The Buddhist Self and Symbolic Consumption: The Consumption Experience of the Teenage

Dhammakaya Buddhists in Thailand

Kritsadarat Wattanasuwan, University of Oxford
Richard Elliott, University of Exeter

ABSTRACT
This study explores how a group of religious Buddhist teenagers in Thailand negotiate their Buddhist beliefs and endeavour to
create a sense of identity in their everyday consumption. Although
Buddhism advocates the concept of 'no-self, these teenagers still
aspire to create the self. Instead of trying to detach themselves from
selfness, these teenagers paradoxically fall into attachment to
particular symbolicconsumption in an attempt tobecome what they
believe a good Buddhist should be. An interpretive approach via
ethnographic fieldwork is employed to achieve an in-depth understanding of the relationship between the Buddhist self and consumption practices.
In postmodemity, where society has become more global but
fragmented and dispersed, we are "forced to negotiate lifestyle
choices amonga diversity of options" (Giddens 1991).The concept
of identity seems to be the "Rome to which all discussions of
modern Western consumption lead since the consumer is thirsting
for identity and using commodities to quench this thirst" (Gabriel
and Lang 1995). Endeavours tocreateourself identity often involve
our consumption of products, services, and media. Dittmar (1992,
p. 3) comments that "material possessions have a profound symbolic significant for their owners, as well as for other people and the
symbolic meanings of our belongings are an integral feature of
expressing our own identity and perceiving the identity of others."
Obviously our possessions are parts of our extended selves (Belk
1988).
However critics of consumer culture suggest that constantly
consuming products to sustain the self is not the answer to true
human happiness (Kilbourne 1989), rather it is just a temporary
consolation. In Buddhist philosophy, the ultimate ideal of human
happiness is to reach Nirvana-salvation through the extinction of
desire. Thus, acquiring material objects toextend the self is tochain
ourselves to the vicious circle of illusive consumption.
What if a person views herhimself as a committed Buddhist?
While Buddhism advocates 'anatta' or the concept of 'no-self,'l
does s h e still aspire to create the self? This study explores how a
group of religious Buddhist teenagers in Thailand negotiate their
Buddhist beliefs and endeavour to create a sense of identity in their
everyday consumption. Instead of detaching themselves from
selfness, these teenagers paradoxically fall into attachment to
particular symbolic consumption in an attempt to create their
Buddhist selves.

lThe concept 'no self, the term is translated from 'anatta', does not
mean that there isnoselfat all. We tend togo for the interpretation
that 'anatta' means there isno intrinsicself which is fixed, unified
or trancendental. Historically this Buddhist concept of self was
proposed as a critique to the concept of 'trancendental self' in
Hinduism. The Anatta Doctrine in Buddhism advocates that
individual existence, as well as the whole world, are in reality
nothing but a process of ever-changing phenomena. There is
nothingabsolute in thiswor1d;everythingis in continuous flux and
is relative, conditioned and impermanent. Thus, to avoid suffering, we should not attach ourselves to the selfness.

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
Symbolic Consumption and The Self
The self is conceptualised not as a given product of a social
system nor as a fixed entity which the individual can simply adopt,
but assomething we actively create, partially through our everyday
consumption (Gabriel and Lang 1995). Central to postmodernism
is the recognition that we do not make consumption choices solely
from products' utilities but also from their symbolic meanings
of prod(Belk 1988), and the functions of the symbolic meanings
.
ucts operate in two directions, outward in constructing the social
world: Social-Symbolism, and inward towards constructing our
self-identity: Self-Symbolism (Elliott 1997).
Thompson (1995, p. 210) describes the self as a symbolic
project, which the individual must actively construct out of the
availablesymbolicmaterials,materialswhich"theindividual weaves
into a coherent account of who he or she is, a narrative of selfidentity." Symbolic self-completion theory (Wicklund and
Gollwitzer 1982). suggests that if individuals feel insecure in social
roles then they will attempt to 'complete' their discrepant selfconcept by the use of symbols they believe to demonstrate role
competence. Additionally much literature suggests thatwe are what
we have since our possessions are viewed as major parts of our
extended selves (Belk 1988). Csikszentmihalyi and RochbergHalton (1981) explain that we invest "psychic energy" such as
effort, time, and attention in an object. This energy and its products
are regarded as a part of self because they have grown or emerged
from the self.
Lived vs. Mediated Experience
The symbolic resources available to the individual for the
construction of the self can be distinguished as being either lived
experiences or mediated experiences (Thompson 1990). Lived
experience is a practical activity and face-to-face encounter in our
everyday lives. It is situated, immediate, and is largely nonreflexive, in that we take it for granted as 'reality'. Mediated
experience is an outcome of a mass-communication culture and the
consumption of media products and involves the ability to experience events which are spatially and temporally distant from the
practical context of daily life. It is recontextualised experience, in
that it allows the experience of events that transpire far away, and
will vary widely in its relevance to the self.
The individual can draw selectively on mediated experience
and interlace it with lived experience to construct the self. The life
history and social situation of individuals will lead to differential
valorisation of forms of experience, varying between those at one
end of the continuum who value only lived experience and have
little contact with mediated forms, and others at the opposite end of
the continuum for whom mediated experience has become central
to the project of the self.
Advertising and Symbolic Meanings
Advertising is recognised as one of the most potent mediated
sources of valorised symbolic meanings (Mick and Buhl 1992).
With the decline of traditional social meaning systems such as
religion, politics and the family, advertising fills the gap with its
Advances in Consumer Research
Volume 26, O 1999

Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 26) 1 151

FIGURE 1
Consumption and the Symbolic Project o f the Self
Internal-ExlernaI Dialectic of Iakntification

Self-Symbolism

Social-Symbolism

PurchaselUsage
of ProductlService

Concretised Meaning

privileged 'discourse through and about objects' which allows us to

orientate ourselves to the social meanings of our everyday consumption (Slater 1997).
Although advertisers aim to create particular meanings for
their brands in advertising, meanings interpreted by the consumer
may be varied and diverse.There is growing recognition that we are
an active and participating audience (Mick and Buhl 1992;
Livingstone 1995). We may attend only to certain messages and
interpret or make sense of the meanings according to our personal
perception and our social knowledge (Livingstone 1995).
Self-Symbolism vs. Social-Symbolism
The creation of meanings does not conclude in a negotiation
process between advertising text and the audience during the
exposure. "Shared meanings involving media content will arise
among participants in the social action performances of reception
and subsequent accommodation" (Anderson and Meyer 1988, p.
47). A variety of meanings are created as outcomes of our personal
interest-driven, culturally-situated act of advertising interpretation
(Mick and Buhl 1992). Ritson and Elliott (1995) suggest that the
issues of cultural and interactive advertising can be integrated by a
model of advertising literacy. Advertising literacy is not only the
skill to be able to understand and transfer the meanings from an
advertisement but also the ability to use those meanings within the
social context of existence. The social consumption of advertising
meanings always involves the process of discursive elaboration
(Thompson 1990) where we describe, discuss, argue about or laugh
at that advertisement. In such process, symbolic meaning evolves.

experience like advertising and interlace them with lived experience in the dialectic process between the two realms of selfsymbolism and social-symbolism.
Differential valorisation of forms of experience depends on
the life history and social situation of individuals, and simultaneously, wewill validate thosesymbolic meaningsfrom both forms
of experience through the process of discursive elaboration in our
social interaction (Elliott and Wattanasuwan 1998). Until meanings
from mediated experiences of advertising have been subjected to
discursive elaboration in a social context and interwoven with
behavioural significations derived from lived experience, they
remain viscous, liable tobe rejectedorjust forgotten. Only afterthis
discursive elaboration can symbolic meanings be fully concretised
and become what Eco (1979) calls 'realised text.'
The process of the consumption of both mediated and lived
experience and the two realms of self-symbolism and socialsymbolism are illustrated in Figure 1.

Thai Consumers and the Buddhist Self

Buddhism is the major religion of Thailand. About ninety-five
percent of the Thai population declare themselves to be Theravada
Buddhists. In Thai thinking, Buddhism is a way of life, a national
identity and the key to primordial "Thainess". However, it is
commented that although most Thai think that they are good
Buddhists, they must really be considered as having only a superficial adherence to the tenets of Buddhism (Mulder 1996). Although the institutional and ritual expressions of Thai religion
appear to be very Buddhistic indeed, its characteristic mentality
does not reflect very much on 'anatta' or 'no-self philosophy of
A Model of Consumption and the Symbolic Project of the Self Buddhism. Evidently the common understanding and practice of
The development of individual self-identity is inseparable Thai Buddhism remains animistic. This is because both Thai
from the parallel development of collective social identity, and this Buddhism and animism apparently share the recognition of imperproblematic relationship has been described as the internal-erter- manence and instability of the realities.
In order to cleanse an image of being a superficial Buddhist,
naldialectic of identificationby Jenkins (1996), who maintains that
self-identity must be validated through social interaction and that various religious sects have tried to propagate their moral way of
the self is embedded in social practices. To pursue our symbolic life which they believe will lead Thai people to become "real"
project of the self, we draw symbolic meanings from mediated Buddhists. In this paper, we study a group of university students

152 1 The Buddhist Selfand Symbolic Consumption

TABLE 1
Name

Sex

Age

Doll

19

Paul

20

Lynn

20

Oz

22

Kay

21

Tom

22

Family Background

Training

Temple
Visit

Meditation
Daily

Third daughter, two older brothers

and a sister, living with a single
father, born in Bangkok, father
belongs to another sect.

Summer
camp

weekly

twice

Monk
for two
months

month1y

once

Summer
camp

weekly

once

Monk
for one
year

twice a
month

once

Summer
camp

weekly

whenever
possible

Monk
for one
year

weekly

whenever
possible

Second son, two brothers, living in

an extended family, born in
Bangkok, family disagrees with his
commitment to the sect.
Youngest daughter, a brother and a
sister, living with an aunt, born in
upcountry, family is concerned
about her religiousness
Eldest son with a brother, living
with parents, born in Bangkok,
family is not against the sect but
does not support it
Eldest daughter with a twin sister,
living with the sister, born in
upcountry, the sister is also a
committed member of the sect.
Eldest son with a brother, living
alone, born in sub-urban of
Bangkok, family is afraid that he
will join monkhood for life

who are attached to the Dhammakaya sect. Having employed

marketing concepts, the Dhammakaya sect has successfully attracted a large number of teenagers from middle-class families.
Each year, the sect organises several Dhamma (Buddhist teaching)
camps forstudents, many ofwhom laterbecome committed followersof the sect. The sect focuseson the combinationof discipline and
esoteric Dhammakaya meditation as well as strong group solidarity. Although Dhammakaya attracts a considerable number of
followers, particularly amongst the young, it also draws much
criticism from other Thai Buddhists. However, we will not discuss
this interesting controversy here, but will focus on the relationship
between the self-concept of the sect's young members and their
consumption behaviour.

METHODOLOGY
Research Questions
This study was undertaken to examine the following research
questions: (1) How do religious Buddhist teenagers in Thailand use
their everyday consumption to create their religious selves? (2) To
what extent do they draw symbolic meanings from their mediated
and lived experiences? (3) How does self-symbolism interact with
social-symbolism in their symbolic project of the religious self?
Research Informants
A friendship group of teenage Buddhists who belong to the
Buddhist Society of a well-known university in Bangkok was

purposively recruited as our research informants. Since teenagers

are in the important period of creating their self and group identities
(Willis 1990), they are the best subjects with whom to explore the
relationships between identity and symbolic consumption.
Purposive sampling criteria were that these informants spend
their leisure time together as a group, perform some religious
activities together and publicly express their religious selves. A
profile of the informants (pseudonyms) is presented in Table 1.
Data Collection
To explore the in-depth accounts of symbolic meaning in the
context of the religious teenagers' everyday consumption, we
adopted a naturalistic mode of inquiry via ethnographic fieldwork.
Central to the choice of methods was the problem of dealing not
only with the incoherence and paradoxof the cultural meaning and
symbolic significance of everyday consumption from the perspective of the informants involved, but also the distinctive nature of
each informant's lived experience and the socially shared meanings
of consumption (Ozanne and Hudson 1989). Thus, we employed
triangulation across several methods to cope with the complexity
and ambiguity of the issues studied.
Observation (both participative and non-participative) and
long interviews (McCracken 1988) were two of the main data
collection methods. The observation was conducted in the most
natural setting possible allowing a situated appreciation of the
symbolic meaning of the informants' behavioural signification as
well as to understand the group's interaction process, especially as

Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 26) 1 153

to how the group's shared meanings influence its members' consumption choices. The group was observed for 13weeks, approximately 6 hours a week. During the observation, the female Buddhist
Thai researcher participated in the group's conversations and
activities (e.g., lunch, Dhamma discussion, Buddhist rituals). Observational data, including the researcher's impressions, was recorded in the form of tape recordings, fieldnotes and photographs.
The long interviews were conducted individually when the
informants began to be familiar with the researcher. A phenomenological approach (Thompson, Locander and Pollio 1989) was
adopted to study the individual's lived experience and constructed
reality of symbolic meaning. It aimed to capture the personal
meanings, values and sense of religious identity that were embedded in their symbolic consumption as well as their relationship to
the culturally constituted world. Interview questions were phrased
in a loosely-structured and non-directive manner (McCracken
1988) that -allowed emergent dialogue. They were formulated
during the course of each interview as each informant described
their experience, thoughts and feelings.
For some informants, the interview sessions were conducted
at their homes, which allowed the researcher to explore their
bedrooms and personal possessions. Interviews were audio-recorded and photographs were taken whenever possible.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
The Buddhist Self: the primary symbolic project of the self
Being a virtuous Buddhist was the principal life goal of all
informants. Overtly thisgoal orientated every aspect of theirway of
living, which was clearly reflected in their everyday consumption.
The way they dressed, the way they had their hair cut, the way they
ate,oreven the way they spent theirleisure time wasstrictly pursued
towards their interpretation of being a virtuous Buddhist. To them
a decent Buddhist should not only lead herhis life modestly by
disengaging herhimself from materialism but also refrain from the
common order of life (e.g., romantic love, entertainment).
Like most Thai, all informants had been a Buddhist by birth
and followed the Buddhist philosophy superficially. They had
enjoyed their childhood and their early teens like other kids in a
consumer culture, whose lives were surrounded by popular music,
television, shopping malls and so on. The informants had only
become interested in Buddhism when they entered adolescence.
Such a transition into adulthood had revealed to them different
realities in life; thus they had begun to feel uneasy with themselves
and started to question their existence in this unruly world. Oz and
Tom who were the first sons and apparently the central attention of
their families found that they were nobodies in the outside world.
Lynn and Kay who were timid girls from upcountry had felt
powerless in a big city like Bangkok. Doll whose beloved stepmother had lately left her family had realised the uncertainty of life.
Paul hadbecomebored with hang-oversafterhis frequent nightsout
with friends. Consequently they all felt that there was something
missing in their lives. Having been attracted to the poster of
Dhammakaya's Summer Camp which promised to show them how
toactualise true happiness in life, they consulted their seniors in the
Buddhist Society and then joined the training. Impressed by the
training and the temple, the informants decided to follow the
Dhammakaya path to fulfil the incompleteness of their human self.
To complete the ideal hurnatz self: From the training, the
informantsbelieved that a human being should cultivate wisdom in
order to differentiate themselves from other beings, and the Buddhist path via the Dhammakaya meditation is a way to achieve it.

Tom: We were born and grew up, then got married and later
raised our children and so on. This life cycle is not different
from animalsat all. Beinga human shouldbe more special than
that.
Doll: Because I have a broken family, I see that life is
suffering. I feel that there must be something better for a
human being than just to live, to work, to get married and then
to die.
The informants observed eight s i h or precepts (most Thai
Buddhists observe only five precepts) and regularly went to the
temple. Wheneverthey wentthere, they alwaysputona whiteoutfit
tosymbolise the pure self. Sometimes they put on aUSTOP"T-shirt
bought from the temple co-operative shop to characterise their
ability to control their mind via meditation. Evidently all of them
had at least two of these T-shirts. T o enhance their Buddhist self,
they exercised merit-makings, such as giving food to monks twice
a week, and practised meditation at least once a day. They read
Dhamma books and the Dhammakaya magazine as well aslistened
to Dhamma songs. They wore short hair and modest clothes to
signify the simplicity of their life style.
All informants possessed theDhammakaya crystal balls which
symbolise the crystal ball they visualise when they practise meditation.These balls are given by monksor their seniortoremind them
not only of the serene feeling they obtain from the meditation but
also their commitment to the temple. Douglas and Isherwood
(1978) comment that material objects help to sustain symbolic
meanings in our everyday life. Additionally they believe that the
balls hold spiritual power to protect them from any misfortune as
well as to empower them in their meditation practice.
Lynn: I have this crystal ball with me all the time. It is said that
a person survived a car accident because he carried the ball
with him. Apparently the police saw bright light above thecar
after the accident.
Kay: These balls give me power to practise my meditation.
Whenever I see them I feel like meditating.
The informants also had a collection of souvenirs such as
photographsof Luangpor Sod who had discovered the Dhammakaya
meditation, Luangpor Dhammachayo who was the head of the
Dhammakaya temple and Khunyai (grandmother) who built the
temple. This collection became their personal archive or museum
(Belk 1988).
The symbolic project to create the informants' Buddhist self
still goeson. All male informants have planned tojoin the monkhood
at the temple again after they finish their degree; while all the girls
have considered working for the temple rather than working in
business according to their degree.
To avoid and dispose the unwantedself:To become a virtuous
Buddhist, the informants thought they must refrain from materialism and the common order of kilesa (i.e. desire, prejudice).They did
not want to be like other Thai Buddhists who are wrapped up in the
materialistic world. They avoided consuming anything beyond
necessities. For example, they tried not to consume any entertainment of the popular culture nor they did wear cosmetics and
fashionable clothes. Most of them abstained from eating after midday and gave up sleeping on mattresses. All informants also
refrained from romantic and sexual activities.

154 / The Buddhist Seyand Symbolic Consumption

Tom: I give up all luxuries in my life. I don't listen to popular
music or watch TV anymore. You see, my room is so empty.
I don't even sleep on a mattress.
Paul: Do I have a girlfriend? I don't need a girlfriend.
Romantic love brings suffering.
To liberate the samsaric self: Buddhism advocates that life is
conditioned by the law of karma and that we are imprisoned in the
samsaric cycle of birth-death-rebirth. Evidently the informants
actively geared their consumption to cultivate goodnessand morality in order to liberate themselves from the cycle of karmic conditioning. Their merit-making is a mechanical contract to buy themselves a better rebirth and ultimately to buy Nirvana.
Kay: We cannot bring any possessions with us when we die.
The only thingwe can carry along toour next life isour"boon"
Imerit]. We, human beings, were born to accumulate "boon"
for our following lives.

Sources of Symbolic Meanings: Mediated vs. Lived Experience

Since the informants withheld themselves from popular media, most of their mediated experience was through advertising
materials of the Dhammakaya sect. They often talked about words
or pictures in those materials. Mostly the words and pictures were
related to meditation and the cultivation of "boon". Seemingly
those words and pictures not only reminded them of their happy
time with the sect but also reinforced their Buddhist self.
The fact that the informants abstained from popular advertising, however, did not mean that the informants did not derive any
symbolic meaning from it. The popular advertising symbolised the
materialistic world- the world from which they wanted to liberate
themselves. Life styles portrayed in advertising represented an
illusory way of living which cannot give true happiness in life.
Oz: Those things [popular media] stimulate our desire which
will make our mind become coarse. It's not good for our
meditation at all.
Doll: You don't get anything from advertising. Most people
just want to follow the fashion ...,especially those teenagers
who need to show off that they have expensive things. I feel
that it's unnecessary to show anyone. We'd better consume
only essential things and save money to do goodness [e.g.,
merit-making].

Although the mediated experience was notable, it was still

much less important than the lived experience the informants
acquired through actual behaviour and interactions with significant
others. The symbolic meaning of happiness mentioned in the
DhammaTayat leafletbecameconcretisedonly after itwas brokered
by lived experience.
Lynn: I was very moved by the training [Dhamma Tayat],
by my mentor, by the activities and by the serenity at the
temple. It's really different from the outside world.

...

Tom: They must come to the temple to understand what 1told

them...to realise that the ideal society does exist. We are
extremely impressed when we are there, but they can feel only
ten percent of what we told them.
Oz: [talking about his meditation when he was very sick] It
helped a lot. I felt so good ... It was the only thing I wanted to

doatthattime. Ididn'twanttopossessamillionbah$ ...didn't

want to have a house or a car. I didn't want to listen to music
or to go to the cinema. I didn't want anything. The more I did
it, the more I realised that what we needed in life were not those
things. They gave us only temporary satisfaction, unlike the
happiness of the meditation.
Self-Symbolism vs Social-Symbolism
To create a sense of identity is not only to distinguish the
individual from the masses but perhaps also to lose a sense of
difference and become like the others. Due to the Dhammakaya
sect's emphasis on group solidarity, the informants constantly and
actively validated the symbolic meanings from both lived and
mediated experiences through the process of discursive elaboration in their social interaction. The informants were immensely
influenced by other people in the Dhammakaya sect. The study
clearly showed the process of the internal-erternal dialectic of
identification(Jenkins1996)in the informants' symbolic project of
the religious self. Whenever they were free from class or other
academic activities, they habitually discussed the Dhammakaya
sect, meditation or everyday moral conduct. They would advise
each other how to enhance their Buddhist selves. Additionally they
would notify a group member who engages in any inappropriate
conduct.
Lynn: I really enjoy talking about the history of the temple
with my senior. I'm so proud to be a part of it.
Kay: We will warn each other if we see that any of us hasdone
something improper. We call it "orientating the treasure troven.
This is how a good Buddhist should be.

Certainly they kept reinforcingeach other to pursue their project of

the Buddhist self.
Emergent Themes
Although the informants were trying to follow the Buddhist
path strictly, it did not mean that they were able to liberate
themselves from the samsaric cycle. Paradoxically there was some
evidence emerging from the field that illustrated their kilesa (desire) and their attachment to the creation of the self.
Kilesa to be more superior than the others. The informants
thought that to employ moral conduct strictly and to practise
meditation would elevate their beings aboveother mundane people.
Such thinking reflected their attachment to the kilesa. They seemed
to be obsessed with the construction of the self in order to be
superior.
Kay: If we observed only five precepts, we will not be superior
to other Buddhists. Thus, we observe eight precepts instead.
Paul: In the Buddhist Society we do not talk non-sense like
other teenagers. We discussDhamma toelevate our mind. to
cultivate wisdom.

..

Kilesa to be apart of the greatness and to ertend the selfacross

time. As Wat Pra Dhammakaya campaigned for the project to build
Dhammakaya Ceteya, all informants donated a lot of money to
build at least one of their own "personal Buddha imagesn ($250$500). They claimed that this stupa3 would become the Eighth

2Thai monetary currency. Approximately US$1 equals to40Baht.

3~ round usually domed Buddhist monument, usually containing
a sacred relic.

Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 26) / 155

Wonder of the World and it would remain for thousands of years.

They were so happy to be a part of this greatness. They visualised
how the visitors to this stupa would see their names on their
"personal Buddha images" and praise their commitment to Buddhism. Obviously this was evidence of consumption to extend the
self both spatially and temporally.
Lynn: We cannot live forever, but this stupa will exist for at
least two thousands year.
Kay: This stupa will make Thailand [more specifically Wat
Pra Dhammakaya] the centre of world Buddhism ...just like
the Vatican being the centre of Christianity. It's a great 'boon'
to be a part of it.
Kilesa to be loved All informants mentioned that they felt
sincerely loved and cared for by their friends in the Buddhist
Society and the Dhammakaya sect. They also felt comfortable
spending time with the group at the society and the temple because
everything was seemingly in order. They knew where they were
located in the Dhammakaya community. It was like a 'Pra Sri
Ariya'4community for them. Clearly it was the community where
they sought refuge from the unruly world.
Paul: I feel secure here. No deception. No jealousy. There's
sincere love and care.

CONCLUSION
The study strongly supports that in postmodemity religion
may still be a significant dimension in the construction project of
the self. Although Buddhism advocates the concept of 'no-self,
these teenagers still aspire to create, maintain and express their
religious selves in order to sustain their existence in this unruly
world. Instead of trying to detach themselves from selfness, these
teenagers paradoxically fall into attachment to particular symbolic
consumption in an attempt to become what they believe a good
Buddhist should be. Furthermore, the study shows how these
teenagers draw symbolic meanings from mediated experiencesand
interlace them with lived experiences in the process of the internalaternal dialectic of identification (Jenkins 1996) between the two
domains of self-symbolism and social-symbolism. Evidently they
always validate those meanings of how to be a good Buddhist
through the process of discursive elaboration in their social interaction.
Methodologically the interpretive approach we employed in
this research helped us deal with the complexity of the issues
studied. Whilst observation provided evidence of these teenagers'
actual behaviour and their social interaction, especially the process
of discursive elaboration within the group, the long interviews
allowed us to delve phenomenologically into their thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
The realities are too complex and paradoxical to be understood by logical thinking; and possibly they can be best
understood only through experience.
A Thai Buddhist monk

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