So
northlighthero asked ...
* How much of being Your Student can be done without being physically in Your Presence?
And last night I answered ....
Reflections is not a correspondence course, not is it offered online so proximity is important. The Level 0 path was originally created to fit the needs of out of town students. It requires only two 3 rituals a year. And in some cases, I am willing to travel for a weekend course that would satisfy some of the requirements even for degree students. But a person must be willing to travel to DC to satisfy the remainder of the requirements.
I just cannot see how it will work if the person never gets to swim in my energy face to face. And besides, how would you benefit from the community within the school if you never spend any time with them?
And to continue with my answers ....* Approximately how much time (per week, month, year, whatever) do you expect students to put in on "the homework" ? on "spiritual practices that might result from 'the homework' " ?
It depends ... students have requirements to engage in some sort of creative, spiritual, mental, social and physical activities weekly; annual service requirements (40 hours), must complete an annual project and we often read a book together over several months. Oh and there are sometimes spiritual practices I assign like this year students had to do a forty day sensate practice. Sometimes I assign seasonal exercises, and sometimes I assign exercises to specific individuals. So in many ways, and to my mind, most of what I assign is intended to jump start a personal spiritual practice or augment an existing one, and to bring balance into ones life or practice. So how long it takes sort of depends on the individual. Maybe some of my students can reply to this question in the comments.
* (and this, well, I haven't looked since the first year of Reflections) -- What are the guiding principles of Reflections? What will we be learning? What is this Tradition derived from / dependent on? While I am Your Student, who do You see as My Spiritual Authority?
Okay, that is a lot of questions .. and most of them are explicitly answered on the
web site under Program and About. I will save the question about spiritual authority, I think I want to write a full blog on this topic.
Are these questions helpful? or do they just show that I haven't read the material since the first year (wry self-deprecating grin)?
Well, one of the things I have noticed is that for some people, reading the web site can be problematic. That is why I am creating the faq. The biggest point I want to get across is that Reflections is not for beginners, I often refer to it as the equivalent of a graduate school. So I put a lot of material up to get this across -- but if it is difficult to navigate, I need to find ways to make the info more accessible.
Also, my goal is not make Reflections a place for everyone. I am not even trying to find ways to make to make the school more accessible. I was just curious as to why someone qualified might not apply. And if there was something I could do on the web site to help them.
Reflections is a place for people who have already made a commitment to their spiritual path. We provide mentoring, training and community. What you get out of it is pretty much up to you.
Similarly, I expect potential candidates to be willing to do the work required to figure out what they want, and to read up on the material available not only on my site but also from other mystery schools and spiritual training programs available locally, nationally, internationally and online. I have no intention of spoon feeding people -- I am looking for signs of maturity, evolution and ability fer chrissakes. But beyond that if I can be more effective and straightforward, I am willing to improve my methods of explaining our programs, requirements and expectations.
I hope these answers are helpful. Obviously they will be formatted differently for a faq.
... thanks for asking!
Anyone else have questions about Reflections?