The context of meditation
Reinhard Kowalski
July 5, 2017 DOI: 10.4324/9781315170954-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | The chapter argues that Western psychological meditation programs such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectic Behaviour Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy repackage meditation practices under the umbrella term Mindfulness, often blending them with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It contends that Psychosynthesis, developed by Roberto Assagioli, is the most comprehensive psychotherapy to emerge from East-West engagement, and distinguishes Buddhist Vipassana 'insight meditation' from 'concentration meditation'. |
Abstract
This chapter explores some of the differences and similarities of meditation practices that have grown out of different traditions. In recent years psychological meditation treatment programmes have emerged, which, to varying degrees, all employ meditation practices, frequently repackaged under the umbrella name Mindfulness, and often combined with methods from the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy field. The most widely used approaches are Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectic Behaviour Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. In psychotherapy, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung dealt in one way or another with the Eastern meditation traditions. The most comprehensive psychotherapy to date that has emerged from this East–West process is Psychosynthesis, a psycho-spiritual psychology developed by Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli. There are many different forms of meditation and many books and articles have been written about their differences and similarities. Mindfulness, for example, comes from the Buddhist Vipassana tradition, which is an ‘insight meditation’ practice, the other form being ‘concentration meditation’.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |