Abstract
Mindfulness is sometimes misunderstood as solely a Buddhist or secular practice. This chapter offers a toolkit for enhanced sensitivity and flexibility toward patients and populations of diverse spiritual and religious orientations and backgrounds. It explains a set of eight interrelated practices known as Passage Meditation (PM), and a subset known as the Mantram Repetition Program (MRP), both derived from Indian-born spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999). These practices support mindfulness and can be pursued within any major religious tradition or outside all and facilitate drawing on spiritual resources within each tradition. Two empirical research programs based on these practices have generated more than 30 published research studies and seven randomized controlled trials. Each program has documented both enhanced mindfulness and a variety of improved mental health outcomes, often mediated by mindfulness gains. Guidance is provided for implementation, implications for diversity-related ethical obligations, and needed expansion of contemporary mindfulness toolkits.
TopPassage Meditation Approaches: Overview
Figure 1
1
summarizes the eight practices that constitute the formal method taught by Eknath Easwaran, now often referred to as Passage Meditation (PM). The full PM program has been used and studied as an intervention for stress management, skill-enhancement, and educational purposes, and appears suitable for certain clinical applications. Suitable for an even broader range of clinical and non-clinical applications is the Mantram Repetition Program (MRP), based on three of the points (indicated by asterisks in Figure 1). The MRP has been the focus of ongoing research led by Dr. Jill Bormann at the US Veterans Administration (VA) Healthcare System. The full set of eight PM practices has been the focus of research by Dr. Doug Oman of the University of California, Berkeley.
Figure 1. Brief description of Passage Meditation (PM) program of Easwaran (2008a, 2016)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Mantram Repetition: Repeating a mantram frequently at many times throughout the day – a “portable” practice.
Mindfulness-Inclusive: Practices such as PM and MRP that foster the practice and experience of mindfulness, without primarily emphasizing the precise contemporary concept of mindfulness.
Mantram: A powerful sacred word or short phrase derived from a spiritual tradition – see Table 3 .
Mantram Repetition Program (MRP): An empirically supported program, based on three practices taught by Eknath Easwaran, and developed by Jill Bormann and her colleagues in the US Veterans Administration Healthcare System.
Meditation: As used here, a sitting practice involving sustained concentration on a single object, such as an inspired passage – see Figure 1 .
Passage Meditation (PM): An empirically supported program of eight practices taught by Eknath Easwaran (2008a , 2016 ), based on meditating on an inspired passage – see Figure 1 .