Fundamentals of Meditation

In this course, we will cover the fundamentals of three meditation techniques: samatha, metta, and vipassana. With samatha, called also, calm-abiding meditation, we will start familiarizing with awareness, which is the essence of meditation. Samatha is a great tool to familiarize and make friend with what we call "monkey mind", and to use anything we experience as support for meditation. We will use this meditation to change the relationship with negative emotions and thoughts, transforming them into a way to know better our own mind. In the classical meditation and mindfulness teaching it is said that via meditation we transform poison into medicine. Negative emotions can be transformed into a tool for growth.

We will then cover meditation approaches to cultivate important positive emotions: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In particular, love is the aspiration that ourself and other experience happiness. Compassion is the aspiration that ourself and others are free from suffering. Joy is the contentment and appreciation for what we have right now. Equanimity is the freedom from excessive craving and aversion. Connecting with those emotions is of key importance to develop a more open and workable mind.

In the third part of the course we will practice analytical meditation, in order to work with conceptual distortion and fixations of mind.