Belief in the Afterlife, Death Anxiety, and Life Satisfaction of Buddhists and Christians in Thailand: Comparisons Between Different Religiosity

Transcription

1 Soc Indic Res (2015) 124: DOI /s Belief in the Afterlife, Death Anxiety, and Life Satisfaction of Buddhists and Christians in Thailand: Comparisons Between Different Religiosity Apitchaya Chaiwutikornwanich Accepted: 8 November 2014 / Published online: 6 December 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract This research studied belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction, of Buddhists and Christians in Thailand. The aim of this research was to compare the variables of interest between high and low religiosity within their religion. There were two studies of 800 participants. Study 1 compared between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists in terms of the above and related variables. Study 1 had 577 participants, comprised 532 Buddhists and 45 meditated Buddhists who had already been meditating for 6 months and just finished 1-h meditation. Study 2 compared between Christians and meditated Christians who had intense involvement in religious discipline and just finished religious attendance. Study 2 had 223 participants, comprised 175 Christians and 48 meditated Christians. The results show that meditated Buddhists had more belief in the afterlife and more frequency of going to temple than Buddhists (p \.001 and p =.001, respectively). However, life satisfaction and death anxiety between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists were not significantly different (p =.349 and p =.121, respectively). Meditated Christians had less death anxiety than Christians (p \.001). Meditated Christians had more belief in the afterlife and more frequency of going to church than Christians (p \.001). However, life satisfaction between Christians and mediated Christians was not significantly different (p =.607). Keywords Belief in the afterlife Death anxiety Life satisfaction Religion Religiosity Meditation 1 Introduction Religion is an organized system involving beliefs, feelings, thoughts, experiences, behaviors, practices, and rituals related to the transcendent, which is a higher power, or ultimate truth/reality (Koenig et al. 2012). A. Chaiwutikornwanich (&) Faculty of Psychology, Chulalongkorn University, 8th Fl. Borommaratchachonnanisrisattapat Bldg., Rama 1 Rd., Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand apitchaya.c@chula.ac.th

2 1016 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Buddhism is the national religion of Thailand and represents an overwhelming majority religious affiliation of its citizens, though for many Thais, Buddhism describes an identity more than a spiritual or philosophical commitment. Techapanit (1979) studied the specific group of Buddhists and Christians in Thailand and found that ultimate religious goal had an impact on the way of life of Buddhists and Christians. Christians had understanding in their religion; in contrast, some Buddhists did not understand ultimate Buddhism s goal. The goals of these studies were to investigate the relationships of belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, life satisfaction, and frequency of going to temple/church compared between Thai believers in general and mediated Thai believers, who had high religiosity or high involvement in their religion in order to understand how religions could help their believers to have psychological well-beings and to cope with their sufferings. This research classified degrees of religiosity or religious involvement/practice based primarily on meditation, not frequency of going to sanctuary. In addition, this research extended to include participants of a wide range of ages, from students to older adults. There were two studies in this research. Study 1 compared the variables of interest between general Thai Buddhists and meditated Buddhists. Study 2 compared between general Thai Christians and meditated Christians. This is to see how meditation or religious involvement could generalize across religions. In addition, the related variables (e.g., expected consequences after making a merit) were compared between believers and mediated believers of their religion. 1.1 Religious Belief Systems Religion is a meaning system that influences beliefs, contingencies and expectations, goals, actions, and emotions (Silberman 2005). Religion guides believers behaviors. Religion also involves a schema or cognitive process that believers use to solve the problems (McIntosh 1995). Religion plays an important role for Thai people. Most of Thai people are Buddhists (94.6 %). The rest of them are Muslims (4.6 %) Christians (0.7 %) and other religions including free thinkers (0.1 %) (The data from the Office for National Statistics, Thailand, 2011). The ultimate purpose of each religion may be different. For example, Buddhism emphasizes freedom from cycle of death and birth. Buddhists believe in individual s own deeds (karma which is if individuals do well, they will get good results), avoid evil deeds, and purify mind. Buddhists believe in the cycle of death and birth, and nirvana. They do not believe in God. However, Christianity believes in God. Christians believe God create everything. God will give the reward and punishment up to an individual s own deeds and up to Him. Christianity emphasizes on faith, hope, and love. They do not believe in the cycle of death and birth. They believe that when individuals pass away, they will go to be with God in heaven. The terms Religiosity/Religiousness or Spirituality sometimes are used interchangeably. Spirituality seems to have broad meaning and related more to meaning and purpose in life (Koenig et al. 2012). Religiosity or religiousness is related more to involvement/commitment or participation in rituals and activities relating to religious faith (Moberg 2005). Allport and Ross (1967) classified religiosity into extrinsic and intrinsic orientation. Intrinsic religious individuals try to internalize religion into their life and follow it; namely, they live their religion. Extrinsic religious individuals use religion as the instrument to get their primary needs (e.g. security, solace, status, sociability, etc.). In this sense, meditation,

3 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity 1017 or the way believers practice their religion, seems to help believers have more intrinsically religious. Much research (e.g., Dezutter et al. 2006) have found that intrinsic, not extrinsic, religiosity is positively correlated to mental health or psychological well-being. This present research will ask the questions related to religious involvement in terms of their practice (e.g. meditation, frequency of going to church, how the believers adopt the discipline to help them in the needy time, etc.). 1.2 Religion and Belief in the Afterlife Phetchintra (1981) studied the specific group of Thai Buddhists and Christians and found that the concept of death in Buddhism and Christianity had impacts on the behavior of the Buddhists and the Christians. He found that individuals in both religions believed that dying was not the ending. They believed in life after death. Buddhists believe that Karma determines the destiny after dying. The breakthrough of the cycle of death and birth brings Buddhists to nirvana which is the ultimate goal. Christianity emphasized doing the good deeds in the present and staying with God in the heaven after dying. McClain-Jacobson et al. (2004) found that cancer patients who believed in the life after death would not want to die, had less despair and fewer of them committed suicide than individuals who did not believe in the afterlife. Some research (e.g. Flannelly et al. 2006) found a positive correlation between belief in life after death and mental health. 1.3 Religion and Death Anxiety There are mixed results for correlations between death anxiety and religiosity. Some studies found negative correlations between religiosity and death anxiety. Some studies found positive correlations between religiosity and death anxiety. Some found no correlations. Some suggested curvilinear relationships; namely, low and high religious individuals had less death anxiety than moderate religious ones (see Shreve-Neiger and Edelstein 2004; Ellis and Wahab 2013 for reviews). However, Patrick (1979) found that the role that each religion supported attitudes and feelings concerning death was different between Buddhism and Christianity. 1.4 Religion and Life Satisfaction Past research yielded mixed results in terms of religiosity and psychological well-being. Some found negative correlations between religiosity and well-being (e.g., Ellis 1988). However, in the present days, more research finds positive correlations between religiosity and well-being. Much research has found that individuals who have their own religion and have religious activities have more life satisfaction and more psychological well-being than individuals who have no religions or no religious activities (e.g. Ellison 1991; Dezutter et al. 2006; Unterrainer et al. 2010; Levin 2013; Kim 2003). 1.5 Correlations of Belief in the Afterlife, Death Anxiety, and Life Satisfaction Belief in the afterlife is negatively correlated with death anxiety (Cohen and Hall 2009; Cohen et al. 2005; McClain-Jacobson et al. 2004; Morris and Mcadie 2009).

4 1018 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Cohen et al. (2005) studied death anxiety, afterlife belief, and life satisfaction of Catholics and Protestants and found that life satisfaction was negatively correlated with death anxiety and positively correlated with afterlife belief. 2 Study Materials and Methods Participants Thai people (N = 577), mostly from Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, were sampled of 532 Buddhists and 45 meditated Buddhists, aged years old (Male = %, female = %, unidentified sex = 0.50 %; mean age = 35.28, SD = 17.10). Buddhists were recruited by the convenience sampling method from universities, parks, etc. Meditated Buddhists, who had been meditating for 6 months and just finished 1-h meditation, were recruited from the temples. The Buddhist sample was % male, % female, and unidentified sex = 0.56 %; mean age = 34.34, SD = 17.06, and range The meditated Buddhists sample was % male, % female; mean age = 46.33, SD = 13.45, and range Measures Belief in the Afterlife The scale was developed into Thai by the author from the concept of the Belief in the afterlife scale of Osarchuk and Tatz (1973). The scale was 7 point Likert scales (in all scales of this research, score 0 6, 0 = disagree extremely, 1 = disagree, 2 = somewhat disagree, 3 = undecided, 4 = somewhat agree, 5 = agree, 6 = agree extremely). The Cronbach s alpha of the 8-itemed Thai Belief in the afterlife scale was 0.84 (N = 577). See the Appendix for the items of the scale Death Anxiety The 15 item scale was developed from Templer (1970). This was translated into Thai by the author. The scale was 7 point Likert scale. The Cronbach s alpha of this Thai translation of the death anxiety scale was 0.80 (N = 577) Satisfaction with Life Scale There were 10 items, which were composed by combining 5 items from two different scales. 5 items from Diener et al. (1985) were translated into Thai by the author. The other 5 items (see the Appendix ) were adopted from the interview questionnaire of Bunurapeepinyo (1999) in which she adopted the items from Kaewkangwan (1990) who adapted the Life Satisfaction Index A (Neugarten et al. 1961) into Thai. The scale was 7 point Likert scales. The Cronbach s alpha of this Satisfaction with life scale was 0.78 (N = 577) Frequencies of Going to Sanctuary (Temple or Church) and Motives of Doing Good Deeds A questionnaire regarding motives and behaviors related to religion belief was adopted and adapted from the questionnaires of Techapanit (1979) and Phetchintra (1981). The examples of the items were frequencies of going to sanctuary (temple, church), values of goodness, how much religion can help to solve personal problems, the expected

5 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity 1019 results when making the merits, etc. The participants rated on the Likert scales or selected the best answer choice for their behaviors/intentions. 3 Study Results Before the data were analyzed, the data of both studies (which have the same variables) that had a lot of missing values were excluded (5 out of 810). A few missing values of the interval data were replaced by using series mean in the SPSS programme. The Mahalanobis distance technique was applied to the data to screen out the outliers (N = 805; the outliers = 5; In total, there were 800 participants for two studies.) Descriptive Statistics Table 1 depicts the means, SDs, minimum, maximum of subjects in Study 1 (N = 577). When compared between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists for the variables of interest, meditated Buddhists had more belief in the afterlife and more frequency of going to temple than Buddhists, t(575) =-5.08, p =.000 and t(575) =-3.25, p =.001, respectively. There were no significant differences of life satisfaction and death anxiety between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists, p =.349 and p =.121, respectively. Furthermore, males and females were compared in the variables of interest. For Buddhists (n = 532), females had more belief in the afterlife and death anxiety than males, t(527) =-3.17, p =.002 and t( ) =-2.96, p =.003, respectively. Buddhist males and females were not significantly different in life satisfaction and frequency of going to temple. Table 2 depicts frequency of going to temple of the Buddhist believers. There was a relationship between religious practice (Buddhists and meditated Buddhists) and frequency of going to temple (Pearson v 2 = , df = 5, p \.001). Most of the Buddhists went to temple once a month or more (37.4 %); whereas, most of the meditated Buddhists went to temple once a week or more (42.2 %). For others, Buddhists (4.5 %) stated that they went to temple when at the ceremonial religious days, depending on chance, or not consistent. Meditated Buddhists (6.7 %) stated that they went to temple nearly every day or every day. From Table 3, there was no significant relationship between the first goodness and religious practice (Pearson v 2 = 4.482, df = 9, p =.877). The first goodness that both Buddhists and meditated Buddhists valued was gratitude which is in accordance with Thai culture. Ideal commitment for Buddhists was success in work and society devotion; whereas, that for meditated Buddhists is society devotion and success in work, respectively (Pearson v 2 = 12.80, df = 6, p =.046). Other commitments for Buddhists (7.2 %, not shown in the table) were parents pride, happiness, doing the things they love, good deeds, doing the best things in the present, calmness and simplicity, having warm family, honesty, doing good for the loved ones (Table 4). From Table 5, there were relationships between religious practice (Buddhists and meditated Buddhists) and helping to encounter daily truth or daily problems (Pearson Chi Square for Buddhists and meditated Buddhists, respectively, in each problem = , , , , *, , df = 3, p =.000, *p =.001). Meditated Buddhists indicated that religion help them to deal with daily problems more than Buddhists.

6 1020 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Table 1 Means, SDs, minimum, and maximum of belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction of Buddhists and meditated Buddhists (N = 577) Variables Belief in the afterlife Death anxiety Life satisfaction Frequency of going to temple/church a Religions Min Max Mean (SD) Min Max Mean (SD) Min Max Mean (SD) Min Max Mean (SD) Buddhists (n = 532) (1.14) (0.85) (0.78) (0.82) Meditated Buddhists (n = 45) (1.11) (0.84) (0.82) (1.02) Total (1.16) (0.85) (0.78) (0.84) a Replaced participants who answered others as in Table 2 with series mean to treat frequency of going to sanctuary as the interval scale to compare with other variables of interest

7 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity 1021 Table 2 Frequency of going to sanctuary (temple, church) of Buddhists and meditated Buddhists (percentage in parenthesis) Religious practices Never Once a week or more Once a month or more Once a year or more Once in many years or more Others Total (N = 577) Buddhists 2 (0.4) 83 (15.6) 199 (37.4) 194 (36.5) 30 (5.6) 24 (4.5) 532 Meditated 0 (0) 19 (42.2) 14 (31.1) 3 (6.7) 6 (13.3) 3 (6.7) 45 Buddhists Table 3 The first type of goodness that was important for Buddhists and meditated Buddhists (the first figure in the parenthesis is the frequency and the second one is percentage) Buddhists (n = 514) Meditated Buddhists (n = 45) Order 1st Gratitude (232/45.1) Gratitude (21/46.7) Love and mercy (68/13.2) Love and mercy (7/15.6) Justice (54/10.5) Justice (6/13.3) Self-respect (43/8.4) Self-respect (4/8.9) Table 4 Ideal commitment for Buddhists and meditated Buddhists (the first figure in the parenthesis is the frequency and the second one is percentage) Buddhists (n = 527) Meditated Buddhists (n = 45) Success in work (208/39.5) Society devotion (18/40.0) Society devotion (163/30.9) Success in work (13/28.9) Serenity (56/10.6) Serenity (11/24.4) Exalting family lineage (47/8.9) Exalting family lineage (2/4.4) From Table 6, there were relationships between religious practice and expected results or motives of making the merits (Pearson Chi Square in each motive, respectively, good mental health = *; dedicated to the dead = ; going to heaven = **; next life well-being = ; to nirvana = ; health and prosperity in this life = 9.572*; good luck and out of danger = 7.149, p =.067; doing as other people = 8.450*; for God = **; help the person in need = **; be with God in next life = , df = 3, p =.000, *p \.05, **p \.01). Both Buddhists and meditated Buddhists made merits for good mental health and dedication to the dead. More meditated Buddhists made merits for going to nirvana which is the ultimate end of Buddhism than Buddhists. For other answers, Buddhists stated that merit outcome helping when facing troubles, for family, for peace of society, next life in Buddha s Kingdom, taking care of Buddhism, empty mind, happiness in next life, free of sickness, having good things, living free from suffering, for good work, being a model for children. However, there was a significant difference of serious ill and near death experience between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists (Pearson v 2 = 4.621, df = 1, p =.032). Meditated Buddhists had more serious ill and near death experience than Buddhists (33.3 and 19.8 %, respectively). This may be due to when Buddhists encounter with illness and obstacles in life, they turn to their religion more.

8 1022 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Table 5 Religious belief helping to encounter daily truth/problems compared between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists (percentage in parenthesis) Daily truth Much help Fair help Rarely help Not help at all Illness Buddhists (n = 524) 110 (21.0) 255 (48.7) 127 (24.2) 32 (6.1) Meditated Buddhists (n = 44) 26 (59.1) 16 (36.4) 2 (4.5) 0 (0.0) Daily problems Buddhists (n = 520) 221 (42.5) 243 (46.7) 51 (9.8) 5 (1.0) Meditated Buddhists (n = 45) 37 (82.2) 8 (17.8) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) Accident Buddhists (n = 518) 102 (19.7) 254 (49.0) 127 (24.5) 35 (6.8) Meditated Buddhists (n = 44) 24 (54.5) 17 (38.6) 1 (2.3) 2 (4.5) Dying Buddhists (n = 516) 204 (39.5) 188 (36.4) 71 (13.8) 53 (10.3) Meditated Buddhists (n = 43) 33 (76.7) 9 (20.9) 0 (0.0) 1 (2.3) Mental problem Buddhists (n = 522) 272 (52.1) 188 (36.0) 54 (10.3) 8 (1.5) Meditated Buddhists (n = 44) 37 (84.1) 7 (15.9) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) National crisis Buddhists (n = 518) 109 (21.0) 199 (38.4) 148 (28.6) 62 (12.0) Meditated Buddhists (n = 42) 26 (61.9) 14 (33.3) 2 (4.8) 0 (0.0) From Table 7, for individuals who had encountered with illness and near-death experience, there was no significant relationship between religious practice and feeling of near death experience. (Pearson v 2 = 3.385, df = 3, p =.336). Buddhists stated that if they survive, they will do good deeds. For other answers, Buddhists asked that what they could do for survival, not wanting to live anymore, fighting until the last minute, laying down everything, thinking of their own goodness, concerning for children, death being normal, ready to die, calm their mind, thinking of parents, and if dying; not wanting to rebirth Correlations of the Variables of Buddhists and Meditated Buddhists (General Buddhists and meditated Buddhists, after controlling for the age and sex variables) Multiple Regression analysis was performed by using death anxiety as an independent variable and life satisfaction as a dependent variable. For Buddhists, when sex and age were controlled, death anxiety could significantly and negatively predict life satisfaction, b =-0.236, R 2 =.062, p\.001. The correlations of the variables of Buddhists and meditated Buddhists are shown in Tables 8 and 9. From Table 9, the more the meditated Buddhists had belief in the afterlife, the more they had life satisfaction, which was different from general Buddhists. There was no significant correlation of belief in the afterlife and life satisfaction in general Buddhists. In addition, the more the meditated Buddhists had life satisfaction, the more they went to temple, which was different from general Buddhists. There was no significant correlation of life satisfaction and frequency of going to temple in general Buddhists.

9 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity 1023 Table 6 Percentage of frequency of expected results when making the merits compared between Buddhists and meditated Buddhists Expected results/motives (no. of Buddhists, meditated Buddhists) Always Often Once in a while Never Buddhist Meditated Buddhist Buddhist Meditated Buddhist Buddhist Meditated Buddhist Buddhist Meditated Buddhist Good mental health (527,45) Dedicated to the dead (523,45) Going to heaven (521,45) Next life well-being (524,45) To nirvana (516,45) Health and prosperity in this life (518,44) Good luck and out of danger (522,165) Doing as other people (519,44) For God (516,43) Help the person in need (515,43) Be in God s Kingdom in next life (513,43)

10 1024 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Table 7 Feeling when having illness and near death (N = 119, figure in parenthesis is percentage of frequency) Religious practices Fear of death Hopeless Willing to do good deeds, if survival Others Buddhism (n = 104) 13 (12.5) 4 (3.8) 44 (42.3) 43 (41.3) Meditated Buddhism (n = 15) 1 (6.7) 0 (0.0) 10 (66.7) 4 (26.7) Table 8 Correlations of the variables of Buddhists (n = 529) Variables 1. Belief in the afterlife 2. Death anxiety 3. Life satisfaction 4. Frequency of going to sanctuary 1. Belief in the afterlife *** 2. Death anxiety *** Life satisfaction Frequency of going to sanctuary *** p \.001 (two-tailed) Table 9 Correlations of the variables of meditated Buddhists (n = 45) Variables 1. Belief in the afterlife 2. Death anxiety 3. Life satisfaction 4. Frequency of going to the sanctuary 1. Belief in the afterlife ** Death anxiety Life satisfaction 0.593*** 4. Frequency of going to the sanctuary ** p \.01; *** p \.001 (two-tailed) 4 Study Materials and Methods Participants Thai people (N = 223) were sampled of 175 Christians and 48 meditated Christians who just finished church service. The Christians sample was 45.7 % male and 54.3 % female; mean age = 53.02, SD = 13.02, and range The meditated Christian sample was 41.7 % male, 58.3 % female; mean age = 21.08, SD = 3.77, and range Most of the meditated Christian sample was Catholic Measures It is as same as Study 1.

11 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity Results Descriptive Statistics When compared between Christians and meditated Christians for the variables of interest, meditated Christians had more belief in the afterlife than Christians, t(221) =-5.16, p =.000. Meditated Christians had less death anxiety than Christians, t(221) = 3.64, p =.000. In addition, Meditated Christians had more frequency of going to church than Christians, t( ) =-4.702, p =.000. However, there was no significant difference of life satisfaction between meditated Christians and Christians, t(221) =-0.52, p =.607 (Table 10). Furthermore, males and females were compared in the variables of interest within their religious practice. There were no significant differences between males and females within their religious practice in all variables of interest. Table 11 depicts frequency of going to church of Christian believers. There was no significant relationship between religious practice (Christians and meditated Christians) and frequency of going to church (Pearson v 2 = 9.274, df = 4, p =.055). Most of the Christians and meditated Christians went to church once a week or more. For other, Christians (4.0 %) stated that they went to church every day. From Table 12, there was a relationship between the first goodness and religious practice (Pearson v 2 = , df = 9, p =.003). The first goodness that meditated Christians valued the most was love and mercy and politeness and humbleness. However, for those that Christians valued the most were love and mercy and gratitude. From Table 13, there were no significant relationships between religious practice (Christians and meditated Christians) and helping to encounter daily truth or daily problems except for mental problem (Pearson v 2 = , df = 3, p =.001). Most of the Meditated Christians indicated that religion helped them much to deal with mental problem; whereas, Christians indicated that religion helped them much and fairly to deal with mental problem. From Table 14, there were relationships between religious practice and expected results or motives of making the merits for only Dedicated to the dead and Help the person in need (Pearson Chi Square in each motive, respectively, Dedicated to the dead = , df = 3, p =.000; Help the person in need = 8.93, df = 3, p =.03). Meditated Christians made merits for helping the person in need more than Christians and less dedication to the dead than Christians. In addition, in this sample, there was a significant difference of serious ill and near death experience between Christians and meditated Christian (Pearson v 2 = 8.723, df = 1, p =.003) % of Christians stated that they had a serious ill and near death experience; whereas, only 6.2 % of meditated Christians stated that they had a serious ill and near death experience Correlations of the Variables of Christians and Meditated Christians (Christians and meditated Christians, after controlling for the age and sex variables) Multiple Regression analysis was performed by using death anxiety as an independent variable and life satisfaction as a dependent variable. For Christians, when sex and age were controlled, death anxiety could significantly and negatively predict life satisfaction, b =-0.372, R 2 =.148, p \.001. Tables 15 and 16 depict correlations of the variables of interest of Christians and meditated Christians, respectively.

12 1026 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Table 10 Means, SDs, minimum, and maximum of belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, life satisfaction, and frequency of going to church of Christians and meditated Christians (N = 223) Variables Belief in the afterlife Death anxiety Life satisfaction Frequency of going to temple/ church a Religious practices Min Max Mean (SD) Min Max Mean (SD) Min Max Mean (SD) Min Max Mean (SD) Christians (n = 175) (1.27) (0.86) (0.78) (0.59) Meditated Christians (n = 48) (1.27) (0.78) (0.68) (0.20) Total (1.34) (0.87) (0.76) (0.54) a Replaced participants who answered others as in Table 11 with series mean to treat frequency of going to sanctuary as the interval scale to compare with other variables of interest

13 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity 1027 Table 11 Frequency of going to church of Christians and meditated Christians (percentage in parenthesis) Religions Once a week or more Once a month or more Once a year or more Once in many years or more Others Total (N = 223) Christians 134 (76.6) 26 (14.9) 6 (3.4) 2 (1.1) 7 (4.0) 175 Meditated 46 (95.8) 2 (4.2) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 48 Christian Table 12 The first type of goodness that was important for Christians and meditated Christians (the first figure in the parenthesis is the frequency and the second one is percentage) Christians (n = 163) Meditated Christians (n = 48) Order 1st Love and mercy (59/36.2) Love and mercy (34/70.8) Gratitude (43/26.4) Politeness and humbleness (4/8.3) Self-content (13/8.0) Gratitude (3/6.3) Justice (12/7.4) Self-respect (11/6.7) Table 13 Religious belief helping to encounter daily truth/problems compared between Christians and meditated Christians Daily truth Much help Fair help Rarely help Not help at all Illness Christians (n = 175) 115 (65.7) 48 (27.4) 11 (6.3) 1 (0.6) Meditated Christians (n = 48) 33 (68.8) 14 (29.2) 1 (2.1) 0 (0.0) Daily problems Christians (n = 174) 112 (64.4) 57 (32.8) 3 (1.7) 2 (1.1) Meditated Christians (n = 48) 40 (83.3) 8 (16.7) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) Accident Christians (n = 173) 89 (51.4) 57 (32.9) 20 (11.6) 7 (4.0) Meditated Christians (n = 48) 33 (68.8) 12 (25.0) 3 (6.3) 0 (0.0) Dying Christians (n = 171) 114 (66.7) 37 (21.6) 15 (8.8) 5 (2.9) Meditated Christians (n = 48) 40 (83.3) 6 (12.5) 2 (4.2) 0 (0.0) Mental problem Christians (n = 173) 118 (68.2) 43 (24.9) 7 (4.0) 5 (2.9) Meditated Christians (n = 48) 46 (95.8) 1 (2.1) 1 (2.1) 0 (0.0) National crisis Christians (n = 171) 84 (49.1) 56 (32.7) 21 (12.3) 10 (5.8) Meditated Christians (n = 48) 28 (58.3) 17 (35.4) 1 (2.1) 2 (4.2) From Table 16, there was a stronger correlation between belief in the afterlife and frequency of going to church for meditated Christians than general Christians (r =.403 and r =.178, respectively). The more the meditated Christians believed in the afterlife, the more they went to church in the more increasing rate.

14 1028 A. Chaiwutikornwanich Table 14 Percentage of frequency of expected results when making the merits compared between Christians and meditated Christians Expected results/motives (no. of Christian, meditated Christians) Always Often Once in a while Never Christian Meditated Christian Christian Meditated Christian Christian Meditated Christian Christian Meditated Christian Happiness (172,43) Dedicated to the dead (171,44) Going to heaven (168,44) Next life well-being (167,44) To nirvana (162,44) Health and prosperity in this life (166,44) Good luck and out of danger (165,43) Doing as other people (165,43) For God (174,45) Help the person in need (172,45) Be in God s Kingdom in next life (171,44)

15 Comparisons Between Different Religiosity 1029 Table 15 Correlations of the variables of Christians (n = 175) Variables 1. Belief in the afterlife 2. Death anxiety 3. Life satisfaction 4. Frequency of going to sanctuary 1. Belief in the afterlife * 0.178* 2. Death anxiety *** ** 3. Life satisfaction 0.167* 4. Frequency of going to the sanctuary * p \.05; ** p \.01; *** p \.001 (two-tailed) Table 16 Correlations of the variables of meditated Christians (n = 48) Variables 1. Belief in the afterlife 2. Death anxiety 3. Life satisfaction 4. Frequency of going to sanctuary 1. Belief in the afterlife ** 2. Death anxiety Life satisfaction Frequency of going to the sanctuary ** p \.01 (two-tailed) 5 Discussion The relationships between belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction were found to differ by religious practice. Furthermore, Buddhists emphasized doing the merits for good mental health, and for the good things in this life, not to nirvana. This may be due to the fact that some Buddhists did not understand nirvana. One possible explanation is that the nirvana in general is the construct that difficult to understand and difficult to access. Christians emphasized doing the merits for God. As for the valued goodness, Buddhists valued gratitude the most; whereas, Christians value love and mercy which is the core teaching of Christianity the most. This is in congruence with Thai culture which emphasizes more on gratitude, return good things to the ones who did good things to themselves and respect parents or the older. Love and mercy is the second percentage that Buddhists value. This is also in congruence with the core teaching of Buddha in mercy. As for the daily problems, the more the believers practiced their religion, the more they stated that their religion could help them to solve daily problems. As for the frequencies of going to sanctuary, Christians went to church once a week or more; whereas, Buddhists went to temple either once a month or once a year or more. This is due to the fact that Christians tended to go to church every Sunday. Buddhists tended to go to temple on religious days. Furthermore, males and females were compared in the variables of interest within their religion. For Buddhists, females had more belief in the afterlife and death anxiety than males, t(527) =-3.17, p =.002 and t( ) =-2.96, p =.003, respectively. Buddhist males and females were not significantly different in life satisfaction and frequency of going to temple. For Christian, males and females were not significant different in all variables of interest.

16 1030 A. Chaiwutikornwanich When compared between meditated Buddhists and general Buddhists, the correlations between belief in the afterlife and life satisfaction, and between life satisfaction and frequency of going to temple were stronger in meditated Buddhists (r =.439, p \.01 and r =-.035, ns; and r =.593, p \.001 and r =.021, ns, respectively). This shows that meditated Buddhists embedded more religion discipline to their lives than general Buddhists and tended to have more life satisfaction (M = 3.98 and 3.87, respectively). The more the meditated Buddhists believed in the afterlife, the more they had life satisfaction, and the more they went to temple. For general Buddhists, their life satisfaction appeared to be related to other factors, not religion or belief in the afterlife. When compared between meditated Christians and general Christians, the correlation between belief in the afterlife and frequency of going to sanctuary was stronger in meditated Christians (r =.403, p \.01 and r =.178, p \.05). This also shows that meditated Christians embedded more religion discipline to their lives than general Christians. However, there was no correlation between life satisfaction and belief in the afterlife and no correlation between life satisfaction and death anxiety in this meditated Christian sample. This may be due to the fact that the age of this meditated Christian sample was young and narrow (aged years). Life satisfaction of the younger is related to other factors, not belief in the afterlife and death anxiety. In summary, the more the believers practiced the teaching of their religion (e.g. meditated Buddhists and meditated Christians), the more they applied the teaching to their lives and had more belief in the afterlife and had less death anxiety. In addition, female Buddhists had more belief in the afterlife and death anxiety than male Buddhists, but not in Christians. This suggests that religious belief should take religion and culture into consideration. Each religion has its own tradition and discipline which make believers have their specific thought and belief. The understandings of its core of the religion help human beings to have better psychological well-being (e.g., less death anxiety, more life satisfaction) and good conducts (e.g. having love and mercy and willing to help the persons in need). 6 Limitations and Recommendations for the Next Research As for the sample of general Christians, some may have strong religious involvement (e.g. always go to religious service). This made some overlap between Christians and meditated Christians. The sample for meditated believers, the ones who had more religious involvement was small. Next study could recruit more participants of intense religious involvement. In addition, Christianity should be separated between Catholics and Protestants. Thai free thinkers should be compared to religious believers in the aspects of belief in the afterlife, death anxiety, and life satisfaction and how free-thinkers cope with their personal problems should be studied. Individuals who changed their religion and individuals who were born as their family s religions could be compared in their psychological well-beings. In addition, Education and income should be taken into considerations because these variables can affect life satisfaction. Acknowledgment The author is grateful to Faculty of Psychology, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand for a partial financial support for this project.

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