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

Discovering Unity Weekend Retreat

September 23 – 25, 2016

Explore deeper questions in the light of the unity of all existence. Guided group study of wisdom texts, meditation and more. Held at the Chisholme Institute.

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

Know Yourself

Saturday 26th April 2025
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

You yourself are the object of your quest

Reading and discussion of a classic explanation of the Oneness of Being, attributed to Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi and Awhad al-din Balyani and translated from the Arabic by Cecilia Twinch.

Contact: Michael Cohen, london@beshara.org

Know Yourself & The 29 Pages

Weekly from 18th September 2022
Sundays
13:00–14:30 PST

Online study exploring the oneness of being in the teachings of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi

Union

An interactive seminar

Saturday 20th July 2024
14:00–17:00 BST
The October Gallery, London

Union is the only remedy for separation
Those who do not attain Union cannot be at peace. (Mehmed Muhyiddin Üftāde)

We shall investigate the theme of Union as exemplified in the writings of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, Üftāde, Bulent Rauf and others.

This is an interactive seminar facilitated by students of Beshara.

Scilla Elworthy

Building Peace – how can we be useful?

May 27 – 29, 2017
Chisholme Institute, Scottish Borders, UK

Peace can be built – here’s how to do it. A TED talk and workshop with Scilla Elworthy.

The Perennial Wisdom in Everyday Life

September 20 – 24, 2017
Chisholme Institute, Scottish Borders, UK

A four day seminar with Colin Tudge (The College for Real Farming and Food Culture) exploring the theory and practice of food production for now and the future.

The Kernel 246

Kernel of the Kernel

Weekly from 24th February 2022
Sundays
13:00–14:30 PST

Online study of The Kernel of the Kernel, a selection of key passages from Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi’s Futūḥāt al-Makkiyyah, translated into Turkish with commentary by Ismail Hakki Bursevi (1652-1728AD). Translated into English by Bulent Rauf.

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

Know Yourself & The Twenty-Nine Pages

Weekly from 16th July 2023
Sundays
11:00–12:30 BST

Online study exploring the oneness of being in the teachings of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi

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.

Awhad al-Din Kirmani: a talk by Lloyd Ridgeon

Sunday November 20, 2016

Dr Lloyd Ridgeon of the University of Glasgow delivers a talk on the Persian poet Awhad al-Din Kirmani (1163–1238) at the Chisholme Institute.