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.
“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.”
This year I’ve been teaching a class at Ananda’s Living Wisdom Highshool entitled, “Sharing Nature Leadership Training.” The Sharing Nature with Children book series was written by Ananda Village member Joseph (Bharat) Cornell and is used in virtually every part of the world. Joseph wrote the Sharing Nature activities to give inspiring nature experiences and to bring participants (both young and old) to a place of stillness within themselves. For as Henry David Thoreau said, “one cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind.”
The most challenging and ultimately most rewarding part of working with these students is learning how to work with their energy and enthusiasm, or lack thereof. No matter how well prepared I am going into a class, I almost always have to tweak or sometimes even completely let go of my personal goals and work with their level of energy at the moment.
To help in this process I use a technique developed by Joseph Cornell called Flow Learning.™ Flow Learning is a technique of working with energy to calm the mind so learning can take place much more effectively and peace be felt much more deeply. It has four stages:
Let me demonstrate the process of Flow Learning in pictures…
1. Flow Learning first starts with a lively activity to awaken their energy and enthusiasm by having fun. In this activity, “Animals! Animals!” the girls act out a Dragon Fly.
2. Next you take that newly awakened energy and bring it to a calm focus. In this activity, “Duplication,” students are given 15 seconds to memorize natural objects before they are covered up. They then go and search for those objects.
3. Now that their energy is focused and their mind is calm, it is easier for them to experience nature deeply. Here Mark is practicing “Still Hunting” in a tree!
4. Finally the students gather to share their experiences. Sharing helps to extract meaning more immediately from an experience.
So far the boys and girls have had a wonderful time working with and teaching Sharing Nature activities. They’ve taught to mostly all of the younger students at Living Wisdom School and the girls recently got back from their trip to Hawaii where they taught a class of 7th graders. In May we will be Traveling to Ashland, Portland and Seattle to do a series of workshops and next year we will be taking Sharing Nature into the schools in Nevada County. Maybe you’d like us to lead your family or group in Sharing Nature activities? You’ll be sure to have a joyful time!
I teach science at a public high school in a southern California suburb. This is my third year of teaching and though not a veteran yet, you can say that I have mastered it quite a bit. But I thought I’d share with you some of my experiences as a brand new teacher. While on one hand they did not feel pleasant, especially at the time, on the other hand they are some of the most cherished experiences of my life as a devotee, as Master’s (my Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda’s) child.
Let me give you a little background about myself. I had very little experience of the school system in the U.S having completed K-12 in India. An American high school classroom felt very “foreign” to me; the teenage jargon, the dress code, the behavior, the attitude – I was at times completely overwhelmed! – not to mention the pressure to perform anew in front of a 40 member class audience five times a day and the need to come up with new lessons every day, five days a week! I was exhausted!
Also since I had opted for what is called the internship instead of traditional student-teaching, it meant I had no mentor or guide to lend me a helping hand. I was on my own. However I did have Master and Divine Mother by my side.
Our school has a strict electronic policy that students cannot use electronic devices in the classroom. One day, and this was probably within the first three months of my first year, I had confiscated the cell phone of a student who was using it in the class and kept it on my table. It had never crossed my mind that it is possible for my students, the 14-15 year olds, to steal! Yes, I was naïve as I soon found out to my horror! The cell phone was gone and I realized it right after the class got over. It was very embarrassing as a teacher! What am I going to do?
I remember visualizing holding Master’s hand for support; “Everything is fine” – I felt calmer and centered. I talked to another teacher and she advised talking to the class which I did the following day. I told them how deeply disappointed I am and why I do not expect such behavior from the class. At the end of the class two students quietly came up to me, after everyone else had left, and said “We know who took the phone!”
Eventually the thief confessed and the phone was returned to the owner. I quietly thanked Master.
Another time I had left my thumb drive on the desk computer in my classroom. Again something one should never do, as I learned very quickly. As it turned out I had to call sick the following day. When I finally returned the day after the thumb drive was gone! Now that thumb drive had not only all my lessons, power point presentations and files, it also had all my assignments that were due at the university where I was completing my teacher preparation course. Remember that was my year of internship which means I had to go back to the university to my student-teaching class every week and yes, all my homework and papers ready to be submitted to the State was in that thumb drive. And it did not have a back-up. I was lost! Also there was a little hub like connection in the classroom where the video player, CD player, computer and speakers were all interconnected and connected to the overhead projector. Someone had pulled out every cord out of every socket and everything was lying in a big meshed up pile on the floor!
I went to see my department head about this incidence. He said this happens. As teachers we happen to enrage teenagers who then take out their anger on us. He also told me not to take it personally and that he too has lost his zip drive in a similar way. I was grateful for his support and kind words. However even though I understood it all, I was panicking in my mind – “what will I do without my lessons and assignments?”
I didn’t think I had the time and energy to recreate the lost work again – something that is sure to take months. I didn’t have all that time. I returned to my classroom and closed my eyes and tried to meditate. I mentally gave my problem to Divine Mother. “Thy will Ma, thy will; and whatever that is, its ok with me.” I felt lighter and relaxed and started to get ready for the next class.
Later that same day, I got a call from my department head. He said he’s found a zip drive and wanted me to check if it was mine. As it turned out it was mine! He, while keeping an eye out for his lost drive, by chance, saw something zip drive-like lying on the roof of one of the classrooms. The science building being a two-storey building allows a view of the rooftops of surrounding single storey buildings. Some students(s) might have thrown the zip drive and it landed on the roof. The recovery felt miraculous and I felt so grateful, both to him and to Divine Mother, that words didn’t come easy to me. I prayed that he find his drive too.
There were so many similar incidences that first year as I went fumbling my way into the school system and every time I experienced the guiding, protecting hand of Master and Divine Mother. We devotees do have an umbrella, in form of Divine Mother’s love and guidance, to protect us from the storms of our karma. We might get a little wet but isn’t it wonderful to experience the umbrella around us? And I’m thankful for all the storms. Looking back, how else would I have experienced Divine Mother’s umbrella?
Do you feel joy when using your physical skills to learn and grow and experience life? Perhaps you lead with your heart and feel most alive when you are in a beautiful natural setting, or caring for animals or babies. Maybe you live for a challenge – such as tackling a new project, or raising money for a cause or finding a solution to a problem. Then there are those who love to make lists and use their mind to discover and learn.
Body, Feeling, Will and Intellect – those are the four tools of maturity that Swami Kriyananda describes in the book Education for Life, which is the foundation of the Ananda Living Wisdom Schools.
I teach at the Living Wisdom School in Beaverton, Oregon. We recently had a workshop for parents and experienced the tools of maturity in a fun, interactive way. Learning through direct experience is an important tenet of Education for Life and Living Wisdom Schools. So we didn’t sit around all evening talking about the tools of maturity; we played games, built towers out of blocks, looked through animal pictures, wrote about our feelings and had a great time.
The parents went home with a real understanding of how we teach and how Living Wisdom Schools approach education differently than the mainstream schools. They were all smiling and laughing and asking for more classes as they left. I could tell that the evening they had anticipated – important perhaps, but an imposition on other, more entertaining activities – had turned into an engaging and enlightening time with people they enjoyed.
Education for Life will change the way we learn and teach all over the world. The technology available now is making it possible to share with other educators and parents who are not near a Living Wisdom School, or who really want to create one. With online classes teachers in India can share with those in Wisconsin.
It has been a blessed month indeed! Here are a few excerpts worth a listen:
First, from our Living Wisdom High School Concert on Friday, Dec 11th, a piece by John Rutter titled Mary’s Lullaby.
On Saturday, Dec 12th, I led an astounding performance of Swami Kriyananda’s Oratorio, Christ Lives! at Mills College in Oakland, in a beautiful chapel with marvelous acoustics! Here are a few choir pieces: Christ Has Come
Sing Out With Joy
When Human Hopes Toward Thee Aspire
Thy Light Within Us Shining
Then back at the village, on Sunday, Dec 13th, we had our World Brotherhood Day celebration, which included performances of: The Christ Child’s Asleep (studio recording)
And The Christmas Mystery (studio recording)
Here is a link to the video of many of the pieces performed that afternoon (Three Wise Men at the beginning, The Christ Child’s Asleep and Mother of Wisdom at 24:23).
On Sunday morning Dec 20th, we had our Christmas Sunday Service, led by Jyotish and Devi, which can be viewed by visiting our video page. It includes our children’s choir joining us at the beginning of the video for Christ Has Come and The Christmas Mystery. You’ll easily find my daughter - the only one not standing still!
That same evening we had our annual Christmas concert on Sunday, Dec 20th, which included performances of The Blue Danube, For Unto Us a Child Is Born, the Halleluiah Chorus, a visit by the Victorian Singers, and many of Swami Kriyananda’s Christmas pieces.
It truly has been a blessed month, and our wish is for you to carry with you these vibrations of Light, Love, Peace, and Joy with you throughout this coming year! May God Bless you all.
I’m always conscious of the fact that living the teachings of Ananda – the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, is an every day, every moment decision. But, sometimes that decision seems to stand out in bright, beautiful contrast to the way most of the rest of the world lives.
This is a long blog, but I wanted to share this story with you.
It is traditional for the Living Wisdom School intermediate class (grades 3 – 6 this year) to take one or two overnight field trips during the year, with the help of teachers and parents.
We recently set off on an overnight trip to eastern Oregon, to visit the High Desert Museum during their Pioneer Days Festival. We had many enthusiastic parents so our caravan consisted of 5 cars, loaded up with 10 kids and 7 adults. We could have squeezed into fewer vehicles, but it seemed right to do it this way. This is one example of living intuitively, from the heart and not the head.
We stopped at a scenic viewpoint and enjoyed lunch at the picnic tables. We were friendly with the other travelers there, including a young woman with a little dog who asked for directions. After lunch we put everything away, locked up the cars and went down the trail to the view.
When we came back up to the parking lot about 20 minutes later, the kids were the first to notice that one of our cars had a smashed window. The driver quickly discovered his wallet was gone and another one of our drivers reported things missing from his car, although no windows were broken. The young woman with the dog told us she heard the car alarms and there were two other cars in the lot that were also vandalized while she was in the restroom.
The kids were disturbed and upset, and we immediately reassured them and started making calls. All of our adults were calm and focused on solutions to the situation. As we worked on the best way to handle the thefts, we also were considering how to keep the children’s energies from moving into fear, anger and blame.
When the owners of the other vandalized cars arrived on the scene, one man reacted with explosive anger, frustration and agitation. Shortly after, we discovered some of the stolen items were visible in the young woman’s car. As we all realized the thief was right in front of us, our adults continued to be calm and focused on safety for all concerned. The other gentleman was beside himself with anger.
In a matter of moments, we knew the children had to be taken away from the scene and four of us loaded them in three vehicles. Three of our adults stayed to deal with the circumstances.
We took the kids to a nearby resort and tracked down a place to sit quietly and have lemonade. When everyone was calm and cool, we explained what had happened, reassured them that all the items were recovered and the police were taking the thief into custody. We also took time to send healing prayers and thoughts of light and love to everyone concerned, particularly the woman who felt so desperate and friendless that she believed preying on others was the only way to survive.
The children responded with various levels of emotion, but they all focused on positive thoughts and gratitude. They took all their emotional energy and played outside with great enthusiasm until we were able to meet up with the others of our party.
Another remarkable part of the story is that the man who was so agitated actually had a heart attack at the scene and an ambulance was called to care for him. He recovered.
The sheriff showed up at our rendezvous point and kindly gave all the children an opportunity to check out his really cool police vehicle. He patiently answered all their questions and gave us a large chunk of his valuable time.
We continued to our destination much later than planned, but everyone was relaxed and grateful for the mutual support and harmonious conclusion to the day’s drama.
As I processed the incident and looked at it from every angle I could imagine, my heart was overcome with gratitude and love. I couldn’t see any moment when the consciousness of God and guru was not present. Although three of the adults in our group are not disciples of this path, they are sensitively attuned to the Living Wisdom School philosophy, which is built on these teachings.
The situation was a complete surprise, and yet, our intuitive guidance to take an extra car meant that we were able to split up and keep the children safe. Everyone worked to keep the energy high and joyful, affirming the many positive aspects of the circumstances: the breathtaking scenery, the lovely weather, the kindness of the sheriff and others we met, the return of all the stolen items, the fact that the damaged car was still useable, the thief was caught and we didn’t spend the rest of the trip wondering who did it.
There was simple awareness and acceptance that life offers a mixture of joy and pain. The enraged man with the heart attack was a glaring example of what can happen to your inner peace if you react to life with personal outrage and blame.
Without the conscious choice to keep God and guru the center of all things, the trip may have been a long experience in suffering and loss. But we had a wonderful time!
It is a remarkable gift, to see that there are no circumstances where the highest truth is not present. Living the teachings means living from that realization.
It’s been months since I’ve written. Life is full to overflowing, and every day is a new challenge just to keep up. I’m sure that sounds familiar – I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel busy and pressed for time. I have found blessings in busyness though.
More than any other time in my life, I feel the horizons of my experience keep stretching me beyond the tightly held limitations I define myself by.
Teaching at the Living Wisdom School has brought 9 children into my life and this week we round up to 10, with a visiting 4th grader. All of those students have parents and many have siblings in the school. There are also 11 other staff members and helpers I work with. Once a month I take part in an Education For Life teacher training and join more than a dozen other educators and parents in classes. Just the act of taking on this job has enlarged my circle of contacts and responsibility enormously.
My imaginary circle had to grow as I experienced health issues with my mother and my husband. My world had to take in doctors, nurses, other caregivers and all the concerned loved ones I was in touch with.
My children are growing and I have to expand my circle to include all their friends and activities. I take the light rail transit to work and I expand my circle to include hundreds of people I cross paths with each day. I don’t even speak to most of them, but I reach out and feel my circle wrapping around each person as they get on or off the train.
It slowly occurred to me that I don’t feel “stretched thin” or “stretched to the breaking point”, like a piece of bread dough, although it seemed as if I should. It felt as if God were just asking me to get bigger. Every time that imaginary circle settles into one size, there is a need to expand. Then there is a feeling of opening and including, without tension or stress. God just makes me bigger.
I thought about the connection I feel with all of my Ananda spiritual family. I know people in this family all over the world. I am in contact with many hundreds, through email, letters, and through the Ananda Portland center. There are thousands of others I include by association – all of you reading this, as well. There is no stress to include them all in my circle, only joy and gratitude.
Then I remembered Yogananda’s description of God as being “center everywhere, circumference nowhere”. My imaginary circle evaporated and I realized it was my center connecting with all those other centers. God was showing me that circumference is nowhere – it’s an illusion that we end somewhere and others begin. That’s why I feel bigger – because spirit is endless.
This must be a little taste of what Swami Kriyananda and other saints feel – no limitations, no circumference, only center everywhere and in everyone. Read what Swami Kriyananda says about relating to life at the center in the post from April 1, 2008.
Today has been the first day I have had a couple hours at the computer, for weeks. My little desk is at the end of the kitchen, not far from activities of four other people in the house. I have three guinea pigs at my feet, and the interruptions have been continuous, as the rest of the family comes into the kitchen for one reason or another. Tomorrow is Monday and another busy week begins. I’m sure God will show me that I’m not yet big enough.
