Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Spiritual Teacher
A spiritual teacher can be described as that person who teaches you how to acquire new skills, guides, and mentors you into making decisions that will not negatively affect those who are around you. The position of a spiritual teacher is reserved for anyone who is older than you in terms of commanding spiritual maturity and can guide you into growing spiritually. It is good to demystify that a spiritual teacher or mentor is not a cultural leader or anyone appointed by their community as a spiritual leader will make a spiritual teacher. This is someone who should be accessible to you. Below are some of the key factors to consider when choosing a spiritual teacher.
You need to look at the religious beliefs and culture of the spiritual teacher first before settling for their mentoring services. People have different religious and cultural backgrounds, this influences the type of spiritual teacher that you are going to settle for. You need to look at the beliefs of the potential spiritual teacher that you are eyeing, does he have the same religious and cultural belief to what you hold into your heart or they are conflicting? As stated above that people are of different cultural and religious backgrounds, you don’t have necessarily have to settle for one who has similar religious and cultural beliefs. Remember you are looking for someone who is spiritually matured, if this person can challenge your religion and cultural beliefs completely for you to think again about what you believe, then the teacher is suitable for you. Similarly, a spiritual teacher who also agrees with your religious and cultural beliefs is also suitable for you.
What is the personality of this person you are considering to settle for as your spiritual teacher? Since you are looking for someone to mentor you spiritually, you need to find someone who you can easily exchange your ideas with him or her. If your potential spiritual teacher instills fears in you whenever you are talking to them then you will not be able to bring out what your fears are or what your thoughts are about any subject that may be bothering you. You need someone that creates a welcoming environment for your ideas. To add unto personality the spiritual teacher should also be humble.
Does your potential spiritual teacher live a life that showcases what they are teaching you? An ideal spiritual teacher should be one whose lifestyle exhibits what they are teaching you. They should be the type that preaches water while they are drinking wine. Look at the type of activities that your potential spiritual teacher is engaging in, are they a good environment to grow their spiritual level or it’s depleting their spirituality levels? An ideal spiritual teacher should not be one who spends most of their time in things that don’t boost their spirituality levels and should not also be one who castigates other people’s beliefs. He or she should be one person who creates a good environment for spiritual learning for everyone they are interacting with.