Abstract
Over the last two decades, many meditation interventions comprising focused attention meditation, insight meditation, and compassion meditation, have been developed to improve mindfulness and compassion. These interventions have been found to reduce various physical and mental symptoms and improve physical and mental health. To improve the effectiveness and safety of interventions, it is necessary to clarify each effect and its underlying mechanism. In the present study, we developed Japanese and English instructions for short interventions for naïve subjects to compare meditation techniques. Specifically, based on a review of existing research and Buddhist literature that identifies concepts of meditation techniques, we identified and examined the functions of three meditation techniques that can be used with naïve participants. Furthermore, we controlled the structures of instructions and durations of practice of the three meditation techniques. Based on these instructions, we also developed 30 minutes Japanese and English audio instructions. In future, we hope that comparative researches using these short instructions will help improve the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of these three meditation techniques.
