After having benefited so much from the practice of Buddhist-style meditation, the natural inclination is to want to share it with those willing to listen. In the Buddhist tradition it is frowned upon to start teaching formally without having first been invited to teach by another authorized teacher. Leigh suggested that I start leading sitting groups in 2008, and I did so at the University of British Columbia in 2008, then through the Meetup app, and at my home for several years.
In the fall of 2018 at a retreat held at The Hermitage on Denman Island, BC, I met, among others, Daniel Ingram, and Shannon Stein. Daniel has written an influential book called “Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha – An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book”, is a leader of the Pragmatic Dharma movement and founder of Dharma Overground. Daniel encouraged me to teach if I felt like it. “Don’t let anyone stop you,” he said. He also strongly encouraged me to resume work on my book. Shannon was a teacher at the Hermitage at the time. She invited me to teach at The Hermitage, providing me with a home base. I also joined a Teacher-in-Training program with Culadasa in February 2019 but when a sex scandal centered on Culadasa erupted in August 2019 I quit the program. I still believe though that his book The Mind Illuminated is a very useful guide. The personal failings of the author do not take away from the value of his work.
I lead my first retreat at The Hermitage the first week of June 2019, and a second one in October 2019. They were metta retreats. They went extremely well. I introduced a number of departures from the standard retreat structure, all in the spirit of harking back to the early Buddhist community (sangha) depicted in the suttas when the Buddha was not present. I see the teacher as a resource, and we all are kalyana-mittata (spiritual friends) there to help each other. To reflect that spirit, we sat in a circle and started the daily first group session with a round of optional check in, something that I learned at DPP (Dedicated Practitioners Program) and carried through my home sitting groups. I also introduced optional “Sangha Time”, an hour period after lunch where participants can meet at a designated area outside the dining hall and are allowed to talk amongst themselves without the teacher present. I encountered that practice at the monastery in Chiang Mai and found it then to be very useful for beginners to get some reassurances from the more experienced practitioners, and everyone being able to talk without feeling intimidated by the presence of a teacher. I was also very impressed by its power of sangha building during the fire kasina retreat. It is also useful for the experienced practitioners to empower them to start offering solicited advice.