Thread: Meditation Lesson 1: An Introduction to Meditation

Meditation Lesson 1
An Introduction to Meditation

Lesson Plan

Welcome to Meditation Lesson 1: An Introduction to Meditation.

This lesson will introduce the concept of meditation, explain what it is and describe the advantages of meditation in everyday life and in dreaming. Two types of meditation - void meditation and focal meditation - will be covered briefly, and some of their advantages will be explained. At the end, there will be a written workbook entry to complete. This will involve a few questions about meditation to determine what your view of meditation is, and what stage you are at with meditation.

What is Meditation

Meditation is the process of relaxing your mind or inducing a higher state of awareness or focus. Meditation has many advantages in everyday life. For example, it is good for headaches and migraines, it can help build up your self confidence, can help to resolve certain fears, etc. The list goes on, so I've compiled a short list below.

• Lower oxygen consumption
• Good for headaches and migraines
• Builds up self confidence
• Helps to resolve fears
• Improves focus and concentration in general
• Stabilizes emotional state
• Less aggressiveness
• Can create a more stable personality

Advantages of Meditation

Meditation also has advantages in dreaming and recall. While there isn't a proven link yet, some people find that meditating shortly before sleep decreases the time between falling asleep and entering the first period of REM sleep. This is because some types of meditation induce a state similar to that of non-REM sleep. Meditation is also great for people using the MILD (Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dream) technique. Once you reach a deep state of meditation, you can use a mantra such as "The next time I am dreaming, I will realize I am dreaming", or just "I will lucid dream" or something; and it will stick in your mind more, since you have less/no thoughts to distract you. This will be explained in more detail in later lessons, so don't worry if you don't get it yet.

Disadvantages of Meditation

Since meditation has so many advantages in everyday life, and even in dreaming and recall, surely it must have downfalls. Right?

In short, no. In long, nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Meditation is relaxing, good for you physically and mentally, and it doesn't have any disadvantages or side effects. Even if you try meditation and it turns out it's not for you, the only thing you've lost is time.

Void Meditation and Focal Meditation

This semester covers two specific types of meditation; void meditation and focal meditation. Void meditation is basically the clearing of the mind to achieve a more peaceful state of mind. Deeper states of void meditation can help provide insight into your inner self. On the other hand, focal meditation involves focusing on something (called the focal object) and ultimately clearing the mind of everything except the focal object. The focal object can be something physical, or it can be abstract; for example, a sound, smell or emotion.

Both void meditation and focal meditation achieve a state of mind similar to that of non-REM sleep, so they can both be used before sleeping to decrease the time between falling asleep and entering the first period of REM sleep (not scientifically proven). The next lesson will cover void meditation in more detail and introduce a technique for practicing void meditation. Focal meditation will be covered in the lesson following that one.

Meditation Workbook

Optional homework is given at the end of each lesson to be completed in your meditation workbook. If you don't have a workbook yet, create a new thread in the Meditation sub-forum with an appropriate thread name. For example, if your forum username is zebrah, your workbook might be called "zebrah's Meditation Workbook". Particularly vague workbook names will be corrected, and workbooks with inappropriate names may be corrected or removed.

For the first workbook entry, I'd like you to explain briefly what meditation means to you, and to describe what you hope to have accomplished by the end of the semester. It doesn't matter if you write 2 lines or 20 lines, just try to put your thoughts into words.

If you have any questions about the lesson or the course, or if you need something clarified, feel free to send me a private message, or post your question in your meditation workbook. I won't claim to know everything there is to know about meditation, but I'll try my best to answer questions.

ShockWave.