Report on the Essential Teaching School held at Cold Ash Centre, Berkshire, UK 2-4 November 2001 There were twenty of us gathered at Cold Ash for this weekend and my impressions as I left were of a very enjoyable time. I'm sure I am meant to say we learnt a lot, had many in-depth discussions leading to a deeper understanding of our spiritual path, did lots of meditation with helpful and beautiful input, and were thoroughly spiritually improved by the end of the time. Well,all this was really true! Moreover, we enjoyed being in a group of people committed to the same spiritual way and all very willing to share our experience, our questions, our expertise, however large or small, and hopes for the future. The fact that all this ran really smoothly was due to its being very well planned, and we owe a big thank you to Kim for all the background work she did for us. You began to realise just how much when Shankar quietly disappeared upstairs and reappeared time and again bearing more armfuls of booklets Kim had prepared for us! Not only this, but the balance of input, meditation, discussion: small groups/large groups, free time was, I thought, just about perfect - and this is the fruit of much past experience and flexibility. Input in the form of talks was kept to a minimum. The first talk on Essential Teaching was only 20 minutes, but a little gem. He spoke of giving thanks always, and this simple but profound attitude was picked up and explored several times in individual and group discussions during the weekend. The second input was from Liz Watson and was an overview of the early masters of meditation. There was so much wealth here that we could only share a fraction of it, but it whetted our appetite for more and pointed us in the right direction to do much more reading for ourselves. The third input was Kim's on the Stages of the Journey and the psychology of meditation. Personally I found this fascinating and would like to explore much more of what happens in people's lives as they meditate and of the healing power of meditation. We met in small groups and large groups to discuss and ask questions - there was a very free and positive atmosphere where people where people felt able to make their own contributions. Another component of the weekend was our teaching of meditation to others. We knew beforehand that we would have to give a little talk to a group of meditators and we all approach this event, scheduled for Saturday afternoon, on a scale varying from mild apprehension to scared witless! There was a partial sigh of relief when Kim said we only needed to share with our small groups. For some of us it was a real hurdle to be overcome, but the group was positive and helpful - and once you have done it, you always have that experience under your belt. There was some light relief too, in the form of an amusing and yet instructive video by Fergal McLoughlin on 'how to' and 'how not to'. Back in the whole group there was good participation in the session on Presentation Skills and much helpful feedback. The combination of a good length of meditation together, meeting old friends and making new ones, learning from the 'input' times, but also from every one present, led to a building of community amongst our group which I'm sure will spin off into the wider meditation community. This isn't just valuable for 'teachers' - anyway I think that term covers all of us, as we all have something to give - but valuable experience for anyone wishing to strengthen the bonds with the Meditation Community. Susan Cook