The Ways of the Heart II: Oneness
30th October 2020 – 28th January 2021
An online Beshara course exploring a spiritual life in the contemporary world.
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 new course will consist of 5 themes and 10 online seminars, and is the next in The Ways of the Heart series with fresh resources for group study and discussion.
This course is complete in itself and open to all, both first-time students and those who have completed the first online Ways of the Heart course.
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 two 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 on a Friday to be studied in preparation for the interactive Zoom seminars the following week, 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.
Timetable
Friday 30th October, 2020: Theme 1 – The Single Most Important Point & Union
Tuesday 3rd November: 1st Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
4th – 11th November: Forum discussion
Thursday 12th November: 2nd Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
Friday 13th November, 2020: Theme 2 – The One, Absolute, Unique Reality
Tuesday 17th November: 3rd Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
18th – 25th November: Forum discussion
Thursday 26th November: 4th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
Friday 27th November, 2020: Theme 3 – The Five Things Needed on the Way.
Tuesday 1st December: 5th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
2nd – 9th December: Forum discussion
Thursday 10th December: 6th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
Friday 1st January, 2021: Theme 4 – Sentiment
Tuesday 5th January: 7th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
6th – 13th January: Forum discussion
Thursday 14th January: 8th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
Friday 15th January, 2021: Theme 5 – A Universe of One
Tuesday 19th January: 9th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
18th – 27th January: Forum discussion
Thursday 28th January: 10th Zoom seminar (20:00 – 21:00 GMT)
Booking & Fees
Course fees:
- £40 payable prior to the course commencement
- £30 concessions (available for the unwaged or low income)
- Payment can be accepted by Paypal or bank transfer.
Please note the course is limited to 18 participants.
For further information and to apply, please contact:
John Brown at besharacourses@beshara.org
