Wise Livelihood - I Needed to Quit My Job

AN APPLICATION OF WISE LIVELIHOOD

Last December, after my employer of nearly three years made it known they didn't support my relocation plans and thus wouldn't be keeping me on board in a remote capacity, I accepted an offer of a new position with a defense services firm who's main customer is the United States Military.

It happened rather rapidly and after one interview, I was offered a position. Since my options were limited, especially amidst the flux of getting a house ready to sell, I accepted the offer and started a month later.

About two weeks into the new job, I started having second thoughts about working in this position. It wasn't the work itself, but the overriding shadow it cast on my commitment to following the Buddha's teachings.

Wise livelihood

2,600 years ago, the Buddha codified a code of behavior that lead to enlightenment -a very loaded word- that I like to characterize as the absence of self-induced suffering/dissatisfaction. The eight-fold path and is a systematic manner of interacting with the worl…