Comparison Between How Narrative Therapy and Buddhist Mantra-Based Meditation Promote Mental Healing

Abstract

This is a conceptual paper comparing how narrative therapy and Buddhist mantra-based meditation promote mental healing. Narrative therapy promotes mental healing by shifting families’ attention to their subjugated stories of strengths and personal agencies. Whilst Buddhist meditation has been integrated into psychotherapy developed in the West, the application is primarily the focus on breath as a way to help sufferers attain mindfulness. Mantra-based meditation uses the recitation of mantra as the focus instead of breath. The comparison between narrative therapy and Buddhist mantra-based meditation is done by analyzing their respective distinctive features, shared features, some integrative approaches, and aspects that do not apply to both. The five aggregates consisting of rūpa (body/form), vedanā (sensation), saññā (perception), saṅkhāra (volition), and viññāṇa (consciousness) are key ideas used in Buddhism to understand the body-mind interaction and how one is caught in a cycle of suffering. This concept is further analyzed in a relational way to illustrate how a narrative-mantra group approach using the Energy Mantra, a Vajrāyana Buddhist mantra, is integrated with the outsider-witness practice, a reflecting team approach in narrative therapy. This integrative approach promotes healing in a group setting through the attainment of both relational reflexivity and relational mindfulness.