how important Right Livelihood is. Now I’ve read interviews with abortionists who claim they have no difficulty sleeping at night, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. I doubt any leaders of the Nazi Regime laid awake at night pondering their guilt, nor do those plotting the next terrorist attack. A Buddhist would say that such men and women have a long ways to go before they understand the error of their choices, but they will eventually. I am not a Buddhist. I don’t doubt Evil exists in the world and have no problem seeing these people for what they are.
It’s not just abortionists. There are those working at kill animal shelters who enjoy killing puppies and kittens, and there are those who lie to themselves until they reach a point where they can’t stomach it any more and have to find their own Right Livelihood. Ditto those who work in slaughterhouses. I’m sure some workers get off on killing cows and chickens just as Sadists fed the ranks of the Serbs who ethnically cleansed Bosnia and Croatia. For others its just a job, and they do their best to ignore it. Others get sickened by it and have to quit, and often do so after providing PETA or the ASPCA with videos depicting the horrors of the slaughterhouse.
At the end of the day with our consciousness about to fade we are left alone in darkness with our deeds and our conscience. 2,500 years ago the Buddha understood this which is why He taught the importance of Right Livelihood. It’s a lesson that is timeless.
Ymarsakar:
Others get sickened by it and have to quit, and often do so after providing PETA or the ASPCA with videos depicting the horrors of the slaughterhouse.
I saw one of PETA’s propaganda clips on this, designed to shock the human psyche and render it more malleable and rape-able. For me, I’ve already undergo extensive psychological conditioning and resistance training. Those images have no particular pull on me.
What people should be asking for is PETA’s own euthanasia and execution videos of the animals they kill. Or do people think PETA can house and feed all the animals they “free”?
1 March 2014, 8:36 amYmarsakar:
Addendum: I study Taiji Chuan and various other Chinese/Japanese philosophies. One thing I found of import was the balance between yin and yang, matter and antimatter, light and darkness. The greater the light, the deeper the darkness must be.
the Death of Pax Americana is one such result. Too much yang is the same as exhausting oneself in the pursuit of a goal that needs a more balanced approach to be sustainable. Global Warming ponzi scheme is definitely not sustainable. Forcing people to do things is an extreme application of external and yang power.
The thing is, things eventually “reset”. And the reset is generally not pretty.
1 March 2014, 8:38 am