How to find a Meditation Instructor

If you would like to play tennis but do not know how, what do you do? To start with, you can watch other people play, maybe buy a book or two, and then head out to the court yourself and start practicing. But once you have mastered the basics, you may want to take a class or get some personal instruction to help you refine your stroke or eliminate the mistakes you have picked up along the way.

The same holds true for meditation. Sure you can practice the exercises that you have learned for weeks, months, or even years and reap the benefits without additional instruction. But at a certain point, you may encounter difficulties you do not know how to handle by yourself, or you may start having spiritual experiences that give you glimpses of a greater reality and stimulate your appetite for further exploration. In order to continue to move forward and refine your meditation practice, you need to find yourself a good teacher.

Before choosing the right kind of teacher, you need to know exactly what kind of teacher you want. Most meditation instructors have a particular spiritual affiliation such as yogis or Zen Buddhists or Christian contemplatives, for example. In addition, the instruction they offer includes a particular orientation toward the spiritual journey as well as particular teachings and terminology. It should not be any problem if that is what you are looking for. But if you want your instruction straight, without any spirituality, you may have a more difficult time finding a suitable teacher.

Some yoga teachers offer basic meditation instructions with a minimum of Sanskrit words, and they may even know the territory well enough to help you if you get stuck. Nowadays, more and more adult education programs, community colleges, and local churches are offering generic meditation or stress-reduction classes. However, you may want to look over the instructors’ credentials before you enroll because he or she may be no further along in practice than you are.

You might want to check out the Vipassana tradition of Buddhism, also known as insight meditation. Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of the bestseller “Wherever You Go There You Are”, a long-time teacher of Vipassana, and also the founder of the mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, has developed a program that offers rigorous training to prospective instructors of basic mindfulness practices.