The first thing I was taught in my own meditation teacher training was the Transmission Principle. Without honoring this principle, I learned, I would not teach effectively.
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When meditation is taught, this principle often goes missing…which is too bad. It is where the transformational power, healing capacity, and connection to sacred world comes from. Without the Transmission Principle, meditation can become dull, painful, and difficult to maintain. With it, the spiritual journey unfolds, which isn’t to say that dullness, pain, and inconsistency disappear—but they become more workable.
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Teaching meditation is a transmission, not an explanation.
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Anyone can tell you how to meditate: sit down, notice your breath, let your thoughts come and go. That’s basically it. But something else is needed to empower the practice fully.
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Here is how the principle works: I was taught to meditate by my meditation teacher. He was taught to meditate by his teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, who was taught by his teacher, who was taught by his teacher, who was taught by her teacher…all the way back to the Buddha, presumably. There is an unbroken line to the source which is not denied, masked, or promoted. It just is. This is where transmission quality comes from and why it is important to be trained to teach meditation. This offers protection from spiritual materialism for you and your future students.
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I never met the Buddha, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t teach meditation as a life-hack for becoming a better leader or perfecting your golf swing. (Not that there is anything wrong with those things.) No. It has existed for thousands of years because it transforms suffering into wisdom. This is the real power of meditation and it begins with preserving the transmission quality.
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When I and my co-teacher, the brilliant @jennahollenstein, teach you to teach meditation, the emphasis is on preserving the potency of the practice in just this way. We support you to discover how it works in your life and how you can carry on the transmission in your own voice, for your own students, thereby improving planet earth for us all. Thanking you in advance.
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Next session starts September 19th here.