Looking for a spiritual teacher, not sure how to go about it.

Hello everyone! I'd like to start by saying I am in no way using this thread itself to find a teacher, rather, I would appreciate perhaps some tips on how to go about finding one.

I have hit a wall, spiritually speaking, and all signs are pointing to my need for a guide/teacher. Literally every book I have picked up lately has highlighted the need for a teacher. I am not looking for someone to give me dogma, or expect blind obedience. I need someone to perhaps help with guided meditations, refreshing perspective and someone more knowledgeable than myself who would be willing to speak at length regarding my own personal and specific questions.

Every resource tells me that you will find the right teacher at the right time, or that the teacher chooses the student, but this doesn't really work for me. I have a syndrome that severly hinders my social abilities, and as such there is no current opportunity, no serendipity to step in a make the necessary introduction. I work from home, I do not have a social circle and the internet is hardly helpful since just about everything spiritual based that you find online has a very large price tag attached.

I was hoping that if other people would be willing to share their own experiences about finding spiritual teachers, I may be able to find a way to create the proper circumstances for introducing a teacher or guide into my life.

Thank you in advance for any advice you may have to share :)

Namaste

[seeker2011]

Almost every city in america has one psychic reader. Put an ad in your local paper asking for the contact info for a local psychic reader and go from there.

I have found that it is indeed true that 'when the student is ready, the teacher appears'. My spirit guides told me I needed a physical teacher, so I shrugged and said - okay. A while later, I was in the middle of a college course when a fellow student told me about a friend looking for someone to demonstrate reiki. I got in touch, she asked me to talk to her group, no one turned up so we chatted for a few hours and... she's still my teacher and friend, after 15 years.

Often the best teacher is the one within... but perhaps here you need to focus less on the 'improbables' (your situation) and more on the 'what ifs...' (what if it could somehow happen, even so) to allow a teacher to enter your life. 'Miracles' do happen, always when we least expect it; try being 'open to receive' rather than 'this is unlikely to happen because...'. It's really just a matter of tweaking your perceptions of how likely probabilities and casting it to the gods.

[Westleigh]

Hi clamothe,

I agree with Enya. My spirit guide likes to tell me, "your most important guide is you". There is more you can learn from yourself than anyone else can teach you.

Try meditating and asking for guidance to bring you closer to your spiritual goals, whatever form that might take. You may not find that it takes the form of a spiritual mentor, or at least not at this time - mine hasn't. Just invite spirit to bring your guidance to you in whatever form is most appropriate. In my case I have been brought to the right places at the right times, happened upon the right reading materials, and helped to form a strong relationship with my spiritual guides who have been the most amazing and invaluable teachers to me. I think I have learned far more from this process of self-discovery and learning to trust my personal connection with spirit than I would have from a teacher.

I do understand the desire for physical guidance as I would like that myself; I hope it will happen in the future. Perhaps that will happen at an appropriate time, but no matter what some books may tell you, you do not necessarily need a teacher in the room with you in order for them to guide you.

I hope you find what or who you need!

Set the intention and you'll probably find one. Many psychics and healers act as spiritual teachers or guides but you'll also find them in friends and people close to you. The teacher you find is meant to help you with the acension process apparently. Be open to integrating the information the teacher holds (your ego has a tendancy to dismiss information sometimes apparently). Applying the information will allow you to get through this standstill period.

[Shabda]

simply ask...a teacher does provide a very important thing that you may have trouble providing yourself, regardless of what anyone says, and that is humility, act as if you are already in the presence of the perfect teacher for you and the things you feel you need to learn, and do it everyday, do not listen to your senses that demand that you are NOT in the presence of such....you will draw yourself into this presence, and you will also draw that teacher to you, and you will learn what you need to learn...

I thank you all for your kind advice, but I feel I should clarify my situation a little. Although I am new to this particular forum (actually, I had an account before, but it was deleted in the great data crash! :S), but the general thoughts and ideas of this website have long been known to me, and I have spent many years pondering such questions. For the past year, I have been a "manifesting machine" as I like to label it ;)

I set out to make a radical spiritual change in my life, to finally take everything I knew to heart and throw myself into the flow. I started noticing the signs within myself and without that would allow me to steer my life in a more mindful way. Since then, I have moved across the country, found many people and situations that to this day just seem too perfect to be coincidences. I have made a complete 180 in my life.

These coincidences keep appearing in knowledge as well. I will be pondering something that I can't really wrap my mind around, then a person I randomly meet will suggest a book, and it has the answer I've been looking for.

I don't know if I've reached a manifesting plateau, or I'm just not ready for a teacher yet, but all the same signs I've been following for a year are telling me I need a teacher, so I'm just trying to listen :)

I'll continue to meditate on it, and I thank you all greatly for your suggestions!

Namaste

[earthwanderess]

What subject exactly are you looking for a teacher to guide you? Being specific can help you find what you are really looking for.

Look online for workshops in the specific area you want to learn about. When you find someone you are interested in learning from meditate to see if this is the right person for your higher good.

Do you have any metaphysical magazines/newspapers in your area? You could scan these and see what you find.

Check out metaphysical bookstores. Many have weekend classes where you can take a 3-4 hour class and meet a teacher. This is how I met my first teacher who sucked and then a real shamanic teacher who I studied with for 3 years.

I have read some books and found out the author does workshops. I have gone to a few workshops and always get something from them. Usually talking to other's at these workshops hook me up to another form of teaching I am interested in.

[athribiristan]

Originally Posted by clamothe

Hello everyone! I'd like to start by saying I am in no way using this thread itself to find a teacher, rather, I would appreciate perhaps some tips on how to go about finding one.

I have hit a wall, spiritually speaking, and all signs are pointing to my need for a guide/teacher. Literally every book I have picked up lately has highlighted the need for a teacher. I am not looking for someone to give me dogma, or expect blind obedience. I need someone to perhaps help with guided meditations, refreshing perspective and someone more knowledgeable than myself who would be willing to speak at length regarding my own personal and specific questions.

Every resource tells me that you will find the right teacher at the right time, or that the teacher chooses the student, but this doesn't really work for me. I have a syndrome that severly hinders my social abilities, and as such there is no current opportunity, no serendipity to step in a make the necessary introduction. I work from home, I do not have a social circle and the internet is hardly helpful since just about everything spiritual based that you find online has a very large price tag attached.

I was hoping that if other people would be willing to share their own experiences about finding spiritual teachers, I may be able to find a way to create the proper circumstances for introducing a teacher or guide into my life.

Thank you in advance for any advice you may have to share :)

Namaste

Try visiting a phychic fair. Even small venues generally have several readers/spiritual teacher types. If nothing else you might find a good lead toward a teacher.

[lemex]

Plateau are places one is able to use. They are natural places (we) manifested. A word you use is powerfully important, you reached it. The plateau was once a higher place and so can be a place of advancement. One certainly can be working and practicing manifesting skills. Plateaus are levels of understanding and the plateau is of course you.

But plateaus don't have to be the negative image we foster but an important conceptual time to use while there.

Consider teacher may be the plateau and very lucky if on the plateau.