Depression, Guilt, and Tibetan Buddhism

Abstract

Depression appears to be somewhat epidemic in the modern world. In prior empirical studies we found depression significantly associated with empathy-based guilt, empathic distress, and an overly active or misattributing moral system. In this study, we compared 98 Buddhists, who were primarily Tibetan meditation practitioners to 438 non-Buddhist, non-practicing community adults on a measure of depression along with measures of maladaptive guilt, empathic distress, anxiety and altruism. Our findings demonstrated that practitioners were significantly lower in depression, pathogenic guilt, anxiety, and empathic distress, and significantly higher on agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and compassionate altruism directed towards strangers. Intensity of practice significantly correlated with positive outcomes. In addition, we found that within the population of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, those who endorsed the statement that the goal of meditation was other-focused (for the benefit of all sentient beings) were significantly lower in depression, empathic distress, and anxiety, and significantly higher in cognitive empathy (perspective-taking) compared to practitioners whose goal of meditation was self-focused.

Why Do People Begin to Meditate and Why Do They Continue?

“…Moreover, we collected reasons for meditating from the abovementioned papers that had directly addressed the issue as well as other work (except the items from Schmidt, 2014, with which we were unfamiliar at the time), including qualitative analyses that had mentioned reasons for meditating (e.g., Campbell, 2009;Lomas et al, 2013;O'Connor et al, 2012;Miller & Nozawa, 2005;Shapiro, 1978;Zarrabian, 2010).…”

“…Therefore, knowing meditators' reasons or aims might turn out to be of enormous practical value: It might help guide recommendations for choosing meditation techniques that are especially suited for the purpose at hand. Also, there is increasing evidence that personality factors can have a noticeable impact on whether people begin to meditate at all, as well as on the effects of meditation (e.g., Delmonte, 1988;de Vibe et al, 2015;Gu et al, 2015;Mascaro et al, 2013;Noone & Hogan, 2018;O'Connor et al, 2012). Eventually, if meditators' reasons to begin to meditate and their personalities are known, it might be possible to predict what kind of meditation works best for a particular person.…”

Recovery from Depression Through Buddhist Wisdom: An Idiographic Case Study

“…In comparing 98 Tibetan Buddhist practitioners to 438 non-Buddhists (O'Connor, Berry, Stiver, & Rangan, 2012), the Tibetan participants show lower apparent levels of anxiety, depression, and self-blame due to their compassionate mind not only toward themselves, but more importantly, toward others. Their less depressive symptoms result from compassion, which guides an individual to tackle intrinsic (i.e., the illusion of permanent self) and extrinsic (i.e., attachment to eternal objects) weaknesses (Epstein, 1993).…”

Empathy, Compassionate Altruism and Psychological Well-Being in Contemplative Practitioners across Five Traditions

“…To investigate further, we conducted an anonymous online study, comparing 98 Tibetan Buddhist practitioners to a sample of 440 non-practitioners on psychological and social measures, including: proneness to acts of altruism towards family, friends and strangers, cognitive and emotional empathy, empathy-based guilt, depression and anxiety, as well as other personality factors. We also examined the effect of consistency and intensity of contemplative practices, on indices that have implications for social and psychological well-being (O'Connor et al, 2012). We found the Tibetan Buddhists demonstrated significantly lower levels of empathy-based pathogenic guilt (Omnipotent Responsibility Guilt), lower levels of pathogenic empathy (Empathic Distress), Depression, and Neuroticism, and perhaps most important, significantly higher levels of Compassionate Altruism towards Strangers.…”