The Buddhist Business Owner-Using the Eight-fold Path to Guide your Business -Right Effort

To put Buddhist teachings into practice, a special type of gradual effort is needed.
It is much too difficult to put all Buddhist principles into practice perfectly at once. People who try to do this will probably give up in days.
Instead, you need to make small improvements, one at a time. Then, once an improvement has become a habit, adding another improvement till you are living more and more of the Buddhist life by habit.

For instance, an improvement might be to remember to do a kind deed every day. To keep this up till it becomes a habit is enough to keep anyone busy.

So right effort is about making improvements gradually but then keeping them up forever. It is about making improvements at a pace which is easy enough for you to keep up. It is like a long-distance runner, who deliberately runs at a slow pace which it is possible to keep up for miles. It is the opposite of a sprinter, who can run very fast during a short race but cannot keep this up for longer.

Right effort also means paying equal attention both to doing more good, kind things and to doing fewer harmful things.

Right effort can also involve praising yourself and rewarding yourself for progress in following Buddhist teachings.

http://www.reep.org/gardens/buddhism/eightfold-path.php#top

Make yourself a list of things you want to improve about your business. Here are a few things you might be thinking about as you grow your business.

Are you concerned about the origin of your supplies? Are your customer service skills up to snuff? Do you manage your time well enough so that your family doesn't feel neglected? Do you want to be a "green" business?

Set realistic goals for yourself. Take your time and change your business plan gradually. If you're worried about the supplies you're using, research more cost effective suppliers whose business practices are in line with your personal beliefs.

If the family is feeling neglected, set up special family times or if they want to, involve them in simple tasks that will help you with your business or household tasks.

Make gradual changes in what you do and you will find it much easier to run a more people and environmentally friendly business.

The lovely piece A Sense of Zen can be found in the Etsy shop Hey Harriet http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeyHarriet

The Buddhist Business Owner-Using the Eight-Fold Path to Guide Your Business: The Right Understanding

Right Understanding


I was looking for some basic info on Buddhism to explain my way of thinking to an on-line friend of mine. While this statement below that I found explains the first path - right understanding to me, I'd like to add some concrete ideas and maybe some anecdotes from my own or your experience.

Please feel free to use the comments section or if you'd like to write a post on any of these 8 topics, let me know.
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http://www.reep.org/gardens/buddhism/eightfold-path.php#top

Right Understanding

This means finding out about all the basic Buddhist teachings and then checking with your own experience to see whether each teaching makes sense. Buddhism says that for real understanding you need to see for yourself that Buddhist teachings are true.

So one part of Right Understanding is finding out about all the basic ideas in Buddhism.

The other part is testing them in your everyday life to see for yourself if they make sense. You should not just try to believe what you are told.

Elsewhere in the Noble Eightfold Path, in Right Speech and Right Action, you will see guidelines for behavior like avoiding telling lies and avoiding killing insects. This is not to please any god, since there are no gods in Buddhism. Right Understanding means that you try out following these guidelines and see how they affect you and other people. Only then can you truly understand why they matter.

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I see this as going to source material and learning about how Buddha defined suffering and how to deal with it positively.

A Buddhist sees suffering as life in general really....being born, growing old, being unhappy, grieving, being in any kind of pain or despair. It can also mean not succeeding in getting what you want in life.

Want creates suffering and the ending of want ends a person's suffering.

Things to consider that will help you in right understanding .....

1. Karma-- Every action, whether it be wholesome or unwholesome will have a positive or negative effect on your world.

2. Your time in this body is temporary...everything comes to an end eventually.

Wrong understanding rises from ignorance, wrong intentions, speech, actions, employment, effort, mindfulness and wrong concentration.

Right understanding rises from a mind that is not rigid, but one that is creative and open to new ideas.

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Now what does this little post have to do with running a business? Well, you tell me.

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Note: This photo of this beautiful Buddha is from the Etsy shop Buddhabuilder.

http://thebuddhabuilder.etsy.com