“…Many of the issues in this debate relate to the extent to which Western psychological depictions of mindfulness are consistent with traditional Buddhist perspectives. Given that it is common for MBIs to proclaim a certain 'grounding' in Buddhist practice, this may be potentially confusing (or even misleading) for service-users because it is questionable whether mindfulness meditation, as used in MBIs, continues to resemble the faculty of 'right mindfulness' as it is construed by the Buddhist teachings (Shonin et al, 2013a whether MBIs lack 'foundational congruence' and whether the 'spiritual essence' and full potential treatment efficacy of mindfulness has remained intact in its clinically orientated and Westernized form (Howells, Tennant, Day, & Elmer, 2010;McWilliams, 2011;Rosch, 2007;Singh, Lancioni, Wahler, Winton, & Singh, 2008;Shonin et al, 2013d;Van Gordon et al, 2013). Thus, there is an urgent need for Western psychologists to determine and clarify whether, in addition to alleviating psycholgical and/or somatic distress, MBIs are also primarliy intended (and provide the necessary infrastructure) to spiritually empower their participants.…”