Introductory Wisdom School

Course Description

A 14-week online course exploring the Christian Wisdom way of knowing and its relevance to our realities today. Cynthia Bourgeault blends teaching with contemplative practices to help students engage in their conscious work on an embodied level—aligning the mind, body, and heart.

Introductory Wisdom School will introduce students to the Christian Wisdom path and increase their capacity for intuitive knowing. Move beyond intellectual understanding and into knowing more deeply — and with more of ourselves.

Wisdom isn’t something you get from a guru or as a reward for performing certain actions. Wisdom is about inner work and transformation. As Cynthia says it is “caught more than it is taught.”

In this course learn exercises and practices to increase conscious awareness in our bodies by engaging with this deeper knowing. Cynthia’s teachings and practices invite us to awaken to a different kind of presence. Together we will develop the skills, knowledge, and actions for our own self-transformation. This is the Wisdom way of knowing and growing.

Learning Objectives

• Cultivate a Wisdom rhythm in your daily life through reflection and engagement with contemplative practices and teachings
• Expand your awareness of the Christian Wisdom path and its relevance to our realities today
• Develop a contemplative practice to engage and embody these teachings
• Connect and learn with other spiritual seekers in optional discussion forums

Course Impact 

Participants enroll in Introductory Wisdom School for many reasons. Some find the Wisdom way of knowing and growing to be helpful during times of discernment or deconstruction of faith. Others felt the inner work inspired by the course helped them “put on the mind of Christ” and create a deeper, more fulfilling expression of their faith. 

Participants who engaged fully with the course shared that they: 

1. Found it easier to navigate spiritual transitions, like looking for a new church, with contemplative practices that support life-long transformation. 
2. Felt more in tune with their body with practices like Centering Prayer that expand conscious awareness in the body (part of embodied knowing). 
3. Created an expanded spiritual community with other contemplatives in our online Christian courses — people who find God more in the question than the answer. 
4. Became more confident in their understanding of mystical wisdom — unpacking teachings from dense texts like “The Cloud of Unknowing” and Cynthia Bourgeault’s “The Law of Three.” 

Course Schedule

Below you will find the course schedule for all upcoming offerings. You can register or sign up to be notified of an upcoming course by clicking the buttons below.

The August 2024 session of Introductory Wisdom School has been cancelled.

Course Details

Introductory Wisdom School is a 14-week online course. Students should expect to invest 4–6 hours of work each week on course material, reading assignments, online discussions with other students, and time for personal reflection.

• This course is taught in English.
• There are no pre-requisites for this course.
• Learn more about the technical requirements for taking this course.

Students will have access to course content for the duration of the course. Course content will be available four weeks after the course ends.

Recommended Reading

No prior experience with Cynthia’s teaching is required; however, some students may find it beneficial to have some familiarity with Cynthia’s books or talks. This course serves as the prerequisite to The Divine Exchange.

Financial Assistance

To apply for financial assistance, please complete the online Financial Assistance Form at least 1 week before registration is scheduled to close. Please do not register for the online course until your request for financial assistance has been processed.

Course Overview

Each week students will explore a new topic of study through an introduction (including an inner task and chant for the week), teaching material, a contemplative practice, and optional student discussions. Students can progress through each week at their own pace.

This 14-week online course is designed so you can bring the teachings, contemplative practices, and conscious work into your own routine and deepen its impact on your life.

Outline

• Week 1 — Welcome and Introduction to Wisdom School
  This week sets the stage for this Wisdom School with an overview of how you can implement the teachings and practices in your life through the course.

• Week 2 — Three-Centered Awareness
  Cynthia presents the Moving Center, the Intellectual Center, and the Emotional Center, then how to integrate them. She ends with an introduction to Conscious Practical Work, a way to bring focus to the Moving Center, one we tend to neglect in Western Culture.

• Week 3 — Introduction to The Gospel of Thomas and Logion 1
  This week entails a short history of the Gospel of Thomas and why it has a central place in this Wisdom School. It explores why this Gospel was important enough (along with others) to be hidden in an urn for later discovery and use.

• Week 4 — The Great Benedictine Monasticism
  The Rule of Saint Benedict has been a template for inner transformation for centuries and this week goes through how and why that is so. The Divine Office and Lectio Divina are also part of this week’s lessons.

• Week 5 — Embodiment Week
  A full week of the course is set aside to focus on embodiment because it is a key part of Wisdom Work. Being fully in our bodies can be challenging because society and culture may have encouraged us to lean away from our physicality.

• Week 6 — Gospel of Thomas: Logion 2, plus Questions and Response
  Cynthia takes us through Logion 2 and how paradigms can fall away, sometime rapidly, leaving one in a free fall as a new paradigm takes shape. A paradigm shift often deepens our capacity of presence and the associated free fall can be an enlivening place.

• Week 7 — Ora et Labora
  Cynthia goes deeper into Ora et Labora and the three quadrants she hasn’t covered in detail yet: pray together, work alone, and work together.  She concludes by talking about how balance among the four quadrants can help bring balance to life.

• Week 8 — Gospel of Thomas: Logion 3, plus Questions and Response
  In looking at Logion 3 we find a great deal of what goes to the heart of Wisdom work: knowing from within. A discussion of discernment rooted in the Gurdjieff work plays a big role.

• Week 9 — Wisdom Tradition as the Way of the Heart
  Cynthia leads students into the heart as an organ of spiritual perception. A powerful, vibrant field within each of us that is, as Cynthia says ” . . . your heart as holograph of divine heart.”

• Week 10 — Gospel of Thomas: Logia 4, 5, and 6
  More Wisdom from the Gospel of Thomas through Logia 4, 5, and 6 to break us open in new ways. While all three have their own depth, Logion 6 has what can be seen as a life lesson that may change how you show up in the world.

• Week 11 — Preparation for Eucharist, plus Questions and Response
  Cynthia previews what is in store for us in the Mass on the World by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The final Question and Response covers how to form a container without identification, what inner awakening looks and feels like, and how to trust what is inside you.

• Week 12 — The Heart as an Organ of Spiritual Perception and Seat of Nondual Personhood
  In what might be labeled “Part Two” of Week Nine, this teaching is on how to learn from our emotional ups and downs so the light from the heart is not dimmed, which allows seeing clearly.

• Week 13 — Three Core Tenets of Jesus’ Path
  Jesus is presented as a Wisdom Master through his Three Core Tenets: kenosis, abundance, and singleness.

• Week 14 — The Eucharistic Celebration
  Experience this Eucharist and join in the chants and other aspects of this celebration as you are called to. Cynthia weaves a final teaching into this service.