Recovering the relational starting point of compassion training: A foundation for sustainable and inclusive care.

Abstract

Cultivation of compassion through meditation training is of increasing interest to scientists, healthcare providers, educators, and policy makers as an approach to help address challenging personal and social issues. Yet people encounter critical inner psychological barriers to compassion that limit the effectiveness of compassion training—including the lack of a secure base, aversion to suffering, feeling alone in suffering, and reductive impressions of others. These barriers emerge, in part, from a lack of relational support and are exacerbated by modernist conceptions that present meditation as an autonomous, self-help practice. This article proposes a solution centered on relationality, derived from the integration of diverse areas of psychology with contemplative traditions. Theories and findings from social, developmental, and health psychology can inform meditation programs and help recover important relational elements of compassion training from traditional cultures that address common barriers to compassion, and thus promote more sustainable and inclusive care. In so doing, this paper illustrates the value of psychological theories for translating important contextual elements from contemplative traditions into diverse modern settings.

Compassion for self versus other: A critical review of compassion training research

“…Key differences between traditional and modern approaches become more apparent when considering the long-term and definitive goals of Mahayana Buddhism. Here we focus particularly on the role of compassion in helping an individual apprehend and act from insight into the fundamentally interdependent nature of reality (see also Condon & Makransky, 2020).…”

“…The Buddhist tradition from which most modern compassion trainings are based does not emphasize this distinction (Crosby & Skilton, 1996;Hahn, 1997;Khyentse, 2003), and the literature to date points in the direction of overlap across compassion trainings and outcomes. Consistent with this view, there has been a recent call for greater attention to the relational dimension of compassion training (Condon & Makransky, 2020). Moreover, recent data suggest the division between self-and other-compassion may not be entirely consistent with people's actual experience of compassion in daily life.…”

Compassion practices

“…We refer to this as the relational starting point for compassion training. 21 Meditations on compassion from contemplative cultures follow that very pattern, and can be adapted for secular application in caring professions. 22 This pattern of care, then, begins by experiencing oneself as embraced in a field of caring support, which increases one's capacity to extend care to others.…”

“…Through the lens of attachment theory, we assert that communal and ritual practices prominent in spiritual traditions throughout the world function to help practitioners develop an unlimited secure base that they can return to again and again for replenishment, healing, and empowerment. 21,22 Through such patterns of practice, these contemplative practitioners experience themselves and their world as held within the unwavering support of their spiritual ancestors and benefactors, which empowers them, like their spiritual benefactors, to extend care to others in increasingly inclusive, unconditional ways.…”

“…Research on attachment priming suggests that this same pattern of practice can be accomplished in modern contexts by recalling and then re-experiencing a simple moment of caring connection with any being, so as to draw out one's own capacities for care. 21 We posit that repeatedly reinhabiting such moments in meditative practice can empower health providers to enter into empathic resonance with patients while avoiding the risks of burnout and secondary trauma that come with empathic distress. Indeed, research has shown that attachment priming increases emotion regulation abilities, the patience to listen to others' emotions, reduces bias toward outgroups, and increases compassionate action to alleviate others suffering.…”