Dear Companions on the Path,
A new cohort for Retreat Guide Training in the Inner School of the Inayatiyya is forming! We are accepting applications for the two year program which will begin in February of 2023. A brief outline of the course is listed below. Consider joining this training, and encouraging your students to do so, if appropriate, as well. Your presence and participation are welcome. Contact retreats@inayatiyya.org for an application.
I want to express how profound this training has been, certainly in content, teaching, resources and direct experience both in guiding and being guided. I also want to acknowledge what an intensely transformative process it has been. I feel that these two years have been an embodiment of the very transformation process we were meant to learn. ~ RG Graduate 2020-2022
How does one enter Retreat Guide Training?
Any murid of the fourth level of initiation in the Inayatiyya with a deep interest in and much experience with the Inayatiyya Inner School Alchemical Retreat, and a desire to bring this transformative experience to others. The murid is to send in a recommendation from their guide and an application for the training.
What is the nature of the program?
Every aspect of the training will be offered online until further notice. We will
resume in-person training when it is safe to do so, hopefully soon. The trainee will be
supported to both take and offer required retreats and activities online or in person.
The trainee:
- works closely with one of the RGT mentors (all experienced, certified Retreat Guides) in intense study of the esoteric practices of the Inayatiyya Inner School, the states and stages of the alchemical retreat and the Sophic Whorl, and the process of transformation and how it carries over into daily life as both theoretical knowledge and practical experience.
- develops intuition, experience and training through small group study circles and repeated face to face meditations
- selects a “study buddy” with whom to practice intuition and guidance
- leads several mini-retreats under supervision of the mentor
- takes 3, 5, 7 and 10 day individual retreats
- participates in several group retreats
- engages in monthly phone calls that alternate between curricular presentation by experienced Retreat Guides and support calls that offer small group work and encourage dialog between trainees and mentors
- creates retreats, including one for oneself, with the mentor’s guidance
- connects with local certified Inayatiyya Inner School Retreat Guides for collegial support
- sets up or finds a safe, sacred retreat space including all that is needed to host retreatants virtually and, when safe, in person
- launches the retreat work with support from the RGT team
- becomes certified, with the successful passage of the curricular work, including a year-long supervision with one’s Mentor after graduation, to guide individual Inayatiyya Inner School retreats of up to 10 days in length.
- commits to offering retreats
- attains the seventh degree of initiation with the successful completion of the program
- joins the community of Inayatiyya Inner School Retreat Guides.
‘Know thyself and thou wilt know God’, said the great Sufi philosopher Ali. To know the self is the most difficult thing in the world, because what man can perceive first is a part only of the self, a limited part….If man dived deep enough within himself he would reach a point of his ego where it lives an unlimited life. It is that realization which brings man to the real understanding of life…. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan