Page 51 - JMSD Vol.1 No.2 - 2016

วารสาร มจร การพัฒนาสังคม
ปีที่ 1 ฉบับที่ 2 พฤษภาคม - สิงหาคม 2559

ส�าหรับพระสงฆ์ และชาวบ้านผู้ที่หวังจะมีชีวิตที่มีความสุขอย่างแท้จริง ก็ต้องยึดแบบอย่างการ
ใช้ชีวิตแบบพระสงฆ์ แต่ก็มิใช่การด�าเนินตามแบบอย่างการใช้ชีวิตของพระสงฆ์ไทยในปัจจุบัน

ค�ำส�ำคัญ : อยู่อย่างสันติ, สังคมสมานฉันท์, ชีวิตพระสงฆ์

Introduction
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The 6 century B.C. was an era of excitement in the history of Indian
religious thought because of the rise of Buddhism (Raj Kumar Pathak, 1989: 2).
As well–known that Buddhism reached the area of present Thailand where, in
rd
ancient time, was called “Suwannabhumi” since the 3 Buddhist Century when
one of the Nine Buddhist Missionaries sent by the Great Indian King, Asoka, had
arrived this area and preached the Buddha’s Teachings to the ordinary people.
And accordingly the Buddhism flourished throughout this region.
A small society has been shoulder and shoulder to the Thai Kingdom for
long time since the beginning of the Kingdom, is called “Sangha Society.” The
Sangha stands for a community of Buddhist monks, which is regarded as a high-
est institution in the Thai Society. Bhikkhu Poonsak Machareon (Bhikkhu Poonsak
Machareon, 1976: 7) explained the term Sangha that “the Sangha has two-fold
meaning – ‘an entire monk-fraternity’ or ‘the bond of association among monk,’
referring in the former to a body of persons and in the letter of the ‘confedera-
tion which makes them one body.’”
The Sangha means a group of Bhikkhus who assembled to carry out com-
munal business, much like a quorum of the member of a society assembled with
the power to make decisions in the society’s name (Somdetch Phramaha Sama-
nachao Kromphraya Vajirananavarorasa, n.p.: 2). However, the number of Bhikkhu
comprising as a group of Bhikkhus (Sangha) is determined by their functions in
society in which they are living. However, whatever the Sangha would be meant,
but in Thailand the Sangha, one of the most important institution, is regarded as
a pure community because monks who have a very different life from ordinary
people (lay-people) actually have followed the 227 precepts. Meanwhile, basi-
cally the ordinary people follow the five precepts. The life of monks, according
to the Vinaya and Buddhist tradition, involves constant abstention from secular
activities and associations with the secular world. These rules of conduct and
behaviour differentiate the monk’s way of life from that of the lay man physically
and spiritually (Somboon Suksamran, 1977: 2). Hence, through these precepts

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