Livelihood Viewed Through Cause and Effect: Which Professions Increase Merit?

Ven. Thich Chan Quang explains why livelihood is a duty governed by karmic law, offering guidance on choosing a profession and maintaining the right attitude to increase merit and avoid negative karma.

Consider two women. One, living in America, never worries about earning a living; she has been supported by her parents, then her husband, and now her children. The other sells Hue-style beef noodle soup at a quiet corner, yet customers rush from Saigon just to taste it. Both are human beings sharing the same lifespan, yet their fates differ vastly. Why?

In his dharma talk titled "Livelihood," part of the series "Buddhism in Family Life," Ven. Thich Chan Quang points out that while making a living is a duty, it is ninety-five percent influenced by cause and effect from past lives. Prayer may help us find teachers or friends, but for economic matters, prayer accounts for only five percent of chance.

Livelihood is a duty, but wealth is not happiness. Everyone must secure food, clothing, and shelter. This is fundamental. Yet, anyone who has struggled for basic necessities understands that life is not easy. Ven. Thich Chan Quang recalls the Buddha’s teaching: Human life is suffering because we struggle desperately to find a way to survive. The Buddha calls this struggle suffering.

Therefore, Buddhist practitioners do not view money-making as the ultimate goal. They understand that wealth or poverty, success or failure in business, largely depend on blessings from merit accumulated in previous lives. Some find work easy, others difficult; luck and timing are simply karma ripening.

Choosing a profession: Does it increase merit or create negative karma? Here is the golden rule for Buddhists when selecting a career. Some professions increase merit the more you practice them, while others increase negative karma. A practitioner must choose a job that allows them to live while benefiting society and without breaking precepts.

Professions that benefit the world accumulate merit with every action. Conversely, those that violate ethical precepts accumulate heavy negative karma. Among these, killing animals, selling alcohol, trading in obscene cultural products, or dealing in drugs are the most dangerous. These bring severe guilt that is difficult to repay. Killing one animal requires repaying a lifetime; killing many requires repaying many lifetimes. Selling alcohol causes others to lose their wisdom, potentially leading them to hell. Drug trafficking involves bearing nearly all the sins committed by addicts.

Thus, even if a profession offers high income, if it increases guilt, a Buddhist must firmly refuse it. We do not pursue sinful careers for the sake of money.

The attitude toward work determines whether you gain merit or create sin. Even noble professions like doctor, teacher, or civil servant can generate negative karma if the attitude is poor. If one abuses power or disrespects others for money, merit turns to sin. Ven. Thich Chan Quang shares a story from Ba Ria Hospital. Due to staff mistreating patients, the director’s son-in-law was killed by a car, and no one in the hospital cared for him, causing the director’s family to fall apart.

From this, he concludes: A good profession still demands a sincere service attitude. If you dedicate yourself fully to your responsibilities to help others, your merit grows continuously. Therefore, in any profession, whether traditionally seen as meritorious or not, one must maintain compassion, integrity, and responsibility.

Business, luck, and connections from past lives. We often see some merchants thriving while others, despite cooking deliciously, remain empty-handed. Why? He explains that those who buy from you are often repaying small debts from past lives. In other words, business luck reflects good conditions planted previously. To succeed, do not pray to gods of fortune; instead, diligently perform acts of kindness and help many people. Nothing happens naturally; everything follows cause and effect.

The most precious profession is teaching ethics. Among all jobs, Ven. Thich Chan Quang affirms that teaching morality is the highest and brings the greatest merit. Even monks may lack merit if they are not upright. The Buddha taught that among ninety-one eons, only those who frequently expounded on karma were reborn in heavenly realms.

Spreading the law of cause and effect helps people distinguish good from evil, avoid sin, and live better. This is immeasurable merit. Practitioners, whether at home or in temples, can cultivate this through speech, action, and lifestyle.

Choose your profession and maintain an attitude that makes each day a day of increasing merit and decreasing sin. The path of practice does not require leaving the world, but rather living in accordance with cause and effect within daily work. Only then will earned money nurture merit and support spiritual transformation.