Online Meditation Course

If you’re interested in learning how to meditate, then it’s absolutely essential that you find the support of a guide or course.

On this page, we offer you access to our favorite free online meditation course, so you can experience the incredible benefits of meditation for yourself.

Getting started with meditation via an online course is a good way to begin working with this incredibly powerful practice in a way that allows you to be in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Since meditation is such a personal experience, it also helps to have a course that allows you the opportunity to work with a number of different styles and types of meditation in order to get the handle on a variety of techniques and decide for yourself which approach works best for you.

We hope that’s exactly what you’ll find in this course. In addition to guided meditations and exercises for you to incorporate into your daily routine — creating a habit around meditation and mindfulness practices — you’ll learn why meditation is important, and tips and tricks for how to integrate it successfully into a modern day life.

 

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Mantras

An Introduction to Mantra Meditation

Mantra meditation is one of the most common styles of meditation, dating back thousands of years. It is a common practice throughout most meditation traditions, including Hind, Buddhist, and Zen practices.

In this post we’ll give an introduction to mantra meditation and how you can get started

What Is A Mantra? Origin and Meaning

A mantra is a phrase that is repeated throughout a meditation practice. The phrase may be spoken or thought, and may or may not contain a specific meaning to it.

The origin of the term mantra comes from Sanskrit. The word can be broken into two roots:

1. Man: Often translated as “mind,” man also refers to thought and the act of thinking.
2. Trai: Probably most directly translated as “to liberate” or “to free,” and is used in the context of tools and techniques.

Thus “mantra,” quite literally, means a tool to free the mind from thought.

Mantra Traditions

Many mantras are used out of tradition, with the focus being on the sounds produced during the vocalization of the mantra, and in these cases it is often repeated as a chant. Perhaps the most common example of this is the “Om” mantra, which is pronounced in three parts (Ahh-Auu-ohmmm), and according to many yogic texts (including Patanjali, for example) is said to contain the entire existence of the universe within the single sound.

Others, often in Sanskrit, are used for their meaning and intention. Many of the mantras date back thousands of years, and part of the practice of mantra meditation is to invoke the energy that has been imbued in these phrases over many generations.

Powerful Mantras: The Top 10 Most Common Mantras

1. Om: The sound of the universe.
2. So-hum: I am that.
3. Shanti Shanti Shanti: Peace of mind, body, and word.
4. Sat Chit Ananda: Beingness, consciousness, and bliss.
5. Ajai Alai:: Being in Power; Warrior’s mantra.
6. Sabbe Satta Sukhi Hontu
7. Gayatri: Earth, Heaven, and Everything between.
8. Ganesha: salutation to the God Ganesh
9. I am that I am.
10. Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better:

The Benefits of Mantra Meditation

Like all types of meditation, practicing mantras has a number of important health benefits. The top among these is improved concentration and focus, centeredness, happiness, and ease of life.

 

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Loving Kindness Metta

Mindfulness

• Metta Meditation – 3 Tips for Practicing Loving Kindness Loving-kindness, also known as metta, is the practice of unconditional love and forgiveness even in the face of past struggle or difficulty. This is one very common Buddhist practice, but the spirit of metta is by no means limited to Buddhism. Loving-kindness is a trait glorified by most major religions. Despite the common presence of this ...

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Trataka

How To Do A Tratak Sadhana Meditation

Trataka meditation, also known as a tratak sadhana or candle-gazing meditation, is a meditation technique in which the practitioner center his focus on a single visual point.

The point may be an image, a word, a symbol, or even just a dot on the wall. The idea is to allow the gaze to soften and rest gently on this point, so that the mind can relax. Candles are a particularly powerful object to use, because the soft flicker of the candlelight has a natural lulling motion that allows the individual to relax more easily, as if in a trance-like state.

The goal of tratak sadhana is to enter samadhi – an intense, focused concentration – by raising the energy in the sixth chakra, located at the third eye. This center is the chakra aligned with one’s vision, both physical sight and internal vision and intuition. Thus, resting the eyes softly is said to induce higher activity in this region.

Like many meditation techniques, there are a number of common variants. Most commonly, the focal point is set at eye-level, three to four feet in front of the practitioner. Another common variation is for the focal point to rest on the floor a little further away, between one and two meters from the individual.

A secondary aim of candle-gazing meditation – or simply relaxing your gaze on a single point – is to develop the solar plexus in the third chakra (naval center). There are strong associations between the 6th and 3rd chakra centers, so as one gazes at the candle or image, he can more easily build a feeling of warmth and inner fire in his abdominal region.

Tratak Yoga – Maintaining Drishti

Tratak sadhana is also a common practice in yoga. Commonly known as drishti, the technique is applied in yoga not as a specific meditation, but as a focal point to help the individual maintain balance.

Drishti refers to a single point of focus, which, again, may be on the floor or on a wall slightly in front of the individual. Maintaining this focus through a yoga sequence helps the individual to maintain balance. Thus, the technique is particularly popular in balancing postures such as Vrkasana (Tree Pose), Garudasana (Eagle Pose), Ardha Chandrasana (Half-Moon Pose), and Virabhadrasana (Warrior Pose), among others.

The Benefits of Trataka

This technique has a number of well-established results and positive effects. The primary benefit of trataka meditation is an increased ability to concentrate, both during meditation and throughout other daily tasks.

The improved concentration occurs in two ways, as the individual develops both an increased capacity to maintain focus for longer periods of time, as well as an ability to enter into a state of deep focus. This level of concentration is commonly associated with clearer reasoning faculties and an ability to make effective decisions.

Gazing meditations have also been shown to improve memory and recall, as they cleanse the cerebral cortex, helping to decrease anxiety, relieve depression, and promote deeper, more relaxed sleep.

According to yogic traditions, the practice also helps to relieve eye tension and may be a factor in curing diseases related to eye fatigue and poor vision, though this has not been confirmed.

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Techniques

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Metta Meditation – 3 Tips for Practicing Loving Kindness

Loving-kindness, also known as metta, is the practice of unconditional love and forgiveness even in the face of past struggle or difficulty. This is one very common Buddhist practice, but the spirit of metta is by no means limited to Buddhism. Loving-kindness is a trait glorified by most major religions.

Despite the common presence of this ideal in cultures across the globe, the actual act of practicing loving kindness can be a tricky art. In this post we’ll look at a few tips for how to incorporate this practice into your daily life, as well as a good loving kindness meditation to get you started.

How To Practice Loving Kindness: 3 Tips for Practicing Metta into Your Daily Life

 

Develop a Daily Gratitude Habit

The first tip to begin practicing loving kindness in your life is to begin a practice of gratitude. Gratitude is an important habit for a number of reasons, and has been scientifically proven to help you improve brain function and lead a happier life.

In the context of loving-kindness, however, the importance of gratitude deals with how you interact with others. When you are consistently grateful, you train your brain to look for positive aspects in situations. When you deal with other people, then, you’ll automatically be on the lookout for these positive traits.

That means that even if you’re dealing with a situation in which it is difficult for you to forgive or get past a previous event, you’ll still be able to enjoy higher levels of compassion, and will at least start the practice of looking for reasons for forgiveness.

 

Stay Mindful

Believe it or not, the simple act of mindfulness, or developing an awareness of your surrounding environment, can also be a great way to expand upon loving kindness.

That’s because the entire point of mindfulness is to center you into the present moment, and when you are fully centered in the moment, you are unable to hold negative emotions. Mindfulness, in its purest form, requires letting go.

Developing a habit of mindfulness about things that don’t seem related to whatever your “big issue” with metta is can be a great way to build up strength and consistency, before tackling the larger issues you’re dealing with.

Take Time for Meditation

Finally, it’s important to remember to take time every single day to sit quietly and center yourself. Sit comfortably, focus on your breath, and allow your natural energies to flow.

You don’t have to do a “loving-kindness meditation” every day in order to improve your practice of metta. Any type of meditation will do. If you do want to work specifically on the loving kindness ideal, however, I recommend the meditation below.

 

Loving Kindness Meditation

Check out the following video for one of my favorite examples of a loving kindness meditation.

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