Class 4 - Learning to Learn download as pdf for printing

To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulty but is to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully, to bring to them the transformative power of our heart - Jack Kornfield

Make sure you have read class 5 from the online course. Don’t forget to do your meditation prior to the class, your visualization of how the class will unfold and most importantly your surrender to your creative source (God, the universe) to be an instrument.

The important points to remember from the 3rd class are;

1. How powerful our thoughts are. We use the force from Star Wars as an illustration of this point.
2. Our thoughts are extremely important in framing the way we see our world. A positive state of mind is like living in the light side of the force and our range of thoughts will be elevated to reflect this. The opposite is true.
3. Our thoughts shape how we reflect on our past, if we are imprisoned or free from our past.
4. Our thoughts shape our present, filtering the way we view the world and attracting the people and events that mirror our thoughts.
5. Our present thoughts create our future.
6. Thoughts must not be suppressed or even ignored, it is best to accept, love and transform them. The best and most powerful transformation occurs with love.
7. The rate of thoughts is very important. The more thoughts, the greater speed of thoughts usually equates to lack of control, increased restlessness, unease through to anger, depression, anxiety and eventually more extreme mental illness. The fewer thoughts = more control, more peace. The highest experiences in our lives are intuitive heart experiences where there are very few or no thoughts.
8. Simplify your life and make it more centred so that you can journey with the least encumbrances.

Spend no more than 10 or 15 minutes on the revision using it as a time to re-establish your connection and re-engage your students. To finish the revision it is a good idea to quickly recap one of the exercises. In this 4th class spend a moment explaining that this is the meditation exercise that they should do every day this week, that they can add others if they choose but for every day this week this is a good start.

Learning to Learn

This class is working on empowering your students to use meditation techniques in every day situations such as learning.

Keeping with previous themes of the student being his/her own best teacher, in this class the whole process of learning to learn is completely in the hands of the student.

The mindfulness and awareness techniques are extremely important in being aware of the criticality of our inner dialog, but most importantly in creating the doorways to our heart that meditation explores.

Takes some time with the Change Cycle making sure your students get how powerful they are in the process. That the big first step is awareness. After that the process is very simple it just needs to be followed. Ask them if they have examples in their own life where this process might have worked, emphasise that once we are aware of something we want to change, follow the Potential, Action, Result process and it will complete every time. If they don't have an example, make sure you have one ready of your own. I always talk about how I used this same process when I was beginning meditation and though I didn't quite understand what meditation was, I knew that it was something I needed and so I just kept increasing my potential after each practice until I recognised, for myself, the tangible benefits I was experiencing. Now, I use the process for everything.

 Remarkably, and this is the segue to the heart, I, like many of your students, really had no idea what my heart was or what my soul was. I kind of thought I must have one but was not able to identify it for myself in my life. By practising meditation and increasing my potential and positive internal dialog, I developed what I would say is a "letting go" of my ego's resistance to feeling what my heart is. I think this is true for everyone, eventually we relax and allow ourselves to be in our heart, it is our natural resting place, then look around and understand what it is. This is why it cannot be understood by the intellect, it needs intuitive experience, or meditation.

The goal of the "Meditation Lifestyle" section is to help your students start to see themselves as 'meditators', and that meditation is an important guiding influence in the way they live their lives. Read through it and see what you are inspired to talk about.