Clinical practice of mindfulness and its Buddhist background are discussed in terms of constructivism in psychotherapy. The main points of discussion are as follows: (1) third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies contain a mixture of epistemologically contradictory ideas (e.g., rationalism, empiricism, subjectivism, and objectivism), whereas the Buddhist vijnapti-matrata idea is very similar to and has much in common with constructivist thinking; (2) some researchers believe that the being-mode and the narrative-mode are contradictory, but the experiencing process of becoming aware of the stream of consciousness as it is set at its foundation and the creation of coherent meaning is positioned as a further step; and (3) the distinctive difference between the two is the concept of dialectical development in which constructive therapy is based on attachment theory and extends it to the symbolic level to view human growth as a dynamic centering process. Constructivism is a meta-theory; therefore, it incorporates making or not making value judgments as only one choice in how to live. A constructive meta-theorist contends that whether to be or not be judgmental is also subject to dialectics and that mindfulness is just one option for living.
