Your task is to come up with a business plan for a Buddhist “right livelihood” business. “Right livelihood” means earning money in a way that follows Buddhist principles such as the Five Precepts. You’ll present your ideas to the class and we’ll decide who gets the money (other prize may be awarded!)

The key thing is to think about how your business will help people follow Buddhist ideas. It needs to consider the Eightfold Path to avoid attachment and craving etc. Key teachings:

The three marks of existence:

Life involves suffering, everything changes, there is no permanent you

The four noble truths :

Suffering can be stopped by following the eightfold path, which stops craving

The eightfold path:
right vision, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness, right meditation

The five precepts:

• to abstain from harming another living thing,
• to abstain from taking the not given,
• to abstain from false speech,
• to abstain from sexual misconduct,
• to abstain from intoxicants

Things you may need to produce:

• A PowerPoint presenting your business
• A booklet explaining your business
• A short film showing your ideas
• Some props to demonstrate your idea
• A spreadsheet showing the finances of your business

Resources:

• Right Livelihood Business guidance – a document explaining what you need to do
• Right Livelihood Business PowerPoint – from the lesson
• Right Livelihood Business Levels – what you need to do to get a good level
• Right Livelihood Business groups – groups