The Ways of the Heart I

25th February – 19th 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 GMT.

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, there are currently two further courses as well. 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: 20.000 – 21.00 GMT (Tuesdays & Thursdays)

Theme 1 – Know Yourself
1st March: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
10th March: Zoom seminar

Theme 2 – Praise
15th March: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
24th March: Zoom seminar

Theme 3 – Humility
29th March: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
7th April: Zoom seminar

Theme 4 – Theophany of Perfection
12th April: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
21st April: Zoom seminar

Theme 5 – Service
26th April: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
5th May: Zoom seminar

Theme 6 – Love & The Essential
10th May: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
19th May: Zoom seminar

End of Course

Booking

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

The Meaning of Beshara

Saturday, 10th September 2022
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London UK

An afternoon exploring the meaning and principles of Beshara as indicated in the recently published Letters of Bulent Rauf.

Daily Meditation

From 6th January 2025
07:30–08:00 GMT

Daily 30-minute silent meditation beginning with a dedication of intent and ending. All welcome.

Contact: John Brown at besharacourses@beshara.org for a Zoom invite

An Afternoon with Rumi and Shams: Two in the Singular

June 8, 2019 (2–5pm)
The October Gallery, London

A workshop with Alan Williams, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Religion, University of Manchester

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.

African Apocalypse film documentary

African Apocalypse: Confronting the Injustices of the Past

24th – 26th April, 2021
Film Stream:
from 24th April (19:30 BST) – 26th April (07:30 BST)
Q&A Discussion: 25th April (19:30 – 20:30 BST)

A online stream of the new documentary film “African Apocalypse” exploring the history and legacy of European colonialism in Africa, and an online Q&A session with the film’s creators.

Tickets (via Eventbite): £6.50

Ibn ‘Arabi Study Afternoon

December 1, 2018 (2–5pm)
The October Gallery, London

An afternoon seminar studying the chapter on ‘The Wisdom of Being in the Word of David’ from Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom).

Coming to Know Edwin Muir

November 10, 2018 (2–5pm)
The October Gallery, London

Contemplative study of a few poems by the 20th Century Scottish Poet Edwin Muir

Speaker: Robert-Louis Abrahamson

Ibn ‘Arabi Study Afternoon

July 7, 2018 (2–5pm)
The October Gallery, London, UK

An afternoon seminar on the chapter on Solomon from Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom).

The Ways of the Heart II: Oneness

14th October 2022 – 20th December 2022
20:00–21:15 BST/GMT

An online Beshara course exploring a spiritual life in the contemporary world.

The Transformative Power of Beauty: Joseph and the Myth of Reconciliation

14th March, 2021
16:00 – 17:30 GMT

An online seminar exploring the Joseph myth. Joseph is understood as one of a community of prophetic figures, whose story emerges as the epic and emblematic story of divine knowledge revealed to humanity. The centrepiece here is beauty, and the focus of the presentation will be on beauty and its intimate relation to truth.

Registration via Eventbrite

The Ways of the Heart II: Oneness

20th January – 28th March 2023
Tuesdays, 20:00–21:15 GMT

An online Beshara course exploring a spiritual life in the contemporary world.

Know Yourself

Know Yourself

Wednesdays from 5th August 2020 (20.00 – 21:00 BST)
& Mondays from 10th August 2020 (20.00 – 21:00 BST)

One session per week (5 week period)

Online study of Know Yourself, an explanation of the oneness of being attributed to Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi and Awhad al-din Balyani, translated by Cecilia Twinch (via Zoom)