Do you also have any recommendations for teachers or retreats in (any part of the world)?

Someone asked me,
Do you also have any recommendations for teachers or retreats in (any part of the world)?

I live like a hermit so I don't really get out much in the Buddhist community and have any specific groups, teachers, to recommend. I have some general recommendations though. 

1. I assume you're asking this question because you want to, or need to get away from your house to meditate because of too much noise, distraction, etc. 

2. If you already have a decent grasp of core EBT (early buddhist teachings) and its meditation methods,

and just need a quiet place to meditate with a supportive community of meditators, 

you need not restrict  yourself to communities of your sect. 

As long as the environment is conducive, 

and they're not requiring you to meditate using their method,

you can join sitting groups in any Buddhist tradition, or even non Buddhist traditions.

Most good religions probably wouldn't mind having kind, quiet, sitters joining their regular sitting groups. 

3. Gradually practice to be independent in your meditation practice, so you no longer need a supportive community to sit with. 

Then you can just go to a park, forest, empty hut, any quiet place.

The more developed you become in samādhi, 

eventually you can meditate even in un-quiet, busy, noisy places (as long as you feel safe, secure, noise is not too loud or piercing to be thorns to your jhāna)

4. If you're not sure of your grasp of EBT meditation methods,

you can ask on the reddit groups I mod,

private message me,

read my meditation articles on lucid24.org and this blog,

which give detailed audits, citations and EBT sutta passages justifying the interpretation of the meditation methods.

5. Aside from lucid24.org, Thanissaro Bhikkhu's writings and audio recordings on https://www.dhammatalks.org/ are trustworthy.

Of all the well known English speaking teachers, he's the only one I can comfortably say (IMO) has greater than 95%  compliance with EBT Dhamma and meditation methods. 

Every other teacher, you take your chances because it's a mixed bag.

6.  Thanissaro Bhikkhu has probably over a thousand short recordings of 10 min. or so dhamma talks that he gives at his monastery every day while leading meditation sessions.  

Download some from https://www.dhammatalks.org/, 

pop one in if you need some meditation tips, and after the 10 min. talk you can meditate quietly for another 20min or however long you feel like. 

7. Dhamma is Dhamma, don't conflate teacher with Dhamma. 

Unless the teacher is an arahant or non-returner (greed, anger, lust, are impossible), 

they're going to have human flaws on display, gross or subtle.

Don't conflate the teacher's flaws with the Dhamma they teach.

It's a kind of cognitive dissonance most people fall into. 

A teacher might be flawed, but they might be teaching a pure Dhamma.

Most people make the mistake that if they see flaws in a teacher, 

They think, therefore the Dhamma the teacher teaches must be a flawed Dhamma.

Really use your critical thinking skills (Dhamma-vicaya-sambojjhanga, pañña, sampajāno, vimamsa) to discern whether the Dhamma is flawed, or the flawed teacher is just not following the Dhamma they teach.

Read the suttas in the EBT when in doubt, and consult with credible practitioners.

Similarly, if a teacher has saintly behavior with no visible flaws  (greed, anger, lust) over a long period of time,

don't blindly assume they're teaching a pure Dhamma (that matches meaning and words said by the Buddha).

Regularly Read at least the core essentials of the EBT (only about 2 hours worth of reading), every few months so you have a reference point.

A teacher with saintly behavior might only be teaching you a Dhamma that leads to heavenly realms, but not a complete destruction of rebirth, suffering, ignorance. 

8. Go back to the well. 

It's hard to find true people with integrity and/or genuine credibility in any field. 

If you come across a good resource/teacher/friend, take note, book mark it,  value it properly, remember it, take notes and review regularly, cultivate it, make friends with them,  

go back to the well.  

With the wide variety and easy accessibility of knowledge on the internet, and with AI,

it's too easy to start trusting these quick summaries and advice you get from everywhere 

that seem to be valid/correct 80-90% of the time, 

but that 10% of the time that it's wrong can really kill you.

So cultivate your trustworthy sources, 

check multiple sources and validate things when they're important.