Teacher's Bet
When I decided to pare down my business and music ventures to pursue a masters degree in philosophy and related topics, my exploration of self-knowledge was not religious or belief system-based but comparative study of ancient primary sources. After I completed my graduate studies in classical metaphysics, I began teaching and advising at several colleges, also serving as a graduate adviser and private counselor.
Over a decade or so, I worked with probably a thousand students and clients, and then began doing public speaking. My teaching and counseling career only paid about a quarter of what I made as a commercial real estate appraiser, but the rewards were invaluable as I became rich in connections, relationships, mutual gratitude, the exchange of ideas, the joy of serving others, and just the pure creativity involved.
As an educator, I was trying my best to expand people's cultural understanding of each other by exploring primary sources from around the globe. The ultimate goal was to help students realize the mystery and power of the human spirit. Here's an actual flyer I recently found in my archives, to give you a feel for a typical month's events at the Mindful Medicine Center, a learning venue I created in Scottsdale, AZ. . .
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My educational materials and methods were structured around four gateways to self-discovery: academic study, meditation training, real world risk-taking, and devotion to the arts. They encompassed classical philosophy East & West; Shingon and Tibetan mindfulness training; Jungian depth psychology; the Hero’s Journey risk-taking model; and self-development through living as an artist. I consider each of these disciplines to be original forms. Studying and practicing original forms allows you to build a broad-minded worldview that in turn leads to a calm, observant, fearless way of living, no matter where you roam.
As a teacher, I never presumed to have some specific truth or answer necessary to achieve spiritual awakening or enlightenment. My job was to thoroughly expose students to a variety of primary source materials that have stood the test of time, so they could develop their own interpretations. The Perennial Philosophers taught that to reach a certifiable level of wisdom, we have to let go beliefs in any single idea or person or principle. Believing in a group of sacred laws or an almighty god may be useful on the earlier stages of your spiritual journey. But gods and religions always turn out to be final obstacles on the road to authentic interior peace.
My teaching model formed a practical system that allowed you to develop self-knowledge in a way that best suited you, based on your history, current circumstances, and internal wiring. To use a Zen metaphor, my work was a finger pointing at the moon, not the moon. I was not a guru but an educator, whose Latin root educere means “to draw out.” When as a seeker you are spontaneously caught by something, your sense of wonder has now become activated. Then it is possible for something new to be drawn out of you that was inside all along.
Since I attended your presentations, I have been reading a few of my old self-help books. And what do you know? It’s like I’d never read them before. I get them on a whole other level now. Thanks for helping me take my awareness to a new level!
—Karen M., attorney
Richard has a gentle and compelling way of communicating the wisdom and wonder of spiritual inquiry, nondual teachings, and myth. His teaching methods challenge you to wake up to your own inner brilliance, to accept and work with the often difficult nature of the modern world.
—Angela B., engineer
You said your goal was to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable, and you have been true to your word! I am so pumped about what is already happening in my
thought processes, and the timing of everything has been so perfect.
—Theresa B., counselor
Pretty much everything I taught is covered in my four BOOKS.
