I'll take one at a time. Could you talk about Right Livelihood? Right Livelihood: It depends on the person, although in a broad way we would say Right Livelihood is livelihood that doesn't cause harm to ourselves or others, that doesn't exploit others, that is not connected with harm. The Buddha talked about different ways of wrong livelihood; dealing in arms, dealing in poisons, dealing in people, that is selling people. When we look more closely, these are wrong livelihoods because it can harm living beings in the process. So when we look at Right Livelihood.
As we develop the practice, we may see that we want a livelihood that actually doesn't just not harm others, but also helps others in some way. So we may ask ourselves, "Is our livelihood a service to others, is it helping others in some way?" Some people start to change professions. I have seen that in some of our old students. One old student has changed their livelihood from being a journalist to being a teacher. There is another who was a secretary in a big corporation and was out to make money, so they decided, "Well, if I'm going to be a secretary, I'm going to try to be a secretary in a non-profit organization." So they changed their livelihood to being a secretary in a non-profit organization which they believed may be more helpful to others.
Everybody needs certain trades in order to survive. So if we are providing a service to others that doesn't cause harm, then that is Right Livelihood. As we develop the Noble Eightfold Path, we may say, "Well, is this livelihood true to my direction?" So we ask questions of ourselves, "Is it helping me in my direction? Can I have a livelihood that doesn't interfere with my practice, as much as perhaps this livelihood is doing? Can I have a livelihood where I can be with people who are not a threat to my practice?" Our questions and our decisions may become more refined as we develop more Compassion to ourselves. On the basic level, Right Livelihood is a livelihood that doesn't cause harm to oneself or others, doesn't encourage unbeneficial qualities in others.
How do we develop this factor of the Noble Eightfold Path? Well, I mentioned much about that already. Understanding what is important to us, reflecting about what is important to us, reflecting about our direction. Then we ask ourselves questions on which livelihoods can actually help in that direction. Is it appropriate for ourselves, and in line with the Noble Eightfold Path?
What should we consider when it is time to go out and make some money? Consider what livelihood can we make money, and also be beneficial for ourselves and others, so that we can provide for the basic necessities that we have to provide for ourselves? Consider whether the livelihood does leave us time for our mental development practice. Sometimes we do not have a choice at those times, because we are in need of money, and it is difficult to get a job. But still, if we want to develop our path, we will try to look for a job which is not harmful for ourselves and others, rather than just to make money. And also, we may need to consider if we have a choice between different livelihoods, jobs when one makes more money yet the other actually provides us with more opportunities to develop the Paramis and to express our Compassion in some way. We may actually take less money rather than just making a lot of money. So we have to know what is important to us, and the basic needs of the time, because we have to provide for ourselves. Certainly if your intention to make money was more important than developing your Dhamma path and helping others, you wouldn't be here anyway!