On being a Buddhist Business Owner.....2. Right Motivation

:Naturally many people first get interested in Buddhism because they are seeking peace and happiness for themselves.

But Buddhism teaches that, to obtain long-lasting peace and happiness for yourself, you need to help the people around you to obtain peace and happiness too. One reason is that we all affect each other so much. Other people’s troubles can soon become your troubles.

If you are to truly follow Buddhism, your motivation needs gradually to change. You need to become less interested in how Buddhism can make you happier and more interested in to how Buddhism can enable you to make other people happier.

It takes time to develop this more unselfish motivation and it’s only natural that many people don’t have it at the beginning. Buddhism teaches methods for encouraging yourself to want to benefit other people.

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

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DO You Have the WILL to Change?

1. Free yourself from those traits that you know are wrong or not ethical. You should be free from ill will and harmless in your intent.

2. What is your intention when you plan to do something in your life or create something for your business.
What kind of materials do you use in your work? Are they recyclables or made yourself or bought from local businesses, or supplies made by the gross in over seas sweat shops? Trying to be aware of what kind of products you're using as supplies in your work shows your motivation.

3. How do you deal with your customers and other sellers can also show your motivation.
Are your prices covering your expenses and supplies etc fairly? Do you create custom pieces and do you ship in a timely manner? Are you concerned with your own work and doing your best or are you bad mouthing or underselling your competition to gain sales?

Commit yourself to the path of good will and harmlessness to others and you will be on you way to being a good business owner.

How do you show right motivation in your business?

Note: This colorful painting is from this Etsy shop Shealeigh

On being a Buddhist Business Owner.....1. 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: the beautiful Buddha is from this etsy shop  Golden Wind Raku

Yeah, I'm being a militant gimp. Deal with it Snowflake

Okay, I don't tend to go off like this very often, but I just got a special question about my dolls. Now this has only happened once before in my life.  First off... 1. I am not mentally disabled. I have a normal IQ. In fact it is rather high, thank you very much. I am dyslexic, but so was Da Vinci. 

2. I have a physical problem with my body called Cerebral Palsy. Basically because of brain damage the electrical impulses that would activate the muscles in my right arm and leg don't all reach the muscles. So I have partial paralysis of my right limbs. 

3. THIS IS NOT a contagious condition. Do not ask me this ever again. If I do not know you, yes, you can ask me questions about my disability. But keep them sensible. Physical disabilities are not generally contagious. Illnesses that might lead to disabilities like polio are contagious. But the after effects are not. 

4. Oh, and I don't know all the disabled people in the world or who has what disability. And to tell you the truth, I don't really care what they have. I'm more interested in if they're nice or funny or like sci fi movies like I do.

Perhaps you oh so perfect physically normal special snowflakes should spend a day in a wheelchair and learn a little empathy. As a person with cerebral palsy, I get so tired of the grow a thicker skin comments. I say " realize you're one head injury, severe fever or a short stoppage of oxygen of being me." Mental disability, physical disability, learning disabilities and mental illness are things all of you snowflakes are either going to experience yourself or someone you might actually care about will experience in their lives. And you're going to feel so terrible cause you can't do what you used to. You do have my sympathy, but I also think karma is a bitch and I'll allow myself a little smile at your expense.