Making the Most of Training with a Master

Over the break, we were thrilled to host Taoist Lineage Master Bruce Frantzis, for five days of Moving Meditation.

Again and again during those five days, I had some version of this conversation, “wow, I know we talked about X, but I've never felt it this clearly before” or “So this is what it's supposed to feel like”. The clarity and depth of felt sensations students experience when they study with a teacher of Bruce's skill comes from the way that he teaches. You will experience whatever is being taught as a direct felt sensation, not a concept or a factoid or a detail, an experience. Classically, all high level teachers use this method and I believe that it's very naturally human to learn this way (if you've ever seen a small child limping along behind a parent with the same awkward gait, then I think you've seen this same phenomenon, albeit to a less-refined degree).

The most important thing about this experience, though, is not the “high” you might have felt when all of these new possibilities opened up to you in a matter of minutes or days --- it's what you do with those feelings in the coming weeks and months that will make the long-term difference.

See, it's not uncommon for students to “get to that place” when they are in a large group or around a master and then get frustrated or bored or both when the next week, they try to practice and it doesn't feel the same way. I know how rough that can be, but over the years, Bruce himself and the senior instructors who have become experts in this situation, have shared tips with me to become better “practicers”. Here's what you need to do:

• Go back and make some notes: While I don't recommend excessive note-taking during workshops because it gets in the way of the initial experience, you should go back and jot down the major practice points you have retained (this is a good daily review habit during the workshops too).
• Organize your notes chronologically: What happened first? What built on what? Try to piece together the structure of the workshop. Everything was layered systematically and this will impact how you practice.
• Start from the beginning: Practice the first thing on your list. How you know if you've practiced it enough is a whole long conversation, for a different time, but start with the first thing you remember Bruce teaching.
• Start simple, recreate the feeling: The biggest stumbling block you will encounter is that the way you remember something feeling is how it felt at the end of your practice. In other words, the next time you go to practice, you remember the feeling of what came at the end of a build-up, but you're only at the beginning of a build-up. Go slow, be patient, and at the end of a practice session or over a couple of days, you'll recapture the feeling.
• Rinse and repeat: Bruce likes to say he plants seeds of what is possible when he teaches and that's what you have now. In order to turn those seeds into nourishment, you need to cultivate them over time. This is where having a community to practice with and teachers to guide you can be so helpful. That's why I've always been grateful to belong to a school where I can come in every day and practice, share notes, and persevere with other people.

Good luck!