Loving-Kindness / Metta · Marin, CA, United States
Year-long mindfulness and loving-kindness teacher training founded by Frank Ostaseski (Zen Hospice). Focuses on end-of-life care, compassion, and the art of presence. Graduates serve in healthcare, counseling, and community settings.
Metta Meditation Teacher Training is a meditation teacher training run by Metta Institute, based in Marin, CA, United States. It sits in the Loving-Kindness / Metta tradition and is offered in person. The program runs 1 year with about 130 contact hours, and is priced at $3000-$5000. Metta (loving-kindness) teacher pathways draw on Theravada Buddhist sources, especially the Visuddhimagga, and on modern Insight teachers like Sharon Salzberg. Metta Institute positions this training inside that lineage. The program does not list a major external accreditation body, so prospective students should weigh faculty depth and supervision structure rather than a credential alone. It is one of the directory's notable picks for this tradition. Practical detail matters here. Metta Meditation Teacher Training is a meditation teacher training run by Metta Institute, based in Marin, CA, United States draws students who want to teach in wellness, community, and small-group settings. OMP lists this program in its Meditation Teacher Training directory so practitioners can compare it on tradition, hours, format, and accreditation alongside several hundred other pathways. Source notes describe it as: Year-long mindfulness and loving-kindness teacher training founded by Frank Ostaseski (Zen Hospice). Focuses on end-of-life care, compassion, and the art of presence. Graduates serve in healthcare, counseling, and community settings. Practice forms inside this tradition typically include metta phrases, breath practice, expansion across categories of beings, dedication, and the brahmaviharas as a fuller frame. Students entering Metta Meditation Teacher Training should expect to meet those forms in cohort sessions, in their own daily practice, and in supervised teaching with peers and faculty. Honest teacher trainings in this field share a few markers: a real practice requirement, a named faculty with verifiable lineage, supervised teaching of real students, and inquiry-based feedback. The directory entry above gives the structural facts; the school's own materials are the place to confirm faculty bios, the practicum format, and what graduates are authorized to teach.
Practice forms inside the curriculum follow the Loving-Kindness / Metta tradition. Students work with metta phrases, breath practice, expansion across categories of beings, dedication, and the brahmaviharas as a fuller frame. Across 1 year and roughly 130 contact hours, the cohort moves through foundational practice, teaching skills, and supervised practicum. Metta Institute structures the work around the standard arc for this tradition: deepening of personal practice, study of source materials, observation and co-teaching of groups, written reflection, and feedback from faculty. Where the program lists named modules, those appear in the school's own curriculum sheet; the directory does not invent module names that are not on the source page. Inquiry is central. In the Loving-Kindness / Metta tradition, the teacher's job is less to deliver content than to hold a frame inside which participants can notice their own experience. Most credible teacher trainings in this field weight inquiry skill heavily across the curriculum. Students should expect daily personal practice across the program, plus retreat or intensive components depending on the tradition. The school's onboarding materials list specific reading, recordings, and pre-program participation requirements.
Metta Institute delivers the training in person over 1 year. The structure usually combines cohort sessions, individual practice, mentorship, and supervised teaching. In the Loving-Kindness / Metta tradition, the standard expectations are a daily personal sit, regular meetings with a mentor or supervisor, and either a silent retreat component or a residential intensive depending on the program. The in-person component anchors the cohort, with residential days that hold the silent practice container the tradition expects. Feedback comes through inquiry transcripts, recorded teaching, and direct observation by faculty.
Graduates earn the certificate issued by Metta Institute. The credential carries the weight of no major external accreditation, and graduates teach inside the scope the school authorizes. Graduates teach within the scope the program defines and within their own existing professional license where one applies.
Most programs in this category expect an established personal meditation practice and a clear teaching context. The school's application page lists the specific prior training, retreat history, or screening required.
Standalone metta teacher trainings are rare and usually grow out of a single teaching lineage rather than a credentialing body.
| Location | Marin, CA, United States |
| Country | United States |
| Tradition | Loving-Kindness / Metta |
| Format | In-person |
| Training hours | 130 |
| Duration | 1 year |
| Estimated cost | $3000-$5000 |