The first color image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched by NASA on Christmas Day 2021. One of the specks of light in this photo dates back almost 13.5 billion years. This light almost dates back to what is believed to be the beginning of the universe (13.8 billion years ago).
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScl
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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.

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 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 course consists of 5 themes and 10 online Zoom seminars. Each Zoom seminar will have two facilitators to guide and support the understanding of content and its relevance to everyday life. Course material for each theme will be shared as a PDF/Word file to be studied in preparation for two weekly interactive Zoom seminars. A private online forum will also be provided for discussion, reflection on each theme, and exploring ideas as they arise (see timetable below).

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.

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

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

Timetable

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