ABSTRACT

                         The  objectives  of  the  thesis  on  “A  Study  of  the  Level  of  the  Knowledge  of  Emptiness  in Theravada Buddhism : A Case Study of  The  Undergraduates  from  Mahachula-

Longkornrajavidyalaya  University” are  as  follows :

                          i )  to  study  the  level  of  the  social  interaction  and the  level  of  the  knowledge  of  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism  in  The  context  of  five  Aggregates  and  Paticcasamuppada  of  the  undergraduates  from  Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya  University.  

                         ii )  to  compare  the  levels  of  the  social  interaction  and  the  knowledge  of  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism,  classified  by  personal  factors.  and  

                         iii )  to  study  the  relationship  between  social  interaction  and  the  Knowledge in  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism  of  the  undergraduates  from  Mahachulalongkornrajavid-

yalaya  University.  

                         The 187 senior  undergraduates  from  Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya  University  in  the  central  campus  were  used  as  the  sample  in  this  study. The  research  tool  was  a  questionnaire  on  the  “A  Study  of  the  Level  of  the  Knowledge  of  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism : A  Case  Study  of  The  Undergraduates  from  Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya  University.”  The  statistics  used  to  test  the  Hypothesis included  Independent  Samples  t-test  to  test  F-value  (One-way  ANOVA),  Fisher`  Least Significant  Difference  (LSD)  to  compare  the  paired  differences  and  the Pearson  Product  Moment  Correlation  Coefficient.

                         The results  showed  that :

1.              General Informations

With  regard  to  general  characteristics  of  respondents, it  was  found  that  most  of  participants  were  monk,  representing  88.8  percent,  aged  between  20-30  years  with  ordination  periods  of  1-5  years,  grade  point  average  (GPA)  2.50-3.00,  81.3  percent  learned  dhamma  from  printing  materials,    and  62.6   percent   learned  dhamma  from  Tripitaka,  77.5  percent experienced  in  insight  meditation  form  various  occasions.

2.              The Difference in level of social interaction and the knowledge of Emptiness

The  overall  level  of  the  social  interaction  of   the  undergraduates  from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya  University  were  at  a  high  level  ( =3.69)  while  the  level  of  the  knowledge  of  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism  was  medium  ( =63.87).  

3.              The Difference in level of social interaction and the knowledge in Emptiness

 No  difference  was  found  between  levels  of  the  social  interaction  and  knowledge  of  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism  in  context  of  Five  Aggregates  and  Paticcasamuppada  of  the  undergraduates  categorized  by  personal  factors  i.e.  status, age, ordination  periods  and  grade  point  average  (GPA), while the  result  of  the  social  interaction  categorized  by  faculties  were  significant  different  and  the  result  of  the  knowledge  of  Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism  in context  of  five  Aggregates  and  Paticcasamuppada  categorized  by  faculties  were  not  significant  different.

4.              The Relationship of the  level of social interaction and the knowledge of Emptiness

The  analysis  of  the  relationship  was  found  that  the  level  of  the  social interaction (x)  was  correlated  positively  with  that  of  the  knowledge  of Emptiness  in  Theravada  Buddhism  in  context  of  five  Aggregates  and Paticcasamuppada (y)  with  a  statistical  significance  at  0.05  level.