Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood and Porn
"The moral discipline portion of the Buddhist Eightfold Path is Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood."
Right Speech in Buddhism is not a moral injunction of right and wrong but speech that leads to happiness or misery. Buddha urged people to use speech in ways that promotes harmony among people and to be gentle and speak mindfully. Obviously swearing is not right speech and we should not condone it, if we want to lead an ethical life. Modern communication technology has given us a culture that seems saturated with "wrong" speech -- communication that is hateful and deceptive.
What is right action?
Right Action would seem to dictate that we should treat all others with love and compassion.
Yes, but "treating with love and compassion" might mean something other than what we think.
Treating a poisonous snake with love and compassion doesn't mean patting the snake on the head and taking it home to be cared for.. It means avoiding it without harboring any ill will. It would be nice if Steemers avoided the snake of porn instead of welcoming it with open arms.
Right Livelihood is the ethics of earning a living.
The Buddha encouraged people to make their living in a way that does not cause harm and ideally that is ethically positive. That means employment that does no harm. The porn industry harms everyone, women, children and men's minds.
Well said, liberty is far more complex than most would like it to be , and requires those who would live freely to have a meausure of self temperance coupled with the use of careful thought.
Just because one can , does not mean one should. I hope steemit does not end up being like every other social network or worse yet another redtube. This platform has the genuine opportunity to be a vehicle for communication, collaboration and sharing new ideas .
Thank you @neil-rothbard. Well said...
I must confess I like a good curse word as punctuation, but no cursing at meditation retreat, I go to silent ones! lololol
However, in really good scientific studies it has been shown that porn is harmful in many ways, and I think porn should have its own platform away from the commons where everyone hangs out. http://yourbrainonporn.com/cambridge-university-brain-scans-find-porn-addiction
Just because porn is profitable does not make it good
Well said @elewarne
Thank you @reddust. I appreciate your words too and your sense of humour.
good posting...^^
Thank you @abdullar. Following...
you are living without needing to earn anything
Of course I still have to sell my art to make ends meet. I raised 2 children, worked, painted and helped the kids with homework so they could finish university and have decent jobs. Sometimes I did not how I managed but it never occurred to me to do porn...
i am not advocating for porn - if anything i am advocating for us to remember that before money, we were free and that 'free' in english reflects that by being the opposite of money. the idea that we must somehow 'earn a living' is part of the issue and needs to be challenged before life can improve.