The Philosophical Analysis of the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition of Banduea villagers, Banduea Sub-district, Kasetsomboon District, Chaiyaphum Province

Abstract

The aims of this paper were: 1) to study the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition of Banduea villagers; 2) to study philosophical concepts; 3) to analytically and philosophically study the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition of Banduea villagers' community, Banduea. This study was carried out by means of a qualitative research methodology by collecting the data from documents and in-depth interviews of 25 key informants. The gathered data were presented by the descriptive analysis based on the inductive reasoning method.
The research results were as follows:
1. There are two important concepts of the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition of Banduea villagers as follows: 1) the concept of making merit and dedication to relatives who have passed away (Preta-pli) which will be arranged as an expression of gratitude to the ancestors; 2) the concept of making benefit for oneself according to 3 principles of Buddhist ethics, namely: 1) not performing any evil actions; 2) performing meritorious deeds; 3) purifying one's mind.
2. Philosophical concepts is something that has to do with human existence. In providing a logical answer to the question that where do people come from? Where are the dead? Where are the spirits after death? There are two types of philosophical theories: 1) pure philosophy and 2) applied philosophy and pure philosophy is applied to the content of various branches of science.
3. An analysis of the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition with the metaphysical theory found that the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition has the concept of metaphysics that connects the coexistence between Being and Non- Being, both of which are concealed in 1) beliefs about the supreme god 2) realms of Preta (hungry ghosts); 3) beliefs about ancestor worship and sacred things. Analyzing with epistemological theories, it was found that knowledge was collected in the form of folk wisdom, transmitted by folk philosophers. And when analyzed with the Buddhist ethics theory, it is found that the 10th Month Meritorious Tradition has a good effect on the life of the community in a simple and peaceful way as it is a society of dependency that is based on Four Saṅgahavatthu principle as a practice guideline.