ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the differences and similarities of meditation practices that have grown out of different traditions. In recent years psychological meditation treatment programmes have emerged, which, to varying degrees, all employ meditation practices, frequently repackaged under the umbrella name Mindfulness, and often combined with methods from the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy field. The most widely used approaches are Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectic Behaviour Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. In psychotherapy, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung dealt in one way or another with the Eastern meditation traditions. The most comprehensive psychotherapy to date that has emerged from this East–West process is Psychosynthesis, a psycho-spiritual psychology developed by Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli. There are many different forms of meditation and many books and articles have been written about their differences and similarities. Mindfulness, for example, comes from the Buddhist Vipassana tradition, which is an ‘insight meditation’ practice, the other form being ‘concentration meditation’.
