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# Right Livelihood

### samma ajivo

Right Livelihood is the fifth of the eight path factors in the Noble Eightfold Path, and belongs to the virtue division of the path.

### The definition

> "And what is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned dishonest livelihood, keeps his life going with right livelihood: This is called right livelihood."

> > -- SN XLV.8

### A balanced livelihood

> "Herein, Vyagghapajja, a householder knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income.

> "Just as the goldsmith, or an apprentice of his, knows, on holding up a balance, that by so much it has dipped down, by so much it has tilted up; even so a householder, knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income."

> > -- AN VIII.54

### Its relation to the other factors of the path

> "And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong livelihood as wrong livelihood, and right livelihood as right livelihood. And what is wrong livelihood? Scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, & pursuing gain with gain. This is wrong livelihood...

> "One tries to abandon wrong livelihood & to enter into right livelihood: This is one's right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong livelihood & to enter & remain in right livelihood: This is one's right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities -- right view, right effort, & right mindfulness -- run & circle around right livelihood."

> > -- MN 117

### Wrong livelihood for lay followers

> "A lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in living beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison."

> > -- AN V.177

### Wrong livelihood for contemplatives

> ...
> reading marks on the limbs [e.g., palmistry];
> reading omens and signs;
> interpreting celestial events [falling stars, comets];
> interpreting dreams;
> reading marks on the body [e.g., phrenology];
> reading marks on cloth gnawed by mice;
> offering fire oblations, oblations from a ladle, oblations of husks, rice powder, rice grains, ghee, and oil;
> offering oblations from the mouth;
> offering blood-sacrifices;
> making predictions based on the fingertips;
> geomancy;
> laying demons in a cemetery;
> placing spells on spirits;
> reciting house-protection charms;
> snake charming, poison-lore, scorpion-lore, rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore;
> fortune-telling based on visions;
> giving protective charms;
> interpreting the calls of birds and animals
> ...
> [The list goes on and on]

> > -- DN 2

See also:

- Virtue (sila)
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- The Five Precepts
- The Four Noble Truths
- The Fourth Noble Truth
- "Right Livelihood" in the Index by Subject

Revised: Sun 20 May 2001