rightlivelihood
rightlivelihood
Right livelihood could probably do with a dusting off considering the changes in the employment landscape over the last 2600 years.
In a nutshell, the livelihoods to avoid for laypeople were trade in weapons, trade in living beings, trade in meat, trade in intoxicants and trade in poisons. Monastics were not to engage in trickery, hinting, persuasion, or belittling others to gain material support.
I think our modern society could do with a reminder about the monastic requirements. What you have to remember is that the monastics were the influencers, clergy and politicians of their time. People came to them when they needed guidance.
These rules need to be applied to corporations and influential figures. Your politicians and your celebrities, your googles and your amazons. These are the sources of societal guidance now, and they are a far cry from right livelihood.
I will boil it down further to the three core fetters which cause human suffering.
Greed
Hatred
Delusion
A large chunk of the people and companies in power now trade directly in the causes of human suffering.
Corporations are the worst for greed.
We are shown things we don’t need and are made to want them. This has only just begun. If you think it is bad now, wait for 10 years until AI is really into its stride.
Already we have micro-targeting based on behaviour and interests: predicting timing and vulnerable windows for ads. We have emotional manipulation based on facial recognition and sentiment analysis. We have fake scarcity and personalised pricing. We have infinite-scroll algorithms so you are always chasing, always alert. We have deepfakes and artificial influencers. And the tech has barely been born yet; the growth will be exponential. This needs to change.
Politicians are the worst for hatred.
Current politics seems to be based on unification through division. Paranoia is patriotic, and hatred of the other is actively stoked as a way to keep the proletariat in line. If people are looking outside, they will never identify the real causes of their problems.
Social media are the perpetrators of delusion.
The advertising, the hatred, everything - almost all of it is either passively encouraged or actively promoted by social media. It’s good for the bottom line. Profit, money, stockholder return. The angry person clicks. The empty person buys.
This has become a global-level feedback loop. People are given disinformation, they become fearful and greedy, they hate those who have more or are different, they form factions, their faction is fed tailored delusion by the algorithm, and all of a sudden you have a world of perpetual suffering and division.
Free speech is said to be encouraged, but it’s not really. Hate speech is encouraged, because anger sells. It feeds into the algorithm; click click click. You are manipulating dvar so that people become meat for the machine, sticking their head into the grinder wearing the gurning mask of greed.
And who does it serve?
Nobody.
The people who have the cash crave more. The people who fuel the hatred are in pain. The deluded can’t see over their walls.
It’s all just one big feedback loop, with the hungry ghosts making more hungry ghosts. They do not see that the more they feed their greed, the emptier they become and the more they engage in hate, the more alone and despised they are.
“There is no fire like lust, no grip like hatred, no net like delusion, no river like craving”
The only way to end this is to see that it is all the same. See how it all spikes your dvar and decreases your wellbeing. Step back from it. Refuse to engage.
And what is right livelihood?
It is the opposite. It is to trade in truth. It is to improve the brain chemistry of as many people as possible, and to use any excess wealth for the greater good.
The buddha never said the layperson should do anything to jeopardise their livelihood. In fact he said the opposite. He listed four joys for the layperson, which are still just as valid today.
The joy of ownership (having wealth and property, properly earned)
The joy of enjoyment (supporting yourself and loved ones, and doing good deeds)
The joy of freedom from debt
The joy of blamelessness
So as a layperson, you are encouraged to build enough wealth to support yourself and your family. You are encouraged to enjoy this wealth, earned through ethical hard work. You are encouraged to avoid debt. You are encouraged to be a good person.
It’s the organisations that need to change. The manipulators. The dark monks.
And just like the monkey on your back, the only way to kill them is to stop feeding them.
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