Mental Health and Well-Being in Buddhism
In this chapter, I begin by providing a brief review of the origins of the Buddhist faith tradition and then review some of the core beliefs of traditional Buddhists based on the Dhammapada and the religious practices that result from those beliefs, including mindfulness meditation. Next, I will review observational and experimental research on the relationship between Buddhism, life satisfaction, and mental health (including some original research based on three large representative national and cross-national samples of Buddhists). This is followed by a brief discussion of Buddhist interventions for emotional disorders. Buddhism is among the world’s oldest religions, and Buddhist beliefs and practices have many applications to mental health and well-being, since Buddhist teachings focus on the development of the mind and moral character.
