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

OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine January 15, 2025 DOI: 10.21926/obm.icm.2501004 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Interventions Energy Mantra outsider-witness practice
Topics Buddhism Meditation
Key points Proposes that integrating Buddhist mantra-based meditation with narrative therapy's outsider-witness practice in a group setting promotes healing through relational reflexivity and relational mindfulness.

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.

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. 2006 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience 1995 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being 2005 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World 2017 Theoretical or philosophical paper
From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory 2016 Theoretical or philosophical paper

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Buddhism Meditation Breathwork