Is it a sin to participate in meditation?

[Antonio5]

By this I don’t mean meditating on the Mysteries of the rosary.

Yesterday in my school the teacher invited us to meditate. This practice had 4 stages and involved one picturing certain people and wishing them to “be well, happy and free from suffering”. This didn’t seem bad in its self so I meditated. But is does this stuff sound dangerous (new age?) and have I sinned by meditating?

 

[Trishie]

If invited to mediate with good will for others in future, then you can use the time to mentally pray for others. In this way, your mediation can take the form of prayer.
When you meditate, offer your heart and mind to God, thank God for His goodness.
If you make your meditations about God and prayer, a time to speak your heart to Him, who will know but yourself and God?
And then you need have no worries or doubts about what you are doing.

Regarding the meditation period you spoke of, you were doing what you were told and were not intending in any way to do wrong, so be at peace. It isn’t a bad thing to think kindly and with good-will for others, but a much better thing to use the mediation in a prayerful way.

May God bless you.

 

[thistle]

By this I don’t mean meditating on the Mysteries of the rosary.

Yesterday in my school the teacher invited us to meditate. This practice had 4 stages and involved one picturing certain people and wishing them to “be well, happy and free from suffering”. This didn’t seem bad in its self so I meditated. But is does this stuff sound dangerous (new age?) and have I sinned by meditating?

CCC 2707 There are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sower. But a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ Jesus.

 

[Luvtosew]

What class was that in?

 

[CountrySteve]

imo, i would have just prayed for the suffering of others when the teacher asked you to meditate

 

[IgnatiusDaughtr]

I used to work with young people who were transitioning from lock-up back into main stream society and would use meditation to help them manage their emotions (many people would call this anger management, but we worked with many emotions, including anger, frustration, regret, depression, guilt, loss etc.). We would use guided meditations to teach students how to manage their emotions in a positive way instead of lashing out at others or themselves in negative ways. There was never anything spiritual about the meditations that I led with students in this program, and many of them reported liking having some quiet time in their day and also started using some of the techniques we were teaching in their everyday lives to keep themselves from repeating past actions that had negative consequences.

I’m not sure what part this meditation had in your class, but I don’t think that it is automatically inappropriate. Now, if your being asked to meditate in math class, I would be more concerned that the activity wasn’t related to the course content.

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

If it’s a clearing-your-head-to-relieve-stress kind of meditation, there’s nothing inherently wrong in that: if anything, it’s likely a good thing, since it’s taking care of your emotional and mental health.