A Mindfulness Teacher's Handbook

The book is packed with practical guidance. It offers ways of introducing mindfulness to students, and of helping them learn to notice and observe their thoughts. It gives detailed advice on how to prepare for and guide a range of meditations, and how to facilitate the enquiry process in a group. It explores the tricky area of working with difficult emotions and pain, and shows how to challenge your students with honesty and compassion. There are many examples of how to improve your teaching techniques. The book examines the overuse of jargon and clichés, stressing the need to understand what they really mean.

It illustrates how to bring your teaching alive with humour, and how to use silence and pauses. It demonstrates the value and impact of stories and metaphors; a large number of these are provided, along with commentaries on how to bring out the teachings they contain.

The final chapter in the book describes Suryacitta's own eight-week course in mindfulness and compassion, which he runs in the UK, Europe and online. Suryacitta is also the author of three other books on mindfulness. This is an essential handbook for all mindfulness teachers, who are encouraged to use any of the resources in the book in developing their own voice. It will also appeal to practitioners who wish to deepen their understanding and experience of mindfulness.