This Advanced Wisdom School will be an intensive exploration of the Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, based on Cynthia's new book which is required reading for this Wisdom School.
Two years ago Cynthia provided an introductory immersion in Gurdjieff work and Gurdjieff movements to Christian contemplative seekers, exploring core ideas and practices largely unfamiliar to mainstream Christianity but with a deep affinity with mystical Christianity and a profound capacity to resolve theological logjams and move practice to a deeper, more integrated place. Topics explored included: reciprocal feeding, the Law of Three, the original enneagram, essence and personality, three centered awareness, attention, and self-remembering.
These sessions were recorded and are available on this web site. If you are planning to come to this Wisdom School and did not participate in the one held in 2012, it is strongly suggested that you plan to listen to these sessions: Gurdjieff for Christian Contemplatives -- Audio Files for Wisdom School 2012.
We are exploring an online class with Cynthia to explore the material from the first Wisdom School for those who were not able to attend. I'll keep you posted if this is able to happen. I am currently transcribing the audio files, but it is taking much longer than I expected. Any small donation to this effort would be greatly appreciated!
This Wisdom School is offered in partnership with Friends of Silence and the Claymont Society, an ongoing residential teaching center in the Gurdjieff tradition. Students will have the opportunity to work alongside experienced teachers from this school as well as with Cynthia Bourgeault, who will lead the cognitive teaching.
Prerequisites include: an established contemplative practice, attendance at an introductory Wisdom School or equivalent experience, a reasonable physical agility (such as one would be expected to bring to a yoga retreat), an emotional attitude of flexibility and openness, and Cynthia's approval of the admission form submitted. You do not need to be part of a fourth way group for this Wisdom School. Admission is by application only. Click here to apply and scroll down for more information.
The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three is required reading for the school. It is also strongly recommended that you listen to the audio sessions of the 2012 Advanced Wisdom School: Gurdjieff for Christian contemplatives.
The two great hungers in our world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice. The connection between the two is the one the world, and especially a new generation, is waiting for. We need schools of contemplation and action to help us connect our own inner faith journey to how we live our daily lives in a broken world.
These new wisdom schools have two purposes -- the first is to study and learn the rich contemplative wisdom within our own Christian tradition, knowing that this tradition is open-hearted and eager to learn from other faith traditions as well.
The wider tradition is unanimous, however, in its assertion that the deeper Christianity cannot be known by the mind alone; it requires a transformation of the entire being. That is the second, and in fact, primary purpose of the school. From time immemorial there have been wisdom schools to raise human consciousness and transform society, and to work with the core practices that sustain the transformation of consciousness: meditation, contemplative prayer, lectio divina, sacred song, the language of sacred gesture, simple work in community, and the daily practices of mindfulness, inner observation and surrender.
The schools are conducted in the 1500 year old Benedictine spirit of a balanced daily rhythm of prayer, work, silence and study. Wisdom schools practice the core components of this path: contemplative prayer, lectio divina, chanting the psalms, simple work in community, shared meals, silence, inner practice, and study.
We are delighted to have The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault back again as the teacher for this Advanced Wisdom School at Claymont Society. I have been following Cynthia Bourgeault's work for a number of years, and have found her to be my best teacher for centering prayer and inner practice. I stumbled upon her work while exploring the connection between the Christian contemplative tradition and the Fourth Way inner work inspired by Gurdjieff.
Cynthia Bourgeault is the principal Teacher and Advisor to the Contemplative Society, an ecumenical, not-for-profit association that encourages a deepening of contemplative prayer based in the Christian tradition, and an adjunct faculty member at the Vancouver School of Theology. She is a retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer, writer on the spiritual life, Episcopal priest, and part-time hermit, spending half of each year in solitude on Eagle Island in Maine.
Cynthia is passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path and has worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating and others as a teacher of centering prayer, as well as in Sufism and the Christian inner traditions. She is the author of Chanting the Psalms, Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Love is Stronger Than Death, The Wisdom Jesus, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, and many articles and audio tapes on the contemplative life. She is a past Fellow of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural research at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN, and an oblate of New Camaldoli Monastery in Big Sur, California.
In 2001 she was invited to become a charter participant in the "Deepening the American Dream Project," sponsored by the Fetzer Institute, joining a select group of other American spiritual writers including Kathleen Norris, Jacob Needleman, Elaine Pagels, Huston Smith, and Parker Palmer. The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart is a revision and expansion of the essay originally written for this project.
The cost of the school is $545, and includes lodging and meals for six days at the Claymont Society in Charles Town, West Virginia. The school is limited to 50 participants. Cynthia's retreats have a reputation for filling up quickly. If you think you may want to come, sign up soon. Registration for the school is by application only. Please fill out the Wisdom School application form. Upon notification that you are accepted into the school, you will be asked to provide a $100 deposit to Friends of Silence. The deposit is refundable up to 30 days before the event.
For more information e-mail Bob Sabath at Friends of Silence or phone him at 202-531-7572. Make out checks to Friends of Silence and send to Friends of Silence, c/o Wisdom School 2014, 120 Jubilee Lane, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. You can also make a deposit online.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Wisdom?
First, let's talk about what Wisdom is not. It is not a curriculum, a philosophy, a metaphysical system, or a set of esoteric ideas. An underground stream running through all the great spiritual traditions, it is not exclusively identified with any of them, and it can wear the theological and devotional garb of all of them.
Wisdom fundamentally describes a higher level of human consciousness characterized by a supple and alert awareness, compassionate intelligence, a substantial reduction in the "internal dialogue," and the capacity to engage reality directly, without the superimposition of mental constructs and categories. It is the original Integral Knowing.
Wisdom is not about knowing more, but about knowing deeper, with more of you participating.
It is fundamentally accessed through spiritual practice.
What is a Wisdom School?
It is a gathering designed to support this breakthrough to a new level of consciousness through a balanced daily rhythm of prayer and meditation, cognitive learning, and practical physical work.
Since time immemorial Wisdom schools have formed at times of great spiritual and cultural transition as a crucible of transformation and a meeting ground between ancient, time-tested practices and emerging spiritual insight. The core principle is the assertion that Wisdom cannot be accessed by the mind alone; it requires a transformation of the entire being.
Are Wisdom Schools "Christian?"
As the great medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once observed, "No being without a mode of being." Though Wisdom is deeper than any one spiritual tradition, it only expresses itself authentically within the particularity of a given tradition. It is not a synthetic "transcendent unity of all religions," to be extrapolated from the various traditions and embraced as a path in its own right; it can only be accessed through a specific gate. From that gate, it leads from the surface to the depth dimension of whichever tradition it illuminates. There, at that depth dimension, the transcendent unity does in fact brightly glow, but it can never be accessed by the mind, only by the heart. Wisdom is always and only the finger pointing to the moon.
In the Wisdom Schools that I lead, the gate is Christianity. While our schools are deeply informed by the wisdom of all sacred traditions, our anchor is in the Christian mystical tradition, and our spiritual practice is firmly grounded in the classic Christian disciplines of contemplative prayer, lectio divina, and chanted psalmody. The great Benedictine model of "ora et labora"-"prayer and work"-furnishes our basic template for transformation.
How is a Wisdom School different from a retreat or a seminar?
Precisely in this dimension of balanced movement from prayer to work, from intellectual stimulation to silence-and back again. Wisdom School has more talking than a meditation retreat, more silence and physical embodiment than a seminar. The Wisdom model suggests that it is not through specialization in any one mode (contemplative silence, thinking, bodywork) that one learns Wisdom, but through the ability to move smoothly and rhythmically through all these modes without getting stuck in any one of them.
How long do Wisdom Schools last?
Typically Wisdom Schools run for five or six days, but this is more a matter of expediency than of principle. In addition to single session schools, there are also a two- session and three-session schools, and plans are underway for a longer school in summer 2013.
Where are Wisdom Schools held?
Currently they are being offered in all quadrants of the United States: Southwest (Tucson, Arizona), Southeast (Valle Crucis, North Carolina), Northeast (Hudson Valley, New York), North Central (Collegeville, Minnesota), and Northwest (Seattle, WA). There are also periodic schools in Western Canada.
There is also a seasonal Wisdom School in Aspen, Colorado, offering weekly classes and seminars from Christmas to Easter. But it is not residential, so attendees must make their own arrangements for accommodations.
What kinds of Wisdom Schools are offered?
There are basic Wisdom Schools, offering a foundation in Wisdom practice and exploring core Christian texts from a Wisdom perspective. There are also special Wisdom Schools, delving more deeply into a specific text or practice area and open to anyone who has completed a basic Wisdom School. From time to time we also offer an advanced Wisdom School, focusing particularly on deepening formation for Wisdom leadership.
In addition to Wisdom Schools per se, there are also teaching retreats and meditation retreats intended to deepen practice in specific areas, and also to offer participants an immersion in the profound transformational energy of the Christian liturgical year, particularly around its high points in Holy Week, Advent, Ascension-to-Pentecost, and All Saints.
If I've already been to a basic Wisdom School, is there any point in signing up for another?
Yes, for two reasons. Since Wisdom is formational more than cognitive, you will inevitably hear the "same" material in a whole different way, at a whole new level of your being. And second, budding Wisdom teachers learn through apprenticeship and service; there are no "certification" programs because Wisdom can only be its own certification! Returning students serve as de facto interns, helping newcomers to acclimate more quickly to the program and sometimes taking small leadership roles as work team captains, liturgists, and discussion group facilitators.
Why do Wisdom Schools fill up so quickly?
Refer back to question 2 on this one. Wisdom Schools tend to constellate at times of great spiritual and cultural transition, and our present era is certainly one of these times! As traditional forms of Christian teaching and transmission -- churches, seminaries, monasteries -- are all in crisis and people are hungering for authentic spiritual formation in a world desperately in need of new vision and deeper staying power, Wisdom Schools offer a vibrant meeting ground of roots and wings: time-honored, deep practices combined with a new expansiveness of vision and practical skills to take home with you. No wonder they're popular!
To apply, fill out the Wisdom School Application Form
For more information, see:
http://www.contemplativewisdom.com
http://www.contemplative.org
You can purchase Cynthia's books at Amazon via the Friends of Silence account. The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three is required reading for the school. Any purchases you make through these links also helps out Friends of Silence!
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