A Manual of the Path Factors

Select a linkContentsSummaryRight ViewRight ThoughtRight SpeechRight ActionRight LivelihoodRight EffortRight MindfulnessRight ConcentrationThree CyclesThree GroupsAppendices

V. The Exposition of Right Livelihood

There are four kinds of Right Livelihood. Abstention from:

1. Wrong Livelihood¹ (duccarita micchājīva virati),
2. Improper Livelihood (anesana micchājīva virati),
3. Dishonest Livelihood (kuhanādi micchājīva virati), and
4. Low Arts (tiracchānavijjā micchājīva virati).

1. Abstention from Wrong Livelihood

Duccarita micchājīva means earning a livelihood by committing any of the three evil bodily actions (killing, etc.,) and four evil verbal actions (lying, etc.) Abstinence from such harmful modes of earning a livelihood is duccarita micchājīva virati.

2. Abstention from Improper Livelihood

Anesana micchājīva means earning a livelihood by sages and bhikkhus acquiring requisites by any of twenty-one improper means, by giving fruits and flowers, and so forth. Abstinence from such acts is anesana micchājīva virati.

3. Abstention from Dishonest Livelihood

There are five crooked ways of earning a livelihood: (i) kuhana, (ii) lapana, (iii) nimitta, (iv) nippesana, (v) lābhena lābha nijigīsana.

1. Kuhana means trickery and deception. It means fraudulently obtaining gifts and offerings by making people think that one possesses extraordinary qualities such as noble virtue, although one does not possess them.
2. Lapana means impudent talk in connection with property and gifts.
3. Nimitta means making gestures and hints to invite offerings.
4. Nippesana means harassing with words so that one is obliged to make offerings.
5. Lābhena lābha nijigīsana means giving a small gift to get a bigger one.

Abstinence from such wrongful modes of livelihood, is kuhanādi micchājīva virati.

4. Abstention from Low Arts

As the worldly arts such as prophesying from the signs of the parts of the body, palmistry, etc., are contrary to the practice of sages and bhikkhu, they are called low arts. Earning a livelihood by means of such low arts is tiracchānavijjā micchājīva virati.

Abstinence from such wrongful modes of earning a livelihood is called tiracchānavijjā micchājīva virati.

Notes

1. Selling weapons, livestock, flesh, intoxicants, and poisons (A.iii.208).

© You may print any of these books for your own use. However, all rights are reserved. You may not use any of the site content on your own website, nor for commercial distribution. To publish the books, permission must be sought from the appropriate copyright owners. If you post an extract on a forum, post a link to the appropriate page. Please do not link directly to PDF, MP3, or ZIP files.