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El meditar con el chamán es una experiencia mística.

El meditar con el chamán es una experiencia mística.
Meditating with the shaman is a mystical experience.
From Lesson 475:Infinitives as subjects (el + infinitive)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El meditar con el chamán es una experiencia mística.

Why does the sentence start with El meditar instead of just Meditar?
Adding el before an infinitive makes it an articulated infinitive. This is a stylistic choice that emphasizes the action as a concrete concept. While starting with just Meditar is also completely correct and very common, adding el gives it a slightly more formal, philosophical, or poetic weight, sounding a bit like 'the act of meditating.'
Since the English translation says 'Meditating', why can't we use the Spanish gerund meditando?
In Spanish, when a verb is the subject of a sentence, it acts as a noun and must always be in the infinitive form (meditar). The Spanish gerund (meditando) is strictly used for continuous, ongoing actions (like when using estar) or as an adverb to describe how something is done, but never as a noun.
Why do we use es instead of está for an experience?
We use es (from the verb ser) because we are defining what the subject is. When you link a subject directly to a noun phrase that defines its core identity or category (in this case, una experiencia mística), you must use ser.
What happens to the word chamán if the shaman is a woman?
The noun chamán refers specifically to a male shaman. If the sentence were about a female shaman, you would change the word to la chamana.

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