Cakrawala Pendidikan Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Vol. 41 No. 3, October 2022, pp.848-862 https://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/cp/issue/view/2348 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21831/cp.v41i3.42407 848 Character education in Serat Sabdajati the last R.Ng. Ranggawarsita’s work Purwadi, Venny Indria Ekowati, Doni Dwi Hartanto, Nurhidayati, Ghis Nggar Dwiadmojo, Sri Hertanti Wulan, Galang Prastowo, Avi Meilawati Department of Javanesse Language Education, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia *Corresponding Author: purwadi@uny.ac.id ABSTRACT The present study aimed to explore character education and philosophical values in the Ranggawarsita’s work entitled Serat Sabdajati. A qualitative method was applied in this study using hermeneutic design. The National Library of the Republic of Indonesia Collection of Serat Sabdajati was used as the primary data source in this study. The data collected in this study were the lingual units including the words, phrases, clauses and sentences in the verses of the Serat Sabdajati. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively using hermeneutic approach. The results reported several character and philosophical values found in the serat (manuscript), which include: 1) spiritual values including laku prihatin (caring), nglaras ati (harmonize the heart) , ngesthi rahayu (looking for salvation), jatining kawruh (true knowledge), ambuka wiwaraning dhiri (open up), manunggaling kawula Gusti (unity with the God), kemating pating pratitis (viewing the death distinctly); 2) religious values including andel mring Hyang (believe in God), temen tinemu (those who sow will reap); 3) social values including sasmita yekti (understand the truth), memayu hayuning sasama (maintain community safety). This study concluded that human needs to always aware of their origin and the place to return to. A comprehensive discussion was presented by comparing the results of the present study and the previous studies. Keywords: character education, philosophical values, Serat Sabdajati Article history Received: 1 Mei 2022 Revised: 29 June 2022 Accepted: 20 July 2022 Published: 1 October 2022 Citation (APA Style): Purwadi, P., Ekowati,V. I., Hartanto, D. D., Nurhidayati, N., Dwiadmojo, G. N., Wulan, S. H., Prastowo, G., Meilawati, A. (2022). Character education in Serat Sabdajati the last R.Ng. Ranggawarsita’s work. Cakrawala Pendidikan: Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan, 41(3), 848-862. DOI: 10.21831/cp.v41i3.48760 INTRODUCTION The quality of young generation in dealing with the latest challenge greatly contributes to the future of a nation. To shape quality identity of the young generations, character education has been a valuable instrument for many countries. Quality generation is said to be recognized by the quality of the individual identity (Sukendar, Usman, & Jabar, 2019). Character education has been widely implemented in many countries as a universal need, but each of those countries possesses a diverse ideal character depending on each nation’s way of life (Nurgiyantoro, 2010). It implies that the distinct character of each nation passes down in the learning process is adjusted to the standard of the owner society, not to mention the characteristics on the Javanese people’s culture. The noble values of each society need to be revitalized for people to understand; thus, it can be used to shape a noble character. In addition, moral degradation is reported to start happening in the younger generation. It is a crucial problem to be addressed, and nudging the noble values that can help shaping a strong generation to deal with the latest global challenge is one of the methods that can be used to overcome the problem. The noble values of a society can be found in several documents recording the culture, such