Cultivating Ideal Mentalities in Second-Generation Mindfulness-Based Interventions: A Feature Bringing Challenges but More Contributions.

Objectives: As an important trend in the research on and practice of mindfulness, second-generation mindfulness-based interventions (SG-MBIs) expanded components and emphasized ethics and wisdom. The current article proposes another important feature of SG-MBIs, the cultivation of ideal mentalities, such as the nondifferential four immeasurables (i.e., equal prosocial attitudes toward different people) and mentalities of emptiness or oneness. Method: The current article theoretically discusses and analyzes the challenges and contributions of SG-MBIs in cultivating ideal mentalities. Results: The new feature of SG-MBIs, cultivation of ideal mentalities, leads to five interconnected challenges for research and practice: (1) providing empirical and theoretical support for new elements; (2) matching the purposes of interventions with the needs of trainees; (3) achieving ideal mentalities during interventions; (4) assessing ideal mentalities in proper ways; and (5) clarifying the ethics and values for trainees. Conclusions: These challenges posed by the new feature need to be discussed and addressed in the future. Nevertheless, SG-MBIs effectively embody the objectives of ideal psychology and illustrate methodological principles in research on ideal mentalities, which will benefit research on other ideal mentalities rooted in different traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]