Insight Meditation Australia Dharma Teacher Recognition Criteria
There are several avenues by which a teacher may come to be recommended and accepted as an Insight Meditation Australia Teacher and have their profile and calendar feature on the IMA website.
1. An established IMA teacher has mentored them over several years and followed their development to be a retreat teacher
and recommends them.
2. They may have completed a teacher training program such as:
- the Insight Meditation Institute Dharma Teacher program and met the program requirements which includes mentoring and co-teaching with senior Insight Teachers.
- Similarly, if they have met the program requirements of the Insight Meditation Society in Bare Massachusetts, Spirit Rock in California or other recognised Dharma teacher programs.
3. they may have been mentored and co-taught elsewhere with an established recognised senior Insight Meditation teacher, who is recommending them.
Recommended Criteria
There are several avenues by which a teacher may come to be recommended and accepted as an Insight Meditation Australia Teacher and have their profile and calendar feature on the IMA website.
1. An established IMA teacher has mentored them over several years and followed their development to be a retreat teacher
and recommends them.
2. They may have completed a teacher training program such as:
- the Insight Meditation Institute Dharma Teacher program and met the program requirements which includes mentoring and co-teaching with senior Insight Teachers.
- Similarly, if they have met the program requirements of the Insight Meditation Society in Bare Massachusetts, Spirit Rock in California or other recognised Dharma teacher programs.
3. they may have been mentored and co-taught elsewhere with an established recognised senior Insight Meditation teacher, who is recommending them.
Recommended Criteria
- Has had 10 to 15 years of insight meditation and Dharma practice
- Attended in the order of 140 days of silent retreats over that time
- Has followed a systematic course of Dharma study, teaching skills and managing groups
- Has been mentored by a senior Insight Meditation or IMA teacher over several years
- Has taken on various roles on silent meditation retreats, including: managing retreats, assistant teacher, co-teacher
- Has had practical co-teaching retreat experience with their mentor (or senior insight teacher)
At minimum has been a co-teacher on three retreats - Is willing to offer Insight Meditation Retreats on a Dana basis
- Has been involved and contributed to Sangha (meditation community). This could be: started a sangha, responded to invitations to give dharma talks or lead meditations, delivered related workshops
- Agrees to abide by the IMA teacher ethics
- Other IMA teachers do not raise serious objection to that person being invited. In which case consultation and a dialogue would follow to determine what the proposed teacher would need to do to meet the standard