Devotional Practice

O Marvel ! 
A garden amidst flames.
My Heart has become capable of every form.
It is a pasture for gazelles, 
a cloister for Christian monks,
a temple for idols,
the pilgrim's Ka'aba,
the tables of the Torah, 
the book of the Koran.
Whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.

Ibn Arabi 
from The Interpreter of Ardent Desires

Whatever form its object takes, religious or secular, visible or invisible, devotion is a means to establish a relationship with our deepest sense of being or reality. In the Beshara School we work to refine this universal human impulse of love so that it can become focused on the origin of love itself.

Through practice, we explore what devotion means in the light of the unity of being.

'Remember Me and I will remember you' Koran

What kind of practices does the School use?

The practice of remembrance, or awareness of unity, runs through every aspect of the School, and in this sense, everything and every moment is an opportunity to express devotion.

As a formal exercise, a practice called 'Zikr' is offered at Beshara. It is a form of vocal recitation with movements, that comes through the Sufi tradition.

Zikr literally means remembrance. From one point of view the practice willingly engaged in is our remembering God, reality, our essential nature, spirit or what have you.

The Zikr is said in Arabic, yet is itself an adaptation of pre-Islamic practices attributed to the Desert Fathers and even more ancient - arguably as old as the capacity and the desire in us to give name and music to the mystery of our origin, an impulse arising in the heart demanding articulation in voice and movement.

Devotional practices help to open the heart, encourage the cultivation of a positive outlook and strengthen our resolve along the way. As such they are essential to any course of self-discovery.