But what is Right livelihood for me? And how do I get there? I have learned that Right livelihood is not necessarily a single destination; it is a path one chooses to follow. And that it implies making a living in a way that serves the kingdom, the world, guides us in our gifts to work in, with and for our communities.

I looked at my life and I don't see myself taking a livelihood that involves weapons or exploitation or things that hurt ppl. And when I see other people doing it, I would try to find a way to not let it happen.

Moreover, having an appropriate amount of happiness is important in achieving right livelihood. It is important to feel decent about oneself. In all my life, I have tried to make myself useful for the community by contributing anything I can. I always try to help those in need. Although it's not a very easy task,there's a happiness in having something that you can do.
 
There may be many people out there who haven't exactly found what they want to do (I was one of them before), thus it's really a crucial part of spiritual practice to look for it. It doesn't mean it's going to be some big special thing. And when you find one, really give yourself to it; that's a happiness.

Growth and awareness are also important in right livelihood. With growth and awareness, the first thing is you don't need to be too identified with what you do. People think what we do is who we are. When you die, you aren't going to be who you are, you're going to be something else, or when you get sick, or when things change around, or when a disaster comes, what you do isn't going to matter a lot.

I keep reminding myself  to live lightly on the earth, to take what I do, and use it, and care for it, to be tender, to be careful with it, but not to get so identified or so caught up
in it. There are a lot of ways that one can begin to bring awareness to one's life. There are simple awareness training exercises that can be done;the training then becomes meditation.

I bring those kinds of things into my life. I do things a little differently; do them backwards. I use my meditative awareness to start to make things that I do a meditation. It requires a lot of discipline and a lot of repetition.

I have tried to live more simply. It's a very beautiful thing, this quality of simplicity, of seeing that I don't need as much as I thought I did to be happy, and really asking myself the question "What do I really, really want?" Or "What would I want when I'm old and I look back, what will I have cared about?" Or "What do I care about for this world that I live in?"

This leads to another important aspect in right livelihood which is Service, and in some ways the most beautiful of all - seeing that what we do is totally interconnected with the rest of life, and seeing that the world is entrusted to us somehow.

I often watch the people in this kingdom who come and volunteer to help the young ones. They don't do it to get something back. Those people come there to help simply because they want to, because they like to help and they want to support the young ones. And there's so much caring. Sometimes they'll make jokes when they help, as a way to let that very simple act of helping become an expression of caring, of service.

You know, you can treat each person you meet as somebody else to deal with in your life, or you could treat each person you meet as your brother or your sister. You can work on one day and just get through the day or the night. And you can work on another day and have each person that comes to you, and each person you meet, be a place where your heart really opens, and where you share a love and a caring and tenderness. Which one do you choose? For me, I chose the second one and that's how I experienced right livelihood.


~`'- Karuna Eury