…these would be the prerequisites:
1. First prerequisite: Have attended at least one 10-day S.N. Goenka meditation retreat. I can teach meditation but they teach it better. I can refine what they teach and explain how it connects to a path to awakening. The two meditation techniques they teach—Anapanasati and Vipassana in the Burmese tradition—are tools. Trying to become enlightened without these tools would be like trying to bush hog a Kudzu field with a pair of scissors.
Meditation alone can not lead to awakening. Meditation is a tool—and mostly being taught poorly by modern “secular” meditation teachers such as Shinzen Young and Leigh Brasington, both of whom are charlatans. (I’ve sat retreats with both.)
Any system which purports to lead to awakening or enlightenment or “transcendence,” which ignores or fails to place emphasis on the importance of morality/ethics/karma, is a false teaching and a waste of time for those seeking the complete cessation of suffering. Moreover, any teacher who depends on teaching for his or her livelihood is operating under an inherent, per se conflict of interest. It follows that anyone who has the Dharma up for sale should be considered a charlatan until proved otherwise.
2. Second prerequisite: Abandon all forms of dishonesty. People who are engaging in dishonesty are still too caught up in the illusion to make much spiritual progress. The goal is to break free of the illusion, not get further bound up in it by creating webs of dishonesty.
Courageous honesty means a little light is shining through.
3. Third: Have developed a distaste for the world and all of its “pleasures.” Chasing sense pleasure satisfaction and ego gratification are like licking honey off the blade of a razor—anyone who hasn’t figured this out will keep drinking honey mixed with their own blood for a few million more rounds until they do.
Most of the people I used to know were still trying to wring permanent happiness out of worldly experiences and status. Either that or they had sort of accepted with “quiet desperation” that there was no joy to be found, yet they are still unable (caught up as they are) to seek spiritual or psychological help. These types will continue in the round until the suffering intensifies and humility ensues, at which time awareness will begin to dawn.
4. No remaining strong worldly attachments. This precludes most women with children.
5. Has the ability to understand that without silence no music is possible. Understanding this, a curiosity about the silence will arise, along with a desire to pay attention to it using the aforementioned tools. Then, after doing that for a while, the silence becomes more compelling than the notes, and the notes become superfluous and disappear. This can be frightening.
Keep going! Because at some point the notes return, and the primordial symphonic harmony is restored!
This is the peace that surpasses all understanding, the bliss of the Buddha.
Peace
P.S. I too am a charlatan.
Emptiness and Light 
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