How to be a good meditation teacher?

Mindfulness Meditation
#2

Teaching meditation as in imparting the technique is very basic. Techniques you can pick up from any book, article or youtube video.

However, having a meditation teacher is the same as having a guru. The guru has to have had significant experience in meditation so whatever you encounter in meditation you can share with your guru for their expert advice and the guru can also help you go deeper and prescribe particular techniques to you to help you overcome obstacles.

You cannot become a guru unless you have been practicing meditation for a significant amount of time and reached a significant degree of progress in it.

#3

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;59256]Teaching meditation as in imparting the technique is very basic. Techniques you can pick up from any book, article or youtube video.

However, having a meditation teacher is the same as having a guru. The guru has to have had significant experience in meditation so whatever you encounter in meditation you can share with your guru for their expert advice and the guru can also help you go deeper and prescribe particular techniques to you to help you overcome obstacles.

You cannot become a guru unless you have been practicing meditation for a significant amount of time and reached a significant degree of progress in it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Surya
I will appreciate any other point of view and real experience.

#4

I can only tell you how to get as far as pratyahara because that is far as I’ve ever gotten in meditating on and off for 10 years - but this has been a rather halfhearted effort meditating for about 2 hours a day for a month, then losing discipline and mediating every other day, then meditating once a week. Then quitting for a whille - then starting again and another cycle. As a Vata body type holding discipline is one of my strongest challenges. I do the same with gyms too. I am now about to take a very serious commitment to do it for at least 5-6 hours a day for the next few years. But I am preparing myself for it now.

Pratyahara is a prerequisite to begin meditation proper. It is unmistakable when you are in this stage it will feel like you are under water. The senses will weaken if not turn off completely, sounds will sound like faint echos from the distance. A great technique I learned to induce pratyhara is Antar mouna from Swami Satyananda’s book, “Sure ways to self realization” from the Bihar school of Yoga. Look up the technique on google it is probably one of most powerful techniques out there.

#5

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;59259]I can only tell you how to get as far as pratyahara because that is far as I’ve ever gotten in meditating on and off for 10 years - but this has been a rather halfhearted effort meditating for about 2 hours a day for a month, then losing discipline and mediating every other day, then meditating once a week. Then quitting for a whille - then starting again and another cycle. As a Vata body type holding discipline is one of my strongest challenges. I do the same with gyms too. I am now about to take a very serious commitment to do it for at least 5-6 hours a day for the next few years. But I am preparing myself for it now.

Pratyahara is a prerequisite to begin meditation proper. It is unmistakable when you are in this stage it will feel like you are under water. The senses will weaken if not turn off completely, sounds will sound like faint echos from the distance. A great technique I learned to induce pratyhara is Antar mouna from the Swami Satyananda’s book, “Sure ways to self realization” from the Bihar school of Yoga. Look up the technique on google it is probably one of most powerful techniques out there.[/QUOTE]

I understand you learn only from books you do not have a teacher.

#6

Learning from books to get techniques is ok. Like I said a technique you can get from anywhere books, articles, internet. I have taught people to meditate myself in under 5 min.
They’re all pretty simple really and consist of two steps:

  1. Focus on something and keep your focus there
  2. When you notice your mind has wandered of, bring it back to your focal point

I have used various objects like mantras, concepts, visualizations, chakras, AUM, breath, and senses, silence. I also tried new-age techniques like guided CD meditations, hemi-synch

It is not true that I have only learned from books. I first learned meditation from a spiritual teacher from the Brahma kumaris. I then attended some new age workshops and psychic development classes and learned various meditations like chakra and colour meditations, mediating on visualizations of violet flames, and trying to contact your spirit guide. Then I got more serious and learned different meditations from my acharya at the university meditation society from the Anandamarga Yoga tantra tradition. I was formally initiated and given a personal mantra at stage 1. Then a few months later I got to stage 2 and was given a mantra+breath synchronization meditation technique + a visualization to induce pratyahara. After that I learned the meditation on the crown chakra from from the local Sahaja yoga group and dynamic meditation from the local Osho group.

I had for about a year also a Gnostic spiritual teacher I saw every week in our local group who taught me dozens of meditation techniques, vowel sound meditations, duality meditation, elimination of ego meditation, focussing on the senses, chakra meditations, third eye meditations.

My learning is both from books, teachers and my own experimentation.

#7

Ivana,

As with all of the techniques of the yogic sciences, one should not even think of making an attempt to teach others unless one has already gathered a certain direct experience from taking these techniques to a great depth. This requires consistent practice on one`s own behalf - because much that is involved in meditation is not figuring out what to do, but figuring out what not to do. It is more of a matter of dissolving psychological obstacles rather than doing a particular technique. As long as the psychological obstacles are there, it does not matter what technique you practice, the same problem remains. So, one thing that is essential in meditation is a scientific attitude to explore and find out what are the hindrances for meditation. This can only be observed through being mindful of the practice itself, you will have to observe how your own mind is functioning directly just as you are observing a laboratory. The moment there is a penetrating understanding of the psychological hindrances, that very understanding dissolves them. And like this, you can go on weeding out the weeds of your own mind the deeper you become absorbed into meditation.

Sometimes I heard that if somebody want to do meditation, he can learn by yourself

If one insists that one cannot learn meditation entirely by oneself - then the question is - how was it possible for the earliest yogis to come to know of meditation ? They did not learn from teachers, because there was nobody there to teach. Meditation was simply discovered as an accident, nobody ever practiced a technique with the intention of entering into meditation. Like most discoveries, it was a spontaneous discovery. The first yogis did not have any masters or gurus, because when you are entering into any new territory, there has never been anybody there before you who has explored into it. Only once you have discovered it and experimented with it - only then did the possibility arise of teaching others, of transmitting the torch so that it can continue as a fire. But first, the torch has to be lit. So yes, definitely you can learn meditation all by oneself. Not just meditation, but it is possible to come to your enlightenment without the help of a master. But such an approach is usually only compatible with a specific personality type who has tremendous discipline, trust, and a scientific mind. For most people who lack these qualities, they may benefit tremendously from seeking the help of a master.

#8

Hi folks
is somebody other here either I will really appreciate any notice from others
I know opinion of Surya Deva and AmirMourad.
I can put more my opinion as well about a good teacher:

  1. He or she has to have a good motivation to teach
  2. He or she has to like his or her students.
    Take care
    Ivana
#9

Ivana,

Are you sincerely interested in the subject, or are you just trying to gather enough information for your examination again ?

#10

[QUOTE=AmirMourad;59318]Ivana,

Are you sincerely interested in the subject, or are you just trying to gather enough information for your examination again ?[/QUOTE]

Dear Amir
What do you think, I am sincerely interested in the subject or I am just trying to gather enough information for my examination?
Ivana

#11

Ivana,

The second.

#12

[QUOTE=AmirMourad;59321]Ivana,

The second.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for let me know your opinion. I hope somebody others has other opinion that I am sincerely interested in the subject.
Take care
Ivana

#13

Your interest is just superficial. If you were sincerely interested in the subject of meditation, then you would spend less time seeking the opinions of others and more time practicing.

#14

Ivana,

“Sometimes I heard that if somebody want to do meditation, he can learn by yourself.”

Involvement with a master, constitutes a subtle slavery. If possible, it is best avoided. Otherwise, remain aware that the situation is temporary, and not without limitation.

#15

[QUOTE=JenniLeigh;59326]Ivana,

“Sometimes I heard that if somebody want to do meditation, he can learn by yourself.”

Involvement with a master, constitutes a subtle slavery. If possible, it is best avoided. Otherwise, remain aware that the situation is temporary, and not without limitation.[/QUOTE]

Jenni,Is it possible to avoid it?

#16

Surya,

“I had for about a year also a Gnostic spiritual teacher I saw every week in our local group who taught me dozens of meditation techniques, vowel sound meditations, duality meditation, elimination of ego meditation, focussing on the senses, chakra meditations, third eye meditations”

That is not meditation. It is either concentration or contemplation of the mind. Meditation is not something which one can do as an effort of the mind, it is not a technique. One can become absorbed in it, one can become meditative, but one cannot meditate as a technique anymore than a mirror can reflect itself. Certainly it requires effort, but it is not effort in the ordinary sense. To remain a witness is one’s very nature, whether one does something or does nothing - the current of awareness is unceasing. But the paradox is that one is unaware of one’s own awareness. So all effort is just an attempt to create a space which is prepared for the effortless, all methods are just a means towards the methodless.

#17

Hi The Scales
what is your opinion about how to become a good meditation teacher?
Ivana

#18

[QUOTE=Ivana;59336]Hi The Scales
what is your opinion about how to become a good meditation teacher?
Ivana[/QUOTE]

My guess is that in-order to be good at something you should have a keen interest in the subject.

I think this keen interest will drive your own study and practice.

With the driving force of interest I believe it is your own study and practice which will make you ‘good’.

#19

[QUOTE=The Scales;59340]My guess is that in-order to be good at something you should have a keen interest in the subject.

I think this keen interest will drive your own study and practice.

With the driving force of interest I believe it is your own study and practice which will make you ‘good’.[/QUOTE]

good point:p

#20

Apologies :stuck_out_tongue:

Since you are asking, your current desire to teach meditation is useless.

And, yes, slavery is possible to avoid, if one is not identified with a particular source of insight.

#21

What I would look for in a teacher is solid experience+knowledge and good instruction. As in in-depth studies and personal practice over a long period of time combined with a natural or learned ability to teach.

However I do also know that it is possible to learn from anything and anyone one may encounter in life. Even the teachers that aren’t right for you.