Table 1. Elements and schedule of compassion meditation training program.

Week 1: Developing basic concentration and mental stability. Participants taught basic attentional meditation practice (i.e. shamatha) by using the breath as the object of focus.

Week 2: Introduction of mindfulness (i.e. vipassana) practice. Participants instructed in the techniques of non-judgmental observation of the processes of thought and bodily sensation.

Week 3: Use of concentrative and mindfulness techniques to explore universal human desires for happiness and wishes to avoid suffering as a prelude toward the practice of developing compassion for the self.

Week 4: Continuing meditation on the thought that the self shares with all people a desire for happiness and a wish to avoid suffering, as well as a struggle to attain these goals. Participants instructed to expand upon this awareness to examine the contingent and changeable nature of the distinctions between “friends” and “enemies”, with the goal of generating a felt sense that instinctive emotional responses to others do not reflect reality.

Week 5: Meditative reflection on the disadvantages of selfishness and a self-centered attitude and the advantages of considering the welfare of others. Participants guided through meditative techniques aimed at generating compassionate emotions and cognitions for those emotionally close to them.

Week 6: Meditation aimed at attempting to generate compassionate emotions not only for friends, but also for strangers and people participants do not like. Instructions given for how to continue this practice “at home” following completion of the class.