The recent more public and secular rediscovery of contemplative practices has tended to associate them with private, interior practices directed toward personal transformations for a sense of tranquility and pain relief. Increasing impatience with mainstream religious traditions also makes meditation a more available form of spirituality for some people. The interest scientists have begunto take in contemplative practice opens exploration beyond the bounds of monastic or generally religious symbolism, contributing to their wider availability. Medical settings increasingly recognize the power of meditation techniques to relieve stress and pain. Schools have discovered the power of simple mindfulness techniques to improve both academic achievement and social emotional intelligence. This expansion of contemplative practices into secular domains can only be applauded. But through this secularization, meditation and contemplation can be somewhat artificially removed from their relationship to compassion and justice, a removal that also tends to concentrate their analysis in the direction of monastic or white experience.