SANGHA VOLUNTEER SPIRIT DEVELOPMENT IN RAYOUNG PROVINCE

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to study the problem conditions in
developing the volunteer spirit of Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks in Rayong
province, 2) to study the concept and appropriate principle of Buddha-Dhamma for
developing the volunteer spirit of Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks in Rayong
province and 3) to present a model of the development of Sangha volunteer spirit
of Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks in Rayong province.
The research findings were:
1. The problem conditions in developing the volunteer spirit of Buddhist
ecclesiastical official monks in Rayong province consisted of 1) Necessity for the
knowledge and understanding development as it was found out that Buddhist
ecclesiastical official monks in Rayong province lacked of real knowledge and
understanding about the development of the volunteer spirit resulting in an
inability to carry on in their own community effectively and efficiently; 2) Necessity
for the self-development as it was found out that Buddhist ecclesiastical
official monks lacked of self-development to become good volunteer spirits. This
might be due to the first problem that was the lack of knowledge and
understanding development for the volunteer spirit; 3) Necessity for the vision as
leaders as it was found out that in the research area there was still the lack of good
leaders in the development of volunteer spirit in the community to happen; 4)
Necessity to give importance on the public interest as it was found out that this
problem still existed in the community. There was also separation among groups
and viewed their own personal interest was more important than the public
interest; 5) Necessity to enhance the harmony in order to gain the prosperity and
wealthy in Sangha Order; 6) Problem raised from the communication and
technology as it was found out that nowadays there was a rapid growth in thetechnology continuously. This resulted in the unexpectedly sudden current
communication condition along with the lack of knowledge and incapability to
keep pace with the technology of Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks, which was
one of the issue in the volunteer spirit development; 7) Lack of the activities in
Buddhism causing the disconnection between temples and community. When the
temple was no longer the community centre so it was unable to reunion for
carrying the volunteer spirit activities to develop the community. As mentioned, it
could be seen that all these 7 problem conditions were connected and related to
each other which was the major obstacle in the volunteer spirit development of
Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks. If these problems had been unsolved
directly to the point, all problems would be systematically improved continuously
and rapidly.
2. The researcher found out about the concept and appropriate principle
of Buddha-Dhamma for developing the volunteer spirit of Buddhist ecclesiastical
official monks in Rayong province that the volunteer spirit development could be
divided into 3 aspects which were 1) The welfare assistance consisted of money
and scholarship, education, facility and school stationery, place and establishment
for education, and role model; 2) No exploitation consisted of physical harmless,
mental harmless, and verbal harmless; 3) Focus on the public interest consisted of
personal interest dedication such as time, money, manpower, intellect for the
public interest, willingness action and unexpected for returns action. In terms of
Buddha-Dhamma appropriately applied in the volunteer spirit development of
Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks in Rayong province was the Five Development
of Righteous Man (Ariyā Vaóóhi 5) which was faith, morality, learning, liberality, and
wisdom.
A model of the volunteer spirit development of Buddhist ecclesiastical
official monks in Rayong province consisted of 2 models and 5 methods which
were The First Model – Training and The Second Model – Education, of which
focused on the characteristics of the volunteer spirit in 3 aspects which were 1) The
welfare assistance – Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks should be in the
training/education to develop their own leadership in assisting others, the
training/education by practicing to be the helper, the training/education to be good
knowledge teacher, and the training/education for the welfare assistance
management; 2) No exploitation – Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks should betrained/educated in both worldly and religiously knowledge which supported the
sharing, harmless to others such as the Four Sublime States of Mind
(Brahmavihāras 4), the Four Bases of Social Solidarity (Saïgahavatthu 4) and the Five
Development of Righteous Man (Ariyā Vaóóhi 5), for instance; 3) Focus on the
public interest – Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks should arrange
activity/project of volunteer spirit inside and outside temples in order to create the
atmosphere in doing merits for the public interest including the short period and
long period projects, the training/education for transforming attitude and
perspective in doing good actions for others. The First Method was the volunteer
spirit development by applying the concept of faith. This would create 3 attributes
in the Buddhist ecclesiastical official monks (Leader), faith in the Dhamma teachings
in Buddhism and faith in the law of karma. The Second Method was the
volunteer spirit development by applying the concept of morality. This would
create 4 attributes which were behave following the rules and regulations, know
own duties, act to the perfection of normal condition, and harmless to oneself and
another in physical, mental and verbal aspects, train and develop oneself, and
realize to be part of the social assistance. The Third Method was the volunteer
spirit development by applying the concept of learning. This would create 3
attributes which were being well-versed to the world and situations, able to
analyze and differentiate reasonably, solve the problem, and create benefits to
own-self and the others. The Forth Method was the volunteer spirit development
by applying the concept of liberality. This would create 3 attributes which were
sacrifice of materials and money, sacrifice on intellect and sacrifice on physical
action. The Fifth Method was the volunteer spirit development by applying the
concept of wisdom. This would create 3 attributes which were the use of wisdom
in learning and understanding things as they really were, the use of wisdom in an
analytical thinking and the use of wisdom in problem solving.