Lynden Yoga Collective
200 Hour
Meditation Teacher Training
Reclaim your attention. Return to your body. Learn to guide others home to theirs.
The Problem
AI steals our focus. Social media fragments our minds. Screens pull us out of our bodies. Being fully human feels under assault.
But what if you could reclaim your attention, return to your body, and guide others to do the same?
This training exists to protect what is most sacred in an age that is trying to take it away: your direct experience of being alive.
"To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work."Mary Oliver
The Framework
Your mind has two modes.
Most people only know one.
This training is built around a direct, experiential model of how the mind actually works. Not theory. Not neuroscience abstractions. The felt reality of your own first-person experience.
Camera Mode
Direct experience. The raw, unfiltered input of being alive. Sensation, sound, breath, warmth. A camera captures reality as it is, with no interpretation, no narrative, no evaluation. Your mind has this same capacity. Most people rarely access it.
Author Mode
The storytelling mind. It interprets, evaluates, judges, narrates. It takes raw experience and wraps it in meaning. This mode is useful, but when it runs unchecked, it creates suffering. Most people live here almost exclusively.
The Invitation
Beyond the gentle shallows,
deeper waters.
Mindfulness meditation offers real therapeutic gifts: greater calm, clarity, reduced stress, and an increased capacity to meet life's challenges with steadiness and kindness. In the early stages of practice, we rest in the gentle shallows. Moments of peace. Flashes of insight. A growing sense of ease. These are real and precious, and we will honor them fully together.
Yet this training invites something more. Beyond the shallows lie deeper waters, the vast and sometimes turbulent ocean of wisdom. Here we encounter the fullness of our human experience: the places where we feel vulnerable, the patterns we prefer to avoid, the truths we have yet to face.
It is precisely in these depths that true character is formed. When we willingly turn toward what is difficult with curiosity and compassion, we develop resilience, humility, and courage. More than that, we cultivate the capacity to love, not merely as sentiment, but as a steady and inclusive presence that can hold both joy and sorrow.
The world needs teachers who have not only tasted peace but have also been shaped by the wisdom that arises when we meet life fully, without turning away.
The Curriculum
Seven modules. 200 hours.
A complete path.
The curriculum integrates traditional Theravada teachings, modern psychology, somatic understanding, and trauma-informed approaches. Whether your intention is to teach or simply to live with greater integration, this program offers a rich and rigorous environment.
The Mind and Foundations for Meditation
Welcome to Your Mind. The two modes of experience. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The Depth of Perception. The Five Hindrances. Building the ground for everything that follows.
Samatha Meditation (Calm Abiding)
Stages of concentration through breath, visual, and mantra practices. Introduction to jhana. The contraindications of deep absorption. How to teach samatha safely and effectively.
Vipassana Meditation (Insight)
The stages of insight practice. Impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self as direct experience. The dark night of vipassana. Liberation. The physiology and neurology of meditation.
RAIN Meditation and Metta (Loving-Kindness)
The five core emotions. Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture as a framework for difficult inner weather. Metta toward self, difficult people, and inner parts. IFS-informed compassion practices.
The Body: Scanning and Breath
Somatic awareness, interoception, and the felt sense. Body scanning as a doorway to presence. Breathwork as regulation and inquiry. The body's role in processing experience.
Teaching Skills and Ethics
The art of guiding meditation. Trauma-informed teaching. Group dynamics and facilitation. Holding space. Building your authentic teaching voice through supervised practicum.
Integration, Wisdom, and the Business of Meditation
Mindfulness in daily life. The Circle of Peace. Awakening beyond wellness. The Three Marks of Existence as lived practice. Accreditation pathways. Building your teaching career.
The Structure
Five immersive weekends.
Weekly sessions between.
The training unfolds over 18 weeks in a hybrid format: weekly online evening sessions for teaching, reflection, and dharma inquiry, anchored by five intensive in-person weekends at our Lynden, WA studio. Wednesday evenings explore themes like impermanence, gratitude, resilience, belonging, forgiveness, and love. Student-led meditation dharma talks on anger, grief, joy, sadness, fear, and more build real teaching experience.
Weekend Intensive 1
Samatha Meditation
Concentration practices, the five hindrances, introduction to jhana, and your first teaching sessions.
Weekend Intensive 2
Vipassana Meditation
Insight stages, the dark night, physiology of meditation with Dr. Veltkamp, and liberation teachings.
Weekend Intensive 3
RAIN and Metta
Working with emotions, loving-kindness toward self and difficult people, metta and inner parts work.
Weekend Intensive 4
Body Scanning and Breath
Somatic practices, breathwork, and student-led dharma talks on contentment, doubt, loneliness, worry, fear, and stress.
Weekend Intensive 5
Integration
Long meditation sits. The business of meditation. Trauma-informed teaching. Content assessment. Witnessing circle. Celebration and closing ceremony.
Lead Trainer
Kyle Kloostra
Co-founder of Lynden Yoga Collective. Trained in the Theravada Vipassana, Samatha, and Metta traditions. Kyle's primary teacher is Dawn Mauricio. He has studied under Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and brings advanced degrees in philosophy with particular interest in the philosophy of mind and consciousness studies.
His teaching centers on embodied presence, integrating trauma-informed practices with inquiry-based learning. He draws from both ancient contemplative traditions and modern neuroscience to create a safe, transformative learning environment.
The Reading List
Six core texts.
The Wise Heart
Buddhist psychology blending ancient wisdom with modern insights. Mindfulness, compassion, and the nature of consciousness.
Radical Compassion
The RAIN meditation practice as a tool for loosening the grip of difficult emotions, limiting beliefs, shame, and fear.
The Path of Insight Meditation
A practical introduction to vipassana. Exercises for developing mindfulness, cultivating compassion, and living ethically.
Loving-Kindness in Plain English
The practice of metta meditation. How to overcome anger, aversion, and emotional obstacles toward greater peace.
Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness
How standard mindfulness practices can exacerbate trauma symptoms and the research-based modifications that make meditation safe for everyone.
No Bad Parts
The Internal Family Systems model. How our psyche consists of protective and wounded parts, and how to access the compassionate core Self.
Program Details
Everything you need to know.
Timeline
Fall 2026
18-week hybrid program. Specific dates announced soon.
Format
Hybrid
Weekly online evening sessions plus five immersive in-person weekends in Lynden, WA.
Investment
$2,399
$499 deposit reserves your spot. Payment plans available.
Certification
CMT
IMMA-accredited. Graduate as a Certified Mindfulness Teacher.
Accreditation
Recognized credentials.
This program is accredited by the International Mindfulness and Meditation Alliance (IMMA) and recognized by Yoga Alliance as continuing education. Graduates are eligible to register as Certified Mindfulness Teachers (CMT).
This journey will ask much of you.
It will also give much in return.
Space is limited. Leave your information to be first to know when enrollment opens for Fall 2026.
Questions? Reach Kyle directly at kyle@lyndenyogacollective.com or 564-213-6563