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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 31

One of the drawbacks of many employer towards the employee, Pāli Canon is capable of navigating
of our monastic teachers is that and five duties of the employee any modern-day conundrum using
while they are well-qualified in towards the employer. the Dhamma as a guide.
the traditional scriptures of the
Pāli Canon, they are not well- The employer must 1) give the I must congratulate you for your
educated in secular subjects; employee work according to his pro-active approach to spread
hence, they are unable to respond bodily and mental strength, i.e. the Dharma and for having set up
to issues raised by lay people he should not be overburdened over 70 branch monasteries in Sri
with families and modern careers with work so as to cause physical Lanka and overseas. What would
in today’s complex world. How do or mental stress; 2) give the be your next major dharma
you overcome this problem? employee sufficient food and pay; propagation activities for the
3) provide the employee with benefit of the world?
The texts of the Pāli Canon, the special care and treatment when
Teachings of the Buddha, address sick; 4) share special delicacies People fall into two exclusive
the root causes of all the problems with the employee; 5) grant leave categories: those who live for
in human life. Though today’s to the employee when needed. The pleasure’s sake alone and those who
modern world is quite different employee thus ministered to by seek meaning in life. Those who
compared to ancient India in the his/her employer will reciprocate seek meaning in life can be divided
time of the Buddha, though many compassionately by further into another two categories:
new challenges have arisen in the 1) waking up early and being ready those who possess the faculty
modern era, the workings of the for work even before the due time; of wisdom and understanding
human mind are the same. No 2) being the last to go to bed and and those who lack the faculty of
matter how complex and diverse working late; wisdom and understanding. Our
the problems of the modern world 3) abstaining from stealing and Dhamma propagation activities
might be, still, these problems all taking only what is given; both present and future focus on
stem from the defilements of the 4) doing his/her work properly; reaching out to the former group —
mind: greed, hatred, and delusion. 5) willingly spreading good word of those who seek meaning in life and
Since the Buddha’s Dhamma aims the employer. possess the faculty of wisdom and
at purifying the mind through the understanding—and establishing
eradication of all defilements, it is Though these are ethical guidelines them in the salient qualities of
as applicable now as it was in the laid down some 2500 years ago by stream-entry. These are none other
time of the Buddha. This is a salient the Buddha to form harmonious than 1) steadfast confidence in the
characteristic of the Dhamma, relationships between employers Buddha; 2) steadfast confidence
akālika—timeless. and employees, even today these in the Dhamma; 3) steadfast
can be used to formulate a general confidence in the Saṅgha; 4) and
For example, one might think guide to labour relationships, virtue dear to the noble ones.
problems of exploitation between and a business code of economic A person who fosters in him or
management and worker, employer ethics that would lead to a happy, herself these four qualities is on the
and employee are peculiarly harmonious, employer-employee doorstep of the path to Nibbāna.
modern. But the Buddha addressed relationship without exploitation on Wherever he or she might be in the
this issue in his advice to Sigālaka either side. world, no matter how far, he or she
as recorded in the Sigālaka Sutta. is close to us, as he or she is one
In the section of the discourse Thus, owing to the Buddha’s close to the Dhamma. EH
devoted to the employer- omniscience on matters both
employee relationship, the Buddha spiritual and mundane, a monastic
enumerates five duties of the well-versed in the scriptures of the