Discovering Unity in Awareness: One Year Online Course

Commencing with a 10-day residential retreat  (August 14 – 25, 2017)

A one-year course combining two residential retreats, home study and practice, online training, online forum for group conversations, regular Skype contact with course facilitators and integration into your own daily life.

Course Description

The perspective of unity is at the heart of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. Scientists too are increasingly appreciating that everything is interconnected. The course will give you the ‘tools’ to discover for yourself your own relationship with reality. It will help you in a safe and fruitful way to gain a firm foundation in this understanding which you can apply to your everyday life.

Study texts from diverse contemporary and traditional sources; guided mindfulness meditation; contemplative practice; regular course assignments.

Course details:

  • A 10-day residential retreat, from 14-25 August 2017, at Chisholme House, Scotland, UK
  • A further 7-day residential retreat in August 2018 at Chisholme House, Scotland, UK
  • Distance learning: home study and practice
  • Online tuition
  • Regular one-to-one skype-contact with the course facilitator
  • Online forum for group conversations
  • Opportunities for integration into your daily life
Structure

The programme combines two residential retreats along with home study modules. These retreats allow you ‘space’ away from normal distractions. They offer time to explore and discuss the study material together with your fellow students. The retreats provide an in-depth introduction to meditation and spiritual practice, along with projects undertaken as a group.

There are six home modules each year, between four and six weeks long (with a one or two week break in between). Each week you will be given a series of short readings. In the light of these readings you will be asked to contemplate some questions within the context of your own life. You will also be asked to engage in mindfulness practice. At the end of each module you will complete an essay on a topic related to that module.

There is an online forum where you can discuss these questions and the essay topics with your fellow students. You also will have regular telephone or Skype interviews with one of the course facilitators.

Further information

Course fees: £1300
Deposit: £200

Closing date for applications: 14 July, 2017

As an introduction to this course we recommend that you take part in a Discovering Unity introductory weekend at Chisholme house, in Indonesia or elsewhere.

More details about the course will be available shortly from the Chisholme Institute.

To receive further details please contact: secretary@chisholme.org.

Course Director: Marijke Kretzers

Love and Knowledge in the Light of Unity | the Direct Path

A Beshara Foundation Course

Introductory weekend at Sutton Courtenay Abbey, Oxfordshire
16th – 18th February 2024
(Zoom attendance also available)

10 x fortnightly online sessions
29th February – 4th July 2024
Thursday evenings, 19:00–20:30 GMT/BST

This is a new foundational course in esoteric education that provides a full introduction to the principles of Beshara in terms of both knowledge and practice. Taking the metaphysics of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi as a starting point, the course explores what it means to understand oneself and the world in the light of unity.

Contact: besharacourses3@beshara.org

The Alchemy of Human Happiness: Online Study Group

Weekly from late January 2024
Saturdays 13:30–15:30 GMT online via Zoom

An opportunity to study and explore a recent translation of an influential work of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi.

This group is now full. If you would like to be added to a waiting list for a possible new group, please contact london@beshara.org

Cover Addresses 1

Addresses by Bülent Rauf

 

Weekly from 16th January 2024
Tuesdays:
21:00–22:00 GMT

 

An online study and reading of Address by Bülent Rauf. This is an existing group with a limited number of places. New participants are very welcome.

 

Contact: Yafiah Katherine Randall
yafiahkatherine@gmail.com

Nestled in the Womb of God

Hindu-Muslim comparative inquiry

9th December 2023
14:00–17:00 GMT
The October Gallery, London

A seminar by Hina Khalid

This seminar ventures into the relatively unexplored terrain of a Hindu-Muslim comparative inquiry into the intimate presence of the divine reality to the finite world. It offers a comparative analysis of the conception of the infinite in the worldviews of two major philosopher-poets of the Indian subcontinent – Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).

Work by James Suzman: A Discussion

The history of work from the stone age to the age of robots

Sunday 3rd December 2023
15:00–16:30 GMT via Zoom

A chance to discuss the topic of Work as discussed by James Suzman in a book recently reviewed in Beshara Magazine.

“It is rather hearts, clinging to the door of the Divine Presence”

Learning from Ibn ‘Arabi

4th November 2023
14:00–17:00 GMT
The October Gallery, London

A talk and seminar by Eric Winkel

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) was one of the world’s great spiritual teachers. Since 2012, Dr Eric Winkel has dedicated his life to the first-ever translation of and commentary on the entirety of Ibn Arabī’s al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (The Openings Revealed in Makkah). Ten thousand pages of the original handwritten manuscript make up 37 books of the complete work. In this seminar, he will discuss Ibn ‘Arabi’s seminal work and its significance for us now.

Drowning in the depths of Rumi’s Masnavi

‘You are not a single you, o good comrade; nay, you are the sky and the deep sea’ – Rumi

30th October – 27th November 2023
Weekly Zoom sessions
19:00–20:30 GMT

This course is an opportunity to study and explore some of Rumi’s main spiritual teachings from the Masnavi, which is considered to be his masterpiece.

How Rumi Opens the Eye of the Heart

14th October 2023
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

A talk and seminar by Alan Williams

The 13th century Masnavi of Jalāloddin Rumi is not a story book, yet, like the Bible and the Quran, it is full of stories. What are the secrets the Masnavi reveals? They may be summed up in the phrase ‘the opening of the eye of the heart’. The primary question of this lecture is: how does the Masnavi effect the opening of the heart?

The Mysticism and Spirituality of St. John of the Cross

2 online series of 3 Meditation Workshops

30th September, 28th October, 26th November
Saturdays, 10:00–12.30 BST/GMT
and
October 12th, November 9th, December 7th
Thursdays, 17:00–19.30 BST/GMT

Two poems by St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night and The Spiritual Canticle, will form the basis of our meditation.

Gustav Klimt

Exploring the meaning of ‘Know Yourself’ according to five wisdom traditions

27th September – 6th December 2023
Fortnightly Zoom sessions
19:00–20:30 BST/GMT

This course offers the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of what it is to Know Yourself in the mirror of five Ancient Wisdom traditions and to explore their relevance to each of us and to the current modern era.

This course is now full. If you would like to join a waiting list for the next one, please contact admin@beshara.org