Assignment 1What kinds of meditations do you have experience with? Of the three steps in “Meditation Development” (Concentration & Discipline, Meditative Senses [Touch, Sight, Sound, Body-Awareness], Visualization), which one do you feel you need to work on? Your answer must be 250 words minimum (not including citations, if any are included).

Meditation Assignment BHopefully you have picked up a copy of "The Spiritual Art of Meditation" by Alethea Thompson.  During Module One, of this curriculum, you will notice that there is a 62 Day Meditation program that focuses on developing different areas of meditation.  When you have completed this meditation program, please use this section to tell us a review of how the meditation program worked for you.  What were things you discovered?  What came easiest?  What was the most difficult? What do you believe you need to work more with?INSIGHT TIMER: If you find this assignment is difficult to maintain, Insight Timer is a good app to help encourage you.  And as the name suggests, it also gives you access to a timer which can help you monitor how long you are meditating.  If you decide to use this tool, we encourage you to sign up with the group "Force Realists".NOTE: The actual meditation assignments make this one of the longest courses in the entire program, especially if you are pursuing the Bachelor's Program.  It is important to remember, however, that meditation is the cornerstone of a Journey on the Jedi Path.  As such, we encourage you to stay on this program until the end, and want to support you through it.  Don't hesitate to use the Force Academy Forums, Discord, Instructors, and even your fellow classmates/peers to seek encouragement as you work through this.  You may also use the Insight Timer App.  As the name suggests, it  gives you access to a timer which can help you monitor how long you are meditating.  And when you get into guided meditations later, you can find a plethora to choose from (even in the free version of the app).  If you decide to use this tool, we encourage you to sign up with the group "Force Realists”.

 Instructions for Final Paper BYour final paper must be a minimum of 5 pages (not including Title and Source pages), double-spaced, Times New Roman 12pt Font and include a minimum of 5 sources (10 is preferred) in APA Format.Choose a meditative practice that is associated with a religious culture to research for your final paper. You are also required to experiment with the meditation at least 2 times a week for 4 weeks. Questions that must be answered in your paper are as follows:1) How does it relate to the religious tradition? Does it carry specific importance?2) How does it impact the culture on a religious level?3) Are there any scientific studies into this particular meditative practice? If so, what does the science say about it's benefits or lack thereof?4) In your experimentation, what did you notice about yourself? What benefits did you gain from it? Etc?To Complete this Task, please write down the meditative practice you will be researching.  Choose wisely, once you have chosen, you will not be able to change the practice.
Chants & Mantras BResearch a particular mantra or chant used by a religious group and explain how it helps remind this group of their path. Your answer must be 250 words minimum (not including citations), with a minimum of 2 citations in APA format.Create a Personal Mantra BDevelop an original mantra that you can use to help you focus on something you want to bring to fruition in your life. Write a short piece on what the mantra means to you, and how you hope it will help pull your focus to this goal. Your answer must be 100 words minimum(not including citations if any are included).  This mantra will also be used for your meditations over the next two weeks.Morning Mantra BUsing the Mantra you developed in this module, set aside a portion of the morning for the next 6 days to meditate on it for 5 minutes.  On day 7, use this space to answer the following questions: How do you feel about conducting a mantra meditation in the mornings?  What difficulties did you note in trying to accomplish this task?Evening Mantra BTo be conducted after the  Morning Mantra  exercise.Using the Mantra you developed in this module, set aside a portion of the evening for the next 6 days to meditate on it for 5 minutes.  On day 7, use this space to answer the following questions: How do you feel about conducting a mantra meditation in the evenings?  What difficulties did you note in trying to accomplish this task?Chants & Mantras BResearch a particular mantra or chant used by a religious group and explain how it helps remind this group of their path. Your answer must be 250 words minimum (not including citations), with a minimum of 2 citations in APA format.Mantra Chanting BUsing the Mantra you developed in this module, set aside a portion a portion of your day for the 6 days to chant your mantra for a minimum of 5 minutes.  On day 7, use this space to answer the following questions: How do you feel about conducting a mantra meditation?  What difficulties did you note in trying to accomplish this task?
 Meditation & Energy/Faith HealingResearch a meditation that is aimed at healing the body. This could be cell health meditations, chakra balancing or any other number of systems used to heal ailments of the body. Have you done this meditative practice? If so, what has been your experience? What have practitioners reported on their own experiences with this meditative practice? Is there any supporting evidence from scientific studies? Your answer must be 250 words minimum (without citations), and a minimum of 2 sources in APA format.Fasting as a Meditation ToolResearch a culture that uses fasting for spiritual practices in conjunction with meditation. How does this culture believe fasting assists in their meditations?  Your answer must be 250 words minimum (without citations), and a minimum of 2 sources in APA format.Jedi Sextant & The Jedi CompassBefore reading the rest of this post, please read the following to familiarize yourself with the Jedi Sextant.forceacademy.us/index.php/10-light-content/326-the-jedi-sextant-a-jedi-meditation-deckHow Do I use the Sextant and Jedi Compass Together?This is a fun question.  It’s also where you step out from simple meditation and can begin to exercise some real critical thinking.  After drawing your cards and relating it to a story either in myth, real-life, or an imagined scenario- you start to look for how a Jedi would use  the Jedi Compass  (which includes the Jedi Code).  But don’t stop there- find out if it works.What do I mean by that?  Allow me an opportunity to illustrate this with one of the meditations I have drawn in the past.  My cards were Reject Information and Render Aid.  This led me to consider the difficulty of being a doctor in a war zone.  I had often heard that a doctor or medic may regret the decision of saving an enemy combatant, but in reality I had never had first-hand encountered an incident where the doctor cared or didn’t care who they were saving.  So I wanted to challenge the notion- in my view, the Jedi response to an enemy combatant would absolutely be to save their life, but was there precedence for a positive outcome of a doctor saving an enemy?  And I didn’t want to just find out, I wanted to challenge it to the extremes.I went to World War II, and looked hard for an example of a German, Military-affiliated, Doctor saving the life of anyone on the Allies’ side.  What I found was the story of how a German doctor named Ludwig Gruber completely disregarded authority, and even defied the medical odds of his time, to save the life of an American Soldier named Elmer Richardson.  This decision led to the salvation of the entire military hospital.  This was accomplished by Elmer standing before a US military official and convincing him to spare the hospital from an attack.  In turn, this single action by Gruber, managed to save even more lives throughout the war.So there you have it- From thought-experiment/myth to practical application, the Jedi Sextant and Jedi Compass is a fantastic way of addressing the world around us and finding out “What would Jedi Do?”.  Now it’s your turn, pick up a journal and start your own practice using the tools we’ve given you in this curriculum, and in turn, watch your Jedi Path evolve. The Jedi Compass  is provided at the end of this book for you to reference.We also offer the following translations, if you feel reading it in your native language may be easier Der Jedi Kompass (By Adhara) De Onvermijdelijke (By Marta Lina) El Compàs Jedi (By Manuel Suraty) The Jedi Compass Italian (By Silmerion Skywalker) КОМПАС ДЖЕДАЯ (By Alex Hudkoff) Click  www.forceacademy.us/index.php/10-light-content/142-the-jedi-compass  link to open resource.Examples The Daughter and the Sun (24:36 minutes)  The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting (8:46 minutes) Even Your Enemy Deserves Your Best (7:40 minutes) Use the Jedi SextantYou will need to keep a journal of this process: Play the Jedi Sextant 5 times, drawing only 2 cards each time, over the course of 5 different days (once a day)1) Log the two cards you drew.2) Write the story you derived from the cards.3) Explain how this story connects with  the Jedi Compass , for better or worse.At the end of the 5 games, choose one to report on and describe here to complete this assignment.Your answer must be a minimum of 350 words, not including the full story or citations (if any included).  Quotations, less than 25 words, may be counted towards  your word count.Submit Your Final Paper

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