before mind
​60hr teacher training & CPD units

Guided Practice (6 hours)

• Each day begins with an hours meditation practice and ends with a minimum of 30 mins - practices themed around the days topic
• Various opportunities to practice tecniques through the day
• Feedback and discussion on personal meditation

Understanding (8 hours contact time
You will only ever feel well equipped to share mind based tools with confidence if it is based within a framework of your own experience. You can't just 'remember' this stuff and hope that no-one asks any tricky questions! 

• Why do people want to meditate? 
• What can people hope to achieve from meditation?
• Mind as an aggregate of conditions
• Continuity of Mind - arising of mind from metaphysical and phtysical objects 
• Sense perceptions and the mind
• The chain of reactivity - Somatic sensation and arising of mental activity
• ​The Buddhist, Yogic, Taoist and Advaita approaches
• Where does science stand on all of this?
• Mindfulness v meditation v concentration
• Morality, meditation, wisdom and the buddhist eightfold path
• What even is meditation ​and who is actually meditating?!
• The source of true peace and happiness
  

Practical Skills (9 hours contact time)
Students will be taken through logical and structured ways in which to organize the teaching of mind based practices, addressing many of the misconceptions around meditation and mindfulness as well as the pitfalls of confusing students with conflicting or misunderstood content.

• How long should we meditate for? 
• Where, when and how to sit if sitting.
• Where and when to integrate meditation sessions into other classes
• Balancing effort - the 4 cart wheels
• What time frame are we talking about to see results? And what are those results?
• What do people commonly struggle with?
• Observation of physical sensations and knowing what that means
• The power of breath - breath based tools for mind based practice
• Movement as a tool for mindfulness
• Atma Vicharya - The Meditation of Self Investigation
  

Upaya - Teaching with Wisdom (5 hours contact time)
As a group we will work through most of the questions that arise from the average student of meditation and how it is important to embrace 'Upaya' or teaching with wisdom. This means tailoring your answers to the individuals own current level of understanding, based on their background, culture and experience thus far.

• How do we get potentially complicated or mind blowing ideas across to people that are new to it?
• Stories, metaphors, analogies - teaching the unfamiliar via the familiar
• Draw on personal experience
• Application - Structuring and Teaching Meditation Sessions
• Stabilizing meditation / calm abiding/ open awareness
• Methods for Stabilization
• Purposes of stabilization
• Tricks and Tips for stabilization
• Adapting teachings for different ages and backgrounds

Post course consolidation – 1-2 hours contact time
After you have started to share this work there will be opportunities to ask any questions about what you have encountered so far either in your practice or in the context of sharing it with others. This is generally best done by well thought out emails or via face to face messenger.

It is only after we have started working with something that most of the questions actually arise!

Non contact time (30 hours minimum)

• Before course  - 
  • students will be asked to establish a regular, daily meditation practice if they don't already have one (guidance will be offered on where they might begin with this) and to keep a written or audio journal of this practice for reference during the face to face sessions
  • 6 hours of pre-recorded videos and audio meditation for you to explore. These should give you an idea of the diverse ways in which we can approach mind based practices and start to initiate some questions 
  • Access to our meditation resources page with a wealth of links, books, videos and podcasts

 

• Following the course -
  • students should continue with their daily practice(s) of meditation, building up time spent gradually as their skill improves
  • written or video recorded / voice recorded feedback should be provided based on their first six sessions of teaching meditation using their new understanding and knowledge
  • a reflective written or recorded piece on where they currently stand in their teaching and personal practice and what they would like to work on for the future

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