Right Livelihood
The fifth branch of the Buddha's Eight Fold Path is right livelihood. What then is wrong livelihood?
Understanding Buddhism is not an easy task for many reasons. I will only name a few. First in the fifth century BC, during the 40 years of the Buddha’s teaching, nothing was written down. As was the custom of that time the teachings were memorized by the Buddha’s disciples. A written record did not begin for several hundred years after the death of the Buddha, recorded from the memories of disciples living at that time. Since then the writing of what was said but not written down by the Buddha, has never stopped. Second the history of Buddhism available in English has been translated from many languages around the world in countries where Buddhism has taken root.
The foundational teachings of the Buddha are The Four Noble Truths and The Eight-Fold Noble Path. The fifth branch of the Path speaks of Right Livelihood but in only terms of what is wrong livelihood. Here are a few of those terms: making weapons, making poisons, slaughtering animals for profit, trafficking in human beings and acting. This last profession as a wrong livelihood has always puzzled me. Paying attention to current events in our political situation, I have come to the conclusion that the word acting or being an actor is a translation error. I believe that the correct translation is lying or being a liar although I admit that the two terms are closely related. The lying that has and is currently going on in our nation is incredibly harmful and dangerous. The very definition of Wrong Livelihood.