Practical Study of Remote Instruction Using ICT for Zen Meditation

Abstract

In recent years, interest in Zen meditation has been growing. The number of people seeking to receive instruction in Zen meditation has also increased. However, it is relatively difficult to find suitable instructors for learning Zen meditation. In the current situation, the potential demand for meditation instruction from people interested in experiencing Zen meditation has been left unaddressed. In order to resolve this issue, we investigated whether it is possible to teach Zen meditation remotely using ICT (Information and Communication Technology). We compared the traditional face-to-face method of meditation instruction with a remote method of instruction which uses a video communication system. During the experiment, we recorded the experimental subject’s biological responses using wirelessly connected portable devices. We analyzed the data using the heart rate variability (HRV) and electroencephalogram (EEG) as metrics. The results show that there is no significant difference between the face-toface method and remote method for meditation instruction. This demonstrates that it is possible to teach Zen meditation remotely. In addition, we also investigated the correlation between the heart rate variability and electroencephalogram of expert meditators. The results of the analysis of the heart rate variability and electroencephalogram data show that although expert meditators are physically and mentally relaxed during meditation, their brains are active.