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The Serenity of the landscape is deceptive
Its reality is a complex web connecting
Chemically driven agriculture
To a commodities market
In a greed driven world
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When we try to sort out what we Buddhists should do about
our work, we usually focus our attention on the Buddha’s Eightfold Noble Path.
It seems sensible to start there since Right Livelihood is one of the three
Ethical practices—along with Right Speech and Right Action—that Buddhists are
expected to follow.
Dr. Rahula summarizes the requirements for Right Livelihood in
this way:
“....one should abstain from making one’s living through a
profession that brings harm to others...., and one should live by a profession
that is honourable, blameless, and innocent of harm to others”. http://www.dhammaweb.net/books/Dr_Walpola_Rahula_What_the_Buddha_Taught.pdf
On first reading we are struck by the clarity of these
words. Put simply, as Buddhists, we are to avoid occupations where we do harm.
But then we look at the complex nature of modern work. We
let ourselves imagine the almost infinite connections we make through our daily
exchanges as we make our living; connections that can have unpredictable
consequences for individuals and circumstances a world away. We remember the
numerous times the demands of our work life have forced us to submerge our
ethics in a flood of rationalizations. When the reality is that we know we have
to say yes to that demand we don’t agree with or overlook that unethical
practice we know we shouldn’t condone. Because if we don’t we are fearful of
losing our jobs and joining that increasing number of people who have
permanently lost their grip on a secure future.
Then the words that, at first, were so simple begin to seem
simplistic.
That’s one of the challenges of bringing Buddhist practice
into everyday life. The simplicity of the practice is compelling in a world
where nothing seems simple. But after the honeymoon, when we have more or less
mastered the art of sitting and following the breath, we attempt to take the
practice into the real world. It’s at this point when we are forced past the
apparent simplicity into a deeper felt awareness of the intention of the
practice.
Of course, the ultimate intention of Buddhist practice is
Enlightenment. However, on the path to Enlightenment and even after, the
practice remains the same. It is to live each moment in full awareness. So
that, to paraphrase the Buddha, when we are eating we know we are eating. When
we are walking we know we are walking. When we are breathing we know that we
are breathing. And, of course if we extrapolate the series we also practice so
that when we are doing a task at work we know we are doing a task at work. We
remain fully involved in that work task even if performing the task causes us
to suffer or has us concerned that it may result in others’ suffering.
The Buddha was familiar with the ethical dilemmas that were
part and parcel of living in the real world. As Stephen Batchelor reminds us in
Living With the Devil, the Buddha
negotiated the security of his Sangha within a brutal political system. And his
moment by moment decisions about how to engage that system were made with
compassion for the suffering of the Sangha in mind. But those decisions were
also tempered by his understanding of realpolitik.
So as we move more fully into practice, just like the
Buddha, we move away from thinking that Buddhism has a recipe for how to live
an ethical life—at work as well as in the other parts of our lives. We are
instead confronted with the reality that Buddhist practice simply sharpens our
awareness. We see that we cannot avoid being a party to suffering in a culture
driven by greed, ill will and ignorance. But then our compassion opens into an awareness
that we too suffer. And taking wisdom along as our guide we step into the
market place committed to end all suffering –remembering always to add "as best we can".
We will explore “As best we can” in the next posts and
perhaps meet some people who are models of real world compassionate wisdom.
With Gratitude
Frank
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