https://hypernotepad.com/n/47d234e4ac57a6b0
Here's a guide for anyone interested in dipping their toes into spirituality, without having to immediately jump into any specific religion. Plenty of resources on teaching yourself to think critically of any propositions you may run into and how to get started with actual spiritual practice. Also covers things to look out for when you consider joining a spiritual community.
On Lemmy, there are a couple of religious communities but they are kinda quiet. I did connect with the mods of these though, meaning the communities aren't entirely abandoned (at the time of writing this):
You can search for more of course but many are dead. If you mod a religious community, do send me a message and I'll add it - provided that your space is inclusive.
There's also a general spirituality community on Beehaw but the instance is more selective about who they federate with:
Thank you for the questions!
Yeah there's a point there but there's also a world of difference between sleuthing some random person online (even if they are a bit of an influencer) and a spiritual teacher who may end up having significant power over your well-being. NOT to say that it's a binary that's only 0 or 100. Please don't do that. Look them up enough to make sure that YOU are comfortable with at least taking part in their community, then get more familiar with them like you would with any person. And you can always draw a line. I've had secondary teachers that I wouldn't recommend due to issues with their conduct that only became apparent later but they did relay a couple of very useful teachings - and they weren't "their" teachings, it's just that the way they taught a couple of ideas from nonduality for whatever reason got through to me better than they did from my primary teacher. That happens frequently. Please do not buy into this idea that if you find a teacher that passes your preliminary tests, you must then unquestioningly follow them forever. You take your time (years) with teachers and get what you can from them, disregard what's useless and maybe one of them emerges as your primary teacher that you can generally speaking trust to genuinely care about your well-being. But never forget all teachers are still human. If they weren't, they wouldn't be able to teach humans. And as such, they are fallible, and they are NOT all-knowing. I've seen this flipside too where people completely unnecessarily idolize a legitimately good teacher, and then the teacher does something like recommends a book by an author who later turns out to be sexual predator. They had no way of knowing this about the book author but the expectation somehow was that because they're a spiritual teacher, they should've just magically known that the author was dangerous. The pedestal topples and now the spiritual teacher is fake and probably a rapist too. Went slightly on a tangent but the point is: do what you can to make wise decisions over how much influence you let any one person have over you. Yes, the teacher needs to be responsible, but so does the student.
This is also where having a community is a good thing. I've seen donation drives etc. to help a struggling community member. I've known a teacher to pay for their student's therapy (with a therapist the student chose independently). I know in this anonymous online world that tends towards cynicism, it may seem unimaginable and even nefarious but in a healthy, caring community, people do actually help each other out. Again of course there's the flipside that you can't just hang out in a community for few weeks and then ask for money. You need to actually keep showing up so people know you're not just trying to take advantage of their goodwill.
It's a matter of scale. "Calling out your bullshit" doesn't have to mean a full on intervention. It's just pointing out that your conduct may be hurtful to others, or counterproductive on the path you yourself have chosen to walk. Of course if you become straight up abusive, then the community will understandably invite you to leave, as they should. Being politely skeptical of teachings or generally struggling with them should never be seen as problematic. It's more the interpersonal stuff that by definition does not show up if you're just by yourself. That said, I have actually have a great example of challenging teachings that people can get very stuck in, which people may start calling out sooner or later if you keep bringing it up again and again. It goes right into the argument with reality. People really struggle with acceptance vs. approval. Many people seem to have this desire to have spiritual teachings that somehow resolve all the problems in the world. But none can. No amount of philosophy is going to stop people from hurting each other and this is something you need to accept, which does NOT mean that you approve. Some people get really really stuck on this, which manifests as the teacher speaking about compassion, acceptance, surrender and the student then always brings up the objection "but what about this horrible thing in the world". A good teacher will humor the argument for some time so the student can realize for themselves that no amount of intellectualizing will bring about world peace. And the irony is that I can say this, I can break down the whole cycle of argumentation, lay it all out for you but you still need to figure it out for yourself. That's where you need the Opening practices I talk about in the guide, and that's something the teacher and the community will start to gently poke you towards if you get really stuck in the cycle of rationalization. But they won't force you, and indeed you can always leave if you're not satisfied.