Compassion in Buddhist psychology

Makransky, John

doi:10.31231/osf.io/qe3xd

Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The intentional cultivation of compassion has a long history with origins in Buddhist psychology and meditative practices designed to alleviate suffering (Lutz et al., 2008; Makransky, 2012; Stevens & Woodruff, 2018). The experiences of practitioners and meditators over thousands of years suggest that compassion practice can help make a habit out of responding to suffering with an equanimity and altruism (Siegel & Germer, 2012).…”

Section: Cultivating Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The overarching intention in compassion practice is the alleviation of suffering through the cultivation of two broad qualities—compassion as well as wisdom. Wisdom and compassion are considered the two wings of practice, representing the mind and heart, respectively (Gregory et al., 2014; Makransky, 2012; Siegel & Germer, 2012). Wisdom practices (i.e., mindfulness) cultivate equanimity as well as insight and perspective into the nature of reality.…”

Section: Cultivating Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compassion practices build on the deepened insight and equanimity that unfolds through mindfulness practices (Makransky, 2012). The most widely used practice in clinical research for cultivating compassion is lovingkindness or Metta‐bhavana meditation (Salzberg, 1995).…”

Section: Cultivating Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Compassion practice as an antidote for compassion fatigue in the era of COVID‐19

Bentley

2022

J Humanistic Counseling

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Cultivating Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cultivating Compassionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Compassion practice as an antidote for compassion fatigue in the era of COVID‐19

Bentley

2022

J Humanistic Counseling

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This can exacerbate psychological barriers to the underlying human capacity for more inclusive and unconditional compassion. Such psychological barriers to compassion include the lack of a sufficiently secure base in one's own experience of love and compassion to be able to relax one's self-clinging and extend those same qualities more freely to others, the fear of exposure to suffering that prevents compassion for suffering beings, and reductive perceptions of self and others that hide their fuller dignity and worthiness for love and compassion (Condon & Makransky 2020a, 2020bMakransky, 2012).…”

Section: Adapting the Relational Orientation Of Buddhist Practice For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Compassion and Skillful Means: Cultural Adaptation, Psychological Science, and Creative Responsiveness

Condon

Makransky

2022

Mindfulness

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, we will address two distinct, but interrelated aspects of "skillful means" that can inform compassion training: (1) the historical precedent and need for adapting meditation practices to meet new cultural contexts, and (2) the need to express compassion flexibly in ways that creatively meet the specific contexts, mentalities, and needs of particular persons and situations. We first discuss ways that the doctrine of skillful means was employed by Buddhists to rationalize the repeated adaptation of Buddhist teachings to meet the culturally situated mentalities and needs of diverse Asian peoples. Then, in continuity with that history of Buddhist adaptation, we explore how theories from modern psychological science, such as attachment theory, can be newly drawn upon to support adaptation of relational frameworks operative in traditional Buddhist cultures of compassion training for modern contexts. Finally, we draw on theories from cognitive science, namely situated conceptualization, that provide a tractable framework for understanding skillful compassion as embodied emptiness-involving the relaxation of pattern completion mechanisms, which helps open up greater discernment and presence to others, so that care and compassion can be more unrestricted, creative, and directly responsive to the person and situation at hand.

show abstract

“…Within Buddhist traditions, affective responses of hatred and resentment are not only considered to be obstacles for compassion, but to result from a state of ignorance of the causes and conditions of human suffering (e.g., Halifax, 2011). A compassionate mind is regarded instead as being freer from conditioning patterns (Makransky, 2021). In order to counteract and transform aversive and disruptive emotional responses, Buddhist practitioners engage in formal practises aimed at cultivating forms of compassion that encompass all living beings independently of their relevance to the practitioner and with an impartial stance towards their past actions (e.g., Lavelle, 2017;Ricard, 2015).…”

Section: Self-report Measures Of Attributions and Willingness To Help...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready to help, no matter what you did: responsibility attribution does not influence compassion in expert Buddhist practitioners

Fucci¹,

Abdoun²,

Baquedano³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Within western social psychology and neuroscience, compassion is described as being conditioned by cost-benefit appraisals, such as the attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering. Buddhist traditions maintain the possibility of cultivating and embodying unconditioned and universal forms of compassion. Whereas a growing body of empirical literature suggest that Buddhist-inspired compassion-based programs foster prosociality and well-being in healthy and clinical populations, there is no evidence that such compassionate disposition toward others can become unconditioned from moral judgement. To address this question, we collected and integrated self-report and behavioural data from expert Buddhist practitioners and trained novices using a previously validated within-subject experiment that manipulates contextual information to influence moral judgement towards suffering scenarios, and a newly designed approach-avoidance task. We found that context manipulation impacted responsibility and blame attribution in both groups and that experts’ reported willingness to help was higher and less influenced by context, compared to novices. Partial correlation networks highlighted a negative relationship between blame attribution and willingness to help in novices, but not in expert practitioners. Self-reported willingness to help was correlated to reaction times when approaching suffering stimuli. Approach behaviour was modulated by context in novice, but not in experts. This study provides initial evidence of a dissociation between moral attributions and prosocial attitude in expert Buddhist practitioners and challenges established evolutionary accounts of compassion in western psychology.

show abstract

Compassion in Buddhist psychology

Cited by 12 publications

References 1 publication

Compassion practice as an antidote for compassion fatigue in the era of COVID‐19

Compassion practice as an antidote for compassion fatigue in the era of COVID‐19

Compassion and Skillful Means: Cultural Adaptation, Psychological Science, and Creative Responsiveness

Ready to help, no matter what you did: responsibility attribution does not influence compassion in expert Buddhist practitioners

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About