Jodi Pirtle Bowers
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Do you feel prepared to offer 1:1 instruction? If not, what do you think is missing?
Yes, I feel prepared to offer 1:1 instruction of this technique. At this time, I feel more interested in offering the instruction to a group, perhaps because that is the format I am most accustomed to teaching. I am not sure when I will offer the practice. Unless Susan were to invite me to offer something with OHP next week, I would say “yes!”; haha, a poor attempt at humor. What I am actually thinking, I usually offer a workshop series in the fall and winter at the yoga studio where I am an established teacher, so perhaps this will be my series in fall 2026.
Ideas that I have to get started: Begin by offering a free community introduction to meditation class focused on this technique. Next, I would offer a recurring short-series class (e.g., 3 months) and/or a half day workshop. I would have the class and/or workshop scheduled by the time the community class is offered so that interested students can see the door opening to the next opportunity. I have also thought of offering a live meditation practice online.
My hesitation? What if no one is interested. When I feel ready to go, I will have to look at that mind and say “not true” and do my very best to get out of the way.
In closing, as this is our final essay of the training: My main interest in this training was getting to study directly with Susan. Another interest was spending time with Sangha. I haven’t identified as being part of a Sangha for many years, and I have missed that but haven’t known where to begin again, until now. Another interest in taking this training was acquiring a formal credential in the technique from Susan, a teacher who I both trust and am inspired to, continue to, work with. Credentials after all are helpful in our modern life. This credential from Susan is also permission, and an invitation, the gateway, to take part in sharing a deeply meaningful and sacred practice with others for the benefit of others, and as part of her OHP community of teachers. I am so honored to be part of this teaching community and Sangha.
“I do not know where this training will take me and I am excited to find out.” I wrote that sentence in my application. I feel the same today. Thank you, Susan and everyone.
– JodiJake, I encourage you to teach when you are ready. You are a wonderful instructor. You have a calm, assured way of sharing the practice. Those are just my words of course. You mention your age. How wonderful you are here at the edge of this opportunity to share the practice at this stage of life. – Jodi
Liana, I have no doubt that you will be a wonderful meditation instructor. I enjoyed practicing with you. Your humble confidence in sharing the technique in your own words definitely shines through. – Jodi
Allison, so beautifully expressed through your own experience as student and teacher, that the role of the teacher is not defined by emotional distance but by clarity of role, steady presence, and trust in the practice itself. I am sure that your peer in practice experience being “cared for while not taken care of”. A meaningful opportunity to lean into the role of a teacher and support a Sangha friend. – Jodi
Kimberly, how fortunate your team is to have you. Your approach to leading is not only practical and wise, but kind. I agree, we cannot lead/manage/supervise if we are their friend. But because we are not, we can guide, mentor, and all the other parts required of us. Thank you for sharing your leadership experience here. – Jodi
Jersey, I enjoyed reading your account of a recent visit to Seattle – The Emerald City – in the context of how you show up for work conferences. Your approach resonates with such wisdom. How can we really help others, if we are not taking care of ourselves in the process. Speaking of an ideal learning environment, taking what we would like to take in from a learning opportunity, rather than all of what is offered because we can. Thank you. -Jodi
Hi Rosie, I love how you integrated and explained your personal philosophy on the matter in terms of the Middle Way; a beautiful example. And, I would so enjoy meditating with you and your people on the beach. – Jodi
Hi Kristin, thank you for sharing your reflections. If I am reading you correctly, I share many of your concerns regarding pricing for studio classes. I agree that offering many options is the way to go. – Jodi
Talk about your feelings regarding money and teaching meditation. Do you have judgments? A philosophy? Do you think it should be by donation?
I agree with charging money for meditation and Dharma teachings in a formal setting. When I was Sangha of a Dharma Center with a dedicated and primary teacher we charged for classes and memberships and always with a sliding scale and options. When we charge money for our services, we are asking people to invest in and value what we have to offer and what they are receiving. We are asking people to support the community that they are also part of through these activities. There are also the practicalities of paying for the space, and more.
As a yoga and meditation teacher, I also have direct experience with this. Charging pays for the studio space, an environment crafted to support the students; the many years of practice, trainings, and credentials that allow me to hone my skills to bring innovative, personal, and expert level classes to my students; the clean and non-distracting clothing that I wear when teaching; the gas in my car to get to/from the studio; prices for yoga classes have gone up over time because prices for most everything have increased. A variety of membership and participation options can and should be offered.
The Yoga studio where I teach offers a variety of membership and participation options that most people will find workable. Payment is taken online, not person-to-person, unless someone needs assistance from our studio manager. We also offer a set amount of work-trade positions, which are popular, for example, among people wanting to gain experience supporting a yoga studio and/or also be part of the community by filling that role. We also offer free community classes and workshops several times a year. I offered a free workshop in February on Yoga Applications for Nervous System Regulation and we maxed out the capacity for our space. I am proud to be able to reach so many people a variety of ways because, at my core, I am doing this to help people, as these practices have helped me. I value myself and my mission. Charging is a way to support myself being able to offer practices that help people. In order to do that I have to create a container for doing so, a foundation, and that costs money.
There are also other ways to give freely and generously. As a Bodhisattva in the world, if someone asks, and it is not cheating myself or them, I will give. Thank you – Jodi
Please describe a situation where you had an ideal learning environment. Please describe a less-than-ideal environment from your personal experience.
Ideal Situation: My best learning experiences with respect to my spiritual practice have been on retreat and the time near after. I enjoy being immersed on retreat. The presence of a trustworthy teacher who I am inspired to work with creating a container for focused practice and learning accompanies my best memories. I love being able to set aside the time, to steep in the retreat, choosing to remain as close to the retreat mandala as I can while there, knowing that the rest of life is there for me when I return. I also love collaborative learning, when there are some group aspects to what we are doing and shared experiences with Sangha. I also need sufficient alone time on retreat and in a learning environment to absorb the material, insight from practice, to process, rest, and recharge. Comfortable accommodations, if at all possible I get my own room, delicious and healthy food, a beautiful environment, are also so helpful to me as this creates an ease of mind for me to be on retreat. Over time, I have learned that I need to take what I have learned with me when I go and apply it relatively soon post retreat in my own practice, and teaching others if this is yoga, to make-it-stick by developing my own personal experience of it in my day-to-day life. I just returned from a yoga retreat near Sayulita Mexico in February, so a retreat setting as an environment for learning is top of mind.
Less-than-ideal Situation: I have a less than ideal memory that comes to mind, occurring about 20 years ago. I was 27 and so motivated to attend this in-person retreat with my Geshe that I put the entire cost on my credit card in order to travel from SE Alaska to N Germany. He was offering the Highest Yoga Tantra Empowerment of Vajrayogini with detailed instructions on the practice of self-generation and a new edition of the accompanying text. This was my first HYT empowerment and I was so ready that I didn’t want to wait until he was closer to my location – not likely ever closer than England as he was getting older and no longer traveled far from his home in the UK. So, I was ready. Several NW Sangha mates and our ordained teacher were going, too. To keep it short, basically. . . the retreat location, selected by the local Sangha, was out on a beautiful lake in a wooded area, but the accommodations were like an institutional dormitory, concrete, cold, sleeping on metal cots, and with near zero bathroom or bathing privacy. The food was all the same color, beige, and almost completely composed of starch and dairy. My sleep was off, my digestion was off. With respect to supporting learning, the environment was totally off. Still, I was so happy to be there receiving this direct teaching from my Geshe, in many respects nothing else really mattered. There is more that I won’t get into here and now, other than saying that it was the last time that I spent time with my NW Sangha teacher before she disrobed and left the tradition to be in a relationship with one of her students. So, this example of a less than ideal learning environment comes to mind with humor, tenderness, and also sorrow. Although it’s been years, the latter aspect took me years to process. I met one of my closest friends to this day in that Sangha. I love the photograph that we took together in our young at tender 20s near that lake in Germany, smiling in the sunshine with all the potential of the teachings we had just received on our hearts and much of life still ahead of us.
Remaining connected but separate is an important part of the teaching mandala. Many become either too remote or too “friendly”. Have you had such experiences as a student? A teacher? Please share an anecdote or two.
I deeply empathized with Susan’s experience shared in On Being a Teacher. When a tragic family event occurred, in conjunction with a retreat that she was leading, she decided to stay and hold the container of the retreat for her students. I am amazed and humbled by her personal account of that particular experience, and other experiences she shared of being “connected but separate” on retreat and as a Dharma teacher of pure intent. I am so glad that she shared this. On retreat and in classes, I have often thought about the experience of the teacher, not making it about them, holding space for the students, connected but separate, the most skilled can do this. I have not shared Susan’s experience akin to her example in the reading. However, I have been teaching yoga for 12 years, and I am familiar with creating and holding the container for my students to practice, form their own personal experience of the practice, getting out of the way as much as I can, and never intentionally making it about me, keeping separation between my personal life and our time together.
In my day-to-day job I lead a science program with several staff. We develop species distribution models, using data and math, to predict and map where many different kinds of animals are most-to-least likely live in the ocean in relationship with their environment that is changing all around them all the time. Our work is required by sustainable fisheries management law in the US and is practically applied to make decisions regarding sustainable ocean resource management. The model-based maps that cover all five large marine ecosystems off Alaska are also incredibly beautiful, they are our creations, our art. In leading this program and my team I think of myself as an orchestrator, the conductor, doing what I can to create conditions to help them do their work and feel successful based on the goals of our program and their own personal goals for work. I very much identify with Susan’s instruction of “caring by not taking care of”, it’s very much not about me and I also cannot take care of them. I am “blessed” with some amazing staff, who inspire me all the time. I am also at a more mature place on my own “leader journey”. When I was younger, earlier in my career, it was more about me and my personal goals, building and establishing the program, attracting the right people to come work with me, and advancing our program goals and IMPACT. Now, I am mostly concerned with supporting my staff, and keeping the program going together, as a team, and a lot of that is me getting out of the way and creating conditions for our team to be successful, and celebrating together along the way, giving the spotlight to them when at all possible.
Hi Colin – Your recounting of a less than ideal math class with an unsupportive teacher brought me back to my own experience of high school math class. It is such a tragedy when young, bright, people are forced to spend time “learning” from a unsupportive and unkind teacher, in particular for subjects that are challenging and also so interesting. It took some time for me after high school to get my enjoyment and confidence in the subject back. For me this happened with my upper division undergraduate and graduate level classes when I could see how the math that we were learning would be practically applied to population statistics and species distribution models, which is what I do now and love. The practical, hands-on learning in an environment created that confidence again, despite being paired with some less than ideal teachers from time to time. I have discovered about myself that I can absorb subject matter in a classroom setting, but I need to get out and apply it for the matter to stick and for the lightbulbs of learning to come on for me. Thank you for allowing me to prattle on here. – Jodi
Vy, I connect with your perspective of taking a long view with respect to Patience. Learning can take time. . .not expecting immediate results. Thank you also for your tender share on your experience with respect to Generosity. – Jodi
Cheryl, thank you for your reflection on Generosity. I also think of Generosity when you speak up in class to share your questions and experiences. Thank you. – Jodi
Part 1 – I have gone back and forth about adding this part of my reflection to my public essay. I want to be part of a Sangha without fear and honesty is an important part of that. Here goes. I really struggled with the reading assignment and, as such, I put off completing this essay. I am not interested in reading CT’s advice on practicing the Paramitas, or anything, really. The first line of text follows that “Paramita practice is based on human decency”. If I adopted a mind that the author is expounding on the practice from an intellectual understanding based on many years of study, rather than someone honestly demonstrating a good example of walking and talking the Bodhisattva’s way of life, it was a tiny bit easier to place his words on my mental continuum for the purpose of completing the assignment. I acknowledge that no one was forcing me to read it. It was assigned and I chose to read it. I am also not intending to create a schism in the group. I have been studying and practicing secular (Tibetan) Buddhism in the west for 25 years, although not in the Shambala tradition. Being asked to read this particular text by CT to support my learning on the topic of the Paramitas was an obstacle for me. What helped me complete the essay was going back and listening to the recording of Susan’s lesson on the Paramitas to our MTT and noticing what came up for me then. I am here to study and practice with Susan and this Sangha. Lineage is deeply personal and also complicated and complex in modern times in the west – or always and everywhere. I encourage Susan to consider the Paramitas, all six, as a topic for one of her future books. If, as Susan shared, there are not books on the Paramitas but they appear elsewhere and here and there, please write one. It will be impactful, and help many people on their path. Let’s clear the slate. Take what was helpful from the past and move forward while continuing to share pure Dharma. Thank you.
Part 2 – Now for my (second) reflection on the Paramitas. At this time I am feeling connected with exertion. I loved this teaching on the Paramitas from Susan and with our Sangha. Receiving clear instructions, live, from a teacher who I connect with and as part of a Sangha, is so amazing and also hard to describe the experience in words. One of those experiences is energy. Not to overly gush; since finding Susan and the OHP I have felt reconnected with my practice and energized. I was part of a Sangha and studying to be a teacher in that tradition around 20 years ago. Then I moved away to attend a PhD program. I fully intended to keep going, continuing my Buddhist studies and completing some very meaningful retreats. But I was living in a location without a local Sangha or teacher or modern ways of connecting that we have now. I was alone, and over time became disconnected. It was so difficult to continue on my own, receiving recordings in the mail on CDs with occasional in-person events, before the time of virtual, live teachings and Sangha gatherings. My heart connection to my Geshe did not fade, but when he passed away at the age of 91 in 2022, I started looking around for other teachers and Sangha formats. In studying the Paramitas for this week’s homework, I went back and read my Geshe’s teachings on the “six Perfections” in his Guide to the Bodhisattva Vow. I found many similarities, but also some refreshing differences between his words and Susan’s that helped some concepts stick in a new way. Hearing those again in a new way from Susan was powerful and motivating. I am not sure if Susan and the OHP will be my forever home, but they are definitely part of my path right now and I am excited about where this meditation teacher training with the OHP will take me. Thank you.