The Ways of the Heart I

11th February – 5th May 2022

The One Calling the Many: the first Ways of the Heart course exploring a spiritual life and unified perspective in the contemporary world.

NB. This course will be held at Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).

Course Description

“You start at a point beyond religion and go inwards from there.” So said Bulent Rauf, consultant to the Beshara Trust from 1971 to 1987.  His striking and intriguing statement is the starting point for the Beshara online courses, whose aim is to acknowledge the one reality that underlies all religious and secular beliefs and to allow for the exploration of inner meanings.

The Ways of the Heart courses are designed to facilitate an understanding of the deepest aspects of the human being. We are looking to awaken the identity that the 13th Century poet and mystic Jalāluddīn Rūmī voiced as: “I am not of the East nor of the West. My place is the placeless, my trace is the traceless,” and also when he says: “I am pure Light.”

The aim of these courses of study and discussion is to open up a transformation in perspective. It is based on a series of essential themes that are relevant, contemporary and timeless. There is an aspect of ourselves that longs to escape what the scientist, John G Bennett memorably called the ‘prison of consciousness’, and to find instead its own total liberation. As Rumi himself put it at the beginning of his epic Mathnawi: “Burst your bonds and be free!”

Students of these online Beshara courses are invited to study in the context of the remembrance of the most important point for people who want to taste such freedom; that there is in the whole of existence only one, unique, infinite, absolute existence.

The Ways of the Heart is for those who want to reach an all-inclusive point of view by knowing themselves fully, in a way that has been hinted at as being from above the apex of a pyramid. This view encompasses both the multiple routes up from the base as well as the apex itself. We are not here to look and search for God; we are committed to seeing God’s vision of Himself.

You can tell from this that the education of Beshara is about a way of learning that aims to bring out what is within, rather than being an accumulation of ideas or information. We say ‘of Beshara’ because this ancient word, Beshara, includes in its meaning the ‘good news’ of the availability of an education that makes clear the existence and role of the human spirit and repoints humanity to its original universality and singularity.

Self-knowledge is not something new, but is to be found afresh by each and every generation. It is waiting to be discovered in the meanings that have come down to us in the teachings of masters of wisdom throughout the ages. At its core such knowledge is timeless, but it comes to us wrapped up in many different modes of expression due to its appearance in many different times and places.

This is the first of the Ways of the Heart courses to be held in the Southern Hemisphere time zone. It consists of 6 themes and 12 online seminars. This course is complete in itself and open to all, both first-time students and those who have already completed other Beshara courses.

The materials for each theme will be sent three days before the first seminar. Each theme, which lasts 12 days, will be comprised of two Zoom online seminars – one to begin and one to end the theme. Between the two seminars there will be a course forum for discussion and reflection on the particular theme.

Each Zoom seminar will have facilitators to guide and support the understanding of content and its relevance to everyday life. Participants are urged to fully engage with the materials, contribute to the forum and complete a short essay, set of notes or presentation on one of the course themes.

Zoom is free to join – participants will need to download the Zoom App to participate in the course.

Course material will be shared as a PDF / Word file each week to be studied in preparation for the interactive Zoom seminars, and there will be a private Beshara Forum for exploring ideas as they arise.

Seminars will be recorded for students to listen to during the course period.

Course Aims & Objectives

The Ways of the Heart is a series of online Beshara courses designed for students who wish to gain an understanding of the Unity of Existence. This involves journeying inward to know yourself from a unified point of view. The courses explore how we interact in the world and the possible evolution of humanity, and start from the premise that every individual has the potential to understand their place and purpose in the universe.

Timetable

All Zoom seminars: 19.30 – 21.00 AEST (Tuesdays & Thursdays)

Theme 1 – Know Yourself
15th February: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
24th February: Zoom seminar

Theme 2 – Praise
1st March: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
10th March: Zoom seminar

Theme 3 – Humility
15th March: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
24th March: Zoom seminar

Theme 4 – Theophany of Perfection
29th March: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
7th April: Zoom seminar

Theme 5 – Service
12th April: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
21st April: Zoom seminar

Theme 6 – Love & The Essential
26th April: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
5th May: Zoom seminar

End of Course

Booking & Fees

Course administration fees:

Please note the course is limited to 18 participants.

For further information and to apply, please contact:
John Brown at besharacourses@beshara.org

Zoroastrian Spirituality – The Relentless Pursuit of Good

21st February, 2021
12:00 – 13:30 GMT

An online seminar outlining the Zoroastrian Story of Creation and through that window showing some key theological tenets moving away from a purely transcendent monotheistic God.

Registration via Eventbrite

Ibn Arabi Study-Week Retreat

July 16 – 23, 2016

An opportunity to study Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fusus Al Hikam in a group setting at The Chisholme Institute, led by Avi Abadi

Jewel, Spirit and Mud

8th October, 2021
15th October, 2021
22nd October, 2021
(19:00 AEDT / 10:00 BST)

An online Zoom seminar series in three sessions on the makeup of the human self according to Ibn ‛Arabi with Avi Abadi. Each session will last 75 minutes.

Contact: markvtemple@gmail.com

Yurt retreat

Woodland Yurt Retreat

August 12 – 19, 2017
Chisholme Institute, Scottish Borders, UK

Discover what is essential – free from phones, internet and electricity – living in yurts on the edge of woodland and cooking over campfires in the company of fellow students and facilitators.

Discovering Unity in Awareness: One Year Online Course

Beginning August 14, 2017

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

Fusus al-Hikam Study Sessions

Weekly on Sundays from 24th April, 2022
10:00–11:30 or 17:00–18:30 (BST)

Study of the new translation of the Fusus al-Hikam by Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. Newcomers are very welcome.

Morning sessions: christinamark2@gmail.com

Evening sessions: study@beshara.org

A field where we can meet…

RUMI 750 – a gathering

Saturday 2nd September – Monday 4th September, 2023
Chisholme Institute, Scottish Borders, UK

An immersive weekend marking the 750th anniversary of Rumi’s death, known as his Nuptial Night. Come and explore how Rumi’s relevance informs every aspect of the current era; from ecological to economic, cultural to spiritual, while also intimately connecting with our own lives.

Was and Is

March 17, 2018 (11am–5pm)
The October Gallery, London, UK

A day seminar on the distinction between predestination and karma according to the teachings of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi.

Endless Voyaging; Spiritual Journeying in ‛Attar and Ibn ‛Arabi

Saturday, 15th October 2022
19:00–20:30 AEDT
9:00–10:30 BST

An online talk followed by Q&A with Jane Clark.

Impersonal Compassion

September 21, 2019 (2pm – 5pm)
Rudolf Steiner House, London

A seminar exploring the distinction between non-theistic and theistic spirituality according to Ibn ‘Arabi.

Kernel of the Kernel

Sundays from 27th February, 2022
13:00 – 14:30 Pacific Standard Time

One session per week for up to 8 weeks

A study of Ismail Hakki Bursevi translation of Ibn ‘Arabi’s exceptional treatise for those who undertake the journey with the aim of Union. All are welcome.

Contact: marengleason@gmail.com

Ibn ‘Arabi Study Retreat: The Secrets of Voyaging

July 8 – 15, 2017
Chisholme Institute, Scottish Borders, UK

‘In reality, we never cease from journeying from the moment we and our origins are constituted, ad infinitum.’