Money meaning making from Buddhist Counseling

Abstract

This qualitative study aims at studying on the meaning of money from attending Buddhist Counseling. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method was used in the study. The participants of this study were 8 fourth-year university students who have taken loan for studying. The participants attended 8 sessions of Buddhist Counseling Individual in-depth interview on the meaning of money was used to collect the data.  The results of the study showed that the meaning of money before attending the sessions were 1) Money brings happiness from acquiring what one wants was about hedonistic happiness, without contemplating surrounding matters of life. After attending Buddhist Counseling process has allowed the participants to contemplate surrounding matters of life thoroughly and comprehensively as followings: 2) Money is a factor of living. 3) Money provides freedom to satisfying living. 4) Having enough money means enough for having a good quality of life and to be able to handle the uncertainty. 5) Money promotes happiness in co-living with related others. 6) Money is to obtain and to collect within one's ability to have enough for living. The result of this study can be applied to psychological counseling work with universities students who face money problems. To study on the effectiveness of counseling from the meaning of money in university student, the researcher suggests a long-term data collecting to study the persistence and the development of the new meaning of money which may reflect onto one's adulthood.