The IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program: Frequently Asked Questions
How does the selection process work?
Rather than applying, candidates for the TTP must be nominated by established IMS or Spirit Rock teachers. This approach helps maintain the clarity of the transmission of the Dharma within the Theravada tradition, as well as upholding the integrity of the IMS and Spirit Rock retreat experiences.
“The teacher trainings all rely on established teachers nominating someone they have known as a student, whose practice they understand, whose maturity they understand, who they think is ready to move into a training to become an IMS/Spirit Rock teacher,” explains Guy Armstrong, an IMS Guiding Teacher who has held a lead role in three previous trainings.
The rigorous yearlong selection process begins when the TTP teaching team sends out a request for nominations to all IMS and Spirit Rock teaching faculty. After the six-month nomination period closes, the program leaders invite a portion of the nominees to submit an application and participate in an interview. The teaching team then considers the applications and chooses a group of candidates to invite to the program. Lastly, the list is reviewed by the Guiding Teachers of both centers, to ensure all potential trainees meet the expected standards and criteria.
For the 2025–2028 training, 44 candidates were nominated between July and December of 2023, 30 from that group were invited to apply, and in June of this year, 23 people were notified of their acceptance into the program. “We find that’s a good-sized group for them to get to know each other well,” says DaRa Williams, a program lead teacher, IMS board member, and emeritus Guiding Teacher. “Over the four years, the trainees form bonds that create a practice community, a learning community, a teaching community, and friendships. Once they’ve graduated, they often teach with one another.”
What are the criteria for assessing TTP nominees?
The teaching team looks for candidates who have a deep faith in the Buddhadhamma, a demonstrated depth of practice, and impeccable sila (morality, or right conduct). A well-qualified candidate will be interested in teaching silent retreats rooted in the Pali canon/early Buddhist teachings. They will have identified any personal traumas and practiced with and worked through them, have demonstrated leadership skills, and have the capacity for self-sufficiency and empathy.
Selected candidates will also have a deep commitment to developing skills and competencies in the domain of diversity, equity, and inclusion. They will be willing to learn constructive feedback techniques and train to give and receive feedback skillfully. Finally, the team looks for candidates who already have a deep commitment to residential retreat practice, demonstrated by the substantial amount of time, effort, and resources they have devoted to this practice.
Does the teaching team consider diversity when forming a TTP cohort?
The group of trainees for the upcoming program is extremely diverse—across ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, geography, and socioeconomic background. Creating such a cohort was easy this year, because the pool of nominated candidates was already so diverse, says program lead teacher Tuere Sala. “How naturally we pulled this group together is a testament to how much effort has been put into diversity in prior years,” Tuere says, referencing the work IMS and Spirit Rock have done to ensure yogis of all backgrounds and identities feel welcomed.
The impact of this work has been gradual, building steadily over the past decade and more. For example, at IMS’s Three-Month Retreat in 2013, 35% of the retreatants (45 participants) identified as BIPOC. Several of them—including Tuere, Devin Berry, Nakawe Cuebas Berrios, Tara Mulay, and Matthew Hepburn—went on to join the last TTP (2017–2021). After graduating, they began teaching at IMS, Spirit Rock, and centers around the country.
“That [2013] retreat set in motion many of the teachers you see today,” Tuere reflects. “As people got to see us and learn about us from being on retreat teaching teams, we attracted more diverse populations to those centers. Many, many people who were nominated for this upcoming teacher training, including many who were accepted into the final cohort, came through those retreats.”
“That’s how diversity works,” she added. “It’s not something you do all at once. It’s something that grows out of the efforts, large and small, that you continue to do over time.”
Do nominating teachers stay involved throughout the training?
By submitting a name for consideration, teachers are making a considerable commitment to their nominee. For the 2025–2028 iteration, teachers who nominated a student agreed to be their candidate’s mentoring teacher throughout the program—meeting with them every other month, providing them with necessary mentoring, and including their candidate on their retreat teaching teams over the four years. They also agreed to maintain a close relationship with their trainee for at least a year after graduation.
Where and how often does the group meet during the TTP?
The program includes three weeklong retreats each year: one at Spirit Rock in Woodacre, California; another at IMS, at the nearby Barre Center for Buddhist Studies; and a third online. An exception to the annual online retreat will be during the first year, when the trainees will meet at the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center in Ward, Colorado.
What is included in the program?
Over the next four years, a robust curriculum, mentoring, and retreat teaching experience will deepen the trainees’ ability to transmit the Buddha’s teachings of liberation. The TTP includes a training component and an apprenticeship component, which function like theory and practice. The training component covers four areas: the cultivation of the students’ Dharma knowledge; the deepening of their Dharma practice, largely through sitting retreats during the program; the development of their teaching skills; and the deepening of their personal growth and maturity.
“The theory component of the program covers the teachings of the Buddha, sutta study, and contemporary Dharma books the trainees should be familiar with,” Guy explains. “The teaching skills covered include everything from how to prepare a Dharma talk to how to run a community meditation practice group and conduct an interview group. Trainees are instructed on how to recognize the existence of trauma in students and meditators, and then, having detected trauma, how to respond to it and hold it.”
The training also covers how to relate to students from a diverse range of backgrounds. “The yogi population increasingly comes from diverse backgrounds, and teachers need to understand how those backgrounds have influenced people and how we can best understand and relate to those backgrounds,” says DaRa. “And because we on the teaching team and the trainees are so diverse, we bring that understanding and perspective to the program in part just by showing up as who we are.”
During the apprenticeship component, trainees get a behind-the-scenes look at how retreats unfold from the teacher’s point of view, as well as a well-rounded exposure to what’s involved in teaching an actual retreat. “They learn how a retreat gets put together, how the interview groups are formed, how interviews are assigned to different teachers, the different staff roles and how to relate with staff on a retreat, and what’s required to hold a retreat container,” Guy says.
In the first year of the program, trainees begin by sitting in on teacher group meetings with retreatants and perhaps leading chanting. In year two, as they move into the role of assistant to the retreat leaders, they may offer individual meetings with retreatants or a guided brahmavihara meditation. In year three, they might be asked to give a dharma talk, hold a Q&A after brahmavihara, or guide a group practice meeting with up to a dozen yogis. By year four, they may be functioning as a full teacher, giving meditation instructions in the hall or offering Q&A sessions for yogis, and some of them may be invited onto retreat teaching teams.
In addition to guidance from the primary teaching team, trainees also receive input from other senior IMS and Spirit Rock teachers, as well as outside consultants and experts in specialized areas. And because a grounding in psychological understanding is important for teachers, the trainees are often asked to complete a course in a trauma-informed modality—such as Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy, and Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy—to support them in skillfully working with trauma in the context of a retreat.
How much does the TTP cost?
“We’re not charging the students anything for retreat time,” says Inger Forland, IMS Executive Director. “The responsibility of training Dharma teachers is really one of the most important things we can hold as a major center in our tradition–and I know our friends at Spirit Rock feel the same. Everything that we can offer, we’re both offering for free.” In addition, the centers are offering some financial support for trainees who are unable to cover travel costs.
What does the TTP cost IMS and Spirit Rock, and how can I donate?
The total cost to the centers for the upcoming TTP is $720,000, and Spirit Rock and IMS are each responsible for half that amount. The price tag is $160,000 higher than the last iteration of the TTP, as this time around, lead teachers will receive a modest monthly stipend for the program, rather than relying entirely on dana as in the past.
To cover our portion, IMS fundraises specifically for the TTP. The 2024 spring appeal brought in more than $50,000 from 180 donors, leaving $310,000 still to be raised.
All funds raised for the Teacher Training Program will support direct program expenses. As the TTP is not part of the annual operating budgets of IMS or Spirit Rock, we are relying on the generosity of our sanghas to make it a reality.
If you would like to support the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program, clickhere.
For more information about donating, please call IMS’s Development Office at 978-355-4378 ext. 230 or email development@dharma.org.
Return to the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program landing pagehere.
