Hi all.

I know that the general (and very well intentioned) advice of this sub is to find a real teacher and a sangha for seekers on this path. However, some of us (e.g. me) are not fortunate enough to be residing in reasonable vicinity of a sangha.

I am a beginner on this path, and am having to rely only on books and online resources for studying and practicing the dharma. I am just listing below some of the teachers who seem to be popular among seekers (at least among those seekers with an Internet footprint):

-> Culadasa: my journey pretty much began when I read his book, which is about meditation. He also has a huge number of dharma talks about the eightfold path and general topics related to enlightenment.

-> Shinzen Young : Like Culadasa, his teachings emphasise meditation while also having his series of Dharma talks.

-> Joseph Goldstein : Have read his book and listened to his dharma talks, and find him to be an excellent dharma teacher, and the real deal when it comes to explaining sati , in sharp contrast to most watered-down versions of mindfulness.

-> Rob Burbea : Has a an inexhaustible collection of dharma talks and covers a lot of ground in them. His book also introduced me to some very profound works in Mahayana Buddhism (Nagarjuna's), which has been very fruitful to me.

I have also read text by a lot of other Buddhist teachers (Bhikku Bodhi, Bhikku Analayo, Thanissaro Bhikku, Bhante Gunaratana etc.) but with them, I feel comfortable accepting and following their teachings without any hesitation, because they are ordained monks who literally live the dharma.

With the four teachers I have listed, I feel a bit conflicted. Their teachings I find very informative and practical, but I am not able to help having a feeling of slight hesitation with them. They are not ordained, for one thing. Secondly,for teaching Buddhist insights/awakening, shouldn't the teachers themselves be enlightened? Some of them even charge for sessions with their students (which is understandable in a way, yet a little off-putting.)

What is this sub's views on modern teachers such as these of Buddhist enlightenment.

PS: I mean no disrespect to any of these teachers. I am just trying to seek some views that would hopefully help get my confusions clarified.