Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body

by Daniel Goleman

A more inclusive—and more current—typology by Richie with his colleagues Cortland Dahl and Antoine Lutz organizes thinking about meditation “clusters” on the basis of a body of findings in cognitive science and clinical psychology.12 They see three categories: Attentional. These meditations focus on training aspects of attention, whether in concentration, as in zeroing in on the breath, a mindful observation of experience, a mantra, or meta-awareness, as in open presence. Constructive. Cultivating virtuous qualities, like loving-kindness, typifies these methods. Deconstructive. As with insight practice, these methods use self-observation to pierce the nature of experience. They include “nondual” approaches that shift into a mode where ordinary cognition no longer dominates.