Comments and Feedback on the Retreat Study Weeks

 

It was new and excellent.  It is well named.
Throughout emphasis on being rather than doing.  
So for me it was and is now about self-awareness, and not just in the supportive Chisholme atmosphere but here where I live.  

For me, the week had all the best elements of both the long six-month courses in terms of intention and intensity.
Course participants and staff were focused as one with the original intention of the place, which, whether considering Chisholme, or ourselves, is union. Study, conversation, meditation and work: all flowed seamlessly together so that when asked how the silent day had been for us, we were at a loss to distinguish between the time of speaking and non-speaking, such was the quality of the week.

The course had the feeling of being helped and brought again to the school for a new beginning. Very intensive and at the same time very light. Also I enjoyed to see old friends again and meet new friends in a beautifully prepared and balanced place.
There was at least a glimpse for the possibility of this, that retreat can be done while living in the world.
I feel obliged and thankful that I could come.

The retreat week … was wonderful. We studied extracts from three chapters, each followed by a written commentary by Peter Young. His commentaries ended with questions to help us relating what we had read to our hearts and minds.

For example, in the extract of the Exaltation Wisdom in a Word of Ishmael it said: “...Everyone is both pleasing and loved, and everything that the loved one does is loved. Everything is accepted because the individual being does not act, but rather, the action belongs to the Lord within her...”.
The questions included: “...How do we realize tranquility and acceptance/ being accepted, or pleasing/ being pleased? How does this result in a different kind of self-knowledge?...”
We were encouraged to do all work in the house and the garden mindfully without blaming ourselves if we fell into our habitual patterns of acting and behaving. It became clear to me that mindfulness practice goes far beyond being a stress-reduction tool as it is often described. Mindfulness allows us to experience our deep selves by discovering and letting go of patterns of thinking which create the illusion of a separate self. I see it as a way to bridge the gap between ‘theory and practice’. It brought home to me that the illusionary self is powerful enough to still have a hold over me even though I have been a student of Beshara for many years. 

I found the new translations very good and very loyal to the spirit of Beshara, profound and new, and the notes full of relevant information.
…it (the course) was perfect!

Profound gratitude for being shown again that deepest place of stillness inside, where there is complete trust in the sheer goodness of life.

Due to the new ‘form’ there was more time to participate in work, which meant more time to experience ‘esoteric teaching’ and ‘guidance’ in everyday life instead of trying to understand from the book alone. This has been very important, helpful and clarifying to me.

There was space during the study to speak and to listen to each other.

Besides the study itself, this process was nurtured by the beautiful location in which it took place, and the quiet supportive manner in which the school staff assisted the running of the course.    The course was an intensive, enjoyable, and deeply satisfying opportunity to consider one’s life and purpose in the light of extraordinary and illuminating mystical texts.

For me, Chisholme is an alchemical kitchen, and this particular course seems to have a mighty cooking pot bubbling away. Once I had agreed to jump in, all was easy, and each day quietly magnificent. But the strange thing is, although my course finished some time ago, I still seem to be in the pot. 

The new translations were clear and felt imbued with the years spent studying the Fusus with the Ottoman commentary.
I particularly appreciated having a question and practice to take into the work periods. Work as contemplative action.
The evening practices helped to draw the nights into a 24 hour programme of concentration.

…beautifully balanced; may its momentum continue!

As a student amongst many who have held this school and its meaning as the ‘Beloved Mountain’ throughout most of their lives, I cannot express enough thanks and gratitude.