Shonin, E., Van Gordon W., & Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Teaching ethics in mindfulness-based interventions. Mindfulness, 6, 1491-1493. (original) (raw)

We read with interest the recent commentary paper by Baer (2015). Although Baer used different terminology, her paper essentially discussed the different approaches adopted by what have been termed first-generation mindfulness-based interventions (FG-MBIs) and second-generation mindfulness- based interventions (SG-MBIs) in terms of how they conceptualise and teach ethics. The key difference between these two approaches is that compared to FG-MBIs (such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy), SG-MBIs (such as meditation awareness training [MAT]) tend to explicitly teach a greater range of meditative and/or spiritual practices (i.e., in addition to mindfulness) and tend to be more overtly spiritual in nature (Van Gordon et al. 2015a). Although Baer admittedly made a number of valid and interesting points concerning the most appropriate means of teaching ethics in MBIs, her lack of support for the SG-MBI approach was based on a number of oversights and factual inaccuracies that we would like to challenge and correct: