We just finished our second class of Meditation Teacher Training, and it felt WONDERFUL to teach one of my favorite parts of Buddhism, the Five Precepts.

The 5 Precepts are the Buddhist code of ethics and morality and the first step the Buddha advised people to take when they begin a Buddhist path. They are:

I don’t like to teach in a heavy-handed way, so I encouraged students to decide for themselves how they want to live with ethics but to consider taking at least a “no lying” vow, including white lies. (I wrote about how I did this in this article, where I chronicle how it took me two years to learn to live without lying - ever).

During today’s class I also encouraged students to consider — at least for the duration of the course — living without killing, even ants or mosquitos, without lying, and without stealing, even mentioning when you’re undercharged at a hotel or restaurant.

These are all ways, I believe, of adding to our good karma, to use a Buddhist term — and I have always found that any moneys added to a bill (that had been mistakenly taken off) come back to you, often immediately!

Today we also began instruction on guiding a meditation, in which I suggest sounding exactly like you — your voice, your words — and specifically guiding a meditation on Mindfulness of the Breathing Body, called anapanasati meditation in Pali. Two brave students also guided meditations today, even though it was only our second class.

We have already received great feedback on tonight’s class (thank you), including Jacalyn Kerbeck writing just after we finished":

“That was a fantastic class .. I am thrilled to be a part of this class.” 

I’m SUPER excited for our next class where we’ll cover the 8-fold path and the all-important “right action.” Can’t wait already!

If you want to join or learn about a future teacher training, please email us at sit@thepath.com or head to thepath.com/teacher.