The Beshara School

[GliderGuider]

I just found out about the astonishing Beshara School through an equally astonishing chain of synchronicity. I'd love to attend even though it's in Scotland. Fortunately its teachings can be found right wherever we are.



From the Beshara School web site:

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

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.

I've been on exactly that path on my own for the last 5 years. The ecological awareness of insoluble world crisis drove me deep into a Dark Night of the Soul a half dozen years ago. The only possible response was spiritual in exactly the terms they describe - the self-remembering, the direct experience of All as One through the teachings of Sufi, Buddhism, mystic Christianity, Taoism and Advaita, the re-placing of my perceived Self in the Oneness, the absolute requirement to surrender to Grace, and the centrality of Love as the essence of the whole thing. I'm still vibrating from the discovery.

My partner and Twin Flame Kathleen is (not surprisingly) on the same path, and at the same place, with her own flavour. She played a significant role in the synchronicity that brought this school into my awareness. I feel like the Universe offered me a peeled grape and then winked at me - I am deeply humbled.

I went through 55 years as the most hide-bound materialist you can possibly imagine - and now the sight of the sun makes me weep.

[bjobotts]

1. "Being...what do you 'do' with it?"--Echart Tolle "The New Earth"

The collective consciousness...affected by all individual thought...awareness taps you in to all that is.

Tolle says "To say I think is the same as saying I beat my heart or I digest my food. Thinking happens"... also..."Breathing is something we witness not so much something we do but it is done in the present moment and by just thinking on it or witnessing it we put space around our thinking as it keeps us focused in the present moment."

This is all akin to Zen which is akin to all and you know this...your being says so. Sometimes it is so hard just to 'be' after a lifetime of 'doing' huh? Yet being is how the formless is brought into our world and is an outer purpose of progressive existence. Just being aware of your breathing several times a day is more transformative than most educational courses we could take.

Oh, but to have a place where people could come together to just express being. It's what happens when one looks into the Zen Diaper-ha. Thanks for posting...interesting school statement.