Right livelihood means that one should earn one’s living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully.

Technology is defined by Webster as:

‘The branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.’

And Buddhism, well, we all know what that is.

The question is can the three exist peacefully together, can a Buddhist Technician practice right Livelihood.

I’m sure that this might seem a little absurd at first glance, but bear with me.

Let’s take an information technician for example, how would you describe his job function?

A very basic job description for an information technician in manufacturing might be:

Analyze current workflow and processes and engineer new solutions to help ‘streamline’ the manufacturing process.

In this context, ‘streamline’ might seem benign, if you were an employee working for this particular manufacturer, I’m sure you would soon realize that there is nothing benign about it. Eventually, the streamlining of the process will result in higher efficiency and job loss.

There are plenty of arguments for technology; it makes our lives easier, better, safer, etc,

But if you spend years of your life helping large companies streamline, reorganize, and restructure and the net result is job loss through elimination and outsourcing, are you practicing right Livelihood?

I would say no. When I began my career as a computer programmer back in the 80’s, I could have pleaded ignorance to my responsibility in ‘streamlining’ processes. As the years went by and countless “resources” were eliminated as a result of the systems I installed, my innocence was lost.

I’ve discussed these thoughts with others in my profession, largely, the result of those conversations were rationalizations like:

‘Most of the people I’ve talked to went on to better jobs after they were laid off, it all works out for the best.’ And

‘Many of the people that work here should be retired by now anyway, they’ll get a nice severance package’.

Sounds pretty awful I know, but life is not without a sense of irony, most of my colleagues no longer work as information technicians. It seems that once all the processes were streamlined, and the efficiencies were made there was no longer need for the ‘Streamliners’. I wonder if they still think ‘it all works out for the best’.

As for me, I don’t work for large companies anymore, but I am still involved in technology. I am careful now, how I wield my pen…or keyboard as it were, and strategically leverage technology with wisdom.

What the heck does that mean? I work as an independent contractor now, and mostly with small companies who really are just looking to make processes better or to increase sales, etc.

This article may have gotten a bit narrow, but there are plenty of other areas of technology where we can apply this logic.

If we look at environmental technologies, which often involve things like drilling for oil, we can easily make a leap to how persons involved in this industry might question ‘right Livelihood’ as well. And while the intent of this article certainly isn’t to cast stones, I do think it makes sense to look at what we do for money that might not be in the best interest of our friends, or our world.

In closing, for all the people whom I have hurt with my profession, I ask your forgiveness.

Ambud

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