In a world where spiritual teachers are a dime a dozen,
It's sometimes important to go over the characteristics and important aspects of a spiritual teacher to make sure that one is not being conned,
Lied to,
Or has become a student of a charlatan.
At the end of the day,
We can learn something from every single person out there,
But to dedicate your life to them though is a different thing altogether.
Even those spiritual teachers that end up being involved in deep controversy or bad things,
We can still learn from them in terms of what not to do and how not to act.
As a spiritual student,
One just needs a solid foundation taught to them.
The spiritual accomplishment will come from yourself.
Existentialness is only found in yourself.
It is not found externally,
Outwardly,
Or from somebody else.
This is why sometimes the path is said to be so difficult because it must always come from the in to out.
With a solid foundation,
You have practices and methods which allows you to continuously work on this.
Let's now go over some important points in regards to not falling for a teacher that is far below par.
The first thing we have to be careful of are the highly charismatic and intelligent teachers.
Normally these highly charismatic and intelligent teachers are the ones that become famous.
It is their charisma and quick wittedness that makes them very suitable to going on TV and talking in large public forums.
The second thing we need to be careful of are teachers that we notice don't talk calmly enough.
Even Buddha said that when you are enlightened,
You end up in a mindset which is samatha,
Which is that of tranquility.
Therefore those who are speaking too emotionally and passionately,
Even though they may be good teachers and worthwhile listening,
It shows that their level of self attainment isn't that high.
We also need to be careful of when we hear a teacher talking,
I,
I,
I.
There are many famous teachers who you will hear,
Where the every time they talk,
We all will hear about his I this,
I that,
My this,
I that.
The next aspect is those talking about pseudoscience.
Pseudoscience can very easily entice people into listening or to going towards a teacher,
Especially pseudoscience in regards to health matters and pseudoscience in regards to healing.
We need to be very careful of these because most of these are false.
One example of pseudoscience is using the rudraksha seeds over something and then to see whether it goes clockwise or anti-clockwise.
This of course is actually created by the movement of your own fingers even though it's too small to see.
The next thing one needs to be careful of,
A teacher that allows you to come into their inner circle very quickly,
Within a day or two or three days.
This normally has a specific reason and puts out big warning signs.
A real spiritual teacher will never allow you to come into their inner circle too quickly.
You would have to prove yourself that you're a good human being over a fairly long period of time before you could ever enter into their inner circle.
We also need to be careful of spiritual teachers where the followers,
The close followers,
Teach their spiritual teacher like a divine god.
These things always trickle down from the teacher himself because he either believes he is a divine god or allows his followers to think that he's a divine god.
Any true spiritual teacher will say immediately that they are not a buddha,
Not a god,
Not divine.
You'll notice that in a way that their students don't treat them like a divine being but treat them like a father or mother.
They treat them with genuine love.
We also need to be very careful of those spiritual teachers that are actually good,
Kind human beings but actually have no knowledge.
These teachers that pass on incorrect teaching and practices are actually just as dangerous as those ones who are charlatans.
We also need to be careful of teachers that talk about teaching the occult.
The occult is in a negative light and generally means that a person has got some negativity or deep negativity within their heart.
We also need to watch out for the teachers that think and say,
My way is the best way and nobody else is as good as me.
This is never the way the words are said but it may be when you bring up somebody else,
A face is pulled or the students think that their master is the best master to ever walk the face of the earth.
One again needs to stay far away from these type of spiritual teachers.
Normally when you come face to face with one of these teachers,
You can actually see that the good ones have a genuine smile,
Genuine eyes and a real genuine kind demeanor about them.
This is a very good sign into being the fact that this may be a true teacher.
Here we also need to notice that the words that they may use should be soft and gentle,
Especially no swearing.
We also need to make sure that even though they can be stern,
There is never any sign of anger.
If a teacher shows any sign of anger,
This is somebody you should never go near.
The teacher must also have deep knowledge for without deep knowledge,
There is nothing.
For in this day and age,
There needs to be an obvious education such as a degree,
A bachelor,
Masters or the fact that they had studied with a certain teacher for a very long period of time or how in Tibetan Buddhism they do 20 years of study before they can go and teach.
It doesn't need to be a university thing but it needs to be a very obvious progression of education because without this,
These people or teachers will definitely be lacking in some way or form.
We also can't have a teacher that's too young.
I would probably say the youngest is possibly about 40,
Late 30s but really no younger than that because as much as anybody wishes,
Without age,
There are no life skills because there's been no life experience.
We need to be careful of those teachers that like controversy.
Many teachers out there like controversy because it brings them fame and a name and they do controversial things to get their name out in the public spotlight.
These teachers one needs to be very wary of.
We also need to be careful of some teachers that are actually too far gone and what I mean by that is that some teachers have gone so far down the path that they're just not quite with the average person's mindset anymore and they don't have an ability to teach.
These people are very rare though.
We don't commonly see them.
The other thing we need to look for in a teacher is that they genuinely listen and you watch them when somebody asks them a question or something.
They're not looking away.
They're not thinking about what they want to have for dinner.
They're not thinking about other things.
They're genuinely sitting there and listening to the person in front of them.
We also need to be careful of those that appear as though they like their own voice a little bit too much.
They talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and never give anybody a time or space to say anything and if somebody says anything they're cut off,
Etc.
Etc.
Another key aspect of patience.
Many so-called masters you can see have absolutely no patience whatsoever.
Again,
A bare minimum attribute of somebody who has actually attained some level of spirituality.
And finally,
And maybe even the most important,
Is that these spiritual teachers do not have a focus on themselves in the way that they talk,
In the way that they teach,
In the examples that they use.
Occasionally they may use examples about themselves or occasionally they may say I,
Which is fine,
But if this is a general theme that runs in them,
It probably means that they've already been caught up by their fame and maybe even fortune.
For many a great master had lost their path through fame and fortune.
