A critical analysis of the concepts and measurement of awareness and equanimity in Goenka's Vipassana meditation
Abstract
Goenka's Vipassana meditation (GVM), a widely applied mindfulness training system rooted in Buddhism, is currently widely used. Although the two abilities cultivated in GVM, awareness and equanimity, exhibit certain similarities with the mindfulness cultivated in mindfulness-based psychotherapies (MBTs), they are not major concerns in MBTs. While many mindfulness scales have been created to measure different aspects of mindfulness constructs and certain scales and items can indeed reflect the basic abilities of awareness and equanimity, none of them can adequately capture the way in which those abilities and related ideas are applied in GVM. This paper presents a critical examination of the problems associated with the concepts and measurement of awareness and equanimity and presents potential solutions for achieving better measurement of these concepts in the future.
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Awareness (interoceptive and metacognitive) and equanimity are the core focus in MiCBT and are developed independently and simultaneously.
“Awareness (interoceptive awareness measured by the MAIA and metacognitive awareness measured by EQ) and equanimity (measured by the MSES-R-E and NAS) are the core focus in MiCBT, which are developed independently and simultaneously (65).”
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- Authors
- Zeng, X., Oei, T. P. S., Ye, Y., & Liu, X.
- Affiliations
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Xiangping
- Venue
- Journal of Religion and Health
- Published
- 2013-11-13
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 399-412
- ISSN
- 0022-4197 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-6571
- OpenAlex
- W2068925653
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Religion and Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Beijing Normal University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Keywords
- awareness, equanimity, mindfulness measurement, mindfulness-based psychotherapy, mindfulness scale, Buddhist meditation
- MeSH terms
- Awareness, Buddhism, Humans, Meditation, Mindfulness
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