Right Action And Right Livelihood

 Buddhism is very wonderful and teaches people to liberate from the sufferings of human life by changing the evil occupations to live without creating sufferings to oneself and to others, the next step is to teach people to eat to maintain the body with the food which does not contain sufferings, when they give donation to everyone and make offerings to the Monks, the offerings must not be against the method so that their good fortune will not be reduced and be sufficient for the present and the future:

1. While carrying out actions, people should avoid evil occupations and evil actions.

2. While eating, people should be mindful so that they would not eat whatever given to them, they should have proper place for eating instead of sitting at stalls, in the market booths or in front of the street, they should spread their love and compassion and also gratitude towards those who make the food, they would not have the heart to eat the meat of living beings, instead they have compassion towards to all.

3. People make offerings to the Monks with the things they earned by their own hands and labour, they are not allowed to steal or kill living beings.

The monks/nuns/practitioners when eating food have to avoid eating meat of the living beings, they also have to review their practice to see if their practice (merit) deserves to receive the offerings.

With the right occupations (Right Action), people do their work, either manually or intellectually, to have good food to maintain the body (Right Livelihood), there is no cruelty or suffering in their food.

In the Eight Noble Paths, the Buddha confirmed that there are two paths (two classes) for practice that confirms the way of life of the true practitioners (Right Action and Right Livelihood). These are the two paths of practice to liberate from the state of being in hell, the state of hungry ghosts, and the state of animals.

If a person carries out the occupation of killing living beings and hurting others, such occupation is considered by the Buddha as wrong action. Wrong actions include the evil actions, the evil sayings, and the evil thoughts e.g. the actions of killing living beings, or hurting others, insulting others, talking ill of others, slandering others, exaggerating things, adding or cutting details etc. These are evil actions, evil actions are wrong actions, the seed of wrong actions results in the fruit of sufferings, there is no way to escape. Therefore, it’s impossible to hide or run away from the causality, even one tries to fly to the Sky or go underground, he also could not escape it.

Wrong action also means the karma of suffering consequence/fruit. When we see a person encounter miserable accidents that can lead to imprisonment and death sentence, such things are one’s karma of evil consequences/fruits. When sick people suffer pains, scream or toss and turn all days and nights until they die, that is also their karma of evil consequence out of evil seed created by themselves in the past etc.

Wrong action also includes the vices such as being addicted to gambling, alcohols and other addictive substances, prostitution, wanton and gangster life etc.

Wrong action also includes the unrestrained actions, running after worldly sensual pleasures and evilness and thus creating sufferings to oneself, to others and to all living beings etc.

Wrong action also includes the illegal actions to make money to maintain one’s life, as well as the action of catching and killing of living beings to exchange and trade for money to support parents, families, spouses and children…It means to use wrong action to foster wrong livelihood, not just of oneself but of the whole family.

In the eyes of the Buddha, the evil actions of the living beings to maintain their lives brings themselves the karma of evilness, the suffering and catastrophe. Therefore he taught such actions were the unrighteous actions, the wrong actions fostering wrong livelihood, fostering sins and sufferings for themselves and for others.

In order for his disciples not to perform wrong actions, the Buddha forbade them to perform the six evil occupations so that they would not bring sufferings as the result of their own karma of evilness to their own lives.

For the Right Livelihood, the Buddha also taught that people should not eat the meat of living beings because eating the meat of living beings is to maintain wrong livelihood, bring sicknesses and disasters to their bodies, bring mishaps and sufferings to their lives, bring insecure and unsatisfactory situations to their families etc.

People who donate and offer the Monks evil things would not gain any good fortune, instead they create demerit and thus receive the consequences of the state of being in hell and the state of animals etc.

A person receives the donation and offerings but does not realize such donation and offerings are from the evilness of the donators and thus eats the food. Such reception and eating are to maintain the wrong livelihood, because of maintaining the wrong livelihood, one’s mind and body are not pure and thus the person cannot abandon desire and evilness. Thereby, the practice of this Bhikkhu is useless and does not have any good result, he could not enter the Four Noble Concentrations and could not carry out the Three Insights.

As such, the Buddha taught: “the Monks should have little desire and be satisfied with basic material conditions, inherit the method rather than inherit the food”. If they are not satisfied with basic material condition, do not inherit the method but always inherit materials and food, their minds will become greedy, unrestrained and running after the five sensual pleasures, their eating and sleeping are without regulation, their intellects become dull, their wisdom of imagination develops and thus they often make arguments to cover up their mistakes, break all the precepts, live the life of sensual pleasures without fear of small errors, they have no shame when living without right demeanor and the way they walk, stand, look, see is similar to the ordinary people.

The Right Action includes the lessons regarding the actions of the body, the mouth, and the mind, such actions must be right. It means the practice of the body, the mouth and the mind so that no evil action would be performed.

The Right Livelihood includes the lessons regarding maintaining the right livelihood. The right livelihood here means to make corrections and practice not to nosh, not to eat and drink without regulation, to eat and drink with abstemiousness, not to eat and drink because of desire, to eat and drink to maintain the life to practice instead of nourishing the body, not to eat the meat of living beings, not to eat the poisonous substances which result in sickness and sufferings to the body, no matter how delicious such food is, one should stay away from it. This is to maintain the right livelihood.

The livelihood which is maintained rightly has some benefits as follows:

1. The body does not have to experience the karma of suffering consequences.

2. The body does not have sickness and suffering.

3. Long life.

4. The body is healthy and thus the practice is easier.

5. The body is healthy and thus the mind is in peace, bliss and carefreeness.

People following Buddhist practice need to be assiduous to practice and cultivate the lessons of the Right Action and Right Livelihood. It is because the morality that is based on the law of causality becomes indispensable in the life of each individual when one follows the practice of Buddhism.

We are the disciples of the Buddha, we cannot slight the Right Action and Right Livelihood. Only when the Action is good, can the Livelihood accordingly be good. Only when the Action is pure, can the Livelihood accordingly be pure. Thanks to that, the life will be peaceful and happy, otherwise if the Action is bad, the Livelihood will suffer from many disasters and sufferings etc.

The Bhikkhus, the disciples of the Buddha, also have to pay attention to the Right Action and Right Livelihood. If the Action is not in accordance with the Standard conducts and virtues and there is no shame when small mistakes are committed, then the practice of the Right Livelihood gets to nowhere, the mind of greed, anger, ignorance cannot be eliminated, practice of concentration falls in wrong concentration or wrong meditation, even if they spend a life time practicing, there is no benefit, it is just a waste of time.

Therefore, if the lay followers as well as the Bhikkhus want to have the liberation with peace and happiness in this life, the practice must be complete. First of all, they have to practice the Right Action and cultivate each action of the body, the mouth and the mind to perfection i.e. not to create sufferings to themselves and to others. Thanks to that, they can foster their bodies with Right Livelihood, then millions of people following Buddhist practice will attain the same result of liberation. If everybody lives with the Right Action and fosters the body with the Right Livelihood, this world will become Heaven and Utmost Happiness, people will not have to look for the Heaven and Utmost Happiness and not have to recite the Buddha’s name to gain rebirth in the Pure Land. Is this true?