Phenomenology of Traditional Buddhist Meditation Retreat: Subjective Experiences and Psychological Correlates

Literature on meditation suggests multi fold benefits on personality. Yet, very few researches explored meditation in its traditional context utilising both empirical and anecdotal evidence to get insights about the way it impacts the practitioners and their subjective experiences. The study aims to explore the impact of a Buddhist Mediation retreat on Depression, Stress, Anxiety and Affect regulation of participants and their qualitative outcomes. One hundred subjects were studied through convenience sampling who participated in a ten day meditational retreat for the first time at Tushita Meditation Centre. Further, qualitative analysis was conducted on ten participants who exhibited significant changes on their quantitative measures to understand their motivation, deeper perspectives and experiences of the retreat. The retreat was found to be effective in reducing the severity of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms significantly and also in regulation of emotions (all p >0.001). The qualitative analysis yielded overarching themes - (a) Self development, Distress and imbalance regulation; (b) Self exploration, Insightful values and Physical challenge; (c) internalizing Impermanence and attaining Equanimity. The findings revealed a complex and dynamic set of interdependent outcomes and processes, which are reinforced by Buddhist teachings and ethical practices. It also provides a detailed understanding on the impact of meditation retreat interventions which can be of strategic research benefit for studying as a model system to understand the transforming effects and in realizing the holistic effect of meditation training at an individual level. It also highlights the need to recontextualize traditional philosophies into modern meditation practices.