'All to blame'

He said blaming any single individual for all the political ills Thailand was facing was tantamount to a gross misunderstanding of the crisis, for which all Thais were accountable.

In a speech on Buddhism and the interconnectedness of politics, given at an event to raise funds for the late Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's archive, he said: "When we see the rain we can see the sea, and when we see the sea we can glimpse the rain.

"We may say the rain comes from the sea or that the sea comes from the rain, but neither rain nor sea exists in isolation."

Saeksan also warned people not to jump to black-and-white conclusions, seeing one group of politicians as "evil" and another as "saintly".

"In the end, they may be trapped in the conflict to the point that they can't get themselves out of the situation," Saeksan warned.

The current political confrontation and demonising of the other side are a case in point, he said: "Solving the problem in the wrong way can only create more problems."

Historian Nidhi Eiwsriwong said at the same event that the challenge to education in ethics was how to mix secular education with Buddhist education.

According to Nidhi, the two have different teaching processes, so differences cannot be easily reconciled by adding more school hours on moral education.

He advocated the revival of one-on-one tutorial teaching found in both traditional ascetic teaching in the East and medieval universities in Europe in order to rekindle the spirit of learning.

He admitted that the method was expensive and only a few could afford it.

He also urged learners to be close to nature and learn from it.

"The heart of morality, no matter how many points you memorise, boils down to one thing, which is to think more about others and less about oneself," Nidhi said.

On the other hand, he said, we may look at economics from the Buddhist perspective or physics through a Taoist lens as some Western scholars have done.

The Chiang Mai-based historian said it was necessary to see the interconnectedness of all things as a way to minimise compartmentalised thinking that led to a narrow worldview and misguided political judgement.