Objectives of this research were; 1. to study general conditions and problems of people’s meditation practice in Prachuap Khirikhan Province. 2. to study structure of meditation centers of Prachuap Khirikhan Province and 3. to propose the meditation centers promotion development of Prachuap Khirikhan Province.
Methodology was the mixed methods: The qualitative method collected data from 18 key informants by in-depth-interview, analyzed data by descriptive interpretation. The quantitative research collected data from 346 samples who were monks in the area with questionnaires with reliability value at 0.979, analyzed data with frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, SD
The findings were as follow.
1. Conditions, problems and obstacles of the meditation centers of Prachuap Khirikhan Province were found that monasteries play the important roles in inheriting Buddhism. Since Buddhism has both tendencies to progress and decline. So monks play the most important roles in preaching and transferring Buddhadhamma to people to follow. Monks have to set the good examples with good behave to arouse the people’s faith so that they will practice Buddhadhamma. There are 3 to 4 meditation centers at every district in Prachuap Khirikhan Province, providing conveniences for people to practice meditation. Even though, there are still a few people to attend the meditation centers, also the meditation masters are limited. There is not coordination among meditation centers to help one others. Some meditation centers are located in the middle of city with many distracting environment, causing problems for meditation practice.
2. The structures or components of the meditation centers in Prachuap Khiri khan Province were found that important factors that makes people interested in dharma practice depends on 3 parts; namely, Place, monasteries that are used for the meditation centers are ready and equipped with clean, peaceful and convenient facilities. Personnel; meditation center masters and meditation teachers must be competent and knowledgeable, good examples, well ethical behave that induce faith and acceptance and Management; the meditation centers provide many methods of meditation teaching that allow people to choose in line with their preference.
3. Guidelines for the meditation centers promotion development of Prachuap khirikhan Province were that the meditation centers should regularly improved, ready for activities at all times. Sangha Order should create more new meditation teachers and develop those existing teachers with new knowledge and competency. There should be regular meditation practice with both short and long terms to suit the unpredictable needs of various groups of people. In some occasions, there should be meditation practice outside of the centers, such as government offices, private companies and educational institutes, etc
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