Getting Started

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

The first and most important thing you must realise about becoming a meditation teacher is that we are never a meditation teacher but always a meditation student. The process is of learning from each other; having reverence, humility and respect for each other.  

So even though we will be referring to you as a meditation teacher you should always take that to mean ‘student’. In fact, the wisest attitude is to see yourself as not a teacher but as a peer. We are all peers, equals. Every soul is equal, just as in the human body there are different parts that perform different functions: for the body to be in harmony, it needs every part equally. It is the same with us as souls. We are all different and unique, we all have had varied and varying experiences, each one of us is a perfect piece in the jigsaw and the whole cannot be perfect without all of us.

So see your students in this way, you are a facilitator, not a guru.  In this way you should try and develop real love and reverence for your students. Be in genuine awe of their stories, enamoured by their revelations, really listen and open yourself to their experience. They have come into your life at this time for you as well as themselves.

The more you see your lessons in your students, the more you realise you are a student first, the easier your teaching will be.

One of the most important aspects of your role is to help people develop the skills they need to get the faith and confidence in their own inner dialogue, in their own heart. They need to realise that this course is not to enslave them to a teacher or guru, but to empower them to trust and develop faith in their own heart, in the infinite wisdom within. Within a very short time they should come to realise that with discipline they can be their own teacher, with concentration they will discover the love, the joy and wisdom that is their real nature. Your job should then be just to find a venue for the group to meet and share each other’s journeys and inspiration. The time of the traditional role of master and student has passed, there is no doubt that it served a wonderful purpose, but there is also no doubt it was fatally flawed. The number of real masters, of real gurus was extremely small and even they sometimes failed at the final hurdle because of the entrapment of the ego.

Meditation has now become the first pioneering field where it is recognised that the role of the teacher is to develop the skill in the student of listening to one’s own wisdom, one’s own inner self. The process is one of treating one’s own heart with real reverence and love and making the outer teacher redundant. The real guru, the real master is one’s own heart and soul.

This will eventually permeate every field. In religion, the arts and even science, the greatest breakthroughs come from within the individual, so your role is to do away with your ‘teacher’ role as soon as you can, to open the doors of the hearts of your students and then get out of the way. The best teachers in every field do this, they point the way and then get out of the way. Some students resist this, they want someone there to hold their hand at every step, they want a teacher to tell them what to do, they want someone else to blame. Just as a pilot eventually has to solo, our job is not to keep them on the ground, ours is to empower our students so that they might fly. Our purpose is to help our students make the leap of faith from trusting others to be their teachers, to trusting their own self.

This is a holy and sacred task that you are opening yourself to, perhaps the most sacred of all. So treat it with real reverence. Your task, more than in any other field, is to be authentic, to be genuine and trustworthy, to be humble and wise, but above all, honest. Speak from experience, and if you do not know, do not be afraid to say you don’t know - someone else in the group may have that knowledge. And if not, be diligent enough to meditate on the answer and find it for another time. Finally, remember to be kind, compassionate and loving to yourself, that is where these authentic feelings for others must begin. So try not to be too critical, recognise the sincere inspiration you have to want to help.