Zen, Mindfulness, and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

Abstract

The term mindfulness captures the quality of awareness required for effective investigation of first-hand direct experience. The importance of mindfulness to Buddhist practice can be found throughout the different sects of Buddhism. Theravada Buddhist Nyanaponika Thera referred to mindfulness as the 'heart' of Buddhist meditation, describing it as a form of 'bare attention' and 'the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception'. During the 1990s, Western clinical psychologists without meditation backgrounds began to take note of this trend, leading to further psychotherapies that teach mindfulness in some form to patients. Many of these psychologists practiced psychotherapy from a cognitive-behavioral perspective and found a natural compatibility between mindfulness meditation principles and cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT). Indeed, CBT is predicated on the notion that emotional distress often stems from distorted mental perceptions as well as cognitive and behavioral habits, all learned under earlier conditions yet no longer serve the individual. Therapy procedures therefore teach patients to identify and then to objectively evaluate their thoughts as they occur, thereby promoting adaptive behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)