Retreat Guides are needed
Retreats are the most reliable tool for creating the "Living Heart": a heart that is courageous, enthusiastic, clear, vibrant, peaceful, willing, enduring, loving and light, or in one word, "Living". Retreats create hal experiences and therefor manifest inspiration, restore optimism as well as vision, physical health and clarity in relationships. Individual Private Retreats are at the core of the training that we offer our students. If you think about it, you had some memorable retreat experiences that stuck deeply with you as one of those milestones that you refer to when it comes to life-changing events.
Consequently, the Retreat Guide requires the most advanced training we offer. The Retreat Guide is the retreatant's mentor for the duration of the retreat, dealing with all the issues that arise in that time, and also giving in-depth instruction 1-on-1 in the most sophisticated meditations and concepts of Hazrat Inayat Khan's teaching.
IAM will be needing more Retreat Guides because of the IAM University of the Heart, which includes a 7-day Private Retreat for each student. Therefor, we are inviting a few of the most advanced teachers in IAM to participate in the Retreat Guide Training. Upon successful completion, you will be able to guide retreats of 3 to 14 days for IAM and IAM-U.
Content of the Training
The concept of the training is to combine individual practice of the retreat meditations and exercises, with instruction and practice in leading a retreat.
There are three parts to the training:- Your own, individual retreat,
- Instruction in various levels of meditations for retreats and when each meditation is used, and
- Practice in leading a retreat, with supervision.
At the Core of the retreat process is the connection to the Heart of the retreat guide who provides access to the spiritual government and in particular Hazrat Inayat Khan. The practices include breathing practices, Contemplation Practices, invocations through sound, Dhikr, the Four Dimensions, attunement to spiritual beings, letter writing, singing, movements, sunrise and sunset meditations, nature walks, & dream work. A retreat guide must be confident in The Map of Spiritual Development (steps of realization) and the archetypes.
There is some similarity to the Mentoring process, because the retreat guide is the mentor for the duration of the retreat, but the relationship is much more intense and a much higher level of skill is needed, especially with a wide range of practices and the theory of personal transformation.
You will receive a booklet and a CD with all the retreat papers, sample schedules and descriptions of practices that we discuss, so you can modify them for the retreats you lead.
Schedule
The Inauguration of IAM-U will be starting on Saturday, Sept 4th at 9 AM and ending Sunday Sept 5th with breakfast and worship of the Heart. We hope you will come for the inauguration, although that is not required. (Preceeding the inauguration, we will have a special fund-raising dinner at our home for you and a few other invited guests, should you like to come.)
The Retreat Guide Training will start Sunday, Sept 5th at 6 PM for dinner and it will end on Sunday, Sept 12th after breakfast, for 6 and 1/2 days of training.
Before and after breakfast you will each have your own retreat time. In the afternoon, we will meet together and discuss the theory of retreats and the special practices we use on retreat. In the evening, you will meditate in pairs and develop the retreat schedule for your partner to follow the next morning. These schedules will be reviewed by Susanna and Puran.
Facility
The training will be held at an intimate part of a nearby retreat center, The Redemptorist Renewal Center, which is 35 min from the airport. We will live and work entirely in this facility for the whole training. There are only 7 spaces available. Each of you who signs up will have your own individual room with bathroom. We will have our own courtyard with fountain, and there is a comfortable meeting room with tea-kitchen available for us. We will eat in the common dining hall but in a separate room.
Costs
The cost of the Retreat Guide Training is $1225 with early registration, before June 15th, or $1500 otherwise, if space permits.
The cost for the room and meals is $110 per day, or $770 total for the week. Since all the rooms are the same and there are no other choices, we have bundled all the costs together for $1995 early registration or $2270 for regular registration.
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Course RGT
registration is closed.
Led by Susanna Bair, the IAM Retrat Guide for the past 15 years, and Puran Bair.
Limited to 7 participants.
By invitation only.
To guide retreats for IAM or IAM-U, you will need a quiet, private room, away from family life and preferably with its own outside door. You will need a nearby nature setting.
IAM will pay the Retreat Guide $175 per day of retreat to provide the retreat space, food, one cooked dinner per day, and two hours of instruction per day.
In addition to the 1 week training, we offer 3-7 days of internship with Susanna or Puran, if needed.
Before you can guide a retreat of any length, you will have to first take a retreat of that length.
In addition to this training, to be certified as an IAM Retreat Guide, you must
have a personal interview with Susanna,
be a certified IAM teacher and mentor, and
have taken at least a 7-day retreat with IAM.
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