Episode 17: The Meditation Teacher Who’s Right For You

One Heart One Mind

Thomas McConkie

Meditation, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Contemplation, Psychology, Buddhism, Development, Thomasmcconkie, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 632 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sooner or later, if we get at all serious about integrating contemplation into our day to day life, we start to wonder what it would look like to have a bona fide teacher to guide us on the path. In this episode, Thomas articulates some of the principles that he has found most helpful in working with teachers of his own, as well as offering students guidance in calling in the right teacher at the right time.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to another episode of Mindfulness Plus. I'm your host Thomas
0:08.4	McConkey. Thank you so much for listening today. A question I've gotten a lot over the years
0:15.5	as a teacher from my students is, how do I find a teacher?
0:22.9	We're going to talk about that today.
0:28.4	So first I'll say, not everybody needs a teacher.
0:32.3	If you're one of those people who does not want a teacher,
0:35.7	we'll actually have something for you in this episode too, so stay tuned. If you think of anybody in your life
0:40.6	who's mastered something, who's mastered public speech, a musical instrument, a foreign
0:48.1	language, anything, it is almost impossible that they did not have an actual mentor or a series of mentors and teachers to help them master the craft.
1:02.0	Meditation is no different. If you're interested in developing a certain level of mastery at meditation, you're going to want a teacher. So we're going to explore that.
1:15.2	I will say for people who don't need or don't want a particular level of mastery in mindfulness,
1:24.0	in contemplative practice, you know, listening to a podcast once in a while and kind of dropping
1:30.1	into a state, if that's enough, that's enough. And I'll talk about that. But I really want to take
1:36.6	on this question of what it means to find a teacher and what this relationship is like. So the first
1:43.8	thing I'll say, maybe the most foundational thing I can say
1:47.4	about finding a teacher, is that you can really trust your gut and pay attention to any
1:57.6	being in whose presence you feel spiritually alive. Pay attention to any being in whose presence you feel spiritually alive.
2:03.6	Pay attention to any being in whose presence you feel spiritually alive.
2:08.6	That is a good litmus test.
2:10.6	If there's something going on in this relationship that's waking me up,
2:14.6	it's calling me to life, and you can go with that, simply.
2:19.4	I'm not going to give you a checklist or criteria
	...

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