So this is Labor Day weekend, and so I'm going to talk about one of the very basic Buddhist
teachings, which is also one of the most important for our society, and that's right livelihood,
or we could say right labor, or, well, sometimes we talk about work practice.
So, right livelihood is part of the Eightfold Path, one of the early Buddhist teachings,
part of the Four Noble Truths, that first of all, there's suffering, there's dissatisfaction,
that in our world and in our own lives, we, this is called the Noble Truth, because to
recognize this, to be willing to face this, is noble, is very important.
We need to keep our eyes open, to stay open to the suffering of the world.
The point of our practice, in a way, is to relieve suffering and help everyone and everything
to the path of awakening.
So that's the first Noble Truth.
The second is there's a cause of that, and usually that's described as attachments to
objects of desire, we want to get things, that it's not enough to just sit presently
and upright and enjoy our breathing, that we, that suffering is caused by the ways in
which the world encourages us, in which our consciousness encourages us to try and get
things, get rid of things and so forth, so that leads to suffering.
And then the third Noble Truth is the good news, that there's an end to that.
And the fourth Noble Truth is called the Eightfold Path.
So this is the earliest Buddhist teaching.
And there are many expressions of how to practice in our everyday activity in a way that helps
express the underlying awareness that we come to realize through the sitting practice, the
sense of connectedness and settledness, but also flexibility and openness.
So the Eightfold Path, again, provides practical guidance to how to live with awareness and
compassion, and to implement the third truth of the end of suffering.
So, Right Livelihood is one of those eight, along with Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech,
Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, there's some variation
on the list, but Right Livelihood, well it has to do with, well you could say the right
to live for all beings.
Life as vitality, livelihood.
And this includes the right to honorable, dignified work as a human right, as an expression
of our own inner creative energy, our own sense of connection, our own sense of kindness
and awareness that we develop physically through doing this practice regularly.
So, I want to talk about what Right Livelihood means, and what it means to us, and what it
means to our society.
Originally, Right Livelihood referred to not pursuing locations that were harmful, not
taking on occupations that were harmful, and that referred to not killing animals.
So, butchers were an example of Not Right Livelihood in early Buddhism.
And I think in our modern context, we have to expand that, what are modern criteria.
So, making a living, Not Right Livelihood would be making a living through deception,
cheating others, and not just killing, but maybe producing weapons, or trading, distributing
weapons.
Maybe in our context, where our whole habitat is at risk through climate damage, maybe a
violation of Right Livelihood from a Buddhist perspective would be working to develop fossil
fuels, create fossil fuels, distribute them.
And given that, as is more and more apparent with glaciers in the Arctic, and so forth,
and forest fires in California, and so-called extreme weather everywhere, that we need to,
of course, how we get there and the transition, and we use electric lights, but how do we
transition from fossil fuel?
So, there are numbers of criteria.
So, that's more kind of societal, and I'm going to come back to that.
But for each of us, we can think of modern criteria of Right Livelihood, of how we support
ourselves in ways that are helpful rather than harmful.
So, this has to do with bodhisattva ethics, with Buddhist ethics in general, with how
we see our life in the world.
So, our meditation is, we start from there, the same practice we've been doing, settling,
grounding, feeling some inner calm, even in the middle of swirling thoughts.
So, we had a number of people this morning who had their first period of meditation.
That's wonderful for all of us.
And you probably noticed that there were some thoughts and feelings that came up in the
middle of that.
So, the point of our sitting isn't to get rid of thoughts or feelings.
It isn't to reach some perfected higher state of being or of mind, but to actually be present
and aware of this situation, this body, this mind, this morning.
And then, as we do this practice regularly and take it out into the world, how do we
live in a way that expresses the awareness that we start to develop through doing this
practice regularly?
So, there are a variety of criteria in terms of modern right-mindedness.
One would just be having some knowledge of the consequences or product of our work.
Are we working in a way that supports people, that nourishes people, that helps feed people,
or that provides useful services to people?
Or are we, on the other side, causing harm?
Is the product of our work weapons or intoxicants or things that will not be helpful?
So, basically, it has to do with the Bodhisattva precepts we just had a ceremony for last Sunday.
The first one is that a disciple of Buddha does not kill, but that means also, how do
we support life?
How do we help others not to kill?
How do we support generosity rather than theft, truthfulness instead of lies?
How do we express respect for all beings?
So, one of our Bodhisattva precepts is to include all beings.
So, to not see certain beings as separate, you know, and try and build walls to keep
them out or whatever.
All of this is kind of the context for thinking about right livelihood.
So, in addition to seeing the result or product of our work as, you know, it could be helpful
or neutral, but so that it's not harmful.
And, of course, there are subtleties in all of this.
It's not a matter of perfect right livelihood.
So, part of the question of work and living wage and so forth comes up.
But another just personal criteria would be the pace of the work.
Can we remain aware as we're doing our work?
And I've been challenged by this in various jobs where I had to move very, very quickly.
Like when I worked at Senator Tassanara Bakery and there was a line out the door every Saturday
morning for hours and hours and hours and working behind the counter and getting people's
order and getting in an order for the cashier.
You have to move very quickly and there's a lot going on.
There's a couple of other people doing the same thing.
It's a limited space.
And in that kind of situation, how do you maintain awareness when you have to, in some
sense, move very quickly?
And what I realized was part of that is that you have to slow down.
If you feel rushed and you're trying to do it quickly, that you can't stay aware.
To actually be aware and to, you know, Stanford, here we go, is one large or small blueberry
muffin.
Anyway, to do all of that, there's a way in which you have to remain aware, which means
a little bit slowing down, even though it has to happen quickly.
So, again, the pace of work.
How do we maintain awareness in whatever work we're doing is another criteria, a modern
criteria for upright livelihood.
Maybe from a deeper perspective, how do we support ourselves and our families through
a meaningful activity?
How do we allow our work to provide some sense of human integrity, of uprightness, of using
your interests and abilities?
Hopefully with some vitality and creative energy.
How do we contribute constructively to our community through our work?
So this is a great challenge.
How do we, and right, and in our society now, just to find work is a huge challenge.
In our economy, in our society, we're often college graduates.
It's very hard to find work moving forward.
How do we find some way of supporting ourselves?
So in our, even in our sangha, we have people who are unemployed or underemployed.
This is a challenge in our world now.
So we need to be able to have work, but also work that allows us, jobs that allow us some
dignity, some uprightness in our activity, in our work activity.
So there's the quality of right livelihood of not doing harm in our work, and of course
sometimes that's subtle.
How do we work in ways that express cooperation rather than, you know, some kind of competitive
doing unto others before they do unto us?
And, you know, our economy seems to, in our society, is built around that to such an extent
that this is challenging.
But basically our work should allow us some creative expression, some constructive, satisfying
way of supporting ourselves.
John Kabat-Zinn, who is kind of the leader of the mindfulness movement, so recently
defines a job as something I'd love to do so much I'd pay to do it.
Now that's very idealistic maybe.
And actually we have quite a few people in our sangha who do really clearly helpful,
constructive work, and that's wonderful.
But if this isn't about, you know, having some glamorous, you know, or ethically high
status position, how can we express ourselves, express our own inner dignity constructively
and find satisfaction in whatever work we're doing?
So a big part of our zazen is that we connect with this kind of inner space.
It's not inner as opposed to outer, but first we turn within and find a kind of openness,
a kind of spaciousness, a kind of calm that connects with our creative expression.
So this meditation is a kind of creative practice.
How do we sit and sit like Buddha?
Whether we're sitting in a chair or kneeling or cross-legged, how do we be present and
upright and calm like the image of Buddha in the center of the room?
How do we find that space where we can find our own creative energy?
And whatever creative activities you do, and all of you have some, you know, creative activities
in your life, maybe something explicit like making music or something like that, but also
parenting, or cooking, or gardening, or, you know, how do we see all of our daily activities
as a kind of creative, a way to express our inner dignity?
Again, this practice allows us to find that inner space and inner calm and inner dignity
that we all have, that brought you here.
Of course, part of what's difficult about sitting, which you all know, but I'll say
it for the new people, is that we also see our own greed, hate, delusion, our own patterns
of grasping, and anger, and confusion, and fear, and so forth.
That stuff comes up, too, if we do a regular sitting practice.
And so we have to face them.
This is like facing the first level truth.
We have to face the loss and sadness in our life and in the world.
But how do we find a way to express our deepest, most worthy self, which we do connect with
through this meditation?
So again, it's not about having some, you know, we have lots of social workers and therapists
and other people in our sangha who do really positive things.
But it doesn't mean, at the right level, it's not about necessarily having some glamorous
job.
So bus drivers, or grocery cashiers, or people flipping burgers in a fast food place.
Whatever job you're doing, how do you bring friendliness, kindness, and engagement to that?
We can have more discussion about beef as a right way.
But anyway, I've witnessed and, for example, and heard many stories about bus driver bodhisattvas.
A very, you know, so-called ordinary job, not really.
Fancy job.
So, thank you for that.
We try and turn off ourselves once before we come into meditation.
But that's okay.
You know, part of Right Livelihood is how do we support each other?
How do we support ourselves?
How do we support each other?
So, again, the bus driver example.
I've heard of seeing bus drivers who really welcome people onto the bus.
And actually, you know, are obviously friendly and announce the stops.
And, you know, so going to work that way, as opposed to a bus driver is certainly, you
know, makes a difference to lots of people in terms of how they function during their day.
It's just one example.
But how do we find, whatever job we have, how do we find a way to make it satisfying
and constructive and to express something of kind of inner warmth and kindness?
Basically, Right Livelihood is about how we find our way to express Buddha and Buddha
nature and appreciate it in our world.
So, each of us has, you know, we have the Buddha image in the center of the room, but
each of us has to find our own way to be Buddha, to express Buddha in this body and mind.
So, our practice is not about, you know, reaching, getting some great understanding
of what Buddha means.
I mean, it's okay to, in fact, in our tradition, in our lineage, we do study Buddha's texts
and teaching stories and so forth, but as ways to encourage our practice.
How do we actually engage in being present and upright in a way that expresses who we
each are as Buddha?
So, I can't tell any of you how to be Buddha.
Nobody else can.
They say they can, but each of us has to find our own way to express what it is in this,
how it is for this body and mind to, in part, to be present and upright and kind and aware
and support others in that.
So, Right Livelihood is important as Buddha's teaching.
Now, also, because it's kind of an ethical and moral model for assessing the society
and our society's livelihood, as well as individuals, this can be a principle for renewal
of our foundational ideals as humans, as a country.
So, there are many examples I can give of that.
And, you know, in our current political climate, workers' rights and right livelihood are
sort of under attack in some ways.
There's a long history of how the labor movement, on Labor Day, brought us, well,
that's disappeared, the five-day week, the 40-hour week.
This all came about because of people, in some ways, looking to support right livelihood
in our society.
So, unions are now under attack.
All of this has to do with how we find right livelihood in our culture.
So, I'll say a little bit more about that when we have some discussion.
But, just to mention Chicago as one of the focuses of the labor movement.
So, I don't know, how many of you know who Albert Parsons was?
Cool.
A couple people.
Most of you don't.
He was a great bodhisattva who lived in, well, he was executed in Chicago in the 1880s.
He was part of the labor movement that actually tried to work towards having a five-day workweek.
Back when work conditions in stockyards in South Chicago and much of the industry in
Chicago were not supportive of right livelihood in lots and lots of ways.
And there was a movement that was broken up.
There was a bombing in 1886 at the Haymarket Square.
This was a demonstration after police had killed six strikers who were shooting an eight-hour workday.
And at the end, after the demonstration, there was a bomb that went off and they hauled in
the usual suspects.
They brought in labor organizers.
Albert Parsons was really eloquent.
I really think of him as a great bodhisattva.
Anyway, he was one of the four that were executed.
And all of them were, you know, it was clear that they weren't involved directly in the bombing.
So, this happens still in our society where innocent people are executed.
Anyway, this has to do with...
So, there's a book called Death in the Haymarket by James Green, which has a lot of the history
of 19th century Chicago and maps showing where a lot of this happened.
Anyway, I recommend it.
But just as one example of the struggle for right livelihood in society, and there's a
whole lot more to say about that and how, well, an example today in Chicago is public
education being privatized and speaking of strikes, there's a hunger strike going on
now by, I think, parents and school teachers to try and stop closure of a public school
in South Chicago.
And there's an effort to privatize...
Well, so much has been privatized.
Anyway, this is all related to how does our society support right livelihood.
So, our practice is individual.
We each work on our own cushion, looking at our own greed, hate, and delusion, feeling
our own creative energy and allowing that to flow.
But also, we see how this is related to the work of the world.
So, maybe I'll close...
Well, the whole idea of a living wage, which I think is another basic idea, it goes back
actually to Pope Leo in 1891 who talked about it as a moral idea that people should be able
to support themselves if they would.
One of the people who was later named, last Sunday, actually he was from Michigan, but
he provides housing for working homeless people, housing facility.
So, what does right livelihood mean for each of us in our own efforts to support ourselves
and our family, in our own efforts to do something in our life that can express this
underlying awareness and kindness and caring and Buddha nature that's available, that we
start to feel as we do the sitting practice.
I'll close with some words from Robert Kennedy about work.
This was in 1968 when the campaign for him was built.
Too much and too long we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values
in a mere accumulation of material things.
Our gross national product, if we should judge America by that, counts air pollution and
cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them.
It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder and chaotic
sprawl, and now even more with climate damage.
It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead and armored cars for police who fight
riots in our streets.
It counts television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality
of their education, or the joy of their play.
So, right livelihood has to do with play also.
It's not one of the eightfold paths, but I think right play is important too.
Having to find a way to express ourselves and find joy in our life and share that together.
And so Sangha, one of the triple jewels of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, community is about
supporting each other to find our own space to express some of this.
Anyway, just to finish the statement by Robert Kennedy, talking about the idea of the gross
natural product does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages,
the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither
our compassion nor our devotion to our country.
It measures everything in short except that which makes life worthwhile.
And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
So, as I say, right livelihood is an important personal practice for all of us, but it's
also a kind of a measure of our society and how we can support our society to be supportive
of awareness, awakening, kindness.
So, I could keep babbling, as some of you know, but I will just stop and ask for comments
or questions or responses on any aspect of this discussion.
Marguerite.
Thank you so much for sharing with us.
I'm noticing and remembering that, as you're talking about it, that when I first heard
this idea, and I think since then, it's become this sort of idealized notion.
And I thought, oh, wouldn't that be awesome if I could find a right livelihood.
And this feeling like, oh, if I found the perfect thing, then, you know, whatever, then
my life would all make sense or something.
It almost is as if I chose that as a focus for my life, that everything else would fall
into place or something.
And so it's interesting to think about it now that I've sort of settled into my working
life more and that, you know, that I'm doing work that basically feels congruent to me
in the ways you're talking about.
And at the same time, there's always discomfort with certain aspects of it or certain implications
of it.
There's always questions and dilemmas inherent in it, even if it's just the question of
turning on the light every time I go into the office, you know, in terms of, you know,
fossil fuels.
And so just the nature of our, I mean, it's part of what you're talking about, of course,
is that the nature of our very complex society is such that we're all implicated in all these
concerning realities about inequality, about, you know, the impact on the environment, what
we do and what we consume, and violence.
And, you know, so it's always going to be with us.
And so in some ways, I feel like, for me, the term right by bluehead confuses me in
the direction of some idealized thing, as if there's some way to go that would not be
implicated in all this, and that I'm sort of wrong as long as I'm not there, as opposed
to, or that the person flipping her is, you know, are wrong somehow.
You know, so it's more like bringing attention to, it's sort of just raising the issue of,
oh yes, I'm here too, in my work life also, or in my pursuits, professional pursuits.
You know, that too is an area that calls for my attention, and that as long as, to
the extent that there is, that I'm not attending to the implications of what I'm doing, that's
impeding my practice.
That represents blind spots and lack of awareness and lack of kindness.
And so as much as my, you know, I don't want to talk about practices, it's about sort of
cultivating, you know, returning to some basic awareness and kindness, you know, that
just noticing the way that's locked in our work life.
And then as we notice that, that may inspire us to change, you know, it may become intolerable
to participate in certain things or maybe decide to change things.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, you're pointing to a couple of really important points.
And so, in a way, these Eightfold Paths, right effort, right action, right mindfulness,
right livelihood, can feed into one of the greatest obstacles to real practice, which
is the sense of perfectionism, or that I have to get it right.
So I wish there was a, you know, in a way I think of them as upright life and upright
effort, but it's not about reaching some perfect state.
So Libby is a social worker, a therapist, and obviously helping people.
But it's endless in each situation.
Well, how do we support?
It's not just, you know, a particular job, it's how do we support life things?
How do we support life rather than cruelty?
And so it's not like finding, like what you were saying, it's not about reaching a perfect
state.
And in our practice generally, this is a huge, huge obstacle that we have some idea
that we have to reach perfect enlightenment.
That's not the practice here.
That's not helpful or realistic.
The point is how, it's a kind of endless practice.
It's a lifelong practice.
To be aware, to be awake, to try to express kindness in our lives, in our work, and in
all of our lives.
And our sitting practice helps us to come back to this possibility of inner uprightness
and dignity.
So it's not about perfection.
And even if you have a job that seems like it's about helping people, still this is an
issue.
These are practices.
Right effort, right life effort.
Upright effort, upright life effort.
And I often talk about Dogen, the 13th century founder of this branch of Zen, who talks often
about Buddha going beyond Buddha.
So it's not about reaching some perfect state of Buddha and then that solves everything.
You can write up an outline and put it on the wall and bow down to it.
It's not about reaching some perfect understanding or even some, you know, sometimes people have
opening experiences, more or less dramatic, and that's great, but that's not the point.
The point isn't to reach some particular understanding.
It's this Buddha going beyond Buddha.
So you finally have a job where you feel like you're helping people, for example.
And then there's still the livelihood, the vitality of what's the next situation or the
next person you're in front of.
So Buddha going beyond Buddha.
That's an issue.
Buddha, when he became the Buddha and had his great enlightenment, didn't stop practicing.
And he didn't stop awakening.
He continued practicing and meditating and awakening every day.
So thank you for that question.
Yes, hi.
Hi.
And it's been a while since I've been here, so it's a little uncanny that it shows me today
and this particular Dharma talk I've heard and facing some challenges in my own world
life, probably without a declaration.
I don't know if I should say congratulations or apologies.
It's a bit suppressive.
But one of the things I was thinking in terms of right way of living and perfectionism,
you know, I work, unfortunately, for a large corporation.
It's actually really harmful, but working for a large corporation in and of itself is
not a definition of not right way of living.
I just have to say that.
And I don't think it is.
One of the things that arises, though, is that whether you're working for a large corporation
or anything else, we work within structures in which there's a certain amount of injustice
that creates them.
It's created by an imbalanced power.
Structures very often create conflict of all sorts.
And a lot of working life, in fact, is navigated conflict that's created within the structures
of work.
And I think that it's also an important aspect of right way of living.
Part of the reason why I'm about to go elsewhere is it's an important part of right way of
living to be able to meet those circumstances creatively and compassionately to whatever
extent is possible.
Yes.
And partly because I feel like that space is about to close for me.
I need to do something else.
But also part of the reason I think it's often worth staying in this situation is precisely
because you can find opportunities for creativity and compassion for your fellow workers and
to assist with their practice.
Yes.
So in whatever work situation we're in, how do we support the other people around us to
express awareness and kindness?
I have an example of that which I've mentioned before, but one of my students back in my
in California was a paralegal or legal secretary, and she worked in a large law firm.
And one of the lawyers was really nasty to me almost all the time.
But Rose decided to be friendly to this person.
And I'm paraphrasing this story.
The details are better than this.
But at some point after a long while, this lawyer said to Rose,
Gee, I didn't know what I mean, haven't I?
And she got it.
So even in a situation where things are not so-called perfect right, in that situation,
how do we express something that helps others to see the possibility of prevention?
That's the way I like it.
So thank you for sharing.
Great to see you again.
Is this your first time at this symposium?
No, I've been a few times before, so I'm familiar.
Well, I knew I'd bump into you.
Michael was right here at the symposium.
Anybody else?
Comments, questions, responses about this whole complex issue of right life events,
practice of upright life events?
David?
I have one question, one comment.
The first quote from Robert Kennedy, do you know where that was from?
No, but I can see if I can find out.
The other thing is, I work for a book version also.
Most people do at this time.
We do printing, but what I remember most, I went to a client and I had to tell them
that the job that they were ordered to be printing was going to be a day late,
and I felt very bad about it.
It wasn't something that was a drop dead, like it had to be there for a convention opening
or something like that.
It was just a directory of all the staff.
It was a delayed day.
The woman looked at me and she said, it's okay.
A hundred years from now, nobody's going to give a damn what you're doing this day or that day.
She said, it's me, which is the key.
What's important is how we treat each other along the way.
And that, to me, when I heard that, it just really stuck with me.
And it is about how we treat each other, or the parallel with the attorney,
how we treat each other along the way is what's important.
Yeah.
So, likelihood includes really nice bits.
Other questions or comments anyone?
Oh, hi.
Hi.
Remind me of your name.
My name is Ellen.
Ellen, hi. I know you've been here before.
Yeah, just once a few months ago.
Oh, I'm glad you did.
Very happy to be here.
I really appreciated what you said about pace.
Yes.
Because I actually just went from, I am a freelance musician and worked as an artist,
an underemployed artist for seven years, and just took a desk job.
And part of the reason I did it is because when I was struggling just so hard for my own survival,
I felt I had nothing to give the other people in my life.
So I literally opted to do something easier so that I had a little more to give,
because the pace was so unforgiving and the instability felt so threatening
that I couldn't find stability, inner stability either.
So it was interesting because people's reactions to my leaving full-time artistry are,
you know, why am I buried in?
It's not always what it looks like from the outside.
Yeah, and you can always play music for yourself and enjoy it.
Right, yeah, and that's a reason too.
Good, that's a really wonderful example.
It's not always what it looks like on the outside.
How do we find our way of being upright for ourselves in our own life?
So yeah, working at a pace that constricts our own ability to be kind,
you know, that's an idea.
Thank you.
And maybe someday you'll go back to music.
Yeah, I'm still there.
It's just that kind of way of living, my way of living was not working anymore.
Good, good.
Any other testimonies or examples?
Good.
Well, I think we're kind of faced with a pretty fundamental incongruity.
Because, I mean, I'll speak for myself, but I really wanted to help people.
I wanted to make my community better.
I wanted to have a world where people have a right to live and a right to joy,
which is something I feel like, as I continue to move through adulthood,
is something that's really important that I feel like I've seen people around me lose,
is that right to joy or that desire to express joy and embrace it.
But I feel like we're also kind of faced with this incongruity that,
you know, I want to do something that's going to just be directly helpful.
You know, I want to do something that's going to be, it's going to enrich this community.
But in order to be part of the society, like, that option isn't available.
You have to do something that makes money, which isn't the same thing.
Like, you're automatically put in a position of self-defense.
Like, even if you're doing a position that's helpful in some way, like, you know,
working in art or working in, you know, as a, any helpful, you know, position,
that this, like, you're doing, like, it'll only continue if it makes money.
You know, if it only, it'll only continue, you'll only be able to keep doing that
if you're able to defend yourself by acquiring money through it.
And that's a different thing than doing what's necessary for us to survive together.
And that's something I'm struggling with.
Good. Yes, this is something we all struggle with.
This is, this is a, you know, in terms of our society and our world today,
this is kind of foremost practice.
So, by talking about it today and later today, we can, you know,
I want to connect that up to this sitting practice that we do that helps us settle,
that helps us be calmer and, again, find our own inner spaciousness and dignity.
You know, and it takes a while sometimes.
But that contributes to the struggle you're talking about,
which is how to live in a decent way in this society and world.
And it's, it's, this is a, this is a challenge.
And hopefully as a RAS community we can support each other, each of us in the right way to do that.
So, thank you all very much.