The Buddhist Integral Ecology for Sustainable Development on Supporting the Well-being and Learning of Thai Society

Abstract

The research objectives were: 1) to study the concept, theory, and principle concerning the ecology and impact; 2) to study how to apply the Buddhist Dhamma
integration to the ecology in supporting the well-being learning of Thai society for the sustainable mind and social development; and 3) to analyze and develop a model of relationship among the government, local administration, sangha, and people sectors in managing the Buddhist ecology for sustainable development. The research methodology was to analyze the content on documentary research, in-depth interview, and group discussion. The research found that in the past 50 years human activities had been changing the ecosystem more rapidly than ever before. The influence from the Reductionism concept led the people to misunderstand that they were the cleverest creatures and could overcome the nature’s power. In fact, they had damaged nature, the environment, the economy and society. In addition, the excess development may have caused human selfishness and lack of spirit on responsibility of everything. The application of Buddhist integration to ecosystem for sustainable mind and social development, analyzed from six case studies, found that the Threefold Training--Sila, Samadhi, Samadhi, and Panna— was the dhamma that all sectors had already applied but may have used different dhamma words. But the working process demonstrated that these three dhammas cannot be separated, specifically in this research called “Buddhist integral” and development will change according to the Dependent Origination or to the states arise in dependence upon the related factors.Furthermore, if any organization would apply the Threefold Training doctrine, it could hope that the ecology will be nurtured successfully while attaining the sustainable mind and social development.