Page 115 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

Also on the list is the purveying of poison. In the days of the

Buddha there were people who dealt in poison, just as there
were in Renaissance Italy. If you had an enemy, and wanted to

get rid of him quietly, all you had to do was pay a visit to a person
of this kind, buy a small amount of poison, mix it with your
enemy's food or drink, and that would settle the matter. Here we

can think of all sorts of modern analogies, but there is no need
for me to pursue these.

In the same way, selling any kind of drink or drug that has a
stupefying effect on the mind, or that diminishes one's

awareness and sense of responsibility, is also a profession which
is discouraged.

Perhaps of even greater interest is the Buddha's discouragement,
if not actual prohibition, of any kind of dealing in weapons of war

or armaments. If you are a follower of his teachings, he in effect
declared, if you have Gone for Refuge and consider yourself to be

a Buddhist, you cannot possibly earn your living by
manufacturing, selling, or in any other way dealing with weapons
of war, which are instruments for taking the lives of other living

beings. In the Buddha's day this was a very simple matter. It
meant that you should not manufacture bows and arrows,

swords or spears, or any other lethal weapon. But that was two
thousand five hundred years ago. Since then we have progressed
a very great deal. We have become much more civilized, much

more cultured, and can kill much more easily and effectively, with
atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, cobalt bombs and all the rest of

it. But the Buddha's principle of Perfect Livelihood still holds
good.

If you have a few shares in a corporation which is helping to
manufacture atomic and other such weapons, then you too are

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