Aldous Huxley, in his "The Perennial Philosophy" writes that in the Eightfold Path described by the Buddha, the penultimate one is the Right Livelihood. Certain professions are incompatible with the achievement of man's final end. So the criminal professions, such as brothel-keeping, forgery, racketeering & the like are forbidden. (in addition to the ten commandments of course). In many Buddhist societies, the manufacture of arms, the concoction of intoxicating liquors & the purveying of butchers' meat were not (as in contemporary Christendom) rewarded by wealth, peerages & political influence; they were deplored as businesses which made it difficult to achieve enlightenment & liberation.
In medieval Europe, Christians were forbidden to make a living by usury, as it is still being forbidden in Islam. It was only after the Reformation that usury & gambling in stocks & commodities became respectable. For the Quakers (a peace loving sect among Christians), soldiering is a wrong profession. Satyajit Ray, an avowed agnostic, shows in his film "Jana Aranya", a man reading the scriptures (probably the Bhagavadgita) in his spare time, his profession being that of a pimp!
This importance of the Right Livelihood is underscored by an award for the same by a German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull from 1980.
No comments:
Post a Comment