Right Livelihood and Oil and Gas Industry

[Sheeba]

Hi

How is working in the oil and gas industry providing services on a drilling platform seen in the respect of Right Livelihood?

[DNS]

How is working in the oil and gas industry providing services on a drilling platform seen in the respect of Right Livelihood?

I don't see anything wrong with that. It is not trading in human beings or killing animals, etc. It does not break any precepts.

[robertk]

An honest job as part of a team that helps provide an essential product.

[dharmacorps]

I don't see a problem with it unless you were doing actual drilling which could incidentally kill some beings, but even then I am not sure it is wrong livelihood technically. If it is just services for oil platforms/sites I don't see a problem.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

How is working in the oil and gas industry providing services on a drilling platform seen in the respect of Right Livelihood?

There is the case where the son of a good family has wealth earned through his efforts & enterprise, amassed through the strength of his arm, and piled up through the sweat of his brow, righteous wealth righteously gained. When he thinks, 'I have wealth earned through my efforts & enterprise, amassed through the strength of my arm, and piled up through the sweat of my brow, righteous wealth righteously gained,' he experiences bliss, he experiences joy. This is called the bliss of having.

"And what is the bliss of [making use of] wealth? There is the case where the son of a good family, using the wealth earned through his efforts & enterprise, amassed through the strength of his arm, and piled up through the sweat of his brow, righteous wealth righteously gained, partakes of his wealth and makes merit. When he thinks, 'Using the wealth earned through my efforts & enterprise, amassed through the strength of my arm, and piled up through the sweat of my brow, righteous wealth righteously gained, I partake of wealth and make merit,' he experiences bliss, he experiences joy. This is called the bliss of [making use of] wealth.

"And what is the bliss of debtlessness? There is the case where the son of a good family owes no debt, great or small, to anyone at all. When he thinks, 'I owe no debt, great or small, to anyone at all,' he experiences bliss, he experiences joy. This is called the bliss of debtlessness.

Metta,
Paul.

[Dan74]

It's not wrong livelihood according to the scriptures, perhaps simple because the unprecedented destruction of the environment by human activity and the resultant loss of millions of human and animal lives, were not yet a thing.

Of course it is wrong livelihood.

[Sam Vara]

Hi

How is working in the oil and gas industry providing services on a drilling platform seen in the respect of Right Livelihood?

I guess your point is that the oil and gas industries are sometimes seen as being unethical, in terms of damage that they do to the environment. If so, then you will need to assess whether that view is supported by the evidence or not - whether damage is actually done, and whether the ethical force of that is somehow mitigated by the good that arises from the industry. As other posters have said, such a livelihood is not proscribed in the suttas. But that might of course be because there were no such industries in the time of the Buddha, and some might argue that there is some discernible "spirit" or principle behind the idea of Right Livelihood which can be applied to modern-day jobs.

It might be that assessing the long term impact of such industries is impossible for most of us, along with the task of working out an underlying principle regarding livelihood which has practical applicability. In which case, your best bet is to look at your motivation - what general desire motivates your choices - and see to what extent it is based on greed, hatred, and delusion. The less these defilements figure, the more you know you are on safe ground.

[NAD]

It's not wrong livelihood according to the scriptures, perhaps simple because the unprecedented destruction of the environment by human activity and the resultant loss of millions of human and animal lives, were not yet a thing.

Of course it is wrong livelihood.

Do you drive a car? Heat your home using gas? Use electricity? (Generated largely by gas)
If so, do you partake in Wrong Livelihood my friend?

[Agnikan]

It's not wrong livelihood according to the scriptures, perhaps simple because the unprecedented destruction of the environment by human activity and the resultant loss of millions of human and animal lives, were not yet a thing.

Of course it is wrong livelihood.

Do you drive a car? Heat your home using gas? Use electricity? (Generated largely by gas)
If so, do you partake in Wrong Livelihood my friend?

If eating meat is allowed for a renunciate, as long as the animal was not killed specifically for that renunciate, then perhaps driving a car would be allowed as long as the fossil fuel was not retrieved specifically for oneself?

[Dhammapardon]

Practice is a continual refinement. A continuous sanding and polishing. First the coarse, then the less coarse until the fine and even finer finish.

Is working in oil and gas industry right livelihood?

Maybe better livelihood than direct slaughter of human or animal lives.

Maybe not as good as sitting in robes in a monastery going for alms.

There is always better and worse ways to practice. Seek the better and abandon the worse and try not to grasp too tightly to the letter of precepts and rules along the way but use them as guides for your own personal improvement.

[Dan74]

It's not wrong livelihood according to the scriptures, perhaps simple because the unprecedented destruction of the environment by human activity and the resultant loss of millions of human and animal lives, were not yet a thing.

Of course it is wrong livelihood.

Do you drive a car? Heat your home using gas? Use electricity? (Generated largely by gas)
If so, do you partake in Wrong Livelihood my friend?

I certainly don't live a blameless life. Does that preclude me from answering a question on wrong livelihood? A friend works for an oil company. He is aware of the ethical issues and volunteered to tell me that he and others like him, try to affect a positive change within the company. I don't preach to him, nor judge him. It's not up to me to do that, nor do I have any rights in that regard. But if asked, I can express a view.

[Johann]

Hi

How is working in the oil and gas industry providing services on a drilling platform seen in the respect of Right Livelihood?

It's actually simple, good householder. If feeling to at least being required to mental approve harmful, better to go after different livelihood. Not to speak of verbal or bodily involvement.
Less harmless can be traced in this branch, form the gain till the use and surely the largest source of conflicts and wars around it.

Yet, one less informed, less involved, selling gas for cooking along the street, hardly has much reason for remorse.

[Johann]

It's not wrong livelihood according to the scriptures, perhaps simple because the unprecedented destruction of the environment by human activity and the resultant loss of millions of human and animal lives, were not yet a thing.

Of course it is wrong livelihood.

Do you drive a car? Heat your home using gas? Use electricity? (Generated largely by gas)
If so, do you partake in Wrong Livelihood my friend?

If eating meat is allowed for a renunciate, as long as the animal was not killed specifically for that renunciate, then perhaps driving a car would be allowed as long as the fossil fuel was not retrieved specifically for oneself?

Certain not, as in all cases riding on the pain and suffering of others, not given voluntary.

A monk is only allowed to accept hand pulled/carried or ox pulled vehicles/carts just when sick (incapable to walk). Much damage is produced by monks around that case since a while already, no more serving as good sample anymore.

[Johann]

An honest job as part of a team that helps provide an essential product.

Since when is oil and gas an essential means for one who follows the path, good householder, a required paccaya? And since when do expected aims purify the "means"? And what's honest in feeling to part-take, heat up and drive Samsara?

[whynotme]

Do you drive a car? Heat your home using gas? Use electricity? (Generated largely by gas)
If so, do you partake in Wrong Livelihood my friend?

If eating meat is allowed for a renunciate, as long as the animal was not killed specifically for that renunciate, then perhaps driving a car would be allowed as long as the fossil fuel was not retrieved specifically for oneself?

Certain not, as in all cases riding on the pain and suffering of others, not given voluntary.

A monk is only allowed to accept hand pulled/carried or ox pulled vehicles/carts just when sick (incapable to walk). Much damage is produced by monks around that case since a while already, no more serving as good sample anymore.

Do you hold authority on what monks are allowed to do, something holder?

The patimokha is 2500 years old and should be understanding in it's context. Changing it needs authority from the Buddha. An ox pulled vehicle is exactly an ox pulled vehicle, and should not be applied to car, train, plane...

Only the Buddha can add something in patimokha. If someone thinks he is above the Buddha then of course he could have authority over the sangha. The jealousy one thinks he is the chosen one?