THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION PATTERN FOR PROTECTING SUSTAINABLE ECOLOGY IN THE TEMPLES BY BUDDHIST PRINCIPLES

Abstract

               The objectives of this research article were to 1) analyze the concept of sustainable ecological care in accordance with Buddhist principles, 2) develop community participation patterns in sustainable ecological care in Buddhist temples according to Buddhist principles. The researchers studied documents, textbooks, relevant research. The researchers also used in-depth interview methods on essential informants by using statistics to describe the characteristics of variables, including frequency determination, percentage, average, and standard deviation. The key contributors to in-depth interviews are 15 persons divided into four groups: 1) Monks and Novices 2) People living around the temple 3) People who use the area in the temple 4) Government officials and students. The results showed that 1) Buddhism and ecology are related and correlated. Ecology teaches humans how to preserve nature and the environment. Meanwhile, Buddhism aims to teach human beings to be compassionate to the nature of the environment, coexist with each other, and treat nature as part of their own lives will ensure a complete and stable ecosystem. The conceptual philosophy of Buddhism was born under the natural environment. 2) Community participation model for sustainable ecological care. There are three steps:  2.1) Building understanding of how to leverage ecosystems for sustainability. 2.2) Development of activities to conserve ecology in community temples in various ways 2.3) Applying Buddhist principles to the care of ecology in temples, including compassion, self-sufficiency, and gratitude.