Development of Spending Behavior in accordance with Theravada Buddhist Philosophy of High-School Students in Koksipitayason-School, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

This research aims to 1) to study the concepts and theories in relations to spending behavior according to Buddhist Theravada philosophy; 2) tostudy the state of problems in spending money of high school students of Khok Si Pitayason school; 3) to develop the behaviors of spending money according to Buddhist Theravada philosophy for the high school students. This research is a qualitative research. There were 65 key informants using descriptive data analysis based on inductive method.
The research results were as follows:
1. Buddhist Theravada philosophy are the principles and concepts of spending money in living on the four requisites: food, cloth or decoration, housing and medicines. Each expense requires worthiness consideration before making a decision. The dhammas used in money expense are the fourfold division of money (bhogavibhāga), the virtues conducive to benefits in the present or virtues leading to temporal welfare (Diṭṭhadhammikattha-saṁvattanika-dhamma) and the eightfold paths (ariyamagga).
2. The students are spendthrift in food, cloth, decoration, cellphone and unnecessary tours etc. This was resulted from the rapid social, economic, cultural and technological changes in the era of the material advance, high competition and materialism emphasis more than the mind, causing the students to inescapably be in the stream of consumerism.
3. The development of the behaviors in spending money according to the Buddhist Theravada philosophy of the students can be done by organizing the training for behavioral change in their expense so that they realize the values of their spending money in each time. This in Buddhism is called ‘true consumption’.