By Ruth (Rama) Brooke, interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

After taking Meditation Teacher Training (MTT), I felt I was embodying the teachings.  I gained a depth of knowing that I didn’t have before.  It was experiential knowing, beyond the intellectual knowing I had previously.

This in-depth course is amazing.  Every afternoon, we got a cosmic download from Gurudevi.  She gave us the deeper teachings.  Every day, we steeped in the shakti (energy) and Grace of the Guru.  During evenings, we wrote a 10-minute discourse to deliver to fellow students the next day.  We put into our own words what we learned and understood from the afternoon’s download.

I had just opened a larger studio space in 2015.  The timing of the upcoming MTT course was perfect.  I was making a bigger commitment to teaching.  I knew that I wanted to teach meditation.  I also knew the course would deepen my own practice.

I had already been meditating for nearly eight years.  My daily practice was pretty regular.  But MTT took my meditation experiences to a whole new level.  My understanding of Kashmiri Shaivism and Svaroopa^® Vidya meditation expanded considerably.  And my understanding of the purpose of Shaktipat and the Guru deepened profoundly.

The experiential learning I received in MTT has made it so much easier to teach.  My new depth and knowledge turned into deeper experiences even for my asana students.  Most who took the meditation course had profoundly deep experiences.  Some have maintained a home meditation practice since.  Some repeat the course nearly every time I offer it.  I continued my training in the Meditation Group Leader course so I can also offer satsangs.  Students who took my three-class “Learn to Meditate” series now attend my satsangs regularly.

MTT gave me a whole new level of confidence and deepened my teaching.  It even boosted my confidence to speak in front of groups in general, whatever the topic.  I used to get the jitters just speaking to a small group of three or four people.  But MTT changed that.  For me, MTT was transformative in many ways.

Immediately after MTT, I offered a meditation course to my students, continuing with a couple each year.  While I wasn’t able to offer them during the pandemic, I am planning to start again this fall.