RIGHT MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD

Right Means of Livelihood, the fifth step upon the Noble Eightfold Path, from the teachings of Buddha, the Blessed One, on a lecture given by Annie Besant, delivered at the Ananda College, Colombo, Sri-Lanka in 1907.

What are the Right Means of Livelihood?

They are the gaining of living by means that do not injure your fellow-men, that serve your family and your community - your neighbour as well as yourself. So that in mingling in this modern life, in which so much of struggle is now unhappily to be found, that law for the Buddhist is, that in all business, in the gaining of his livelihood, he shall neither injury nor wrong those amongst whom he lives; that is forgotten unhappily, in most modern minds. A man earns his livelihood, but he does not stay to ask himself: do I earn it in the right way?

We see and hear of men making great fortunes; if we go behind that fortune, what do we find? Ruined homes, desperate men, broken-hearted women, starving children. The fortune of one man has been built upon the suffering of others. That is a wrong fortune, a wrong wealth, a wrong enriching of one man, at the cost and misery of many. Such means of livelihood are unworthy of the man who realizes the unity of mankind and the common Brotherhood of all. Beware, then, how you work and win your livelihood.

As the modern methods spread amongst you, as you take part in the race of the world if you would not lose more than you gain, if you would not forfeit more than you achieve if you take to modern methods, if you are careless as to how you gather wealth for yourself, if you trample on the weak, if you cheat the stupid, respecting no law but that which can be enforced by the policeman or administered by the judge, and setting at nought the law which is imposed upon your heart, forsaking the path disclosed to you by the Buddha, The Blessed One - then you will grow wealthier in gold, indeed, but you will grow poorer in honour and virtue, and virtue is more precious than gold, a pure character is greater wealth than the gains of this world.

Take this rule to heart then: see that you choose Right Means of Livelihood, and remember ever that such means alone is permissible for the follower of the Buddha, the Blessed One.