Sustainable Compassion Training: Integrating Meditation Theory With Psychological Science.

Paul Condon,John Makransky

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02249

Paul Condon, John Makransky

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02249

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Abstract

Meditation programs continue to proliferate in the modern world, with increasing participation from scientists and many others who seek to improve physical, mental, relational, and social flourishing. In developing such programs, the meditation practices have been adapted to meet the needs of modern cultures. However, through that adaptation, important contextual factors of traditional contemplative cultures are often dropped or forgotten. This article presents a system of compassion and mindfulness training, Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT), which is designed to help people cultivate increasingly unconditional, inclusive, and sustainable care for self and others. SCT aims to recover important contextual factors of meditation that flexibly meet the diverse needs of modern secular and religious participants. SCT draws on Tibetan Buddhism in dialogue with caregivers, other contemplative traditions and relevant scientific theories to inform meditative transformation for secular contexts. We provide an overview of SCT meditations that includes both contemplative and scientific theories that draw out important features of them. Each meditation includes novel hypotheses that are generated from this dialogical process. We also provide links to audio-guided meditations.

Highlights

Meditation continues to gain traction in Western medicine, mental health, and among the general public (Clarke et al, 2018)
To recover the relational starting point of meditation for secular application in modern contexts, we developed a meditation program called Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT)1
Sustainable Compassion Training is a series of meditation practices that have been adapted from three practice traditions of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Kagyu, and Geluk, informed by dialogue with psychological science and other religious traditions (Makransky, 2007, 2011, 2012b, 2019; Lavelle, 2017; Roeser et al, 2018; Condon and Makransky, 2020; Makransky and Condon, manuscript in preparation)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Meditation continues to gain traction in Western medicine, mental health, and among the general public (Clarke et al, 2018). Through the lens of attachment theory, we assert that devotional and ritual practices prominent throughout religious traditions—including contemplative forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Sustainable Compassion Training and many indigenous religions—function to help practitioners develop an unlimited secure base, which they can return to again and again for replenishment, healing, and empowerment (Condon and Makransky, 2020) Through such patterns of practice, these meditators experience themselves and their world as held within the unwavering support of their spiritual benefactors, which empowers them, like their spiritual benefactors, to extend increasingly unconditional, inclusive, and sustainable care to others. We provide a description of the theory and practice of the SCT meditations, with links to their audio-guided instructions, to inspire dialogue, hypothesis generation, and research efforts on modern engagement with meditation

OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABLE COMPASSION TRAINING

RECEPTIVE MODE

DEEPENING MODE

INCLUSIVE MODE

GENERATING EMPATHY AND COMPASSION FOR ACTION

CONCLUSION