The Ways of the Heart III

19th November 2021 – 17th February 2022

The third Ways of the Heart course exploring a spiritual life and unified perspective 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 is the third Ways of the Heart course consisting of 5 themes and 10 online seminars. This course is complete in itself and open to all, both first-time students and those who have already completed a Ways of the Heart course.

The materials for each theme will be sent three days before the first seminar. Each theme  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.

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

Timetable

All Zoom seminars: 20.00 – 21.00 GMT (Tuesdays & Thursdays)

Theme 1 – Latency and Existence
23rd November: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
2nd December: Zoom seminar

Theme 2 – Perfectibility
7th December: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
16th December: Zoom seminar

Theme 3 – The Self-Subsistent
11th January: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
20th January: Zoom seminar

Theme 4 – The Straight Path
25th January: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
3rd February: Zoom seminar

Theme 5 – Pillars of Transformation
8th February: Zoom seminar
Forum discussion
17th February: Zoom seminar

End of Course

Booking & Fees

Course administration fees (payable in advance):

  • £60
  • £40 – concessions for unwaged / low income

Payment can be accepted by Paypal or bank transfer >>

Please note this course is limited to 18 participants.

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

The Letters of Bulent Rauf

Weekly from 19th November 2022

Saturdays 18:00–19:00 CST
Sundays 11:00–13:00 AEDT

A reading group for online study of the Letters of Bulent Rauf.

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.’

Beshara Turkey Discovering Unity

İstanbul Birliğin Keşfi

22 Eyül – 3 Kasım, 2016

7 haftalık akşam buluşmalarıyla insan olmak üzerine kısa bir kurs

Ibn ‘Arabi Study Afternoon

September 22, 2018 (1–4pm)
The October Gallery, London, UK

The last in the current series of study afternoons. This seminar will present excerpts from the chapter on ‘The Wisdom of the Prophecy in the Word of Jesus’ from Ibn ‘Arabi’s seminal work, Fusus al-Hikam.

Beshara Turkey Discovering Unity

Bursa Birliğin Keşfi

20 Eylül – 1 Kasım, 2016

7 haftalık akşam buluşmalarıyla insan olmak üzerine kısa bir kurs

Qualities of Love: Trust, Certainty, Patience, Resolution and Veracity

Friday to Sunday, 19th – 21st May 2023
The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire

These five qualities have been at the core of practice at Beshara and are considered essential attributes to be developed by those wishing to know themselves in order to know God.

This residential weekend will provide an opportunity to contemplate their meaning and practice through meditation, study and conversation in a tranquil setting.

Intuitive Drawing course 1-8 July 2017

Intuitive Drawing Course

July 1 – 8, 2017
Chisholme Institute, Scottish Borders, UK

Draw from the heart and learn to see and listen in a new way. In practising to draw it is important to distinguish what the heart is trying to say from what the mind is trying to determine.

Self-knowledge? Unity of Existence? Truth? Love? Beauty?

October 8 – January 28, 2017
The Salisbury Centre, Edinburgh

What is the single most important point that must be understood by a person who wants to know?
A series of seven themed explorations.

 

Poetics of Science: Inspiration

Poetics of Science: Inspiration

April 21 – 23, 2017

The first of three seminar weekends at the Chisholme Institute; interactive presentations and workshops with speakers from diverse backgrounds, films and music nights.

The Ways of the Heart II: Oneness

Weekly on Fridays
7th October 2022 – 13th December 2022
19:00–20:30 AEDT

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

Berwick Meditation Group (UK)

Weekly on Fridays, 22nd April – 17th June, 2022
16:30 – 17:30 BST

A series of sessions exploring the practice of meditation from different traditions.

www.berwickmeditation.co.uk

‘How One Becomes What One Is’

Saturday March 25th, 2023
14:00-17:00 GMT
The October Gallery, London, UK

“Man is a rope, fastened between animal and superman – a rope over an abyss. A dangerous going-across, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and staying-still. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal; what can be loved in man is that he is a going-across and down-going” (Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra)