Pimping

Recently I have been learning a lot about Buddhism and today was listening to a talk on occupations. In Buddhism, the noble eightfold path is the path that the Buddha laid out to help practitioners reach enlightenment. Buddhists don't believe that the path is magical or anything like that, but they view it as a practical way to get to the goal of enlightenment. Right Livelihood is the fifth step of the eightfold path which also includes right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Anyway, Buddhists believe that there are certain occupations that are just not in sync with the path to enlightenment. Making and selling weapons is one such occupation, as is being involved in the raising and slaughter of animals (though Buddhists are ok with buying the meat from non-Buddhist butchers). Another job that is a no-go is anything that has to do with the selling of humans. Back in the day of Buddha, this referred first and foremost to slavery, but there are still some jobs (most not legal) today that involve this.

A job that the speaker mentioned was being a pimp. Though prostitution is not looked on badly by Buddhists (at least in comparison to the way the institution regarded in the West), the speaker said that since pimps sell the prostitutes, the job qualifies as buying and selling humans and is therefore no good. It got me thinking - does a pimp really buy and sell people? In some cases yes. For pimps overseas that are dealing in the trade of young boys and girls who really have no choice in the matter, pimps are certainly doing that. In, say, the US, though, many pimps could be seen as an example of outsourcing certain aspects of a job. Pimps can provide overall management, coordination, collection, protection, and scheduling for a prostitute - all value added services in the flesh industry.

Not that I'm planning on moving into the pimping industry or anything. I just thought it important to point out that for anyone that's a Buddhist, but has a yen to move into pimping, that it may be possible to do that and still stay on the eightfold path. It's just very important that you make sure that you clearly define your role as pimp - you are not there to sell the prostitute, rather you are there to facilitate situations where the prostitute can offer his or her services to a customer, as well as provide certain administrative and back office functions.

Kopp