Concurrent Session Presentations

​​Recent decades have seen a burgeoning of research examining a wide variety of outcomes and applications of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). More recently, the research on compassion-based interventions has also steadily grown. As both fields mature, there is a growing need for clarity about the relationship between mindfulness and compassion. Does mindfulness meditation subsume compassion, or does compassion rest on a foundation of mindfulness practices? Are the two distinct and separable, or are they complementary? As the empirical investigation of contemplative practices matures, the need for greater conceptual clarity regarding these questions will only intensify. While mindfulness meditation is primarily understood as a stabilizing form of meditation, compassion training often involves analytical thinking or reflections designed to promote and sustain cognitive perspectives that support a more compassionate orientation toward self and others. Similar to the relationship of mindfulness to compassion, the relationship of cognition to compassion and the role of cognitive reframing in the cultivation of compassion is an important question that needs investigation in order to enrich research efforts. Moreover, the centrality of analytical thought to certain forms of compassion meditation currently developed in the West poses the important question of how cognition in general, and cognitive reframing in particular, fits with the more accepting/receptive types of mentation that are normative in most mindfulness based programs. In this discussion session, the panelists will draw from their respective fields of expertise—cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy—to address these important questions.