Applied Buddhism and The Nation – Building

Abstract

Since the beginning, Thailand, as an agricultural society had undergone several types of government. Regarding to Thai Buddhism which is the state - religion, most governments, ruled the country by laws of dharms. People were taught to live morallu and ethically. Nevertheless, more and more, we are confronting the fashion of being a modernized or industrial society. Accordingly, the social problems increase so much that we are afraid of losing the nation. In order to avoid the fatal crisis, Buddhism, in this article, is proposed to be the only scientific way of solving the problems while Thai people seem not to be aware of the Buddhist teachings. It should be called applied Buddhism, managed to be the tools to overcome social, political, and economical problems. Those dharms must be used practially, not philosophically since we have been doctrinated by the Buddhist philosophy for a gdreat length of Time.