Received 06/04/14

Revised 05/11/15
Accepted 08/04/15
DOI: 10.1002/cvj.12028

Issues and Insights

Importance of Morality in
Mindfulness Practice
Christian U. Krägeloh
As the result of secularization and adaption of mindfulness practices from
Buddhism, elements specific to culture and religion have been removed,
now drawing criticism that mindfulness training has lost its original ethical
characteristics. This article argues that the lack of formal coverage of mo-
rality in mindfulness-based programs does not imply that morality plays no
part, and that participants independently contextualize their mindfulness
practice by drawing on their own sense of morality. Therefore, awareness
of the role of morality in mindfulness practice is important for counselors,
who can assist their clients with integrating their mindfulness practice with
their own worldviews and ethical frameworks.
Keywords: mindfulness-based interventions, Buddhism, counseling, mindfulness,
morality

I
n recent years, mindfulness programs have experienced a surge in popular-
ity in psychological interventions (Williams & Kabat-Zinn, 2011). As part
of such mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), or so-called “third-wave
psychotherapies” (Kahl, Winter, & Schweiger, 2012, p. 522), mindfulness exer-
cises such as meditation have been taught systematically to produce various
psychological health benefits. Four widely used interventions include accep-
tance and commitment therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), dialectical
behavior therapy (Linehan, 1993), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR;
Kabat-Zinn, 1990), and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT; Segal,
Williams, & Teasdale, 2002). The latter two have been specifically designed
as therapies for particular psychological health issues, namely, coping with
chronic pain and stress and relapse from depression, respectively. Medita-
tion is a central intervention tool in MBSR and MBCT, whereas acceptance
and commitment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy use a variety of
mindfulness exercises within their therapeutic frameworks that may or may
not include meditation.

Christian U. Krägeloh, Department of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology–North Shore

Campus, Auckland, New Zealand. This article is based on an invited lecture at Wonkwang University
in February 2013 and was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea Grant NRF-2010-
361-A00008 funded by the South Korean government. Correspondence concerning this article should be
addressed to Christian U. Krägeloh, Department of Psychology, School of Public Health and Psychosocial
Studies, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology–North
Shore Campus, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand (e-mail: chris.krageloh@aut.ac.nz).

© 2016 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.

Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61 97
 A large body of empirical literature has associated mindfulness practice
with positive psychological outcomes and other health benefits (Eberth &
Sedlmeier, 2012; Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004), although
the precise mechanism by which this happens still remains to be explored.
It is interesting that the various therapeutic approaches that use mindful-
ness exercises integrate mindfulness with very different counseling theories
(Brown, Marquis, & Guiffrida, 2013). Mindfulness has thus become attractive
to counselors from a variety of theoretical orientations, and, as a result, the
manner in which mindfulness is combined with counseling practice is very
diverse. Typically, counselors begin with psychoeducation, in which clients
are introduced to the basic elements of mindfulness, which may then be
followed by guided exercises (Brown et al., 2013). At the most structured
level of providing counseling services, clients take part in a group program,
in which a variety of mindfulness techniques are taught (Murphy, 2006).
Despite the increase in publications about mindfulness, the counseling
literature lacks sufficient discussion on what constitutes an adequate level
of qualification or training for counselors providing interventions involving
mindfulness (Brown et al., 2013). Although it has been stressed repeatedly
that counselors using mindfulness practice are expected to engage in their
own regular practice (Greason & Cashwell, 2009), there are no guidelines
to ensure that MBIs are developed and delivered by competent counselors
(Brown et al., 2013). The mindfulness techniques used in MBIs are essentially
adaptations of Buddhist traditions (Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Walsh & Shapiro, 2006)
that are now applied in modern Western contexts. During the process of
secularization of mindfulness practice, many ritualistic or culturally embed-
ded religious practices were discarded. Although this has opened up the
potential for mindfulness to be applied in many new ways and for the benefit
of a larger range of people (Bodhi, 2011), it also makes MBIs vulnerable to
unskillful and inappropriate applications if counselors and psychologists
are not aware of the context in which mindfulness practice originated. One
aspect of this context relates to moral practice. Rules of conduct, precepts,
and a general sense of morality are integral components of religious faiths.
Buddhism is no exception, and morality is explicitly mentioned as one of the
practices of the Noble Eightfold Path to eliminate suffering (Rahula, 1974).
This article draws attention to the importance of morality in mindfulness
training and derives practical implications for counselors. Some scholars have
recently expressed concern that mindfulness practice in MBIs has placed too
much emphasis on nonevaluative aspects (Bodhi, 2011; Dreyfus, 2011). At first
glance, this conceptualization of mindfulness places secular mindfulness prac-
tices at odds with any kind of teaching of ethics and morality because the latter
would require the practitioner to permit judgments and evaluations (Kang &
Whittingham, 2010). Many often-cited Buddhist scriptures, in contrast, clearly
differentiate between states of mind that are considered to be unwholesome
and wholesome, which allows the practitioner to embed his or her mindfulness
practice within the Buddhist religious and ethical framework (Dreyfus, 2011).

98 Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61

 This article discusses the validity of these arguments and concludes that
reference to nonevaluative characteristics of mindfulness is not an aspect
that emerged only with the secularization of mindfulness practice but can
also be found in Buddhism. Even though morality is no longer formally a
part of secular MBIs, it is likely that it still plays a de facto role. The function
of morality may have become more diffuse and individualized in MBIs, be-
cause every mindfulness practitioner brings in his or her own unique sense
of morality instead of following a formalized and common set of religious
precepts and rules. Therefore, depending on the circumstances of practice,
counselors interacting with mindfulness practitioners are advised to provide
guidance and actively reinforce their clients’ integration of mindfulness
practice within their own personal moral frameworks. In the absence of clar-
ity about the adequate level of qualification and training required to adapt
and incorporate mindfulness practice into counseling (Brown et al., 2013),
counseling competencies can guard against inappropriate applications of
mindfulness techniques.

Nonevaluative Awareness in
Secular Mindfulness Practices but Not in Buddhism

The recent growth of psychological research on mindfulness has been

exponential (Williams & Kabat-Zinn, 2011), although many scholars will
argue that related and overlapping psychological processes or phenomena
have always been part of psychological therapies to some extent. These
processes include psychodynamic techniques (e.g., free association and
interpretation, transference and countertransference) and cognitive be-
havior tools (e.g., decentering, deautomization; Martin, 1997). The recent
popularity of the concept of mindfulness in psychology has led to attempts
to define it more precisely and systematically, which has been a challeng-
ing task. One of the most commonly cited definitions of mindfulness in
the psychological literature is that provided by Kabat-Zinn (1994): “pay-
ing attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and
non-judgmentally” (p. 4). More detail and a wider range of aspects were
given by Bishop et al. (2004), who
see mindfulness as a process of regulating attention in order to bring a quality of non-
elaborative awareness to current experience and a quality of relating to one’s experience
within an orientation of curiosity, experiential openness, and acceptance. We further see
mindfulness as a process of gaining insight into the nature of one’s mind and the adoption
of a de-centered perspective . . . on thoughts and feelings so that they can be experienced
in terms of their subjectivity (versus their necessary validity) and transient nature (versus
their permanence). (p. 234)

The English term mindfulness appears to have had its origins in the trans-
lation work of Rhys Davids during the late 19th century (Gethin, 2011).
The original generic meaning of the Pali word sati was “memory,” but the
word gradually gained additional meanings in Buddhist scriptures (Bodhi,

Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61 99

2011). Memory and mindfulness are intertwined in the sense that Buddhist
practitioners are encouraged to bring to mind the teachings of the dharma
in every single one of their actions. Whereas Christians might be told to
act to the glory of God in everything they are doing, Buddhists are taught
to remember the ubiquity of cause and effect (Gethin, 2011). The degree
of mindfulness is thus determined by the extent to which the practitioner
consistently recalls the Buddhist teachings in all of his or her actions.
In Buddhist scriptures, mindfulness as recalling of teaching often involves
an ethical element, or even conscience (Gethin, 2011). In the classical text The
Questions of King Milinda, the Buddhist monk Nāgasena answers the ques-
tions of the Indo-Greek king Menander I. Here, Nāgasena not only described
mindfulness as a lack of drifting of the mind but also emphasized the need
to distinguish between wholesome and unwholesome mental states. There-
fore, mindfulness, according to Nāgasena, contains elements of evaluation,
discrimination, and introspection. It is for that reason that Dreyfus (2011)
argued that mindfulness in the Buddhist sense is different from Kabat-Zinn’s
(1994) definition of nonjudgmental awareness. The emphasis of MBIs on
self-acceptance and a nonjudgmental attitude may be beneficial for psycho-
logical interventions, especially for people with ruminative and depressive
thought patterns, but it constitutes only a small part of everyday practice in
Buddhism, which is more about a kind of cognitive transformation (Dreyfus,
2011). The purpose of Buddhist mindfulness training is to transform one’s
deluded ways of thinking into habitual mental states that are associated with
wholesome behaviors and that avoid unwholesome ones.
Distinctions between wholesome and unwholesome mental states are also
made in the Pali Canon, again implying evaluative aspects of mental states.
The Noble Eightfold Path includes sammāsati (right–wholesome–complete
mindfulness) as one of eight elements of the path toward the end of suffer-
ing, with the complete list being right understanding, right thought, right
speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and
right concentration (Rahula, 1974). The first two elements constitute the
practice of prajñā (wisdom), the subsequent three constitute the practice of
śı̄la (ethical conduct), and the last three are part of samādhi (concentration). In
Buddhist practice, all three factors are dynamically related. Ethical conduct,
for example, is the basis for mindfulness, but ethical conduct also relies on
mindfulness to recall which wholesome behaviors are to be encouraged
(Kang & Whittingham, 2010). Similarly, wisdom is necessary to understand
the need for ethical conduct and concentration. Again, this implies that the
practitioner cannot be completely nonjudgmental but must evaluate and
appraise his or her mental states (Bodhi, 2011).
The reason for the association of mindfulness with nonjudgmental aware-
ness in MBIs may be related to the use of the expression bare attention. In his
teachings of mindfulness, the German-born Theravada monk Nyanaponika
typically referred to bare attention, or the fleeting moment of awareness be-
fore one conceptualizes and identifies an object (Bodhi, 2011). Other scholars

100 Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61

and teachers continued the dissemination of Buddhist teachings to the West
with explanations of mindfulness as bare attention as well as with references
to nonjudgmental awareness (Gethin, 2011). Bodhi (2011) argued that bare
attention is only one of many ways to teach and practice mindfulness and,
therefore, should not be taken as a theoretical definition of the concept. In
some of the major Buddhist traditions, bare attention is not even practiced,
and what unifies Buddhist mindfulness practice is the cultivation of whole-
some emotions and mental states (Dorjee, 2010).

Nonevaluative Awareness in
Later Emerging Buddhist Traditions
Scholarly debates on whether the conceptualization of mindfulness is similar
in Western MBIs and Buddhism received attention in a 2011 special issue of
the journal Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal. According to
Dunne (2011), Dreyfus’s (2011) interpretation that mindfulness must contain
an evaluative component is based on Buddhist teachings of the Pali Canon
from around 100 B.C.E. Nevertheless, a strand of the Mahāmudrā tradition
that started to emerge from the 7th century C.E. appears to match the MBI
approach to mindfulness more closely. The traditional approach in the Pali
Canon can be described as a form of constructivism, in which certain cogni-
tions and qualities must be developed and faulty ones, such as the faulty
belief in a permanent ego, must be eliminated. The Mahāmudrā tradition, in
contrast, teaches that all cognitive patterns hinder the emergence of one’s
innate and pure Buddha nature. In other words, everyone has the potential to
become a Buddha, but the qualities that a Buddha embodies are not acquired
through learning, but through unlearning, such as discarding cognitions that
discriminate among space, time, and identity of phenomena.
The need for a discriminating process to monitor progress in one’s practice
is the reason that Dreyfus (2011) presented against the conceptualization of
mindfulness as pure nonjudgmental awareness. It appears as a paradox that
a beginner engaging in the practice of nonjudgmental awareness must regu-
larly recall the instruction not to evaluate but at the same time to evaluate
to what extent his or her state of mind is consistent with these instructions.
Dunne (2011) argued that this kind of monitoring process still involves cog-
nitive effort and thus falls short of the ultimate goal of nondual Mahāmudrā
practice, namely, the natural and nonconceptual state of the mind. In contrast
to monitoring and effortful mindfulness, the nondual state is best described
as effortless mindfulness.
Dunne (2011) limited the scope of his discussion to links to the Mahāmudrā
tradition, and Krägeloh (2013) continued this line of reasoning by outlining
links to additional Buddhist teachings, thus strengthening the argument that
the Western secular conceptualization of mindfulness has more similarities
to later emerging schools of Buddhism than to traditional Buddhism. These
additional Buddhist schools of thought are the Mādhyamaka teachings and

Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61 101

the teachings of Nāgārjuna around emptiness (śūnyatā). Emptiness follows
from the concept of causality in Buddhism. Because every single event is
said to be related in a causal manner to other events, every event lacks its
own permanent self-nature and is thus empty (Cooper, 2002). The concept
of emptiness, however, must not be interpreted in a nihilistic sense (Abe,
1975). It would be nihilistic if one focused excessively on emptiness as op-
posed to form, but one must learn to understand that emptiness itself is
empty, which means that the distinction between emptiness and form must
be transcended. To distinguish between the two uses of emptiness (empti-
ness as contrasted with form vs. emptiness that refers to the transcendence
of the contrast of emptiness and form), Mādhyamaka philosophy speaks in
the latter case of true emptiness (Krägeloh, 2013).
The relevance of the concept of emptiness to mindfulness practice emerges
when trying to integrate seemingly contradictory notions: on the one hand,
a definition of mindfulness as nonjudgmental and nondiscriminating aware-
ness and, on the other, the inevitable necessity of participating in a world
that presents itself as phenomena and, thus, requires discriminations and
categorizations (Krägeloh, 2013). As Abe (1975) stated, the “Buddhist idea
of Emptiness can be properly realised not conceptually, but only holistically,
subjectively, or existentially through the realisation of one’s existence as a
self-contradictory oneness of being and non-being” (p. 188). As a result of
the view that the Buddha nature is inherent in everyone, practitioners in
Mahāyāna traditions are typically instructed to discard delusions to reveal
their original and nondiscriminating mind. This mind is thought to function
naturally and without cognitive effort, attachment, and distortions and is
referred to as no thought in chán or Zen Buddhism (Allen, 2010; Yampolsky,
1967). This kind of mindfulness that results from the awakening to one’s
Buddha nature is said to operate in the background, even when the working
mind is occupied with daily tasks that require discrimination, categorization,
and judgment (Zhu, 2005). In other words, one retains a pure and nondis-
criminating mind even when temporarily engaging in tasks that require
discrimination and categorization.

What Role Does Morality Play in

Secular Mindfulness Practices?

The previous section demonstrated not only that the conceptualization of

mindfulness in secular mindfulness practices, or more specifically MBIs, is
very different from that of traditional Buddhism but also that differences are
less pronounced when comparisons are made with later emerging Buddhist
traditions. Therefore, the nonevaluative aspects of MBIs’ conceptualization
of mindfulness do not necessarily imply that morality has no role to play.
After all, also in those Buddhist traditions that teach nonevaluative aspects
of mindfulness, morality is still regarded as an integral part of their practice.
During the 1967 World Buddhist Sangha Council, different Buddhist traditions

102 Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61

agreed on a few fundamental teachings that they share, which included the
Noble Eightfold Path (thus highlighting the importance of ethical conduct)
and an emphasis on compassion as a purpose in life (Kim, 2003). Addition-
ally, most people would agree that without appropriate ethical conduct and
a clear conscience, one would struggle to keep one’s mind calm, and without
a calm mind, one would lack the ability to generate wisdom and insight.
The present discussion thus raises the following questions: What role might
morality play in secular mindfulness practices? More important, how might
awareness of the role of morality in mindfulness practice help counselors
guide their clients toward benefiting more from mindfulness practice?
Perhaps the most well-known MBI is Kabat-Zinn’s (1990) MBSR program,
now offered in many places around the world. Participants in this program
typically sign up for 8 to 10 weeks of evening group classes, as well as one
full-day workshop halfway through the program. During the weekly 2-hour
sessions, the instructors gradually introduce participants to various meditation
and mindfulness techniques, such as mindfulness meditation, hatha yoga,
breathing exercises, and body scan exercises, as well as mindful walking and
mindful eating. As the program progresses, participants are also increasingly
taught how to apply these techniques to their everyday lives, which is rein-
forced through the use of homework tasks, such as keeping a mindfulness
diary, as well as the expectation to practice mindfulness techniques daily
for around 45 minutes. More methodologically sound studies of treatment
efficacy are needed (Baer, 2003), but evidence so far has indicated that MBSR
produces positive and clinically significant results for a range of problems,
including chronic pain (Kabat-Zinn, 1982), coping with cancer symptoms
(Grossman et al., 2004; Smith, Richardson, Hoffman, & Pilkington, 2005),
and depression and anxiety in female patients with fibromyalgia (Grossman,
Tiefenthaler-Gilmer, Raysz, & Kesper, 2007). In nonclinical situations, MBSR
has been used as a tool for relationship improvement in couples (Carson,
Carson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004) and to help nurses cope with their stressful
workload (Mackenzie, Poulin, & Seidman-Carlson, 2006).
Determining which elements are responsible for the positive effects of the
mindfulness practices taught in MBIs still needs to be investigated (Lau &
McMain, 2005). Studies using relaxation control groups showed that MBSR
programs (or slight modifications thereof) provide benefits beyond mere
relaxation, including reductions in ruminative and distracting thoughts and
decreased anxiety (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009; Jain et al., 2007). This makes mind-
fulness exercises particularly effective for people with depression and anxiety,
and MBCT was specifically designed as a therapy for patients who have
previously recovered from depression but who are still vulnerable to relapse
(Segal et al., 2002). Many clients with depression engage in forms of negative
self-talk, which start the downward spiral of a depressive episode. Through
MBCT, however, clients learn that they do not need to identify themselves with
these thoughts and react to them blindly, but instead learn to observe them
nonjudgmentally. A person having the thought “I am useless,” for example,

Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61 103

thus develops a meta-awareness such as “I am having a thought that I am
useless.” MBCT uses a program structured similarly to MBSR, but because
of its focus on depression, it includes more exercises targeted to cognitions,
such as observation of the associations between mood and worried thoughts
(Evans et al., 2008).
The reason why ethical conduct is not given any formal emphasis in MBIs
is the intentionally secular nature of such programs. As Cullen (2011) de-
scribed, a secular program cannot prescribe a single set of ethical guidelines
because it must avoid contradictions with the belief systems of participants,
who often have very diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. However,
the lack of an explicit emphasis on the development of ethical conduct does
not necessarily imply that morality is totally absent or irrelevant. Maex
(2011), for example, noted that participants in 8-week mindfulness programs
naturally developed more compassion for animals. Although compassion
is certainly not synonymous with morality, compassion in Buddhism is the
intrinsically motivated expression of extrinsic ethical guidelines. Shapiro,
Jazaieri, and Goldin (2012) reported results from probably the only study so
far that has explicitly tested the hypothesis that participation in an MBSR
program fosters moral reasoning and ethical decision making. Their argu-
ment was that, because moral decisions require sensitivity to one’s own ac-
tions and also to the likely effects of one’s actions on other people, increased
mindfulness and self-awareness naturally lead to enhanced ethical decision
making. Mindfulness practice leads to a reduction in automated cognitions
and, thus, fewer egocentric and more objective attitudes.
In addition, the self-regulatory skills developed from mindfulness practice
will aid a person in persisting with morally right actions, even when they
are in conflict with behaviors leading to personal short-term pleasures. As a
result of the program offered by Shapiro et al. (2012), participants’ average
score on mindfulness questionnaires increased, as did the average score on
depth of moral reasoning. It should be noted, however, that the program
Shapiro et al. gave to participants included exercises on loving-kindness
meditation; therefore, it is possible that the observed effects were due to
participants’ exposure to this particular meditation technique and not the
result of generic mindfulness exercises. Note that the MBSR program gener-
ally includes some loving-kindness meditation, with the intention of evoking
an attitude of kindness and goodwill (Leppma, 2012).
Proponents of MBIs have previously acknowledged the importance of ethical
conduct despite the absence of any formal or explicit teaching of particular
ethical guidelines. As Kabat-Zinn (2011) described it, MBSR contains an ethi-
cal foundation in a natural way, as embodied by the instructors who follow
professional codes of conduct and function as role models throughout the
whole program. There is also no doubt that participants in such programs
bring with them their own personal ethical rules of conduct, and ethics in
MBSR is considered as something that ultimately relates back to personal
responsibility (Kabat-Zinn, 2011). Kabat-Zinn’s (2011) argument is certainly

104 Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61

one with which many would easily agree, because people entering MBI
programs are typically adults who will have brought with them their own
ethical understanding based on a lifetime of socialization.

Implications for Counselors

Despite assertions that MBIs are secular, their conceptual origins in Buddhist
practices can provide a slightly ambiguous image of the nature of such pro-
grams (Shonin, Van Gordon, & Griffiths, 2013) and, in some cases, may even
be perceived as surreptitiously bringing in (an Eastern) religion (Farb, 2014;
Felver, Doerner, Jones, Kaye, & Merrell, 2013). Here, counselors’ awareness
of their clients’ worldview, as well as their moral orientation (Levitt & Aligo,
2013), can help in the selection of the most suitable mindfulness exercises or
help counselors alleviate clients’ fears that their worldview is being challenged.
Thus, what counselors may want to assess is to what extent practices such
as meditation are suitable to their client’s emotional state and to what extent
the wording of any suggested exercises may need to be adapted to ensure
that congruence with the client’s worldview is maintained (Leppma, 2012).
In addition to preparing clients in advance for mindfulness exercises and
trying to address any prejudice that may exist, counselors are also advised
to ensure that clients continue to contextualize mindfulness practice in a
meaningful manner. Alignment of mindfulness practice with personal values
and beliefs appears to be one of the mechanisms by which mindfulness brings
about psychological health benefits. Psychological research has repeatedly
shown that high value–behavior congruence is beneficial for subjective well-
being and happiness (Joshanloo & Ghaedi, 2009; Oishi, Diener, Suh, & Lucas,
1999; Sagiv & Schwartz, 2000). Using a sample of nonmeditating university
students, Pearson, Brown, Bravo, and Witkiewitz (2015) found evidence that
sense of purpose in life was a significant mediator between trait mindfulness
and psychological health benefits. Commitment to goals and values is also
central to acceptance and commitment therapy (Hayes, 2004). The initial
focus of therapeutic sessions in acceptance and commitment therapy is to
practice mindful acceptance and awareness of negative thoughts even if
one generally tried to avoid them before. However, after such psychological
barriers have been relieved, clients are then asked to frame clear goals that
they then commit to working toward. After achieving a habit of acceptance
and awareness of one’s thoughts, these goals may change. A person with an
anxiety disorder, for example, might learn to accept his or her anxiety and
reframe the therapeutic goal from the more short-term goal of recovery from
anxiety to the more long-term goal of leading a meaningful life (Hayes, 2004).
Embedding mindfulness practice within personal and religious belief
systems also appears to be the motivation behind the increasing number
of religious contextualizations of mindfulness programs. Given that MBIs
have their origins in Buddhism, it will come as no surprise that Buddhist
mindfulness programs are found in Thailand (Rungreangkulkij, Wongtakee,

Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61 105

& Thongyot, 2011), for example. Most noticeable, however, is the increasing
number of reports of the application of Christian themes in mindfulness
programs (Hathaway & Tan, 2009; Symington & Symington, 2012) or the
recognition of elements in already-existing Christian practices that have much
in common with mindfulness practice in MBIs (Blanton, 2011; Knabb, 2012;
Schopen & Freeman, 1992). Again, this suggests that religious, ethical, and
personal belief systems play an important role in the relationship between
mindfulness practice and psychological health.
When a mindfulness program has a clearly advertised spiritual or reli-
gious theme, individuals can make an informed decision about whether to
opt in, which may depend on whether they perceive it as matching their
own worldview or faith. Evidence has shown that the inclusion of such
themes can provide additional benefits. Wachholtz and Pargament (2005,
2008) randomly assigned predominantly Christian participants to a medi-
tation program with Christian meditative phrases or to a program without
such content. Compared with participants in the secular meditation control
groups, participants completing the so-called spiritual meditation course
later showed more improved outcomes, such as diminished frequency of
migraines, improved pain tolerance, and less anxiety. However, when mind-
fulness programs are secular, such as most MBIs, no such explicit context
for value integration is provided. Because of the lack of formalized ethical
guidelines and precepts in secular mindfulness programs, the interaction
between mindfulness practice and morality is likely to be very individualized.
People entering MBI programs with a Christian background, for example,
will start to make their own connections between mindfulness and Christian
ethics, and people with other, including nonreligious, belief systems will
make different kinds of links to create meaning around their mindfulness
practice. The fact that this happens is not the problem at all—quite the op-
posite. However, the individualized and unguided manner in which people
contextualize mindfulness practice is an uncontrolled variable affecting how
effective their mindfulness practice will be. Counselors can assist here by
guiding this process, which may also include preventing or alleviating side
effects associated with mindfulness practice (Buchheld & Walach, 2001).
In the absence of clear guidelines on appropriate qualifications and ex-
perience for counselors delivering MBIs (Brown et al., 2013), counseling
competencies provide an important mechanism to safeguard the client and
ensure that mindfulness exercises are applied in a skillful manner. In addition
to multicultural competencies (Leppma, 2012), relevant competencies have
been outlined by the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values
in Counseling (Cashwell & Watts, 2010). According to these competencies,
for example, professional counselors are to understand different spiritual,
religious, or nonreligious worldviews; be competent at communicating about
them with acceptance and sensitivity; and be able to modify therapeutic
techniques to match the client’s spiritual or religious perspectives. Meditation
is more than a simple therapeutic technique; it encourages and maintains

106 Counseling and Values ■ April 2016 ■ Volume 61

attitudes that lead to greater altruism and compassion, which can be said
to be universal across spiritual, religious, and humanistic beliefs (Leppma,
2012). As shown in the present discussion, the origins of mindfulness practice
are intimately linked to morality, and counselors are advised to be aware of
these origins and guide their clients to a successful integration of mindful-
ness with their own personal worldview and morality.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article was to highlight the role of morality and ethical
belief systems in mindfulness practice. The secularization of mindfulness
practice and the removal of culture- and religion-specific rituals, traditions,
and philosophies has drawn repeated criticism that more than just unnecessary
appendages had been discarded and that the type of mindfulness practiced
in MBIs had become too dissimilar from that of Buddhism. The present
discussion showed how the stripping of Buddhist elements from MBIs does
not imply that morality ceased to be relevant. MBIs’ conceptualization of
mindfulness as nonevaluative puts it at odds with traditional Buddhism, but
differences appear much less dramatic when making comparisons with later
emerging schools of Buddhism, which contain discourse on nonevaluative
aspects of mindful discourse within their religious and ethical framework.
This article illustrated that morality is an integral aspect of any mindfulness
practice, even when it is not formally emphasized, as is often the case in
secular mindfulness programs. In the absence of formal coverage of ethics
and morality, mindfulness practitioners will draw on their own personal
sense of morality as opposed to a formalized and common set of religious
precepts and rules. Here, counselors may regard their role as reinforcing or
even guiding their clients’ process of contextualizing mindfulness within
their personal ethical and personal belief systems, because an increasing
amount of research evidence has indicated that such an integration is linked
to long-lasting positive health benefits.

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