Honouring right livelihood

Honouring voluntary good works
Awarding right action
Recognizing honest living
Acknowledging right livelihood
Giving right livelihood awards

Description

The concept of 'Right Livelihood' is an ancient one. It reflects a belief that each person should follow an occupation consistent with the principles of honest living, treating with respect other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of one's actions, living lightly on the earth and taking no more than a fair share of its resources. The term has a specific meaning for Buddhists, for whom Right Livelihood is the fifth stage on the Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. It enjoins them to avoid 'ignoble trades', such as warfare, making weapons and dealing in poisons and drugs – an ethical standard that could be commended to all societies, whether religious or not.

Implementation

The Right Livelihood Award was introduced in 1980 to honour and support work which squarely faces the crucial problems of contemporary humanity – war and the arms race, poverty and unemployment, resource depletion and environmental degradation, human repression and social injustice, inappropriate technologies and potent scientific knowledge untempered by ethics, cultural and spiritual decline. Since then 58 people and projects have received awards "for vision and work contributing to making life more whole, healing our planet and uplifting humanity". The collective message of these initiatives is one of hope and reassurance. The aim is to stimulate a debate about the values underlying our society and goals.

Claim

Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

Those recognized in this way have rejected the short-term, materialistic goals of much Western science, technology and society, based on the reckless exploitation of the Earth's accumulated resources, and fraught with threatening and destructive consequences. They are pioneering or rediscovering principles and practice rooted in a vision of one humanity, a science of permanence, and an ethic of justice and sustainability which accepts our role as caretakers of the planet. Much of this is part of the perennial wisdom of our species and still lives in many third world and native communities, from whom the West has much to learn.