Abstract:
The objectives of this research were: 1) to study the state of using the four Bhāvanā principles of people in Nong Khaem District of Bangkok, 2) to compare the use of the four Bhāvanā principles of people in Nong Khaem District of Bangkok with different sex, age, education level, occupation and monthly income, and 3) to analyze suggestions for promoting the use of the four Bhāvanā principles of people in Nong Khaem District of Bangkok. 376 samples were drawn randomly from people in Nong Khaem District. The sample size (n = 380) was determined by using Krejcie and Morgans (1970) table of sample sizes, specifying a 5% margin of error. The experimental data were collected by questionnaire and summarized with descriptive statistics; frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, and then compared groups by using independent-sample t-tests, F-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The data were analyzed by statistics software. The results of the study were found that: 1) The state of using the four Bhāvanā principles of people in Nong Khaem District of Bangkok was at a high level overall. When considering in aspects by descending mean, the maximum was on Moral cultivation, followed by Physical cultivation, Mental cultivation and Wisdom cultivation respectively. 2) In comparison, the people in Nong Khaem District with different gender and occupation had no statistically significant difference in using the four principles of Bhāvanā, but those with different age, monthly income and education levels showed the statistically significant difference in using the four principles of Bhāvanā at the .05 level. 3) The suggestions in promoting the use of Bhāvanā principles were as follows:1) Physical cultivation: coexisting with environment, knowing the values of environment, balancing oneself and environment, and taking good care of ones health, 2) Moral cultivation: self-training and having discipline, keeping appropriate bodily and verbal actions in order to live with others in society happily, and not creating troubles to others, 3) Mental cultivation: training oneself to be pleasurable and cheerful, having generosity, kindness, and compassion, and 4) Wisdom cultivation: problem solving based on cause and effect, understanding things correctly and resolving them with intelligence, and seeing things as they really are.