Issue 3 Autumn 1987
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BESHARA An Obituary of Bulent Rauf DR. R.W.J. AUSTIN Poverty and Selt-Sufficiency DR. ROM HARRE Ontology and Physics CHRISTOPHER RYAN A Journey in Ottoman Turkey BESHARA Chisholme Antiques 5 Orrock Place, Hawick Roxburghshire, Scotland Tel: 0450-76928 For the restoration of fine antique furniture i and cabinet making I. I I i I' I I Richard Twinch Design Ltd Specialists in building technology Developers of computer sof�ware for architects and engineers Designers of climatically appropriate building systems 9 Redan Street, Ipswich Suffolk IPI 3PQ Tel: Ipswich (0473) 210001 BESHARA The Magazine of the Beshara Trust Issue 3 Autumn 1987 CONTENTS EDITORIAL News and Views It is with great sadness that we report the death of Bulent Rauf A New Translation of Ibn on September 5th . His contribution to this magazine was 'Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam 2 immeasurable, both in the vision which led to its inception and in the wise advice he gave and valuable contributions he made An Obituary of Bulent Rauf to the first two issues. In this, as in so many things, he will be Hugh Tollemache 3 greatly missed. The Man from Whom God Nothing Hid Publication of this issue has been slightly delayed as we A report on moves to re-habilitate wished to include an obituary. We also have talks by two M eisler Eckhart into the Catholic Church 4 distinguished scholars, Dr. Rom Harre and Dr. R.WJ. Austin, and the first of what we hope will be many travel The Marian Year features in Christopher Ryan 's piece on Ottoman Turkey. Martha Chamberlin 5 Nature, House of the Soul If there is a theme to be discerned in the diversity of articles in Ircnc Young and llilary Williams on a this issue, it is that of dependence . The idea that we are not seminar given by Kathleen Raine 6 self-sufficient,but dependent on a totality, is implicit in all holistic formulations, which assert the inter-connectedness Features and inter-penetration of things. Dr. Harre refers to this trend Ontology and Physics in modem science when he says, in his article "Ontology and Dr. Rom Harre 8 Physics", " ... not only the mass, but all the properties of an object could be created by the rest of the universe. There are A Journey in Ottoman Turkey not isolated things; ... The universe is one entity . ". Similar Christopher Ryan 16 ideas are, of course, emerging in other fields such as ecology, Poverty and Self-Sufficiency biology and economics. Dr. R.W.J. Austin. A commentary on two poems by Ibn 'Arabi 21 Within the spiritual traditions, dependence is often related to concepts of poverty and service, which are considered Letters to the Editor 20 essential for real progress. In the writings of men like lbn 'Arabi and Meister Eckhart which embody a perspective based The Beshara Trust on absolute unity, it is a completely positive idea, as Dr. Austin points out on page 22. In acknowledging the fact of Reaffirmation our indigence , we become open to receive generosity and are Elizabeth Roberts writes on a course at Chisholme HOllse 26 offered the possibility of participating, through conforn1ity to its order, in the creative movement of the whole. Ecce Homo An Homage to the Bishop of Gloucester 27 This is supremely demonstrated by the Virgin Mary, wh om we are particularly invited to celebrate in this Marian Year. In Reviews the state of receptivity and perfe ct servanthoodwhic h she Mcister Eckhart's Sermons and exemplifies, we find our true dignity as human beings; Treatises, tran�l. Maurice Walshe Elizabeth Roberts in her article on "Reaffirmation" quotes Adarn Dupre 28 from Meister Eckhart, " It is here in this poverty that man regains the eternal being that once he was, now is and ever Temenos 8 more shall be" . Artlzur Martin 30 Jane Cfark On Time by Michael Shallis BESHARA Stephen Hirtenstcin 31 EDITOR: Jane Clark. ASSISTANT EDITORS: Alison Yiangou, Contact by Carl Sagan Cccilia Twinch. ILLUSTRATIONS: Ruth Kenner. ADVERTISING: Khalil Norland 32 Leslcy Abadi, Emma ElIiott. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Christine Hill. COVER DESIGN: Leslcy Abadi after a painting by Mondrian. ADDRESSES. Editorial and Advertising - 24 Sidney Street, Oxford OX4 BESl1ARA is produced by the Beshara Trust, a registered educational charity No.296769. It was 3AG. Subscriplions- Beshara Sherbome, Stable Block, Sherbome, Nr. typeset using an Apple Macintosh computer, courtesy Cheltenham, Glos GL54 3DZ of Applitek of London, produced by Designers and Copyright on all articles is held by The Beshara Trust. Permission fo r Partners of Oxford and printed by the Beshara Press. multiple photo-copying and reprinting must be sought. BESHARA News and Views / Fusus al-Hikam News and Views A New Translation of Ibn 'Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam , T he second volume of an English Arabi elevates the position of Man for then known by him as 'our student translation of Ismail Hakki the one who would reach perfection, in since the age of three'. He eventually Bursevi's translation of and commentary explanation of the saying that 'He who became his successor. He wrote over on the Fusus al-Hikam by Muhyiddin knows himself, knows his Lord' when 1()() books, expressing himself equally Ibn ' Arabi appears in October. This he writes that: "The Perfect Man is he well in both Turkish and Arabic. His book, which is described by Ismail who knows without doubt that all commentary on the 'Fusus al-Hikam' is Hakki Bursevi as "magnificent of value existence is nothing but the existence of of inestimable value for not only does it and great of address and order", has been God". incorporate his knowledge of all rendered into English by Bulcnt Rauf previous commentaries, but it is drawn with the help of Hugh Tollemache and n 1223 Ibn 'Arabi settled in from the same source as the original Rosemary Brass and will appear in five IDamascus where, apart from a short work and in accordance with the ordl r volumes. The first volume, containing visit to Alcppo, he lived until his death upon the Fusus "Bring it out to the Ismail Hakki Bursevi's illuminating in 1240. It was while he was in people who will benefit by it." introduction, together with the first two Damascus that he wrote the 'Fusus al chapters on Adam and Seth, was Hikam', which of all his works is he entire English-speaking world, published in 1 anuary 1986 and is still considered to be outstandingly T especially those who thirst for the available. significant, due to the purity of its reality and meaning of the knowledge Muhyiddin Ibn ' Arabi, who calls manner of arrival, disclosed and attested contained in this book, may now profit himself 'a complying servant' in the to by Ibn 'Arabi himself in the account from this particular translation and bringing down and exposing of this detailed in the extraordinarily explicit commentary which is a further book, was born in Murcia in Southern introduction to the first volume. enlargement of the Mercy of God. Spain in 1165 AD. He spent much of Each of the twenty-seven chapters of Bulent Rauf writes in his forward to the his youth in the company of learned and the Fusus treats of a unique aspect or first volume about the all-engulfing saintly people and from the age of thirty 'bezel' (jass) of the Divine Wisdom as power of such Mercy . In undertaking he travelled extensively, meeting many exemplified in a particular prophet in the translation of such a work, which of the great mystics and thinkers of his the line from Adam to Mohammed, the seemed an insurmountable task, he time. This led to a great interchange of whole book shedding light on the many observed: "the undertaking was not a ideas. He was known in the West as faceted jewel of the Unique and Infinite result of my knowledge of what was to Doctor Maximus and in the East as al Wisdom, hence the title which translates be understood, but ... the undertaking Shaykh al-Akbar, the greatest Shaykh. as "The Bezels of Wisdom" . itself undertook to teach me all that was He completed in the region of 500 This second volume will contain the necessary to bring about this books, writing down for the first time following five chapters: tremendous task" . many of the teachings which until then The Wisdom of the Transcended It is a book which reveals possibil had remained within the oral tradition. Magnificat in the Word of Noah, ities of an unforeseen magnitude. He writes from the perspective of the The Wisdom of Sanctity in the Word of Rosemary Brass writes in her excellent Unity of Existence which by its Idris (Enoch), foreword to the second volume: "This Absoluteness includes all possibilities The Wisdom of Ecstasy and Rapture in book is beyond ordinary measure. It is with a universality that excludes the Word of Abraham, beyond the general run of mystical nothing. In this way his writing, which The Wisdom of the Truth in the Word writings, and it is more than just a book may at first glance appear very of Isaac, of meanings. It is to do with the very particular, leaves no domain untouched The Wisdom of Exaltedness in the Word meaning of meanings, with the in its implications. For the one who of Ishmael, meanings, the realities and the reads his works unprejudiced by opinion Ismail Hakki Bursevi, who translated knowledges of God, and it comes or belief or narrowness of vision, there the book into Turkish with explanation directly from God according to His own are indications of divine knowledges and commentary, was born in Aydos manner and wish." which 'result fr om complete fa cing and near Adrianople in 1653 AD.