Thank you for sharing this balanced, thoughtful assessment of the psychotherapeutic benefits of meditation practice.

It's good to remember that the word "Buddhism" is a western coinage, based on a presumed analogy to western belief systems (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam). But the analogy--implied in the -ism ending of "Buddhism"--is fundamentally inaccurate. The Buddha never intended to establish a mandatory ideology, an "-ism." Rather, his own term for what he taught was "Dharma Practice."

Dharma is not a set of beliefs at all. It is rather, as the Dalai Lama defined it, simultaneously a principle, a precept, and a practice, which anyone, of any or no religious affiliation, can use to free ourselves from delusion and neurotic patterns.

As a PRINCIPLE, Dharma refers simply to phenomena--the way things are: impermanent, interconnected, and ultimately undifferentiated. One can compare these Dharma seals to three ironclad laws of physics: entropy, conservation of matter/energy, and quantum entanglement or nonlocality.

As a PRECEPT (which derives necessarily from the Principle), awareness of the Dharma translates into compassion for all living beings--loving our neighbors as ourselves.

And as a PRACTICE, Dharma is realized through meditation--through the deliberate process of breathing, observing, letting go, and abiding.

These three--principle, precept, and practice--are all mutually interdependent; you don't have to "believe" anything in order to practice.