Written by Jen Liu

“Meditation can be inspiring and transformative, but it can also be unsettling, challenging, and disappointing at times, especially in the early stages. As a meditation teacher, it’s important to celebrate your student's progress and help keep them motivated. Showing compassion and emanating a grounding enthusiasm throughout those ups and downs can go a long way in helping them not give up before the benefits of meditation get a chance to come to fruition.”

When making the shift from meditation practitioner to teacher, ultimately each interaction with a student involves listening, seeing, and responding organically to the situation in front of you. But these timeless principles can serve as helpful guidelines when it comes to working skillfully with students one-on-one:

Be okay with not knowing the answer sometimes. "I don't know" — or as meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche would sometimes say, "Your guess is as good as mine" — can be a powerful response when appropriate. Trust your student's ability to reach insightful conclusions as their practice develops. It's still crucial to be able to explain fundamental concepts, answer basic questions, and clarify rather than confuse — but for open-ended, experiential questions, or ones you simply haven't considered before, sometimes the most meaningful answer can be the choice to hold a supportive space of exploration. It's okay to ask your student, "What do you think?" or say, "I'm not sure. I'll do some digging and get back to you." Being a teacher and being a student are often more similar than we realize.

Maintain a good balance between gentleness and precision. Hold your students accountable to their practice to increase their chances of having a fruitful learning experience, but not in such a rigid way that it discourages them or misrepresents the point of practice altogether. Use discernment to assess when your student could benefit from leaning in or being more lighthearted — and remember that the two often work best hand in hand.

Be grounded in your seat as a teacher. Embody a depth of understanding of the view and instructions so that your student can be confident in you as a trustworthy guide on their path. Be prepared for your sessions, hold appropriate boundaries, and aspire to model the teachings through your way of being as well as your words.

Remember the power of encouragement. Meditation can be inspiring and transformative, but it can also be unsettling, challenging, and disappointing at times, especially in the early stages. As a meditation teacher, it’s important to celebrate your student's progress and help keep them motivated. Showing compassion and emanating a grounding enthusiasm throughout those ups and downs can go a long way in helping them not give up before the benefits of meditation get a chance to come to fruition.

Dharma Moon's 100-Hour Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training delves deeper into this topic by discussing the "Four Skillful Responses" and more as we explore the art of teaching meditation.