Six New Talks on Buddhist Right Livelihood Practice: new series of talks from Windhorse:evolution now available

Saddharaja, a long-standing Order Member and Staff Welfare Officer at Windhorse:evolution, Triratna’s largest and most successful Right Livelihood business, has embarked on an ambitious series of six new talks on Right Livelihood. The first of these, Meaningful Work and Values (The pleasures and sorrows of work) is now available on Free Buddhist Audio at www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC780, and others will follow as soon as they are given. You can track their progess on Windhorse’s scrapbook blog (which doubles as a fascinating archive of their history)

In the talks he draws on his 20 years experience of Right Livelihood (team-based and otherwise ), saying -

“I aim to make conscious a path of spiritual practice and a healthy, human way of working within the modern world. A way of making our work at Windhorse:evolution (w:e) a genuine vocation. Hopefully, the talks will be interesting to everyone – Buddhist or not. I often ask myself the question what is Right Livelihood? What are the practices and how do we deepen them? Can anyone practice them, Buddhist or otherwise? What are the core teachings of Right Livelihood (RL)?

“We have a body of right livelihood experience and teaching within w:e, but my impression is that it isn’t coherently communicated and presented. Precious teachings, but not easily available. In Triratna, we have Sangharakshita’s Perfect Livelihood chapter in ‘Vision and Transformation’. There are other texts and teachings in our Movement too, but no one main source.

“So this is 2011, and society continues to change apace. Some of the traditional (and Triratna) approaches to right livelihood, while completely sound, can seem to me a bit dated – they don’t reflect how we live and work now.

“In the last three years I’ve been exploring ideas on Right Livelihood with Vajragupta (he who wrote The Triratna Story and other books). We’ve come up with six themes which might form a fresh look at Buddhist right livelihood practice – relevant to the needs of society today, whilst retaining the best of the traditional practices. The aim is that these approaches may form the basis of a book. Hopefully the ideas of Vajragupta and myself will stimulate discussion and experimentation within the business, and who knows – might even lead to some of us breaking through into something greater.

“The chart below outlines the themes of the 6 Talks. Each talk looks at a particular ‘challenges’ we can encounter in modern working, and how we might find solutions to them. The first talk is now out, more coming soon!

“There are many more teachings on RL in the Buddhist tradition, but these are the absolute essentials. You don’t think you need to be a Buddhist to appreciate many of these teachings, they are relevant to anyone – whether secular or belonging to another religious tradition”.

Windhorse:evolution is based in Cambridge, UK, where it employs over 100 people. Vacancies arise from time to time, those interested in applying are invited to check their latest adverts on Triratna Jobs.