UNCERTIFIED MINDFULNESS TEACHER
Why that is a good thing
The Value of Experience Over Certification in Mindfulness Teaching
In today’s world, mindfulness certification programs are becoming increasingly popular, offering structured training and recognized credentials. However, mindfulness is not merely an academic subject—it is a way of being, cultivated through direct experience. While certifications can provide useful frameworks, they often lack the depth and transformative power that comes from immersive, lived experience, particularly in traditional settings such as monasteries in Asia.
Training with monks in countries like Thailand, Myanmar, or Sri Lanka provides something that no certification can: authentic transmission. These traditions have preserved mindfulness and meditation practices for centuries, passing them down through direct experience rather than standardized curricula. Living and practicing in these environments allows one to internalize the teachings, not just intellectually, but at the level of deep, personal realization.
Another key difference is the embodied presence of those who have truly devoted themselves to mindfulness practice. A person who has spent months or years meditating in a monastery develops an unshakable foundation—one that cannot be taught in a weekend course. They have faced discomfort, silence, and self-inquiry in a way that fosters real wisdom, making them more equipped to guide others authentically.
In the end, a certification may validate knowledge, but true mindfulness teaching comes from inner transformation. Those who have walked the path deeply are more capable of leading others, not through theory, but through the direct transmission of presence, insight, and genuine understanding.
Fabrizio Giuliani has been practicing Vipassana in the Mahasi tradition for more than 25 years in Asia, Australia the United Stats and Canada. In 2019 he founded Ashoka Mindfulness meditation and is the founder of Ashoka - Mindfulness Meditation Center in Rome where he continues to teach Vipassana in the Mahasi tradition and Thai forest tradition.
After finishing high school in Italy he moved to London and then to Australia where he graduated in cultural anthropology at the University of Sydney with a thesis on Shamanism in Colombia.
As soon as he graduated he moved to India to teach English to the community of Tibetan monks and refugees. He lived in Asia for 4 years traveling to Burma, Nepal and Thailand to practice intensively before returning to Australia to continue his practice at the Blue Mountains insight meditation center (Blue Mountains, Sydney).
In 2012 he moved to the USA where he practiced with Vipassana Hawai'i, IMS (Insight Meditation Society) in Massachusetts, Canada and lived for a few months at Robert Aitken's Palolo Zen Center in O'ahu (Hawai'i) . Fabrizio has had the honor and the great fortune of having practiced with exceptional teachers who have dedicated their lives to the Dharma. Lynne Bousfield (Sydney Australia) with whom she teaches Vipassana retreats in Bali and Australia, Steven Smith (Vipassana Hawai'i) Michele McDonald (Vipassan Hawai') Sayadaw Vivekananda (Lumbini, Nepal) Thanissara and Kittisaro (South Africa and California) With whom he continues to practice and has received from them authorization to teach.
He has just completed a course on compassion in the Mahayana and Theravada tradition. His Dharma teaching has a strong practical element based on experience gained on the meditation cushion. His lineage is the Vipassana practice as taught by Mahasi Sayadaw and the Thai forest tradition of Ajan Chah.
