More Meditation Teachers Needed!

My blog this time is going to be a fairly shameless effort on my part to convince you that you need to take the Ananda Meditation Teacher Training Course. The next one starts June 18th.  It is 9 days long: a week plus two weekends on both ends.

Wait, wait, don’t go away! I’m guessing you’ve thought about this before — am I right? Perhaps now’s the time to take action!

Still, I know very well what pops up in many people’s minds when this subject arises:

“Who, me? I’m not a teacher. I could never teach classes on meditation (or anything else). I’m shy. It’s not my thing. I don’t meditate well enough myself. I’m not a good public speaker.”

And on and on!

I think I’ve heard every excuse in the book. If you have a new excuse, challenge me — I’m game!

Savitri teaching a class

There is an old saying which is very true: “If you really want to learn how to do something well, volunteer to teach it.” For then you really have to apply yourself not only to learn the subject, but to figure out how to communicate it clearly.

This principle is especially true with meditation, which is so experiential. To be able to understand meditation well enough so that you can teach it, you really need to be meditating yourself.

So teaching meditation is highly motivational for your own personal practices—and this is very good news!

Feeling unworthy? Many people I’ve met, who could and should be teaching meditation, don’t, because they feel their own meditation practices are “not good enough.”

To them I say: “Even a little practice of meditation will free you from dire fears and colossal sufferings” (paraphrased from the Bhagavad Gita). This includes the fear that you aren’t meditating well enough to teach it!

Swami Kriyananda told us that the most effective teachers are often those who perhaps have not had much experience in what they are teaching. They are closer to understanding (from personal perspective) what their students are going through in their struggles with taking on a new discipline.  They might be able to clarify the subject much better than  a long-time meditation teacher, who may have forgotten what it’s like to be new to all this!

Please remember that thousands of souls all around you are crying out in desperation for the great life-changing techniques of quieting the mind and opening the heart.

Let that thought help you through any thoughts of inadequacy. Even if you teach only one person to meditate in your whole life, it may very well change his or her life forever, and he or she may in turn change the lives of untold numbers more.

Forget the word “teach.” It’s really just sharing something you love yourself, with somebody who needs it.

I can think of many stories about folks whom I’ve taught to meditate, but one in particular stands out. There was a young woman whom I met in about 1984. She was the mother of four children, the youngest ones being triplet daughters (toddlers at the time), and she had a demanding full-time job.

I had little hope that she could find the time to meditate, but she was (is!) a lovely, intelligent, and energetic person; and she seemed very sincere in her desire to learn whatever I could teach her about meditation, which I did in a brief one-on-one class.

Now, over 25 years later, her children are grown and gone from home. She is not only still faithfully and regularly meditating, but she is also helping to lead one of our Ananda Centers and teaching meditation on a regular basis to many people. And two of her four children are now meditators, too!

A large number of people in the world are already convinced that meditation would be a very helpful skill to add to their lives. But they still need a bit of training (from you!) in the basics of meditation, plus how to get a steady meditation practice going for themselves.

Who could benefit from learning how to teach meditation? Those who enjoys the benefits of meditation themselves and who sincerely want to share what has inspired them.

It is also an excellent skill to add for anyone who is a position of service in any capacity, most especially counselors, ministers, massage therapists, yoga teachers, healing practitioners of any type, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, nurses, chiropractors, naturopaths, retreat managers, and other related occupations.

Have I convinced you? Still have doubts and fears (costs too much, don’t have time off work, too far for me to travel, etc)? There is always a way! Let us help you find it.

If you are still thinking this doesn’t apply to you, then forward this post on to somebody you know, who would benefit greatly from becoming a meditation teacher.

Thank you!

Find more information on the Expanding Light Retreat website.

“Take this course! It will change your life and help you change the world for the better.”

— J.D.M., California

“This is a great program for anyone wishing to deepen their meditation practice and lock in a methodology and teaching practice that can be shared with anyone, anywhere, any time.”

— JH, Massachusetts

“This course is like opening a giant store room and finding everything you ever wanted and needed inside. And you will be assisted in every possible way in learning to teach meditation. I really had not anticipated that I would finish the course thinking: ‘I am now a meditation teacher.’ But I do!”

— D.R., California

“The instructors really enjoy what they teach. They are also so devoted, inspirational, but also very professional.”

— C.R., California