心靈=Spiritual; 佛教人物=Buddhist; 修行方法=修行法門=Practice; 道元=Dogen; 僧團=叢林=Monastic Community=Buddhist Community
摘要
After more than three decades of promoting rapid economic growth via capital-intensive industrialization, Thailand faces a widening socio-economic gap, environmental devastation, and decline of Buddhist values in the monkhood and populace. The recent economic crisis in Southeast Asia thus marks a critical moment in Thailand's history. Now, many Thais pause to reevaluate their nation's development path and to consider other options for a primarily Buddhist, agrarian society.
This dissertation explores the Santi Asoke Buddhist Reform Movement in Thailand as a culturally and environmentally appropriate alternative to development programs driven by Western economic models. The Asoke group's aim is not a Western ideal--to accumulate high levels of material comfort, but a Buddhist ideal--to release attachment to the material world and attain spiritual freedom. The seven Asoke communities that continue to thrive throughout the nation's economic troubles are a testament to the movement's success in raising the quality of life for ordinary people. Ethnographic research at one community, the Srisa Asoke Buddhist Center, examines Asoke beliefs and practices that foster spiritual and material development on three levels: individual, community, and society.
The way of life at Srisa Asoke serves as an operational example for a new development paradigm outlined in this dissertation's concluding chapter. In order to raise the quality of life for ordinary people, I argue that development must be (1) culturally/locally situated, (2) focused on livelihoods rather than economic growth, (3) environmentally "sustainable," and (4) endogenously inspired, implemented, and maintained. The Asoke model is not intended as a new meta-strategy for global development, nor even one that may be duplicated across Thailand. On the contrary, this project underscores the need to investigate and encourage diverse methods of dealing with particular social, economic, and environmental dilemmas. Ultimately, the transformation of development will come from the manifestations of alternatives by grassroots movements such as Asoke and by ethnographic inquiries into concepts and practices in these communities.
