Courses

For an overview of courses see below.
See the course calendar for full listings.

Courses worldwide
The Beshara School offers a wide variety of courses, seminars, and  educational events around the world. All the courses are held in the context of a holistic educational programme, aimed at deepening our awareness of reality.



Introductory courses can be arranged almost anywhere, provided there is a strong request for this to happen. If there is a group of you who would like to help arrange a course local to where you live, then please write to the secretary@beshara.org 

Chisholme House
The School has a large residential centre at Chisholme House in the Scottish Borders (UK). This offers a varied programme every summer, and is host to the intensive six-month retreat course, which has been running there for almost 40 years. The 6-month course, and the new two-year modular course which starts in August 2013, represent the most complete and potentially most transformative experience offered by the School. 

Chisholme is a place of exceptional natural beauty. Its woods, its ancient trees, lake and garden, the wide views and big sky, all combine to offer an environment that is deeply supportive of the contemplative yet intensive nature of the different courses on offer.

A Beshara School course, wherever it is held, is intended to be a clear and clean space in which to draw out and nurture the highest aspirations in the students.  Through its staff and facilitators, the School aims to provide the best facilities available under any given circumstances, including the food and accommodation, where applicable.

Course fees
There are no standard concessions offered on most courses, as they are already kept as low as possible. We do not wish anyone to be excluded from participating on the basis of cost however, and there are bursaries available. Please write to  secretary@beshara.org or call us (+44 (0)1450 880215) for information on bursaries.

To learn more about our approach to the education, click here...


Overview of Short Courses

  • Weekend Foundation Course: An intense and enjoyable introduction to the principles of self knowledge and the unity of being.
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  • Week Foundation Course: An immersive and engaging week of study and meditation exploring the principles of self knowledge and the unity of being.
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  • Retreat in the Woods: Foundations of Natural Intelligence: This course takes place out of doors in the woods of the estate at Chisholme. Living and sleeping accommodation is in yurts. An immersive week spent enquiring into our potential as human beings and exploring our relationship to nature, to other people, and to reality as a whole.
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  • Introduction to Mindfulness: Three weekend modules over two months introducing the theory and practice of mindfulness.
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  • Evening Class: Discovering Unity: A course of seven evenings over six weeks, combining theory and practice, group investigation and private contemplation, uncovering some of the profound meanings entailed in being human.
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  • Reading Weeks: A conversational and contemplative approach to chapters of Ibn 'Arabi's Fusus al Hikam.
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  • Study Weeks: Rigorous and in depth study and reflection on Ibn 'Arabi's Fusus al Hikam and other metaphyscial texts written from the perspective of the unity of being.
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  • Conversation Weeks: An immersive exploration of a particular theme chosen for the week from the perspective of the unit of being.
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  • Solitary Retreat: An opportunity for concentrated re-alignment with ourselves, the world around us and reality.
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  • Continuous Professional Development Courses for the medical, therapeutic and counselling profession.  
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  • Skills-based Courses: Skills and hands-on courses to do with construction, cookery or art.