The aims of this research were: 1) to study the concepts and principles of volunteer spirit in the current society of Thailand; 2) to study the working conditions of volunteer operations of the Asian Women Association in Kalasin province; 3) to analyze the public mind as seen in working of volunteer operations of the Asian Women Association. This study was the qualitative research conducted through the study of Tipitaka, Buddhist academic work and relevant research. The tool used in collecting the data was in-depth interview before the obtained data were interpreted by the descriptive analysis.
The research results revealed that the concept of volunteering in Buddhism began after the Buddha's enlightenment. He considered that the sentient beings were still able to understand the enlightened dhammas. Therefore 70 Buddhist disciples were sent out to spread the dhamma in the eight directions. As for the volunteerism in Thai society, starting with the great tsunami at the end of the year 2004, which was an event that creates a volunteer spirit to help the disaster victims and those suffering from the event from that time to the present.
Asian Women Association is a group of women in Kalasin combined with groups of people who come to work and live in various districts of Kalasin, that sees the disaster, suffering, poverty and various problems of people in the community, they therefore initiated projects and activities to help children, youths and elderly people in Kalasin and organized the important activities, such as how to tie the mind with love, not to risk, adolescents and Buddhist lifestyle, building a house for the poor, helping people with disabilities, donation of goods and public benefits in many areas of Kalasin.
The Buddhist volunteer spirit that appears in the work of the Asian Women Association, Kalasin consists of a volunteer spirit that is based on the principle of giving (dāna), kindly speech (piyavācā), useful conduct (atthacariyā) and equality consisting in impartiality (samānattatā) to work together in every activity. The patience and tolerance for things that affect the mind are also seen. The members always are invited one another to perform the volunteering activities until they understand together, that their activities are a dhamma practice and this idea has been a good behavior of the Asian Women Association to this day.
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