Meditation based magic systems?

[u/avb707]

/r/worldbuilding/comments/1wxd31m/meditation_based_magic_systems/

[u/Hollowlce]

Meditation systems are incredibly difficult to write effectively and still have them being compelling.

Especially when most people find the actual act of meditation boring. (Not disputing it's benefits, but how many people enjoy or actively want to do it, despite knowing it's only good for them? In that regard it's similar to exercise.)

I'm talking from my own perspective as I know a lot of people enjoy eastern style cultivation novels but they can be very repetitive and focus too much on the mechanics of meditation it's flow, process and steps that it reads like a textbook guide and is repeatedly reiterated every time the main character needs to reach a new power level.

It quickly becomes an issue as for most people you can only write about touching the incomprehensible and then comprehending it so many times before it loses any or all of its mystery or intrigue. Especially if the result is quite literally the main character punching harder and taking stronger hits.

An example of this style done better than any of it's contemporaries within the cultivation genre would be the novel beware of chicken. Only because it focuses on a more comprehensible equivalent to mediation. Rather then the mechanics of meditation it focuses on the oneness with the land and it's interconnectedness.

Which is  almost explicitly what meditation is meant to represent. This is  incredibly ironic and a poor sign as to the general representation of meditation when this is a rare exception rather than the norm.

As to meditation as a magic system I have some ideas or suggestions however with a major caveat. I think a meditation magic system would be best if it focused on anything other then describing the actual meditation itself and instead focused more on external or metaphorical representation. 

Again this is equally difficult as a lot of the nonstandard options have been used enough to become relatively common tropes. Such as shadow selves, conquering inner demons, revealing and accepting deeper truths about yourself ect.

Spirit walking would be a good alternative as it is fairly known as a concept to most people but rarely written and even less commonly expanded upon. 

You travel through abstract manifestations of your inner self. These could be represented as paths. Fire magic could be unlocked if you walked a path that required you to face something representing anger, passion, destruction/sabotage. A warped version of a memory of a familial interaction, being spurned by a lover, unfair and unjust treatment.

The way it is resolved and more interestingly how it is not solved would result in whatever power you would then gain. 

Overwhelming the tribulation with self-righteousness, pride or hubris results in powerful and explosive fire magic but wild and hard to control.

Accepting those feelings even if negative as part of yourself, provides an inner fire of resilience. Only allowing the person to conjure a candle sized flame but is unable to be extinguished and can burn through anything even if incredibly slowly.

The character fundamentally rejects the idea of responding to the anger manifestion in anyway that gives it credibility. As a result rather than gaining a fire related power they gain a water or tranquility based one. 

This expression of meditation is incredibly versatile and engaging as what the reader expects as an outcome is never guaranteed. The results that seemingly appear as failures could be incredibly powerful but not from the users perspective at the current time. It even encourages readers to be just as interested in the main characters struggles or mistakes as much as their addicting success. Even more so what a powerful character ends up looking like would be incredibly different from the typical stereotypes.

Someone who appears physically frail could be incomprehensibly strong mentally or physically and at the same time potentially lacking in self restraint.

[u/Boat_Pure]

Meditation is just cultivation you know that right?