Mindfulness between tradition and innovation: from buddhist psychology to evidence-based intervention
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article offers a critical exploration of the concept of Sati within Buddhist psychology and its translation into contemporary clinical practice through mindfulness-based interventions. Rooted in over 2,500 years of contemplative tradition, Sati denotes an embodied mode of awareness that integrates attention, memory, and discernment within the immediacy of lived experience. While historically embedded in a spiritual framework, its clinical adaptation in Western psychology has reframed mindfulness as a secular therapeutic construct centred on cultivating non-judgmental, present-moment awareness. The study uses an integrative literature review and conceptual analysis, drawing on sources identified through B-ON, PubMed, and Google Scholar. It examines the phenomenological foundations of Sati and the ways in which its traditional principles have been retained, transformed, or omitted in contemporary psychological models. Particular attention is given to the reconceptualisation of mindfulness within third-wave cognitive-behavioural therapies, where it functions not simply as an ancillary technique but as a mechanism of therapeutic change. This transition is examined primarily through MBSR, MBCT, and DBT, with ACT considered as a related third-wave approach.Across these approaches, mindfulness is associated with reduced habitual reactivity and cognitive rigidity, as well as greater emotional regulation, psychological flexibility, and resilience. Bringing historical-philosophical and contemporary psychological perspectives together makes it possible to identify both continuity with the Buddhist foundations of mindfulness and important changes introduced through its clinical adaptation. Mindfulness-based approaches can therefore be understood not merely as techniques for symptom reduction, but as process-oriented interventions that change how individuals relate to thoughts, emotions, and lived experience.
Source: Medicni perspektivi
Authors: M. N. Cunha, O. P. Kruspki, O. S. Balan
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7202039661