Workshop Details

We live in a world of massive and rapid change, rich in possibilities but crisis crossed with conflicting viewpoints. Many contemporary figures speak of a “crisis in sensemaking”, of being spiritually and culturally uprooted, of having no fixed bearings.  How then can we live lives and engage in projects that have lasting value and purpose? This is not a new question. In the West it has been with us,  in one form or another, for well over a century, though given the crises – or metacrisis – we  now face, the question has an urgency deeper than before.

One response – the approach taken here – is to look for guidance, and fresh spiritual foundations, in some of the world’s great wisdom traditions.  In looking for foundations there are four recurring questions that can anchor us: who am I, where have I come from, why am I here, and where am I going.  It is around these questions that mystical experience and metaphysical thinking in all traditions have primarily  revolved.

The course will proceed on the basis of sound scholarship and solid spiritual understanding, and participants will be encouraged to draw deeply on their own  insights and experience.  Each session will focus on a specific thinker and include a period of meditation together with shared reflection.  There will be three modules with  four sessions in each, and  two groups, Group A and Group B, meeting alternate Saturdays and covering the same material in each: Group A on Saturdays 10.00-12.00 UK time, and Group B on Saturdays 5.00-7.00 UK time – these times should allow participation for individuals  from different time zones.

The basic outline for the course is:

Module One

• Zhuangzi (fl 4th century BCE). Together with Laozi one of the founding figures of Daoist philosophy.  Speaks of the endless change and transformation of the Dao. “Everywhere Being is dancing.” Robert Bringhurst
• Meister Eckhart (1260-1328). Dominican priest and teacher, successor to Thomas Aquinas as Master of Theology at the University of Paris. A contemplative metaphysician, known as the man from whom God hid nothing.
• Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) Islamic teacher and mystic, known as al-sheikh al-akbar (the greatest spiritual guide). A visionary seer and traveller in the imaginal realm.
• Abhinavagupta (950-1016) Leading proponent of Trika Shaivism ( Kashmir Shaivism). Sees reality as an infinite and eternal vibration of divine energy.

Module Two

• Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Leading Neo-Confucian philosopher, synthesising  Confucian thought with Daoist and Buddhist  reflection. The central  Chinese philosopher for over seven hundred years. Contemplative practice and deep knowledge of tradition allowed for recovery of the Confucian Dao.
• Dogen (1200-1253)  Japanese  Zen master and founder of the Soto Zen tradition. His major work the Shobogenzo (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye) presents a rich and complex philosophy.  He emphasises the practice of zazen meditation as itself the moment of enlightenment.
• Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) Visionary Hindu mystic, moving from political activism to deep contemplative practice.  Originator of Integral Yoga. His major work The Life Divine sets consciousness within a frame of planetary spiritual evolution
• Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) Jesuit priest, scientist and mystic. Passionate lover  of the material universe, seeing the Christ as universally present in matter. Sees planetary consciousness, and the capacity for love, evolving in a process of noogenesis.

Module Three

• Rumi (1207-1273) and Hafiz (1325-1390). The apex of Sufi mystical love poetry, both authors celebrating the intensity and universal presence of divine love.
• Basho (1644-1694)  and Ryokan (1758-1831) Japanese Zen poets, at once immediate, simple and profound in their enlightened awareness
• Kabir (fl 15th century)  Indian poet and mystic again celebrating the centrality of divine love, whilst being critical of established religious traditions and practices – iconoclastic in a way similar to Zhuangzi.
• Edwin Muir (1887-1959) Poet and teacher, together with Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley Maclean  one of the trio of leading Scottish poets of the twentieth century. Centrally concerned with the loss and recovery of Eden.

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Dates for each module are as follows:

Module One
Group A (Oct 3rd, 17th, 31st, Nov 14th)
Group B (Oct 10th, 24th, Nov 7th, 21st)

Module Two
Group A  (Jan 9th, 23rd, Feb 6th, 20th)
Group B (Jan 16th, 30th, Feb 13th, 27th)

Module Three
Group A (Apr. 3rd, 17th, May 1st, 15th)
Group B (Apr 10th, 24th, May 8th 22nd)

The course will be facilitated by Jim Griffin.

Jim Griffin. After some years training as a priest with the Jesuits Jim went on to pursue an academic career, teaching world religions and Chinese philosophy at universities in the Uk and abroad.  This was followed by training and work as a psychotherapist. Jim has had a lifelong engagement with different spiritual and wisdom traditions, which he approaches and explores as a contemplative.  He has taught meditation in different contexts for many years. His guiding philosophy in teaching is taken from Confucius: “There is no greater pleasure in life than to share what you have learnt with your friends.” Jim was previously a facilitator on the Trust course “Truth is One but the Wise Speak of it Differently” and more recently ran for us the online course “Interweavings: Christian and Sufi Threads in a Divine Tapestry.”

For any further information and to reserve a place contact jimjgriffin@hotmail.com