Matthieu Ricard: How do you find your way through the jungle of apps dedicated to meditation?

How to choose an application dedicated to meditation?

Sites or other online applications offer all kinds of services, most of them geared towards personal development and well-being. For a Buddhist, there is a specific purpose to meditating, although feeling better or more attuned to oneself or one's surroundings may be a result of the practice. To meditate means “to become familiar with”, in other words to cultivate a new way of being, a particular quality, in this case compassion, altruism, etc.. But trying meditation takes a bit of discipline and strong motivation, even when we're tired. "It's too late, I have to go to sleep", "I'm not available on such a day, such a time", "I'm too restless, it won't work"... Who hasn't had such thoughts before starting? to practise ?

Do you have to be a Buddhist monk to practice meditation?

The practice of meditation is perfectly compatible with an active professional life and a family life. In this program, the emphasis here is on the notion of a benevolent mindfulness, combining the development of mindfulness with that of a more compassionate and altruistic spirit.

“The advantage of the Imagine Clarity application is that it is based on traditional teaching texts intended for everyone, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, and that it offers a fairly comprehensive range of meditative techniques. »

Meditation helps us to develop a more precise and refined understanding of reality and the laws of cause and effect, and to be less vulnerable to the reversals that inevitably occur in life. With a calmer mind, it is then given to us to act more effectively in the world and to contribute to the construction of a wiser, more altruistic and gentler society.

What more does Imagine Clarity bring?

The advantage of this application is that it is based on traditional teaching texts, intended for everyone, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, and that it offers a fairly complete range of meditative techniques. The notion of benevolence is fundamental there: vis-à-vis oneself, which obviously leads to that vis-à-vis others, because one cannot imagine becoming useful to others if one does not first have started by changing yourself. Every being aspires to happiness. We can all change our habits, we all have the ability to transform our mind and develop the factors that lead to authentic happiness, such as mental stability, resilience, generosity? These are skills that we can learn through practice.