Education at the Beshara School

The Beshara School is a unique centre of learning and a complete educational context. The School aims to provide the best conditions possible in terms of curriculum, timetable, accommodation and supportive environment for courses in self-knowledge in the light of the unity of existence.

The School does not teach self-knowledge, and it has no teachers as such. This is because esoteric, or interior, knowledge is the property of the human soul. It is innate in each person, so it is not the kind of knowledge that can be transferred. The awakening of such knowledge is sometimes described as the remembering of what had always been known yet forgotten. The School's education and manner is entirely in respect of this principle. Thus, esoteric education requires a different approach to knowledge than is conventionally understood.

"Real knowledge is identical to the thing known" – Aristotle

This knowledge should be approached with the greatest respect. As the property of the soul it is alive with Life itself and extremely immense. It does not yield to impetuous attempts to grasp it, but reveals itself under its own terms and conditions. It presents itself to those who request of it, if it wants. In learning and development, receptivity is paramount, that is, the student's preparedness to receive, and to be reconfigured by what is given.

So, the three "r"s necessary for this education are: respect, request, and receptivity!


Foundations

The body, life and soul of the School's education is the absolute unity of existence.

The primary source materials of all study with the School are some of the writings of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. Known as the greatest teacher of the Sufi tradition, Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) was the first to articulate the unity of existence and the place of mankind in a complete system, the breadth and scope of which has never been surpassed.

Of equal importance in our study is Jalaluddin Rumi, because it was given to him to unroll the singular reality and primacy of divine love on a universal stage.

However the Beshara School is neither a school of Ibn 'Arabi, or of Rumi, nor even a Sufi school. It does not represent a particular tradition of knowledge, but the singular source of all genuine esoteric education. Thus the materials in the School's curriculum include Buddhist, Christian, Taoist and Advaita texts and many others.

"The lamps are many but the Light is One" – Rumi

The education has four aspects, each seamlessly interlinked.

  1. Study is of traditional texts, and also of writings generated specially for the School. Conversation between participants is an important aspect of study, and all formal study is held in the round.
  2. Meditation is an indispensable part of this education. The regular return to one's centre establishes constancy of presence, in being and in mindfulness.
  3. Daily engagement in work, in the garden, kitchen, house or estate cultivates in us the fertile ground of service and humility, without which our efforts stay rooted in self-interest.
  4. Regular devotional practice establishes constancy of awareness of our essential reality, and of that which we love.

These four together provide a framework of harmonious development, and are the foundation of all the School's courses.


Course supervision

All the School's courses have a dedicated supervisory staff, typically two per course. The supervisors' role is as facilitator, rather than to teach. They offer what information and guidance they are able, but the responsibility of learning remains with the student.


Aims and Intentions

Climate change, political and economic crisis, and dwindling natural resources are just a few of today's signs of the absolute requirement that humanity finds a new way of relating to the planet, to all its inhabitants and with itself. Thus the School's educational focus is not on 'spirituality' in any limited sense, but on an all-inclusive vision that combines between timeless universal wisdom and the global necessities and unique concerns of the present time.

For more on the meaning of esoteric education, click here.