Teaching Dharana: A Heart Opening Intro
You Say Good-Bye, I Say In-Tro!
How to create a heart opening introduction
ENCHO WAS a famous storyteller. His tales of love stirred the hearts of his listeners. When he narrated a story of war, it was as if the listeners themselves were on the field of battle.
One day Encho met Yamaoka Tesshu, a layman who had almost embraced masterhood in Zen. “I understand,” said Yamaoka, “you are the best storyteller in our land and that you make people cry or laugh at will. Tell me my favorite story of the Peach Boy. When I was a little tot I used to sleep beside my mother, and she often related this legend. In the middle of the story I would fall asleep. Tell it to me just as my mother did.”
Encho dared not attempt to do this. He requested time to study. Several months later he went to Yamaoka and said: “Please give me the opportunity to tell you the story.”
“Some other day,” answered Yamaoka.
Encho was keenly disappointed. He studied further and tried again. Yamaoka rejected him many times. When Encho would start to talk Yamaoka would stop him, saying: “You are not yet like my mother.”
“It took Encho five years to be able to tell Yamaoka the legend as his mother had told it to him.
In this way, Yamaoka imparted Zen to Encho.
(“Storyteller Zen” from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones)
An Intro to Intros
Giving a presentation is about more than simply imparting information—it’s about creating an experience that opens your students to the essence of the teachings. Especially with topics in meditation, these concepts cannot truly be grasped by the mind alone but can only be pointed to by it. What we are really trying to communicate is something deeper, sweeter, and softer—something that resides in the heart.
In the Zen story referenced here, even a renowned storyteller who had the ability to stir the hearts of audiences all over the world learned that they still had much to uncover. When the Zen master asked, “Can you tell a story as my mother did?” we are reminded that the heart is the most powerful teacher. A mother telling a story to her child has a depth of connection and authenticity far beyond that of a professional storyteller. This level of communication, one that truly touches the heart, takes great effort and refinement. The story shows us that even the famous storyteller had to undergo five years of intense practice to reach this level of heartfelt storytelling.
As we conclude our current exploration of teaching methods, we look at the importance of the introduction—how we initially connect with our students. Why does the introduction come last when preparing your presentation? Because it is the culmination of all the work you’ve done. The introduction is the packaging around the gift, the frame around the painting, the icing on the cake. The process of creating the body of your presentation is messy, filled with trial and error, discovery, and growth. Once you emerge from that process, the introduction becomes your way of offering it to your students—a warm greeting, a connection point, and the first impression that sets the tone for the entire experience.
Your introduction is more than just a preview; it is an invitation. It offers students a glimpse of the journey ahead, an outline of the path, and, most importantly, an experiential taste of what’s to come. When created from the level of the heart, it helps your students connect deeply with the topic, investing their energy in a way that allows them to fully absorb the teachings.
The Outline and Your Intro
As we discussed in our last Teaching Dharanas chapter, the outline serves as the foundation of your introduction. By reviewing the main points established in your outline, you can craft the body of your introduction by concisely walking through those points. This simplicity is one of the many reasons creating an outline is such a valuable step in preparing your presentation, even though it requires some additional effort upfront.
Interestingly, the process of using your outline to frame your introduction often highlights redundancies in your presentation—areas where information can be streamlined or trimmed. In this way, the outline and the introduction work together in a refining process, helping you clarify and sharpen your teaching for both yourself and your students.
Most commonly, the introduction itself encapsulates the body of your work in three to four sentences, which is helpful for your students to get a sense of the path we will be taking to the mountaintop of your presentation. But we can do even better. Every introduction also includes a single sentence that encapsulates the path, the obstacles, and the goal of our work—like taking a moment to look up at the mountain, the path, and the peak before you embark on your journey.
The Seed of Your Teachings
In academia, we know this as the thesis statement. In yoga, we might call this a ‘Sutra’, like the Yoga Sutras—a single seed that houses the DNA of the entire teaching. Like a seed, it is concise and memorable enough to be carried home in the mind of the student to be planted in the soil of their practice. And like the seed of a tree, there’s a lot packed into this small space.
Needless to say, you can’t find your thesis from the outside in, trying to fit every step of your journey into a single sentence, or fit an entire tree into a seed. You can only find your thesis from the inside out, turning your attention within and feeling the essence of your experience. It’s poetic and scientific all at the same time, communicating both feeling and instruction. Yay for art!
Read through the Shiva Sutras, the Yoga Sutras, or the Vijnana Bhairava, and you’ll start to see the magic of the Sutra. One of my favorite Sutras is from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:
“Through self-inquiry the practitioner gains insight, but eventually all mental logic must come to an end in bliss—following that is the comprehension that all is the Self (yoga)” (1.17).
It says so much in a single memorable seed: you have the path— self inquiry is the path to gain insight. You have the obstacle, logic comes to an end in bliss, which implies both that logic hits a road block, but if you persevere you will find bliss! And you have the goal, comprehension of the Self. All of that in one concise sentence, what a thesis statement. As you could imagine, Patanjali could say this one sentence, and then probably do an entire Satsang unpacking it. That’s the beauty of a great intro, and a great thesis— it excites the student with possibility, and then gives them a glimpse of the path there.
The Opening Line
So to recap, we’ve used our outline to help us write the body of our introduction, and then we turned within to uncover a powerful and concise Sutra that encapsulates the entire journey in a single sentence. This in itself is an amazing introduction and would be incredibly effective. But there is one additional detail that can catapult your introduction into an even more impacting realm— your opening line. Because although the thesis is an incredible aspect of the introduction, it may be too rich and concise for anyone to understand as the opening line. It would go over people’s heads. So we can actually take a moment to consider the first words our first impression of the intro, the first words, and the effect it can have. To look back at our previous analogy, if the essay is the cake, and the intro is the icing on the cake, then the opening line is the birthday song you sing as you bring the cake out—“happy birthday to yooooouuuuu!!” It’s hard to imagine presenting a a birthday cake without that special opening line isn’t it? So what’s your birthday song, what’s your opening line?
In the world of writing, there is a general consensus on the top three ways to begin an essay/presentation—and the top way not to begin.
How not to begin
The top way not to begin your essay/presentation is by saying:
“This presentation is about the Karma. I had a great time researching this topic and learned a lot along the way. I hope you enjoy this presentation.”
Why shouldn’t we start like this? Because the very fact that you are presenting this material already tells us all this—we are here to listen to or read from you because we assume you did research, found something worthy of telling another person, and are excited to tell us about it. When we are presenting we often think we have to spell things out for our students, but as a student, or simply an audience member for example, you’ll find that you are usually right there and ready without the need for excessive explanation.
For example, imagine if instead of singing the birthday song when you brought out the cake, you came out first and said, “We’ve got a birthday cake here for you, and we’re going to sing a song. Then you can blow out the candles, we’ll cut the cake, and share it together— sound ok?” I know it sounds funny, but this is truly what a lot of us do when we present on a topic, instead of just coming out and singing the song, and then saying ‘blow out the candles’ when its time for that. You get the idea? So let’s talk about the top three ways to make your intro special, how to sing that song!
Fascinating Facts
Let’s work our way up to the top. The third-best way to begin your essay or presentation is with a fun and fascinating fact that really brings perspective to the topic. If, for example, you were writing an essay on the witness state and the screen of the mind, you could start with a fact like, “On average, Americans spend 12 hours a day in front of screens. Interestingly, a thousand years ago, the yogic text Pratyabhijñā Hṛdayam taught that all of reality is projected onto a screen and that through practice, we can interact with this screen of reality while maintaining awareness of our true nature. Today, as our dependence on screens grows, this teaching feels more relevant than ever. We know prolonged screen time can upregulate our nervous system, disrupt our breathing, and heighten stress levels. The same principle applies to the external “screen” of daily life—whether it’s a phone in our hand or a co-worker in our space, the need to stay centered and aware remains universal.”
The introductory fact gets people’s attention, and then the tie-in brings a real depth of perspective to the topic. If you were to go on to talk about the mind like a screen, people would feel more invested an interested in what you have to say because you have shown them that screens are a big part of our everyday life— 12 hours?!— and we better learn how to work with them.
Inquisitive Questions
The second-best way to begin your teaching experience is with a question, or some kind of thought experiment to get people personally engaging with the topic. Let’s say you were teaching online, or even being read online, then you could ask the following question: “When you hear the word karma, does it carry a positive or negative connotation? Take a moment—really consider it. Good karma, bad karma. You can probably relate to both ideas quite easily. Now contrast this with causality, or cause and effect. When you hear those words, do they feel positive, negative, or more neutral? Reflect on it: cause and effect. For most of us, causality feels neutral, almost mathematical—if I drop an apple, it falls to the floor. Karma, on the other hand, often feels personal, as if it’s working for or against us.
Yet in the yogic tradition, karma isn’t a moral force but an algorithm of reality—a neutral system of cause and effect. Through yogic practice, we learn to dissolve the bonds of karma that keep us limited, moving beyond the dualities of good and bad karma. By engaging with karma as a motivating force, we transform it into a tool for spiritual growth, leading us to the deeper freedom of our true nature.”
Asking a good question of your students goes beyond mere inquiry—it’s about guiding them toward a direct experience of the topic. To do this effectively, it’s important to give them time to truly consider the question and reflect on their response in relation to what you’re presenting. For example, when asking, “When you hear the word karma, does it feel like a positive or negative experience?” pause and allow them to sit with the question. Then follow up with, “When you hear the word causality, or cause and effect, do you view it as more neutral or mathematical?” Let them engage with the feeling of it. Finally, you can introduce the yogic perspective: that karma is neither inherently good nor bad but simply represents our individual journey toward liberation. The practices of the yogic tradition teach us how to dissolve karma—not by accepting or rejecting it, but by transcending it altogether. And then we allow them to sit with that for a moment. The rest of our presentation is really just unpacking these ideas, and the beauty of a good intro is that the student feels they have been given a personal glimpse into the meaning of the topic to them— they believe in it now, and are on board to explore it with you.
Once Upon a Time
And to conclude, many writers agree that the best way to begin your essay or presentation is… drum roll, please… with a story! Yes, a story! Like the way this essay began :) There’s nothing more instantly captivating than a great story. It could be a personal story, a Zen parable, or something from the Hindu Pantheon, as long as it supports your topic.
I recently gave a presentation on Dharana 24 from the Vijnana Bhairava, which focuses on emptiness—envisioning the inside of your body as empty. While practicing with this, I was reminded of the classic Zen story, Empty Your Cup. It became an incredible introductory story, engaging the students and setting the stage for what we were truly there to do. In another presentation on the same topic, I used a different Zen story called Flower Shower, which highlighted the power and practice of emptiness.
In both cases, the story allowed me, as the teacher, to relax and share something inherently interesting. It created a safe and supportive space for the students, enabling them to visualize and connect with the topic from the inside out. Stories like these, drawn from classic texts such as Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, are an incredible resource for teaching. Of course, the Hindu tradition also offers many meaningful stories. We explore several of these in our Thursday classes, and as you grow as a teacher, you’ll become more familiar with them.
The Power of Personal
Beyond these timeless tales, your own personal stories hold even greater value. Stories from your daily life, especially ones that relate to the topic at hand, are powerful because they’re effortless to tell and demonstrate the teachings working within a modern context. That said, it can sometimes be challenging to generate a personal story, particularly if the topic is new to you. In these cases, be patient and rely on the classics. But if you pay attention, you’ll discover that even small, everyday occurrences can become interesting and meaningful stories to share with your students.
And on a final note, don’t hesitate to open directly with the story. Jumping straight into it—without preamble or explanation—has often been called the most powerful way to begin any presentation. This approach immediately engages the listener, drawing them into an internal state of visualization and connection with the topic.
Remember, your audience already knows they’re there to learn something. Much of what we feel obligated to explain or set up is inherently understood within the context of the situation. Whether they’re reading something you’ve written or sitting in a room waiting to be taught, they’re ready to dive in. You’d be surprised how eager people are to engage with the material right from the start. Starting with a story not only captures their attention but also sets the tone for a meaningful and immersive experience.
Conclusion
Crafting a meaningful presentation or essay is about more than just delivering information—it’s about creating an experience that invites your students to engage with the teachings on a deeper, more personal level. As we’ve explored, a great introduction serves as the gateway to this journey, encapsulating the essence of your presentation while setting the stage for connection and understanding.
Whether you choose to begin with a fascinating fact, an inquisitive question, or a compelling story, the goal remains the same: to draw your students into the heart of the topic. The introduction is your opportunity to provide a glimpse of the path ahead, offering your students not only a sense of direction but also a direct experience of the teachings. By focusing on engagement and connection, you ensure that your presentation resonates deeply, sparking curiosity and inspiring transformation.
Ultimately, the introduction is more than a starting point; it’s the foundation upon which the entire teaching rests. As teachers, our task is to frame the material in a way that opens hearts and minds, allowing the teachings to take root and grow. So take the time to craft your intro with intention and creativity, knowing that it sets the tone for the journey ahead—one that leads not only to understanding but to the profound realization of the heart.