Page 111 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

of an ideal society, that is to say, a society in which it is easier for

us to follow the Path, a society in which, when we do follow the
Path, we are not constantly having to go against everything by

which we are surrounded, as tends to be the case at present.

Now as I have said, the Buddha included Perfect Livelihood in the

Noble Eightfold Path because everybody had to work, and this of
course still holds good. In fact one might say that this is now

more than ever the case, because now, more than two thousand
five hundred years later, we spend more of our waking life
working and earning a living than doing anything else. In the

Buddha's day people at least had the rainy season off (during the
rainy season it was not possible to work out of doors), but all we

get is two or three weeks at the seaside every year!

Since one spends the greater part of one's waking life on it, one's

livelihood obviously will have a great effect on one's whole being.
I do not think we always realize this. But if you are doing

something for seven or eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty
weeks a year, and if you are doing this for twenty, thirty, or forty
years, it is not surprising if it leaves a little mark on you, to say

the least. As I say, we do not always realize this, but it is
something we should consider and on which we should reflect:

this question of the effect our working life has on us. In the old
days one could recognize followers of certain trades by the
physical effects of following those trades. The dyer always had

his hands deeply stained with dye from the vats, while a tailor
would have a humped back. Even now one can often recognize

an office worker by his rounded shoulders and general unathletic
appearance.

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