1. The education at the Beshara School is for those who feel that there is a deeper meaning to our lives, and informs us what that meaning is. It fosters consideration of who we really are inside, as individuals and as humankind, and how by realizing that we can be happy and satisfied.

2. This is an education in the singleness of being; to be focussed on an all-inclusive truth; where all 'otherness' is seen as illusion. This is not academic study: it is done by and for love.

3. The great value is its universality.

4. The aim of the School is realisation of who we are and the extraordinary possibilities and opportunities we have for ourselves and for service and contribution.

5. It is for the breaking down of habitual ways of looking at and thinking about oneself and the world. To bring about a fundamental shift in focus, where words like guidance, surrender, praise, service, dependence, love, gratitude, beauty, humility, grace, are normal, everyday words, free of judgment, and fear of criticism.

6. To provide an education regarding the unity of existence.

7. To provide a way to find knowledge of self and the love that derives from it.

There are no teachers and yet, through study of esoteric texts, meditation upon their meanings, work to put the principles learned into practice, and concerted praise and appreciation of the unity of existence, all are students and come to greater knowledge and love.

1. Esoteric education is the drawing out from a person that innate knowledge of his or her reality, their private knowledge of who they are. It is a process of self-discovery.

2. At Beshara, esoteric education means an education which is universal and available to all. It is neither exclusive, nor for the initiated: it is essentially the universal language of the heart, addressed to the heart. It is not obscure or mystifying, but clear, personal and intimate - as close to you as your own breathing and as vital. It is an education for life, in life and from the source of all life, bearing the indelible stamp of the Real.

3. Education in self-knowledge. Esoteric education faces into questions like "Who am I? It recognises that at the centre there is one Reality and common experience of unity. It frequently draws from inner lines of teaching at the core of the major faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The aim is to facilitate growth, self-realisation and union.

4. The purpose of esoteric education (esoteric meaning interior) is to direct the awareness to our own deep inner source, a source which we can draw upon for guidance and direction and to which we are all connected.

5. It is a knowledge which is a perfect description, mirror image, of the innate knowledge in ourselves. The fact that we have forgotten this innate knowledge means that we have to learn to take direction from it - to take direction from oneness instead of taking direction from our own concepts.

This requires willingness and effort, but being in service to oneness means being at peace with our real nature.

1. The School has no teachers, no leaders, no guru. All involved consider themselves students, whether they are in the role of supervisor, principal, or formally a student. Guidance, order, knowledge, all these are universal principles available to everyone, and which the individual must discover for herself or himself.

2. When I spent time at the School nobody ever told me what to think, or what to believe. There are teachers, but they are not of the conventional kind. Every text we studied became a teacher: some awesome like oceans, some friendly and helpful like drinking from a mountain stream. All my fellow students and everyone who works at the School became my teachers. And finally, once I had learned to let go of my own stuff a little bit, I discovered a teacher inside me. To learn to trust in myself continues to be an amazing mystery and a great challenge every day of my life.

3. Unlike a traditional classroom, where an authority passes on canonical knowledge through lectures, students of the school are invited to take part in a process of collaborative discovery.
While there is a structured programme of study that students participate in, the programme does not mean to dictate answers or conclusions.

1. The knowledge of union, from which comes the School’s education, is that to which all religions and spiritual movements are aiming.

2. Beshara calls for a completely new manner of being in relation to the essential identity of one existent reality. Education in the way of the unity of existence is deeply indebted to saints and spiritual leaders of all the three great monotheistic traditions of the west, and also to eastern spirituality. Beshara intends a spiritual education by which the self freely finds the truth about its relation to the one being.

3. The meaning of Beshara is in itself universal and not connected to any movement or religion. The point is in the meaning and not the form it seems to come from.

4. You might ask: is Beshara connected to Yoga, Taoism, Sufism or Christian or Buddhist mysticism? The aim of Beshara for a person is their realisation of unity, or a union with the origin of existence above and beyond any particularisation in form.

5. The answer here needs to be viewed from the essential perspective of the Unity of Being, of which the Beshara School itself is a prototype.

All the great teachers, all religions and spiritual movements, are pointers to that reality alluded to by the term the Unity of Being. This single and unique reality has been variously described as Love, Beauty, Existence, Compassion, the Self, the Ocean-deep point, Light or even as that Reality which cannot be named. It is universal, unique and infinite. If one simply looks at the pointers, or the forms and not what is pointed to, a great deal escapes one.

The Beshara School is concerned with the pure, inviolable water of life itself. It is concerned with that which is essential, universal and self–subsistent ‘in’ all its containers. Only conscious, undivided focus on this opens the door to the real Beauty of the one and only, of which all else are mediated and thereby relative reflections. All the great spiritual teachers have known this and their writings are guides to this. There are, indeed, many forms of spiritual guidance available, but the time has also come to see for oneself, without intermediary – and for this, in our times, the prototype is the Beshara School.

1. Knowledge of our personal self may be our starting point and may seem the aim - until we realise that we are not what we thought we were, that the education is about the real self of all, about the knowledge the real self has of itself, the movement and momentum of the real self (no end), and that indeed the education is directly from the real and ultimately to itself.

2. It is and it isn’t, depending on the way we look at it. Self-knowledge can be seen as the gate through which the knowledge of reality regarding oneself can be received and made known. However, since this knowledge goes far beyond oneself, and is infinite, unlimited and in constant expression - there is no end to it, and therefore, it is not an end in itself.

3. When I was setting off to join the second six-month course, my neighbour remarked: ‘i thought you found yourself last time’.
This brought to mind the saying:
“First find thyself, ‘tis half the way to God
Then lose thyself, and all the way is trod.”

Of course, God isn’t ‘somewhere else’; what is indicated is that ‘finding’ or ‘knowing’ oneself, in a certain sense, is not the end, but a necessary preparation. One has to be able to look at oneself as if in a clear mirror and realise that much (most?) of one’s concept of oneself (what or how one thinks oneself to be) is delusion and self-deception. But the ‘cleaned-up’ self-concept, too, is an illusion. In reality, ‘I’ don’t exist. It is impossible to put into words.
The zen master Hakuin says:
“And if we turn inwards and prove our True-nature
that True-self is no-self
our own-self is no-self -
we go beyond ego and past clever words.”

1. Yes, but probably not in the way one might at first assume. Self-development is not the aim; neither is resolving emotional, psychological or practical problems. But, with grace and application students develop understanding of the very basis of existence itself, which leads to love and commitment to it. This is the context within which we each live our lives and by working with rather than against it, lives are changed for the better. Often this happens in quite unexpected ways, like an old situation revealed in a new light with a new way forward.

2. Yes and no! To be in the education is in itself a change but it is a change that brings responsibilities and knowledge, even if only a little at the beginning. This knowledge will not provide me with a career or a new car or partner, although these may occur.

The education, if allowed, will assist in coming to a realisation of who and what I am in my essential being. From this point then, all everyday events become secondary to the real event of each moment, which is to be in the moment and aware of that moment and what it brings or reveals. The rest is unimportant. And is bound by time, whereas the moment is timeless and in eternity.

3. The education is not obscure mysticism, but complete, direct relevance to our life today. Now.
The great value is its universality. We can take from it just what we bring to it. If we bring all of ourselves we have within us the potential to receive all in return. This is a promise. An ever- present starting point. The point is to make a start.

4. Maybe there’s not really a separation between ‘me’ and ‘my life’, as change takes place in my life it affects (brings change) in ‘me’ too, if I am open to it. Moreover, to commit oneself to the education offered on a course is already a significant change, actual and potential, both for ‘me’ and ‘my life’.