Right Livelihood helps us clarify whether the work we do is good for the world. But on another level, it’s also about finding YOUR right livelihood. What is your right work in the world? Because the truth is, many jobs provide necessary and helpful things for…
What does it mean to have a work ethic? When we talk about earning our living righteously, we begin by asking ourselves what kind of work we do, and whether it brings good things to the world. But there is a second, equally important aspect to…
The fifth step on the Eightfold Path is Right Livelihood. Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood go together as the ethical steps, focusing specifically on moral discipline. Quite simply, Right Livelihood means we try to earn our living righteously. Buddha teaches that we want to…
On this last day of 2019 and in this final post on Right Action, I want to talk about the danger of inaction. We’ve been talking about how to make sure we do the right things, and avoid doing the wrong things. We want to be…
I know it’s a busy week with so many celebrating the holidays and guests coming and going. So just briefly, I want to share this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, which gets to the heart of what it means to practice Right Action. I hope these…
A Buddhist meditation called the five remembrances can help us practice Right Action. Fair warning, this list of five hard truths can feel a little depressing, but the purpose is to help us get clarity around how best to spend our days. This version comes from…
If you want to practice Right Action, honor your natural senses. Throughout my readings on Right Action, I kept running across the idea that a general sense of sobriety and temperance is implied. When we translate the words of the Buddha literally, his admonition against sexual…
The third aspect of Right Action is to abstain from sexual misconduct. In other words, act with love, not possession. And don’t we know it after the last few years of #metoo, when so many have started to realize how widespread it has been for men…
The second aspect of Right Action is not taking what isn’t given. In other words, don’t steal. But it’s also so much more than that. Buddha teaches, “He avoids taking what is not given and abstains from it; what another person possesses…he does not take away…
The first point of Right Action is the command to preserve life. Actually, that’s my wording, and I’ll explain why I think it helps clarify what this means. Technically, the first precept of Right Action says to abstain from taking life. By life, the teachers mean…
