ABSTRACT
Mindfulness, as a necessary pre-requisite for other meditation practices, is the most suitable starting point to cultivating long-term meditation. The chapter considers the similarities and differences between secular and Buddhist notions of mindfulness and particularly focuses on questions about long-term meditation practice in the context of secular training in mindfulness-based approaches. Finally, the chapter discusses how the proposed framework of contemplative psychology could provide the necessary theoretical grounding for conceptualizing therapeutic effects of long-term mindfulness practice with implications for new directions in contemplative psychotherapy.
