Meditation Glade

Interdependent complex of bioengineered lifeforms used throughout large parts of the Sophic League to aid in the achievement of various degrees of meditation and mental stabilization. Meditation glades range in size from 10-30m in diameter and usually consist of a ring of tree or shrub-like growths enclosing a clearing. Within the glade may be found trees, plants, water features of various sorts, and benches and platforms upon which a sophont may rest and contemplate the scenery around them.

Virtually every structure and lifeform within a meditation glade is designed to assist in the achievement or maintenance of some form of meditative or consciousness altering state. From the wood grain or stonework of the benches and platforms, to the bark of the trees, to the location, arrangement and growth patterns of the plants and flowers everything within a meditation glade offers a new and different path to some form of meditation or mental introspection. In the larger or more complex glades, the arrangement of the interior may form a “path of paths” with the use or mastery of a particular aspect of the glades interior leading the user onward to seeing how that aspect is but a component of a larger pattern, which in turns leads the user on to larger patterns still.

Arrayed around the perimeter of the glade are a number of so-called “focus shrines” designed to assist a sophont in either relaxing or focusing their concentration to achieve the desired mental state. Shrines may consist of small statues, water features and fountains, complex fractal constructs, or combinations of all of these things and more. In some glades each shrine is a stand alone structure, to be appreciated on its own merits. In others all of the shrines together form a larger “path of paths” structure or journey for the user to follow. In yet other cases shrines may point the user back toward the glade as the paths to meditation that it provides.

Meditation glades are understandably popular among those Sophics whose belief systems place particular emphasis on the value of meditation or solitary contemplation. However, even belief groups whose tenets do not explicitly call for such activities will often make use of a convenient or favored glade to carry out their own spiritual discussions or explorations, whether due to the quiet and restful nature of such structures or the simple aesthetic beauty that is a key feature of such structures and that often strives to be designed in such a way that even sophonts of widely different clades may appreciate it.

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