Episode 179 :: Jason Siff :: Teaching Meditation

jason_siff

Jason Siff

Meditation teacher and author Jason Siff returns to speak with us about teaching meditation.

Many of us have an ongoing meditation practice, but a few have taken on the challenge of teaching. What does that mean, and how might it impact your own practice as you find yourself in a role with different expectations? What are some difficulties you may need to account for, and more positively, how might you benefit from being a teacher?

Jason Siff was a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s, where he began studying Pali and teaching meditation. After he left the Buddhist monastic order and returned to Los Angeles in 1990, he studied counseling psychology and worked as an intern for four years, at the end of which he decided to devote his life to meditation teaching instead of practicing psychotherapy. He co-founded the Skillful Meditation Project around that time, and began teaching meditation as his primary occupation, further developing his own approach to awareness meditation practice, which is called Recollective Awareness. Since then he has been invited to teach by several lay Buddhist Sanghas in America, Canada and Australia. He has also taught at Esalen Institute and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

So, sit back, relax, and have a nice herbal mint tea.

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Music for This Episode Courtesy of Rodrigo Rodriguez

The music heard in the middle of the podcast is from Rodrigo Rodriguez. The track used in this episode is “Hon Shirabe” from his CD, Shakuhachi: Classical Music.