Against One Method: Contemplation in Context
Interest in secular, mindfulness- and compassion-based contemplative programs is increasing as a growing body of research suggests that such programs enhance health and well-being. These modern secular programs, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reductio
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Brooke D. Lavelle
Introduction Various secular mindfulness- and compassionbased programs have been developed and implemented in diverse educational, clinical, and other settings in recent years. Many of these programs, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), and Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT), have been influenced by diverse Buddhist contemplative traditions that assume different models of mind and methodologies for realizing (possibly distinct models) of enlightenment. MBSR, CBCT, and SCT have been shaped by and in response to their own modern historical–cultural context— which is marked by heightened form of individualism and scientific reductionism—as well as by the ways in which they interpret the category of the secular. Despite the influences of these Buddhist contemplative and modern cultural frameworks on these contemporary secular programs, MBSR, CBCT, and SCT each claim some form of universal applicability. This underlying assumption—that there is a universal method that can be applied skillfully and effectively in a variety of particular contexts—raises a number of chal-
lenges. First, such a perspective assumes there is a universal model of “health” or “well-being.” Second, it also assumes that there is a universal cause of stress or suffering that can be overcome through the application of a singular method. Third, as I will suggest below, such universal rhetoric tends to privilege highly individualized descriptions of suffering and health, thereby eschewing social and systemic causes of suffering. The goal of this chapter was to explore ways in which certain Buddhist contemplative and modern cultural frames both limit and permit different possibilities for health and healing as articulated within contemporary secular programs. The aim is not to determine which modern contemplative program is most authentic or effective, but rather to call attention to the ways in which such frames not only shape or impact practices and programs, but also constitute them. At the same time, this is not purely a critical project. Revealing the dominant frames that shape and inform these programs can highlight our own conditioned and limited biases and thereby help us explore new frames, or new ways of communicating these practices in effective ways to various audiences. In short, this chapter is a call for a more context- and systems-sensitive approach to the design and implementation of secular programs in North America.
B.D. Lavelle (&) Greater Good Science Center, University of California—Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 R.E. Purser et al. (eds.), Handbook of Mindfulness, Mindfulness in Behavioral Health, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44019-4_16
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Buddhist Contemplative Frames Mindfulness and compassion are taught and practiced within diverse Buddhist traditions, yet the importance of and methods for cultivating mindfulness and compassion vary across and with
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