Buddhist meditation in Britain: 1853 and 1945

Discussions about Buddhist meditation in the West usually focus on the post-1960s period and explain the popularity of meditation in a context of modernistic discourses. In this article the author suggests that meditation was in fact available in Britain much earlier than is usually assumed, in a period which was without doubt ‘modern,' yet which did not quickly produce mass acceptance of meditative practices in its host culture. While the migration of meditation was influenced by modernist discourses, these were sometimes contradictory to each other and hindered acceptance. The author examines how the term meditation itself has evolved, who first brought it to Britain and why, as well as the political and social forces that shaped its trajectory of acceptance and rejection in the first half of the 20th century.     

Enhanced happiness and stress alleviation upon insight meditation retreat: mindfulness,a part of traditional Buddhist meditation

This research aims to examine how traditional insight meditation in Thailand is trained and to investigate the impact of this practice on happiness and perceived stress. The fuller meaning of mindfulness and how to interweave mindfulness in daily practice is discussed. The intervention was a seven-day traditional insight meditation retreat in Thailand. The final sample included 656 participants, n?=?330 and 326 in experimental group and control group, respectively. Validated versions of happiness and perceived stress scales for Thai people were used. The magnitude of happiness and stress changes following the intervention, determined by effect sizes were used as a benchmark for interpreting the health status change between baseline and post-test. The effect sizes for happiness and perceived stress were .379 and ?.428 in the meditation group, which is much greater, compared to the effect sizes of ?.045 and ?.003, respectively, in the control group.     

A wandering mind is a less caring mind: Daily experience sampling during compassion meditation training

Mind wandering, or the tendency for attention to drift to task-irrelevant thoughts, has been associated with worse intra- and inter-personal functioning. Utilizing daily experience sampling with 51 adults during 9-weeks of a compassion meditation program, we examined effects on mind wandering (to neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant topics) and caring behaviors for oneself and others. Results indicated that compassion meditation decreased mind wandering to neutral topics and increased caring behaviors towards oneself. When collapsing across topics, mind wandering did not serve as an intermediary between the frequency of compassion meditation practice and caring behaviors, though mind wandering to pleasant and unpleasant topics was linked to both variables. A path analysis revealed that greater frequency of compassion meditation practice was related to reductions in mind wandering to unpleasant topics and increases in mind wandering to pleasant topics, both of which were related to increases in caring behaviors for oneself and others.     

The impact of Zen meditation on security and satisfaction in monogamous relationships

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of Zen meditation on security and satisfaction in monogamous relationships. Levels of security and satisfaction as described by interpersonal theorist Harry Stack Sullivan, as well as meditation experience, were analysed via survey data. Data were collected via the Internet from 405 men and women who were 18 years of age or older and had been in a monogamous relationship for one year or more. Results indicated that compared to meditators, nonmeditators appeared slightly more secure and satisfied in their relationships. This may reflect the fact that different forms of meditation share philosophical beliefs that encourage mindfulness, acceptance, and moderation.     

The protective role of long-term meditation on the decline of the executive component of attention in aging: a preliminary cross-sectional study

Life expectancy is constantly increasing. However, a longer life not always corresponds to a healthier life. Indeed, even normal aging is associated with a decline in different cognitive functions. It has been proposed that a central mechanism that could contribute to this widespread cognitive decline is an ineffective inhibitory attentional control. Meditation, to the other hand, has been associated, in young adults, to enhancement of several attentional processes. Nevertheless, attention is not a unitary construct. An influent model proposed the distinction of three subsystems: the alerting (the ability to reach and maintain a vigilance state), the orienting (the capacity of focusing attention on a subset of stimuli), and the conflict resolution or executive component (the ability to resolve conflict or allocate limited resources between competing stimuli). Here, we investigated, employing the Attentional Network Task (ANT), the specific impact of age on these three subcomponents, and the protective role of long-term meditation testing a group of older adults naïve to meditation, a group of age-matched adults with long-term practice of meditation, and a group of young adults with no previous meditation experience. We reported a specific decline of the efficiency of the executive component in elderly that was not observed in age-matched meditators. Our results are encouraging for the investigation of the potential beneficial impact of meditation on other cognitive processes that decline in aging such as memory. Moreover, they could inform geriatric healthcare prevention and intervention strategies, proposing a new approach for cognitive remediation in elderly populations.     

Learning from experience in case conference: A Bionian approach to teaching and consulting

In case conferences as well as didactic seminars, the power of the group can bring psychoanalytic education to life. However, primitive anxieties activated by group dynamics may also interfere with teaching and learning. The authors offer the example of a stalemated private practice case conference that had unconsciously organized against learning as the members began to read Bion's work. The case conference leader, an analyst, presented her case conference, which was mired in basic assumption dependency dynamics, to our peer consultation group. Drawing upon Bion's early contributions on groups, as well as his later ideas about thinking and mental growth, the peer group facilitated the case conference's return to work-group functioning and learning from experience. Activated in the peer group, commensal container↔contained processes gradually spread throughout the entire relational system of peer group, case-conference leader, case-conference members, and patients. This example underscores the importance of promoting within our institutes a culture in which faculty view themselves as part of an evolving intersubjective matrix that works to foster the containing capacities of candidates, patients, and faculty alike.     

Symbolic attitude and reverie: problems of symbolization in children and adolescents

In comparison to the 1970s and 1980s, we now treat more children and adolescents who, because they have had traumatic experiences of violence, child abuse, deprivation or chronic physical illness, are not able to adequately use their symbolizing function. The question is which qualities and which analytical attitude we should and can offer in analysis to help a child regain his or her capacity to symbolize, irrespective of how poorly developed or blocked this capacity may be. In contrast to Jung and some Jungians, the author argues that although the transcendent function is a 'natural process' and hence archetypally grounded as Jung maintained, the transcendent function does not work spontaneously. Rather it requires a matrix based on the child's earliest relationship, which can later be re-enacted in treatment. Jung's general concept of a 'symbolic attitude' can be complemented and focused in a specific way through the use of Bion's concept of 'reverie', which contributes in a fundamental way to symbol formation within the transference/countertransference. This idea is illustrated by clinical material from a nine-year-old boy who suffered from a severe congenital intestinal disease and was blocked in his capacity to symbolize. From the perspective of treatment technique, the author shows how the drawing of 'comic book' narratives in a reciprocal exchange was brought into the treatment. The drawings evolved in a way that he understood as a modified form of active imagination with children. The drawing process helped the boy gradually to develop a symbolic space in the therapy and to contain a psychic space in his mind.     

Deity practice in the FPMT: understanding the nature of the Tibetan Buddhist deity from the Western practitioner’s perspective

ABSTRACT

In contrast to forms of Buddhism popular in the West such as Vipassana meditation and Zen Buddhism which emphasize doctrinal study, meditation practice, and personal transformation above traditional rituals of deity yoga and merit-making, and Buddhist cosmology, Tibetan Buddhism retains its traditional framework of belief and practice. The worldwide Gelugpa Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) teaches the traditional practice of deity visualization, during which the meditator generates the view of the visualized deity as that of emptiness, the understanding that all objects, including buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities are ultimately empty of inherent existence. Data obtained from fieldwork conducted at two FPMT centres: Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, Australia, and Kopan Monastery in Nepal, suggests an interpretation of the manner in which practitioners come to an appreciation of deity practice in the broader context of the FPMT's teachings. In outlining how this occurs, I discuss the role of doctrine including the ontological status of the deity, and the role of personal experience and both personal and traditional religious authority in this interpretive process. Here, I aim to add to scholarly understanding of how Western practitioners come to accept the traditional elements of non-Western religions such as forms of Tibetan Buddhism.     

Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals

Mind wandering can be costly, especially when we are engaged in attentionally demanding tasks. Preliminary studies suggest that mindfulness can be a promising antidote for mind wandering, albeit the evidence is mixed. To better understand the exact impact of mindfulness on mind wandering, we had a sample of highly anxious undergraduate students complete a sustained-attention task during which off-task thoughts including mind wandering were assessed. Participants were randomly assigned to a meditation or control condition, after which the sustained-attention task was repeated. In general, our results indicate that mindfulness training may only have protective effects on mind wandering for anxious individuals. Meditation prevented the increase of mind wandering over time and ameliorated performance disruption during off-task episodes. In addition, we found that the meditation intervention appeared to promote a switch of attentional focus from the internal to present-moment external world, suggesting important implications for treating worrying in anxious populations.     

Learning from Spiritual Models and Meditation: A Randomized Evaluation of a College Course

Effects of two meditation and mindfulness-based spiritual interventions were examined in college undergraduates (N=44). Compared to a control group, both interventions decreased negative religious coping (d=−0.80, p<.01) and images of God as mainly controlling (d=−.73, p<.01). One intervention provided more training in tools for learning from community and tradition-based spiritual exemplars. It produced gains in famous or traditional spiritual exemplars’ perceived influence (d=+.81, p<.05) and availability (d=+.66, p<.10), in self-efficacy for learning from spiritual exemplars (d=+.92, p<.05), and in nonmaterialistic aspirations (d=+0.65, p<.05).     

高中生正念与学习倦怠：基于自我调节学习模型的视角

基于自我调节学习模型的视角,探究正念对高中生学习倦怠的影响,采用正念注意觉知量表、生命意义感量表、津巴多时间洞察力问卷和青少年学习倦怠量表调查863名高中生。结果表明：（1）正念对高中生学习倦怠具有负向预测作用;（2）正念通过未来时间洞察力与生命意义感的独立中介作用及未来时间洞察力与生命意义感的链式中介作用间接影响学习倦怠。因此,正念可以负向预测高中生学习倦怠,提升未来时间洞察力与生命意义感可以缓解高中生学习倦怠,促进高中生身心健康。     

Instance‐based Learning: A General Model of Repeated Binary Choice

A common practice in cognitive modeling is to develop new models specific to each particular task. We question this approach and draw on an existing theory, instance‐based learning theory (IBLT), to explain learning behavior in three different choice tasks. The same instance‐based learning model generalizes accurately to choices in a repeated binary choice task, in a probability learning task, and in a repeated binary choice task within a changing environment. We assert that, although the three tasks are different, the source of learning is equivalent and therefore, the cognitive process elicited should be captured by one single model. This evidence supports previous findings that instance‐based learning is a robust learning process that is triggered in a wide range of tasks from the simple repeated choice tasks to the most dynamic decision making tasks. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extensions and Mechanisms of Mindfulness‐based Cognitive Therapy: A Review of the Evidence

Mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was originally developed to prevent depressive relapse and recurrence and has also been widely extended to new patient populations and target problems over the last 14 years. We provide a comprehensive review of this literature, examining the strength of the evidence base for specific populations and target problems and identifying questions for future research to address. Specifically, we review studies addressing the use of MBCT for depressive disorders (prevention of depressive relapse and treatment of residual and current depressive symptoms), the use of MBCT in the treatment or management of other mental disorders (bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, mixed anxiety and depression symptoms, disordered eating, personality disorders, and psychosis), and the use of MBCT in behavioural medicine contexts. Additionally, we discuss the extension of MBCT during specific developmental periods, like childhood, pregnancy and post‐partum, and adult caregiving, and, finally, we address the use of MBCT among clinical health‐care providers. In the second section, we review hypothesised mechanisms of change in MBCT and reflect on implications for theories of how MBCT works in the application to various patient populations and target problems. We also consider research addressing active ingredients and what is known about the “dosage” of meditation practice. We conclude with a summary of recommendations for future research.     

Questions in the Making: A Review Essay on Zen and Buddhist Ethics in the Context of Buddhist and Comparative Ethics

In reviewing four works from the 1990s—monographs by Christopher Ives and Phillip Olson on Zen Buddhist ethics, Damien Keown's treatment of Indian Buddhist ethics, and an edited collection on Buddhism and human rights—this article examines recent scholarship on Zen Buddhist ethics in light of issues of Buddhist and comparative ethics. Its highlights selected themes in the notional and real encounter of Zen Buddhism with Western thought and culture as presented in the reviewed works and identifies issues and problems for further consideration, in particular, problems of comparative and cross-cultural understanding and the articulation and redefinition of Zen Buddhist tradition.     

The Influence of Time Estimation and Time‐Saving Preferences on Learning to Make Temporally Dependent Decisions from Experience

In this paper, we merge research related to experiential learning, temporal perception, and the value of time and money by examining decisions where the timing of action (response) determines the outcome received. We predicted that time‐saving preferences and impatience would decrease maximization (i.e., taking action when it returned the largest reward), and that the constraints of temporal perception would compound their effects. Across three studies, participants undershot on average (i.e., responded earlier than the period of time during which a response would return the maximal reward) showed a preference for shorter‐delay options and often did not find the maximal reward. In addition, participants' reliance on temporal perception increased undershooting, increased preferences for shorter‐delay options, and reduced maximization. Nevertheless, participants who found the maximal reward continued to maximize at a high rate rather than opting for shorter delays and smaller rewards. Thus, while most participants appeared to have a preference for saving time, most behaved as reward maximizers rather than temporal discounters. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Replicated alternatives and the role of confusion,chasing, and regret in decisions from experience

The current paper explores choice among alternatives that can be classified into distinct classes. All the members of a particular class were ‘replicated alternatives’: they promised the same payoff distribution. Information to decision makers was limited to feedback concerning the realized (obtained and foregone) payoffs. Experiment 1 demonstrates that increasing the number of replicated alternatives creates confusion (which facilitates random choice) and changes the implications of the tendency to chase recent returns (i.e., select the alternative with the best recent outcomes). This effect, termed ‘confused chasing,’ facilitates risk seeking even when this behavior impairs expected earnings. Experiment 2 reveals that increasing the number of replicated alternatives can reduce (but does not eliminate) the tendency to underweight rare events. Experiment 3 shows that the relative importance of chasing and confusion is sensitive to the likelihood of realizing lower payoffs than the forgone payoffs. The main results are summarized with a simple model assuming that payoff sensitivity decreases with experienced regret. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Loving‐Kindness Meditation and Empathy: A Wellness Group Intervention for Counseling Students

The effect of a 6‐week loving‐kindness meditation (LKM) on the multidimensional empathy of 103 master's‐level counseling students was evaluated, in addition to the correlation between reported levels of time spent meditating and empathy. Statistical analyses indicated that participants who received the LKM intervention experienced gains in dimensions of empathy. A significant relationship between quantity of meditation and perspective taking was noted. Implications and suggestions for future research are explored.