慈悲喜舍——慈心禅与心身健康

Loving-Kindness Meditation:Its Benefit for Mental and Physical Health

慈心禅是用来开发爱和释放消极情绪的一种心理训练方法,几个世纪以来被广泛用于佛教传统。近年来,随着禅修成为西方心理学的研究热点,慈心禅也逐渐引起了学者们的注意。本文总结了传统佛教以及近年来西方心理学对于慈心禅的研究成果,探讨了心理学视角下对慈心禅的内涵解读及其可能的运行机制,并且梳理了西方心理学在慈心禅方面的实证研究及临床功效研究。最后,针对目前研究存在的问题尝试提出改进建议及展望。

Loving-kindness meditation is one of the mental training methods created for increasing love for oneself and others and decreasing negative emotions. This kind of meditation has been used widely for centuries in Buddhist tradition. In recent years, with meditation becoming popular in western countries, loving- kindness meditation has attracted researchers＇ attention. This article is intended to briefly describe the Buddhist tradition and some western psychological research findings about loving-kindness meditation, investigate the connotation and potential mechanism of loving-kindness meditation from the psychological perspective, and review the empirical and clinical studies on loving-kindness meditation. On this basis, we offer some suggestions for future research in this regard.