BESHARA

BULENT RAUF To Suggest a Vernacular ...

RUPERT SHELDRAKE The Presence of the Past.

DOM SYLVESTER HOUEDARD The Question about Questions.

RICHARD TWINCH Memory and the Brain. BESHARA

The Magazine of the Beshara Trust Issue 1 Spring 1987

CONTENTS EDITORIAL This magazine has grown out of the Beshara News News and Views Bulletin, which has been circulated for several years Adam Dupre on The First Monastic now to those associated with The Beshara Trust. The Exchange between Benedictine and expansion into magazine format has been prompted by Tibetan Monks 2 the degree of interest shown in recent issues, which Bulent RaufandJohn Hill on have included articles by a number of distinguished speakers. and by the fact that within the the forum Religion and Conservation- The UK World Wildlife Fund at Assisi 3 for intelligent and informed discussion on matters which concern a spiritual perspective is virtually Stephen Hirtenstein on TheBasis confined to publications pressing a particular point of of a Universal Religion 6 view.

Beshara is not associated with any particular political, Articles social or religious group or stance. Rather, it is the Cecilia Twinch -Education at the name of a spiritual emergence, and an inclination Beshara Schools 7 towards a truly universal perspective, that lies behind so many movements in the world today. Beshara is no­ Bulent Rauf- To Suggest a one's exclusive domain, but its reality carries its own Vernacular ... 9 order; like "the yeast in the dough" it is discernible John Brass-Hospitality 8 within all movements that aspire to a holistic understanding. Dom Sylvester Houedard - Part 2 of The Question about Questions 11 The scope of the magazine is therefore wide. Movements Rupert Sheldrake - The Presence of within science have been already been discussed in the Past 15 previous issues of the News Bulletin and will continue to Richard Twinch -Memory and 21 be a major area of coverage. In this issue we also look at the Brain movements within the major religions and the World Life Fund's initiative towards a global perspective on conservation. Future issues will be considering economics, psychology, art, education, literature and Reviews many other areas. Central, always, will be the theme of Richard MacEwan on God and the the real place of conscious man in a reality understood New Biology by Arthur Peacocke to be one and unique. and TheTao of Power translated The Greek word Krites, from which our word 'critic' by R.L.Wing 25 derives, means judge', but it also includes the meaning of 'he who chooses the best'. This is the meaning which Beshara adopts in commenting upon current events and The Beshara Trust reviewing recent works. The other face of the work of News and Events 29 such a critic is that drawing out the best is equally being A Letter from Holland 32 drawn towards the best. It is in the hope that this will be the case for our readers as well as for our contributors that this new venture is launched. Jane Clark BESHARA is produced by the Beshara Trust, a registered educational charity No.263330, and BESHARA pri nted by the Beshara Press. EDITOR: Jane Clark. ASSISTANT EDITORS; Alison Yiangou, CeciJia Copyright on all articles is held by The Beshara Twinch. PRODUCTION: Sophie Dupre. Trust. Permission for multiple photo-copying and COVER DESIGN: Lesley Abadi aftera painting by Mondrian. reprinting must be sought. ADDRESSES: Editorial and Advertising - 24 Sidney Street, Oxford OX43AG. Subscriptions- The Beshara Trust, Beshara Sherborne, Copyright of Rupert Sheldrake's article The Presence of the Past is retained by Rupert Stable Block, Sherborne, Nr. Cheltenham, Glos GL54 3DZ. Sheldrake who can be contacted via Beshara SUBSCRIPTION informationon Page 27 Magazine. BESHARA News and Views - First Monastic Exchange Ne\Vs and Vie\Vs

First European Monastic Exchange their meeting point might be between Buddhist and Benedictine through the works of Thomas Aquinas in particular and the Monks of Tibet and Britain Scholastic tradition ofthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries in A Conference on The Light of Enlightenment and general. Monastic Life according to the Two Traditions he morningsess ion ofthe conference was given to two Adam Dupre reports: T talks on the monastic spirituality his one-day conference, held rather than as a fo rm of religious ofthe two traditions. The Ton Saturday 14th July in the practice. Hence the events at Venerable Ato Rimpoche fr om Benedictine monastery of Ealing, Ealing have significance not Cambridge spoke on The Six represented the first step in public only fo r those who explicitly Paramitas (Qualities) which are of a developing exchange between fo llow a monastic rule, but also necessary to the Way. These he the monastic traditions of Tibet fo r all those whose inner summarised as: generosity, and WesternChristianit y. Each conformityis to truth. This was moral conduct, compassion, approached the conference, and reflected in the fact that the strength , concentration in the underlying current of conference was open to the public meditation and wisdom in exchange that it represents, with and over1 00 'lay' people were knowledge. the aim oflearningfrom each present. In discussing each of these in other and of proferring each to turn,he pointed always to the each the fruits of their respective ince the first step in any inner reality and attitude, rather wisdoms. S dialogue is th e establishment than to outward conformity to The motivation that fo und of a common ground of under­ rules. In discussing generosity, expression in Ealing on St. standing, it seems appropriate to fo r instance, he emphasised that Valentine's Day came fr om the begin this consideration of an what is required is generosity of Pope and the Dalai Lama, each of historic event by referring to the spirit, which is based on whom has instructed their monks remarks of dom Sylvester knowledge of what is required, so to seek dialogue and under­ Houedard, a monk ofPrinknash involving hearing. He pointed out standing with the monks of other Abbey and one of the main figures that motive is crucial; a small act traditions. Yet further, the behind the building up of this of generosity performed with th e conference was part ofthe particular dialogue. right (selfless) motive is of great preparation fo r the welcome oftwo Dom Sylvester pointed to three value, whereas a large act, done Tibetan monks of very high points on which there is accord with the wrong motive, can not rank, who are due to come to between the two traditions: both only harm th e giver but also affect Britain soon on an extended visit agree on the absolute indefinab­ the result ofthe action. On moral which includes a series of stays at ility and unknowability ofthe conduct, which for a monk is 12 Benedictine monasteries 'Aseitas' or Essence; both admit bound up the with the vows that he throughout Britain and Ireland. no third element in man beyond takes, he spoke ofthe need fo r Th ese are the Panchen Yudol 'mind' and 'body' (though one complete honesty with oneself, Lama and the Venerable Thupten should be careful to understand and most essentially, of the need Tashi. Two Benedictine monks that these two terms, although to have always 'a good heart'. are expected to visit India fo r a related to th eir commonly similar programme next year. understood meanings, actually om Adhelm Cameron­ have implications fa r beyond D Brown, Abbot ofPrinknash, his was very much, and this): and for each, Being is not spoke on The DeifyingLight. He T explicitly, a monastic relative in itself. God is not a began by saying that although we dialogue and consciously restrict­ Being, but Being itself, and what speak of God, we do Him a ed its concerns to a movement belongs to th e relativity (which is disservice even to name Him, towards mutual understanding of empty -sunya for th e Buddhists­ since He is nameless, beyond all the spirituality and lives ofthe of inherent existence) is only concepts, images, words and two ostensibly radically different becoming. knowledge. Only He knows traditions. However, I think that With both traditions being so Himselfas He is. We can know one could venture to suggest that firmly fo un ded on reason (as the that He is, but not what He is, the central concern was with necessary starting point ofthe unless He shows us and we can monasticism as the expression of Way) it is not surprising to find only kn ow Him as He reveals a giving oneselfup to Truth , that it should be suggested that Himself, as in Christ.

2 ISSUE 1 News and Views - Religion and Conservation BESHARA

Going on to the primordiality of light - which in Genesis appears Religion and Conservation before the relative sources such as the sun and the moon - dom John Hill reports on the events at Assisi in Autumn Adhelm spoke of the Deifying Light, which is mentioned in 1986 organised by the World Wildlife Fund many scriptures and indeed, in the Rule of St. Benedict, as that n autumn last year, a unique through which 'Divinisation' ie. I and extraordinary event was the radical transformation of our held at Assisi, the place of St. being through the Glory of God, is Francis. Here, at the invitation of possible. Because eternityhas no the World Wildlife Fund, the five beginning and no end, such world religions met in the 'sharing' in the light of the Divine Basilica of St. Franc is for ajoint can happen here in this life and celebration. This unprecedented not only after death. occasion was intended as a On the particular contribution dialogue between Conservation which contact with the East has and Religion in which repres­ brought the Western traditions, he entativesfrom Christianity, mentioned the true meaning of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and detachment. In the past, it has Buddhism expressed their visions generally been understood in the of man, nature and God in order West as equivalent to despising­ to offer a spiritual basis for the world, for example. Since conservation and to effectively dialogue began, it has been seen to communicate the message of mean not turning one's back on conservation to their faithful. the world but not grasping it That the meeting was arranged either. Then the creation can be by such a body as the World Woodblocks by Gibbings seen as nothing but the images of Wildlife Fund is itself God, through which He manifests interesting, for it marks both the WWF), who said, in his opening Himself. beginnings of a great change in and closing remarks the perspective of many conserv­ "The time has now come fo r us to om Adhelm finished by ationsists as well as an unusual look to the fu ture, but befo re we D touching on a theme which degree of communality among can go fo rward, we must, each in was echoed by all speakers - that the world faiths. The WWF our ow n way, make an effort to of love, by which he means the represents the establishment in understand the purpose of life and selfless, non-possessive love conservation and the events at to rediscover what the prophets equivalent to the Compassion of Assisi (there was also a pilgrim­ and visionaries had to say about the Buddha. Even love of God is age centring on Assisi and a the Creation and about our not enough, since it can be a form conference of religious, political relationships with the world about " of self-love, but love must be and business leaders) marked us completely selfless, raised in their 25th Anniversary. The and humility. All speakers emphasis­ quarter century since Peter Scott "Those who are already engaged ed that the monastic life, although and others set up the WWF to in the business of the it may appear cloistered and raise funds to secure the survival conservation ofnatur e app reciate enclosed, is a life lived entirely of endangered species has seen a the immensity of the practical for others - for 'all sentient natural and intelligent develop­ problems, but recognise that we beings' as Ato Rimpoche put it. ment of emphasis from the must also have the vision and the protection of a single species to the motive fo rce that can come only n the afternoon, there was a protection of the environment in from sp iritual sources". I talk on the historic develop­ which endangered species live, to ment of the Benedictine tradition the focus on education and t can be no coincidence that by dom David Highams of environmental awareness on a I such clear statements of the Farnham Abbey, and an elucid­ global scale. That this develop­ need for a spiritual vision come at ation of the disciplines of life in a ment should lead to an under­ this time, when there is beginning Tibetan monastery, by the standing of the need for a a global implulse towards a real Venerable Geshe Konchong of the spiritual base is equally natural perspective. And perhaps not Manjhushri Institute in Cumbria, and timely. During the Interfaith surprising that they should be followed by a filmon the three Ceremony, this refinementof made in the context of conserv­ great monasteries of Tibet before focus was made most explicit by ation, for, no doubt, those involved the Chinese invasion of 1959 - HRH Prince Philip (The in such an area are already to Ganden, Drepung and Sera. International President of the �Page 4

SPRING 1987 3 BESHARA News and Views -Religion and Conservation

Religion and Conservation The Hindu Celebration t>some degree selflessin their approach and have some taste for beauty, some love of order and An extract from the celebration given by Dr. Karan Singh at the life, and are involved in Religion and Nature InterfaithCeremony held at the Basilica of conservation firstof all because St. Francis in Assisi, 29th September 1986 . of a movement of the heart, how­ ever much this may be couched in the terms of enviromentalism. Heaven of Freedom by Rabindranath Tagore Thus, an impulse towards the spiritual - ie. towards an Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; education of the heart - is a Where knowledge is free; natural step. Wherethe world has not been broken up into fragments by It is, though, a step to be taken narrow domestic walls; with strength, for what is required Where words come out from the depth of truth; is a completely new vision, the Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; elevating and all encompassing Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the nature of which was expressed dreary desert sand of dead habit; beautifully by Dr Karan Singh, Where the mind is led forward by Thee to ever-widening thought who gave the Hindu Celebration and action - at the ceremony in the Basilica at Into that heaven of freedom, my fa ther, let my country awake. Assisi, and in the poetry of Rabrindranath Tagore, whom he THIS FAMOUS POEM of the N obeI Laureate Rabindranath quotes. Tagore postulates a state of inner freedom in which the human mind can develop its full potential without being distorted and his universal and unifying constricted by rigid formulations. It beautifully expresses the T vision of the singleness of Hindu concept that freedom, in the ultimate analysis, is an inner life, of nature, which is seen w be state of mind. Certainly, outer factors play a major role in identified with the Divine Nature creating such a state. From the conservationist point of view, the which permeates all forms, is far ideal situation would be one in which a profound reverence for life from being mere utopian pervades our consciousness, manifesting itself in a deep idealism, but rather, the open­ compassion for all living creatures. Indeed, the elements - the eyed vision of the true state of earth, the sun and the moon, the mountains and forests, the air and affairs. As such, it is intensely the water - would all be looked upon as manifestations of divine practical, for it is inevitable that grace. those for whom "a profound reverence fo r life permeates THE BASIC CONCEPT of Hinduism is that the divine is both (their) consciousness " and for immanent and transcendent; it follows that the ideal human whom "the divine power is seen condition would be one in which all human beings are imbued with in fr ont and behind, to the right this awareness. In that happy situation, not only would man's and to the left, above and below" rapacious exploitation of Mother Earth and all its treasures give should display, in accord with an way to a creative symbiosis between man and nature, it would also established certainty in their put a stop to the terrible conflicts within mankind which have hearts, a balanced and discrim­ disfigured this earth ever since the dawn of history . Deepl� aware . inating compassion wwards that all creatures represent varying degrees of mamfestatIon of the man and nature - not only those same divine power, the conflicts and turmoils which we have that are threatened with witnessed so far would disappear, and in their place would emerge extinction and change but for the a great spiritual commonwealth of mankind. whole of "this magnificent universe", including ourselves. THE IDEALSTATE, according w the Upanishads, is one in which As Dr. Karan Singh points out the power of the divine is seen in front and behind, to the left and to "with this our life would undergo the right, above and below, and in which this entire magnificent . a fundamental transformation". universe pulsates with divine power. If this is achieved, then our It is clear that such certainty of life would undergo a fundamental transformation ...... vision cannot just come from the expansion of either a conserv­ IT IS IN SUCH a situation alone that what Rabindranath Tagore ationist or a dogmatic religious calls the "Heaven of Freedom" can be brought down upon earth, or, perspective, but only from wtal to put it the other way earth itself transformed into heaven. humility and openness of heart to a single, universal and all- �Page5

1 4 ISSUE News and Views - Considerations Since Assisi BESHARA

has choice is its guard-light to its A Consideration Since Assisi closeness and intimacy to and with The Spirit. A comment on the Assisi Events by Bulent Rauf he choice is a matter of taste. hat which is already not in childcare, inRSPCA work, in T Good taste is learned, T cannot become that which it Forestry or Fisheries, etc. -is therefore given to one freelyto is. Is thereno development, then, useful in bringing one to the allow the essential development no metamorphosis? recognition of theTotal Essence through the potential of the Self. Development is the becoming. through particularised media. 'Given' is what is 'learned'. One One must remember, though, that When the self is fully tuned and can only learnwhat is given, but this is not a process but a realis­ is in harmony and has complete being given is dependent upon ation. It is when one has realised knowledge of the Essential factor desire to receive for its effect­ in oneself, no matter what that which permeates Nature, it is potentia oboedientiales . The self may be, that one is that which impossible for that self to resultant 'learning'is a it is -then the self has realised disregard any particularised realisation which comes in some its development and its sector and refrainfrom putting linear time afterthe lesson is becoming. If the self yearns for all its efforts and ability and tact learned. This is the usual completeness then it will realise to the service of that which is no procedure. A more direct itself in completeness when it other than the closest kin of its procedure is to submit to a system becomes the complete self. If, on own Spirit. Because that self will of receptivity, for instance like in the other hand, it is satisfiedwith be constantly aware that that self those schools of esoteric education an aspect of completeness thenit is a particularisation of the One open to all those who wish to will realise itself only to that Universal Self imbued with the imbibe therein, like Beshara­ extent and will not go further. Breath which at the same time which word in itself is a promise, This is in case it has the desire to permeates, and is inherent in, because joy is a resultant and go further. The potential existsin Total Nature of Compassion in perfect if it is the consequence of every self; the choice is the unlimited expanse of, not only good taste. In a very remarkable 'personal', individual, some- this world, but also all the and delightfulexpose by Dr. times flawed by or encumbered by universes. Raran Singh which starts with the a lack, a deficientreceptivity due genius ofRabindranath Tagore, to one thing or another of its own self which re-integrates the this is aptly put but we believe that choice and/or making, but never A One and Only Self must this ideal situation should not be essentially. perforce be conscious and aware considered a prerequisite for the constantly of this integrity, conservationist. Rather, the owever, it remains that knowing fullwell that the service conservationist should naturally H Nature is the expansion of of the universes is the service of be in this ideal state if he acquired the breath of the Most the Spirit. the necessary learning and taste. Compassionate; therefore it Such a man is rare, one might However, again, this depends on englobes all possibilities inherent think. But the development of the individual decision and in the Essential. To remain in the anyone to this degree of consc­ desire to undergo willingly the choice of aspects of this total iousness is within at once one's servitude of Love and Beauty. Compassionate Nature -like potential and power. Only choice This is what Beshara serves. This interest in Geology, in Wildlife, interferes and the fact that the self is what Beshara strives for.

t>Religion and Conservation The understanding that this is greatest and purest saintliness. not only a possibility but a Both the religious and the embracing Truth. Nor can its necessity for all peoples at this conservationist may take St. final purpose be to produce a time is most certainly a message Francis for their model but his spiritualised conservationist or a of hope. While a syncretic fusion true position is simply and singly conservation-minded follower of of the religious and the as an 'intimate of God'. religion. Rather, it is its own conservationist will not in itself purpose, whose aim is God, not produce a universal vision, their man nor animal nor ecosystem. meeting at Assisi was a focal For each person, it is a matter of point of great significancewhich their own volition and in the light may not have been evident to all of this vision the nurturing and those taking part. For this refinement of the original meeting took pJace under the intentions - the love of life and auspices and invitation of St. order and the taste for beauty. Francis, whose life was one of the

SPRING 1987 5 BESHARA News and Views - On the Basis of a Universal Religion/Quotes

The Basis of a Universal Religion constricted beliefs imposed upon reality to the vision of Truth as It is 'in fa ct', since he is no other Stephen Hirtenstein comments on an article than It. To verify this vision is to in The Guardian subscribe to the creed oflove which or some time now, The need to insist on a heavenly is passionately expounded by F Guardian has been realm in which God has reality". mystics of all traditions and th e running a series called 'Face to In response to this, Stephen prophets in whose way they fo llow. Faith' which appears on Hirtenstein wrote: This comes fr om living Mondays. This series is an open experience ofthe Divine, not fo rum fo r people from different or countless centuries men simply fr om an intellectual backgrounds and traditionsto Fhave dreamed of establishing standpoint which by its very state a view on the present state of a universal religion and nature cannot comprehend th e religion in the West and some countless bloody wars have been incomprehensible. interesting ideas have been waged in the name of a particular aired. belief system professing itself as he creation of a new On 19th January 1987the the 'true' and hence universal T universal religion, albeit on Reverend John MacDonald Smith way. We now live in an age when a global scale, will still remain a approached the possibility of it seems that the order oflogic, as matter of belief unless people can establishing a universal expressed mathematically, is the penetrate beyond th e dichotomy of religion. He asserted that " the key to all problems. Rev. believer and believed, of seer and creation ofa universal religion MacDonald Smith states that seen. A universal fa ith upon would start by setting out as "there is no means of verifying" which everybody globally agreed precisely as possible exactly what the essential dependence ofthe would otherwise degenerate into a most world religions commit universe upon God and therefore particular form of propaganda their adherents to. The basic we should resort to using God as a like '1984'. Surely a truly belief of nearly everyone ofthem concept to develop our under­ universal perspective starts in the is that the entire universe, .... is standing of events in reality. act of self-knowledge, fo unded utterly dependent in everyas pect However, any concept (however upon reason, and can only come ofits being upon the unique, all­ refined) which we may use to about through verifyingth e knowing, purp osive, benificent denote a reality behind all fo rms reality ofthings for and in fo rce which all men call God". He is of necessity limited and cond­ oneself; this does not deny the goes on to liken this 'basic belief itioned, whereas that of which it is validity ofbelief, be it scientific or to the basic axioms of logic and a concept, namely God, is unlim­ religious, fo r 'the colour ofthe mathematics, where neither the ited and unconditioned. At the water is the colour ofthe recep­ axiom nor its derived conclusion heart of every religious system is tacle'. To reach such a viewpoint have any real reality, but are the same fun damentalpr emise­ is the pressing need of our times, simply convenient tools. "Thus". the Unity of Being beyond all and demands an education he claims, "the 'necessity' of God condition, not as a concept but as unbounded by any fixed dogma which in traditional metaphysics that sky within which the clouds which subscribes not only to a is ontological (God is pure Being, of thought appear. Man alone has rational Unity but to the essential etc.) is, on this view, purely the capacity to 'rise' beyond his Unity beyond our grasp - but logical" and "there is no real particular nature and the which nevertheless grasps us.

awareness, for it seems to me "ifone is genuine in denouncing QUOTES that it is only through the obscurantism and in demanding "I rather fe el that deep in the development of an inner the unconditioned, either one soul of mankind there is a peace in the individual and alreadyado res God or else one reflection,as on the surface of a the outer manifestation of has not far to go to reach him" mirror-calm lake, of the beauty that reflection that we can Bernard Lonergan, Jesuit & philosopher and harmony of the universe. ever hope to attain the kind of But so often that reflection is peace in this world for which "All of these (scientific) obscured and ruftledby unac­ we yearn. endeavours are based on the countable storms. We must strive, if we can, belief that existence should have a So much depends, 1 think, on to make living into an art completely harmonious structure. how each one of us is introduced itself, though it will always Today we have less ground than and made aware of that reflection remain a tremendous ever before fo r allowing ourselves within us. struggle" to be forced away from this wonderful belief." So 1 believe we have a duty to our HRH Prince of Wales in a speech to children to try and develop this Canadian lumberjacks in May 1986. Albert Einstein, Physicist

6 ISSUE 1 Cecilia Twinch BESHARA

Education at the Beshara Schools

An Introduction by Cecilia Twinch

Th is talk was given to the Institute of Careers Officers, East Anglian Branch, in Ipswich on November 3rd 1986. The Beshara Trust was invited to give this talk following the 1986 Scottish Careers and Education Exhibition in Glasgow, where the Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education, based at Chisholme House, had a stand.

hope to show that the Beshara School of and it does require one to widen one's I Intensive Esoteric Education has not so horizons to the limits, and indeed, beyond. much to do with alternative life-styles but Beshara is concerned with the Unity, or with th e development of a universal Oneness, of Existence, which is the premise perspective which is fundamental to all of all esoteric (or inner) knowledge. The expressions, and, in that sense, is very defin­ School offers people the opportunity to come to itely 'mainstream'. an understanding of what the Unity of As a teacher, I often see young people Existence means, not just as an intellectual nearing school-leaving age who, to under­ idea but as a direct experience. Beshara is state the situation, are unwilling to do their not a religion or a sect; people fr om all sorts best at their school-work. ''What's the point ", of backgrounds, religions, cultures, classes they say, "I'll never get a job anyway." This and ages have benefitted. But it does require aimlessness, this "what's the point?", is not a shift in one's entrenched patterns of something airy-fairy, removed fr om thought; it promotes a spiritual orientation everyday life. Seeing the value and reason towards life which becomes meaningful in behind what we do is at the basis of all our its expression in the outer world. It is only actions, every moment of every day. It is of through an understanding of his relationship great concern to young people about to leave to Reality, Truth, God, that a person can come school, who see no worthwhile fu ture fo r to a real understanding of his relationship to themselves, and it is of great concern to those anything - to the universe, to the environ­ whose job it is to inform and advise them. ment, to the society in which he lives - and so find a sense of purpose in fulfilling his otivation is one of the key words in responsibilities In knowledge and M both education and work. The person awareness. who is highly motivated is the natural survivor in all situations because he (or she) t this stage of world history people are does not see himself as a victim of the cond­ A less willing to depend on outside auth­ itions within which he finds himself, orities. They want to know for themselves. oppressed by outside influences, but rather, People need to be prepared fo r a new level of sees the conditions as challenges and oppor­ understanding in this shifting world, rely­ tunities to be overcome and entered into by ing on their own inner certainty as an inner application. It is a fundamental diff­ anchor, not on any temporary external erence in attitude. But motivation needs to be structures or edifices of imposed belief. All properly directed if it is not to be an entirely aspects of modern life, fr om the most mat­ selfish expression of the egotistical desires of erial such as world money markets to the th e personality. Proper direction can only more academic sciences, such as physics come fr om knowledge - knowledge of the with its universal field theories, now self, the real self, of reality as it is, rather acknowledge the interdependence and than a limited view of it. Then motivation is interrelationship of one country to another, directed by an awareness of th e underlying one atom to another, of one planet to another; oneness of all existence, the proper place of th e truth of Einstein's theory of Relativity, in man within a universal context and the which things are related to each other ad correct relationship of the individual to infinitum has become generally accepted; reality. Then a person's behaviour, actions the sort of questions scientists are asking and attitudes are at all times in keeping with have changed and scientific materialism is the dignity of his true position. being replaced by discoveries which point An understanding of what Beshara is does more and more to a unique, cohesive fo rce require one to have less stereo-typed ideas, underlying the physical world. The �

SPRING 1987 7 BESHARA Education at the Beshara Schools

[> language with which this is talked about is ingness to re-evaluate the concept of who and particular to each discipline but it all points what we are in the light of a spiritual pers­ towards one, universal, unified consc­ pective which goes beyond the individual and iousness expressed in a myriad of diverse reaches towards the perfection of man (ie. the fo rms, where the intricate complexity and genus man which is beyond gender). stark simplicity of Beauty is simultaneously Spiritual does not mean "other wordly": it is displayed. the reality of this world when freed fr om the Moreover, global crises of pollution, terr­ blinkered vision of selfhood. orism, food and oil shortages make it evident to everyone that, whilst not refraining fr om hese are matters of great weight which action within one's own sphere, it is nec­ T cannot be conveyed in a short talk. The essary to take into account a global point of Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric view - or, indeed, a universal one, as every Education was established to help those who ripple of action has repercussions throughout question th e nature and purpose of their the whole universe. In this situation, our existence. There are weekend and ten day present fr agmentary fo rms of thought have to introductory courses which can give a taste of be given up and we need a flexibility of what is involved, and there are six month approach and constant re-assessment where, intensive courses which have a carefully as in any learning process, structures structured programme of group study and perceived to be 'inner' and structures perc­ discussion, personal training, meditation eived to be 'outer' have a continual modifying and work of a practical nature; in the latter, effectupon each other. students can put into practice what they study by being of service, whilst at the same time eshara is the good news that there is One learning skills such as cooking, gardening, B Absolute Reality which is more univ­ care oflivestock, buildings, etc. ersal and all-encompassing than the The residential courses have helped many individual ego, although it includes it. The previously unemployed people to develop individual consciousness cannot of itself en­ motivation to find or create work, and it is compass this degree but needs to be raised to this which so impressed the local DHSS in the level of that essential reality in order fo r Scotland. The sort of careers taken up by ex­ truth to be revealed without condition. It is students are extremely varied, fr om gilding only by being of service to this oneness that to systems analysis, fr om shipping credit we can be of service to others - otherwise we reporting to printing and pottery. It is not so are acting according to our own limited much the kind of work which is important notion of what is required and it is im­ (although there are obviously some things possible for us to be aware of all the fa ctors which an individual may find unethical) as and influences which are in conjunction at the quality with which the work is carried out. any particular instant. For this reason, it is Esoteric or inner understanding is thus necessary to divest oneself of the limited expressed in an exoteric or outer way, in all concepts and abandon oneself to the absolute walks of life and in whatever ways are reality which is the source of all knowledge. appropriate to the time in which we live. It is To do this does not require the giving up of not confined to a chosen few as an anything except one's ignorance and one's 'alternative' way but is offered to all people as fixed ideas about one's self, and a will- a basis for living. ...

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8 ISSUE 1 Bulent Rauf BESHARA

To Suggest a Vernacular....

by Bulent Rauf

n an old article which appeared some time ago under the heading of "Opinions" I entitled Quarks, Quasars and The Meaning of Life by Paul Davies, it is quoted, presumably from Professor Davies; ((Th is theme of simplicity, wholeness and beauty - revealed through mathematical formulae or delicate experimentation - recurs again and again as nature's mysteries and subtleties are explored". If you leave out that which is between the two dashes, what Professor Davies marvels at has been expounded upon in exactly the same tone as the quote above and in much greater detail and depth seven to eight centuries ago - not to go any further back in time - by the one who is known as the greatest of all teachers, Doctor Maximus, or, because he developed in Moorish Spain and in Arabic, as the Sheikh al Akbar.(l)

hether it is the credit of modern re-integration of that oneness by the one 1) M uhyiddin W physics or not to rediscover these seeking to know. Obviously this procedure Ibn 'Arabi Essential truisms, well known to many, and would demand a premise or a platform which re-express them in modern "mathematical would go beyond a fo rmalised religion which fo rmulae or delicate experimentations" is is very akin to a medieval concept of a town secondary to the immanence of the context of with its keep and encircling walls to which appreciation of "this harmony and order one either belonged or was excluded fr om which pervades the physical world". The 'intrusion' to its embracing, exclusive form. important matter is to acquiesce to the fact of It would need to break down the walls of Professor Davies's assertion that "the laws of dogma and creed, enlarging its periphery to the Universe , from quarks to quasars, allow - in short, to tolerate - all other fo rms dovetail together so fe licitously that the of belief by the sheer fa ct that all belief must impression that there is something behind it irrevertibly concern the same one and only all seems overwhelming". existent or existence.

nfortunately, Professor Davies seems to ere we have to appeal to another writing U stop in fe ar that he might discover H of Professor Paul Davies God and the "behind the miracle of physics" a "designer" New Physics (2) as reviewed by Adrian 2) God and the which might look like the "traditional Berry under the title " God and the The Big New Physics creator". It seems odd on two accounts that Bang" (3), and to tolerate that one is bound to by Paul Davies. Professor Davies does not appreciate the take exception to a portion of what is exposed Pelican, 1984 in the article; viz, that discrepancies entailed, dove or not. One, that "if we maintain that 3) Telegraph there could be, if physically pursued, a he (God) exists outside space and time" he 15th June 1986 coming into being fr om nothing - big, small should wish to apply to the process of or medium bang or no bang at all. The other verification of this "unknown region of is the "traditional creator"- it is explicit in nothingness", as he calls it, an "astron­ the realms of intensive integration into the omical evidence" which has to do with nature of existence that there can be only one "space, time and matter". How, if something Creator cum created, thereby reducing or is either nothing or outside the boundaries of magnifying, as the stand-point of view or the our conceptual space, time and matter, does end of th e telescope describes, a single he wish us to elucidate that nothing through existent. these means? It would seem obvious that fo r A third danger in matters, which up to now that which is "outside space and time" one were esoteric (simply because the generality would need parameters equally outside space of the literate public was, so to speak, in its and time, therefore beyond the scope of whizz kid adolescence) and which are now in relative thought or expression. Hence , to try th eir outward expression, is to overlook the and delve into a nature which, by its position, fact that they will require a definition, and is left outside relative conception with th e use will define by reason, that if the premise is of physics, which at best gives a relative such that there is only one single unique impression of how things work, seems, at th is existent or existence, the nature of that can juncture, as desuate as the dogmatic only be comprehended if there is a insistence on religion.

SPRING 1987 9 BESHARA To Suggest a VernaculariHospitality

Hospitality A Reflection by John Brass

here is a tradition of hospitality in th e hat th e guest is offered as nourishment T world to which the Orient lays more th an W is according to how he is thought of by a partial claim. It is based on an under­ his host. However, if the host knows th e standing of the best measure of reception higher form s of the Art of Hospitality, he will appropriate for the meetings of true minds, endeavour to provide the best taste, because, and its execution allows for the best in pers­ whilst he knows that one can eat without ons to rise to th e surface without hindrance tasting and spend one's life without waking, and for them to feel at ease in surroundings his aim is to taste th e best in all th ings and to familiar or unfamiliar as quickly as th eir receive and be received in the best of ways, characters can adapt. The host beckons, and under all circumstances. Th e lesser is offeringth e right hand at every turn. always th ere, but th e better an d th e best is always to be looked for because it points to the ne of the major features of th is refined purpose - His purpose - expansion into O hospitality is th e ability to give; be it Beauty; th en words carry a weight and from one's kingdom, house, pocket, table or conviction corroborated by every aspect of the mind. To give fr eely without stinting, setting for th e fe ast. Th e feast is th e place of recognising all th e while who is the owner of nourishment, He is the Nourisher and the all bestowing - th is is expansion and best ofnourishment is knowledge of Him. expansion is th e order of Creation. The best host invites to his table with his f, when in Istanbul, you buy a lamb to fe ed guest in mind, and all details carry th e I th e poor who come to the kitchens by the stamp of fo nd regard fo r the guest. Th en the Mausoleum of Aziz Mahmud Hudayi 1) Aziz dishes invite, drawing out the best praise Effendi,(l), then, before you offer, you will be Mahmud lludayi fr om both of them in more and varied ways, offered: white cheese, olives, tea, whatever tjferuii - of the leluti sect. as taste and nourishment are limitless in th ey have. Then, after th eir initial hospitality variety and kind. to you, yours is accepted. Their manner is The variety and kind of nouri shment is based on a long noble history, because for offered without counting. The host does not hundreds of years th e kitchens of the Tekke comment on who has had how much, or of fe d the poor of that quarter of Istanbul, set as it what. Not only is he able to provide for is by th e Bosphorous on a hillside overlooking whoever comes to th e door, but also knows Uskudar. how to prepare and when and what to give; these are parts of generosity. The shelves In that area, for as far as th e eye could see, no­ might be full but what ifthe cook is away? one went hungry - His Baraka. ilt is the required birthright of today that it eshara is th e good omen for the coming should be allowed to benefit from a new B age, where the equally entrenched exp re ssion of both religion and physics in th e dogmatic insistence upon religion and a denial of religion and God come together with formulation of a new vision - and this vision is clenched fists. Neither is a vacillating and Beshara. ' consequently self-excusing washing down of th e fa ll-out the answer; nor is 'scientif­ t>To Suggest a Vernacular icating' an ex-cathedra pontification in the It would be to the credit of Professor Davies if guise of a solution anything other than he would carry fo rward the processes of his debasing the issue. The answer and achiev­ enlightenment, as glimpsed from his ement would lie in the domains of such as hesitant assertions to reach beyond the Professor Davies. They could evolve a present day syllabus of physical terminology processus to go beyond the confines of th e and practice, and allow space to the visible, present day's inherited and closely-kept proc­ although conspicuously tremulous, innate edures to coincide with a proposition wh ich impulse of intuitive elaboration of reason would emerge fr om an expan sion beyond a pregnant in his exposition of his thought. It stigmatised and meticulously closed conf­ is th e required birthright of today that it ormity to an eroded dogmatism. Otherwise should be allowed to benefit fr om a new ex­ one has to prognosticate th at, were Jesus to pression of both religion and physics in the come a second time, both scientists and the fo rmulation of a new vision - and th is people of the robe would at last come together to vision is Beshara. deny him without waiting fo r a cock to crow ....

ISSUE 1 10 Dom Sylvester Houedard BESHARA

The Question about Questions Considered in Questions about The Question by Dom Sylvester Houedard

Th is article is drawn from a talk given at Chisholme House on Fe bruary 16th 1986. The first part was published in the No vember 1986 issue of the Beshara News Bulletin, of which copies can be obtained fr om Beshara Sherborne.

Light and Glory intelligible, (as light makes things visible): This 'mere fa ctor of luminosity' (as the Dalai ie. to abstract its intelligible form. This Lama calls it) is the natural light of reason process of trying to understand, (of making when turned to the world of space and time, data intelligible) is complete when we but wh en turned to that of which the mind is actually understand with the possible an image, it is 'elevated' by that of which it is intellect. The process of understanding what the natural luminous image, to that of which is not ourself is the process of coming to it is the luminous image; the Divine or understand ourself. Deifying Light. This turning, which can't be from the image that it is, can be only through llumination of the phantasm is already a what it is, through awareness of its own I participation in Divine Light. God creates emptiness to that of which it is empty. This all things through the Logos or mental word, luminosity in the Buddhist tradition (which and since this is God's knowledge of his own avoids every name and concept of God as 'not essence, by his own essence, it is by knowing helpful' to progress on the spiritual path) is his own essence that God knows all things. the clear, the invisible, light which, as a pos­ We, on the other hand, know ourselves only itive phenomenon, is an affirming negative in the process of knowing things other than (or, should one say, a phenomenon which is ourselves. In this process of coming to know not a non-affirming negative: Aquinas says them, we are participating in God's that every negation presupposes some aff­ knowledge of them and so in his knowledge irmation).. It is that within us by which (at of him self. least in the Nyingma tradition (1)) we Having created all things by his Logos, all become Buddhas. things that are not nothing are logical and, 1) Ny ingma is as such, are images of God. It is thus that the the oldest of s the way we come to know anything is logos or mental word in our own mind (our the fo ur orders A through the union of subject and object, concept or understanding of intelligible in Tibetan Buddhism any understanding of the world requires things) is an image of the divine Logos. The three capabilities: intelligibility of the immaterial fo rm in of knowing, material things can be abstracted and of making the effortto know or understand understood only because, and in so far as, of being attracted to make this effort. that immateriality corresponds to the These are discussed as: immateriality of our own mind, of the fo rm th e possible intellect of our body. As th e fo od we eat becomes our (capable of knowing all knowables) body, so our minds become in a certain way th e agent intellect the truths we understand. (capable of making that effort) the phantasm (which attracts the intellect). uch intelligibility as all material things If intellect can name, (ie question what thing S have in the universe is what enables us to is being presented through sense knowledge), call material creation the Glory of God (Isiah this presupposes it has already judged that it expresses this in the tersanctus: Holy, Holy, is (that there is something to be questioned) Holy; creation isfilled with your glory). But and it becomes aware of this through asking greater than (i) that glory which fills all th e question. Attracted by the phantasm, the intelligible things is the glory that agent intellect illuminates it to make it fills (ii) the immaterial created mind able to

SPRING 1987 11 BESHARA TheQuestion about Questions

[> know these intelligible things, and greater samantabhadri m union with than that is (iii) the glory filling any samantabhadra ? immaterial mind which actually makes the If it lacked our human possibility of quest­ effort to understand all these understandable ioning and knowing all that is knowable, things. And since created mind is greater (including ourselves), the creation would than the created things it understands, God's consist only of unknowable knowabilities; if Glory is even brighter in (iv) minds that turn th ere were no possibility of minds actually to understanding mind in the act which leads knowing them by the union of fo rm and fo rm, us to understand that mind can know itself creation could never be the lumen gloriae. only by knowing things and thus only as Unknowable knowabilities would be a poor unknowable to itself. Even brighter still is image of God's Essence, which we define as (v) the glory that fills minds which turn to that which is knowable as unknowable. The reason given by Ibn 'Arabi for the creator •... so we come to share the nature of God by him creating creation would be invalidated.(3). knowing us as participating in the truth th at As it is however, given the inclusion of the he is. Hence , John says, we shall know as we human mind in creation, we see what is are known: we shall know through meant by saying that human mind is the being known. � fun damental question to which God is the answer (and since we only know him as the knowing that of which mind is the image, unknowable, to which God is that silent answ­ 2) Dzogchen that which knows itself through itself and is er to which a prophet listens and turns into is the 'all its knowledge of itself, and is that in which human speech.) But this has already taken perfect' all knowledge participates, but is only us further than we have been expecting. As doctrine of the known to us as unknowable. This, in time we become the lumen gloriae, which is the Nyingma and space, is the highest way we become the Communion of the Saints in glory, we part­ Order. Dzog means lumen gloriae, and thus how the lumen icipate in that silent answer to the question 'perfection' intelligibilis not only reflects the lumen that we are by fulfilling the possibility that meaning that gl oriae but is enhanced by it. This lumen we, as far as possible, are. And we are that there is no which we thus become is also created, since possibility because the possible intellect is our higher no becoming can become the unbecome and possibility of understanding all that has the practice and yet it is that which disposes us both to and fo r possibility of being understood. But we too chen means 'no higher or the Beatific Vision. As knowledge in us is have th e possibility of being understood. more union of mind, as fo rm of body, with fo rm When we know ourselves through knowing expansIve abstracted fr om material things, so the things, we are th e Question but we come to teaching' . Beatific Vision is the union of mind as share the nature of the Answer when we come Dzogchen can created form with th e pure and uncreated to know through being known. therefo re be form of God. Th is union, however, is not translated as 'perfe ct through us abstracting intelligible fo rm hings on the other hand have the poss­ perfection' . fr om him who makes all intelligibilities T ibility of being understood by us only in For more intelligible: not through us knowing him but so far as they have being and are not noth­ information, through him knowing us. As things come to ing, and the degree to which they have being, see Tantric share our nature through our knowledge of actual or possible, is the degree to which th ey Practice in them (through what unites their fo rm to our are understandable by the noetic beings we the Nying­ Ma by mind, to the fo rm of our body) so we come to are since that which can know and that which Khatswn share th e nature of God by him knowing us as can be known have this in common, that each Sanbgo Rimp. participating in th e truth that he is. Hence has being, and though we have that being oche, Rider John says, we shall know as we are known: noetically, we have it in the same way as the 1982. we shall know through being known. beings we actually come to know, which is contingently. That is, we and th ey have being As 3) not absolutely but by way of becoming. swnmarised in ur mind, as mind, is perfe cted by knowing God, and since we know him the QuoTanic O quote "/ was a th rough the created, th e perfe cting of mind is Ways of Understanding the hidden treasure a perfecting of the whole universe of creation, Crucial Point and f loved to in so far as we understand it. Th is is the Th e light of the agent intellect which illum­ be known, so f praise or glorifying of God by which we inates common being in th e act of knowing created the participate in his glory, in his praise of world that / th ings, reveals to us by that act th at being-as­ might be himself. Is th is the way we should approach such is one and is knowable only as the known" what Dzogchen (2) sees as the mystery of unknowable.

12 ISSUE 1 Dom Sylvester Houedard BESHARA

To put this into slower motion, we don't judge and said that all he had written was like 4) In my article that an obj ect has being by the being we straw, his insight is into the truth he was The Rainbow Crystal in abstract from it, but by the being we are and living now he had stopped writing about it. The Journal of this is something pre-conceptual; we can Dante's two circles of writers on the spiritual the Muhyiddin know things only because we are but we only life (as knowledge and love) are similarly Ibn 'Arabi know th at we are because we know things. joined by th e vast unnamed third circle of the Society 1985, Mind's knowledge of the truth and reality of non-writers who had simply lived that on page 29, 12 lines insert its own act (even the act of doubting all truth life.(4). up, aft er emphasise and all possibility of truth) is the self­ Th is is why the prasangika, which talks "the cherubic certifying act that is the condition of knowing about being and knowledge in such a way as wisdom of any truth since it alone makes no appeal and to make it th e cream of epistemological knowledge, the can make no appeal to anything else. Th is is discourse, is far exceeded by the actual ouJer with th e one reality that discloses to us that we are practice of mantra in the tantras which are Francis and those who auto-lucid and, because this is the only way th e process of becoming th at reality as th e emphasise" this is disclosed, it also discloses (co­ trikaya (or strictly speaking, its semblance) discloses) that we, though we do not appear to by which the clear light of the invisible

ourselves, are, like all objects th at do appear, lumen shines through us into th e world as th e 5) Spirit in empty of inherent existence and mere part­ five-hued rainbow light th at illuminates all the World by icipants in being-as-such . Is th is the reason since this shining of the lumen by th e agent Dr Karl Rahner, why in Dzogchen, the mind of intellect on the phantasm is the only way Sheed and Ward 1968 . Dr samantabhadra is said to "recognise by itself spirit can be in th e world (to use the title of Rahner was pro· its own fa ce by seeing its own emptiness in one of Rahner's books (5) ). It is th e way of fessor of the all things as in a mirror" ? nirmanakaya or tulki (6) . Religion with Philosophy ur pre-conceptual being constitutes our The Consequences of Being Aware Faculty, Univer­ O ability a) to conceive the concept of being that We are Questions sity of Munich. common to all beings and b) to conceive the The scientific, the scholastic, the talking concept of th e inconceivability of being-as­ approach to th is point which is what we are is such. God is knowable from creation, not th e exercise of mind; the spiritual, non­ just because we infer from an existent to the talking path from this point is first th e ground of th at existent (since what we infer stilling in quietness of the concept-con­ might simply be also an existent) - our ceiving mind or sems to disclose our pristine fun damental act as humans (our meta­ awareness of the pre-conceptual mind, th e physical act) is the act that, to the human-as­ possible mind of luminousness, so th at, with knower, reveals being-as-such as th e ground both of the existent and of its knowledge. .The life of each of us, each of our personal A third way of saying th is is that because histories is part of world history, and our life, we are noetic beings before we know we are our history, is the way (in vary ing degrees of noetic beings, the light of the agent intellect prophetic brightness) that sp irit is in the discloses th e object not just as having world.' common being but as a limitation ofbeing . It is here we come to see the crucial point awareness maintained as perpetual silent 6) To speak of where the Dalai Lama and Ibn 'Arabi and remembrance (zikker in Hebrew, dhikr in nirmanakaya as Catholic scholastics talk about the same Arabic), anamnesis or memoria (rigp a in 'shamanic sp irit possession' as thing. Tibetan), our advance on the path takes place fo und in paper in that pre-conceptual mind or sems-nyd XVII (p343- Ways of Not Talking about It even during the bustle of everyday life, 360) inSp irit But talking about it indicates that to set out on allowing that luminousness to shine sine Possession th e spiritual path by which we perfect the ulla labore velut naturaliter (without effort, in the Nepal universe or world of becoming, th ough it as if naturally) (S. Benedict quoting llimalayas (1976 ed J T Pinufius via Cassian and The Master), means setting out from this point of the pre­ Hitchcock and concept that we are, in no way depends on spontaneously and effortlessly (Dzogchen). R Z Jones (A ris reaching a scholastic understanding of that Somewhere evidently Ibn 'Arabi must also and Philips)) is point (which is the scholastic understanding have said the same thing (perhaps in the cetainly not that we are that point before we understand same words), but if not recorded in his very helpful. it). Talking about it indicates th ere is no writings we can see him teach it in the way he need to talk about it for most who live the lived his life. It is the profound basis on spiritual life. When Aquinas was dying which Beshara understands good cooking. A

SPRING 1987 13 BESHARA The Question about Questions

I> luminosity dimmed only by ego-centricity act of turning to the phantasm), being-as­ and blocked out only by assuming that we are such is revealed as what exceeds its limit­ the answer and not the question means that ation in th at which mind illumines, so in dhikr, awareness of being spirit in th e world, every act of understanding the world, the is awareness both of being the question you knowledge of what th eists call God's are and of Allah as being the one and only 'existence' is already achieved, as the answer answer, and so of creature as having been to the question posed by th e becomings that we created in order that (through eliminating are, fo r every act and understanding pre­ the selfishness that pretends that we are the supposes the question it answers. answer, ie. through the non-selfishness of compassion by which we understand ourself f there is any point both simple and I profound where Abraham and Buddha i (The world' in its pejorative sense is simply meet it is how this illumination of the obj ect what humans see when they refuse to see that by the agent intellect shows itself as what encounters us as world, is always world limitation of being, since this is the western transformed by sp irit, that is, theophanised: scholastic terminology fo r cognising empt­ profanity is the failure to see that the purpose inesses. Since the light of th e agent intellect makes its disclosure by means of a non­ of matter is sp irit � affirming negative, the pre-concept of being to be the question) God himself could be the allows the judgement that all contingencies answer. This is the crux of Ibn 'Arabi's are limitations of being-as-such and th us are insight into the Holy Spirit as the Sigh of empty of inherent existence. It would be compassion, the insight that eliminates interesting to develop this with you now, but it pantheism from his thought. would remain hypothetical until one met a Tibetan Geshe who has not only understood he life of each of us, each of our personal the prasangika and the Nyingma tradition T histories, is part of world history, and but wh o has read and understood the relevant our life, our history, is the way (in varying parts of S. Th omas, or who has read and degrees of prophetic brightness) that spirit is understood Rahner's synthesis of these rel­ in the world. We cannot know God except evant points, conveyed, alas, in th ose terrible through knowing creation and our pre­ 7) Professor existentialist teutonocisms, for which, like Herbert V conceptual openness as noetic beings (which Dr Guenther and his Nyingma translations Guenther, Head is the possibility and precondition of the (7), he is celebrated. of the Depart­ union of life and truth , bliss and emptiness, ment for of vajra and bell ), to being-as-such, is how hat one can say here, since it is Eastern Studies the lumen of the intellectus agens discloses relevant to Ibn 'Arabi and to Catholic at the Universi­ W ty of Saskache­ the limitation of being in (or emptiness of) and Buddhist scholastics, is that though it is wan, Canada, every knowable object. Every human possible to be either a contemplative or a author of a encounter with the world is its illumination metaphysician, the scholastic who in fa ct is number of by the agent intellect - so Rahner can rightly both , whether Buddhist, Islamic or Catholic, books on say th e first thing encountering us is world will always be concerned that talk about each Buddhism, transformed by spirit: without the lumen to will be conducted in a unified terminology including The show us something is there, th ere simply is and won't cultivate separate languages fo r Buddhist Philosophy no encounter - so that fo r human beings there the sacred and the profane. 'The world' in its in Theory is no such th ing as world devoid of spirit th at pejorative sense is simply what humans see and Practice we can encounter. Not only that, but only when they refuse to see that what encounters (Penguin 1971) through this encounter with world us as world, is always world transformed by transformed by spirit can we first encounter spirit, th at is, th eophanised: profanity is the ourself, since it is only through its acts that failure to see that th e purpose of matter is 8) The mind can know itself - if it turns to itself it spirit, or as the Dalai Lama CKalacakra p345) Kalachakra Tantra (Rite can only know itself as unknowable, · which (8) says, cyclic existence is essentially pure of I nitiati­ is the condition of having that 'awareness' and therefore release from it is possible and on) by Te nzin which isn't 'knowledge' but the mere fa ctor of so the natural purity of mind is itself the Gyatso, the luminosity. It can't even gain the kn owledge possibility of Buddhahood ... Da/ai Lama. necessary to achieve that awareness until it Wisdom If you would like a copy of the fi rst part of this Publications has encountered th e world as the pre­ 1985. condition for cognising emptiness, and in talk, please contact The Beshara Trust at the every encounter with the world, (le. in every address given on page 1.

14 ISSUE l Rupert Sheldrake BESHARA

The Presence of the Past

An Extract from the Seminar given by Rupert Sheldrake at Sherborne last October.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake's visit to Sherborne as part of the Beshara Trust's autumn seminar series Paragons and Parameters of Being was both momentous and pleasurable. Mo mentous since, together with the visit by Professor Brian Goodwin of the Department of Biology at the Op en Un iversity to Chisholme House in July, it marked the start of what promises to be a long dialogue between the (sc ientific' and (mystic' views of Reality and Self, and pleasurable in that the perceived space between these points of view is smaller than at any time since Isaac Ne wton. What is more, the weekend provided those of us privileged to be there with a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in science and the position and philosophies of its various (d isciplines' viz. cosmology, physics, chemistry & biology . We include here a short extract fr om the seminar, fo llowed a piece fr om Richard Twinch prompted by some of the ideas it introduced. We will be including a second extract in the next issue of BESHARA.

The Current State in Biology In the 17th and 18th centuries it became Biology got underway in a big way in the 19th widely recognised that there had been a real century experimental biology really change or advance in human understanding coming into its own by the end of the century - that Newtonian physics, fo r example, went - and it was fo rmulated within the mech­ far beyond anything the Greeks had known - anistic fr amework. Th is, in a nutshell, says and by the 18th century, most people thought that living organisms consist of dead matter, that human understanding, at least in the completely blind, governed entirely by sciences and arts, was progressive. By the eternal laws (the laws of physics and end of the 18th century th is was commonly chemistry) and that's that: th ere's nothing understood in terms of social evolution as more to it - living things are essentially well and this was the driving impetus behind inanimate and they can be understood th e American rebellion, the fo unding of the entirely in terms of the laws of the sciences United States, th e French revolution and of th e inanimate. This is still th e indeed, all the great revolutionary move­ predominant view in biology. While th e ments to the present day. At the end of the 18th mechanistic philosophy has been century came the idea of biological evolut­ transcended over the past 50 years or so ionary change and by 1859 (with Darwin's within physics, within biology it is still taken Theory of Evolution) it became rather fo r granted as the very obvious, common commonplace and was in fa ct accepted very sense basis of the whole science. Most quickly. biologists are proud to tell you that they are mechanistic biologists; mechanistic has Ut th e context of evolutionary become a pejorative word in many people's B discussions was physics, and the cos­ 1) Nol lhe wrong of vocabularies nowadays, but in biology it's a mology which prevailed until very recently kinds chaps who are good word - it sh ows that you are the right was, essentially, that the universe was usually called kind ofchap.(I ) eternal, static, and in fa ct even worse than vilalisls. However, th ere are problems within this static - it was slowly running down to a Vitalism, as ils mechanistic biology in understanding liv­ th ermodynamic heat death. Th e only way of name suggests, ing things, about which we will talk in a explaining how the evolutionary process is I he doc Ir ine lhal living moment. But before that, I would just like to was possible was to regard it as local aberr­ Ihings are say th at what has changed the context more ation, a kind of statistical fluctuation which alive. th an anything is the idea that th e universe is must be averaged out by things going th e evolving. other way elsewhere in th e universe - hence basically the product of blind ch ance. And so he idea of evolution of society, of ideas, we see that th e Darwinian and neo­ T has been a commonplace for 2-300 years Darwinian evolutionary theories that seek to or even longer - one could say that th ere is an explain evolution in terms of chance are real­ evolutionary view of history inherent in th e ly trying to fit an evolutionary vision into a whole Judaic-Christian-Islamic tradition. universe which is static or devolutionary.

SPRING 1987 15 BESHARA The Presence of the Past

t> But since 1966 physics itself has moved onto basic idea here is that living organisms - or the evolutionary paradigm. It is important to indeed, nature - are self-organising; ie. they remember th at this is very new; we tend to have their own purposes, their own goals, th ink of evolution as a very old idea and their own ability to organise themselves. For forget that physics was a bastion which stood Aristotle and the scholastics of the Middle out against it until 1966, wh en, fo r reasons Ages, this organising principle was called which I have not got time to go into now, the Psyche or Soul. Their concept of Soul was evidence persuaded most physicists that the rather different fr om the vague and confused universe had originated in a primeval ideas that are common today, which confine explosion and what's called the Big Bang it to human beings. The Psyche or Soul was Theory became generally accepted. Now we present in all living things - animals, have an evolving physics and this really plants and indeed, the whole earth - and was changes the way th at we think. The also, as Aristotle (and also Plato) put it, the evolutionary vision of th ings - of life, hum­ form of the body. The Soul was not in the an societies, etc, - no longer needs to be seen body, the body was in the Soul; it was that as a local aberration but takes place within which shaped and fo rmed the body and in animals, it was th at which organised their iNo w we have an evolving physics and th is really behaviour.(2) changes the way that we th ink. The In human beings, in addition to the evolutionary vision of things no longer needs to vegetative soul (which organised the develop­ be seen as a local aberration but takes place ment of the embryo and maintained th e fo rm within the context of a cosmology in which of the body) and the animal soul (which was everything is evolving.' responsible fo r nutrition, respiration, and all animal functions), there was a rational soul the context of a cosmology in which every­ with which was associated the higher fu nct­ thing is evolving. ions and which was open to the spirit. 2) The English But all existing thought in biology, the basic word animal derives from concepts and the standard positions of hus, before the work of th e mechanists anima, meaning Darwinism and neo-Darwinism, were all T and Descartes in the 17th century, matter soul. worked out long before 1966; they are, as we was conceived of, not as dead and inert, but as have said, rooted in a 19th century version of potentiality, as having the potential for mechanistic theory. The reason that it taking up form. Th ere was a hierarchy of continues within the profession, as a kind of matter, organised by the Soul, and above the living fo ssil of an older way of thought, is Soul was the realm of Spirit and th e Divine that it has been very successful . It has Ideas and Platonic fo rms. Descartes elim­ concentrated attention on th e chemical and inated the middle level, leaving dead inert physical details of life, and by exploring matter on the one hand, and eternal, trans­ those it has been possible to work out the cendent laws, on the other, with nothing in chemistry of th e genetic material, to between, and this is still the basis of mech­ understand how hormones work and a great anistic biology. The attempt was, and is, to many things about physiology; advances explain everything in terms of th e properties have been made in medicine, agriculture, of atoms and molecules - hence the emphasis chemical fe rtilisers, insecticide sprays, etc. on molecular biology on the one hand and the which have had a huge economic impact. laws of physics on the other. The only Now it seems to be yielding even more problem with this is that it doesn't work and it promises of profit in the bio-technology has not actually led to an understanding of industry, genetic engineering and so on. So even the most elementary things about life . most biologists are confident about th is This is where we come to the problem of fo rm, approach - it works, it makes money, and and th e hypotheses which I have been th ey are impatient with the minority within developing. biology who say, as a minority has always said, that this may be all very well but it doesn't go very far in explaining the nature The Problem of Form - Traditional oflife . Approaches Form is one of the most central and important here has always been, within biology, an problems of biology because it is obvious that T holistic tradition that has tried to all thillgs have fo rms. We cl assify animals understand th e nature of living things in a and plants on the basis of th eir shape and different way. The holistic tradition histor­ fo rm - if you look up a plant in a fl ora you ically grows out of the vitalist tradition, and will see a picture of it, a description of the the vitalist tradition has grown from the shapes of the leaves, fruit and flowers and the Aristotelian and Scholastic traditions. The ultimate reference is not a mathematical

16 ISSUE 1 Rupert Sheldrake BESHARA

equation but a herbarium specimen of an he mechanistic view from the 17th actual plant pressed on a sheet of paper at T century onwards was to try to locate Kew. Similarly with animals; even though all fo rm in matter. They proposed that in the we may also take account of other things like fertilised egg th ere was a miniaturised behaviour and, more recently, chemistry, we version of the adult organisms - as an actual basically classify them morphologically. So material structure - and that development to ask "How do organisms take up their involved an unrolling or inflation of this. fo rm?" is to ask about th eir most charact­ This is called the Pre-Formationist Theory. eristic fe ature, and brings us to one of the Debates in the 17th century, right through most central problems of th e whole science of until the 19th century, amongst pre­ life . Where does the fo rm - of this fe rn fo r fo rmationists largely took place on sex instance - arise fr om? What is its source? lines; the majority opinion was th at th e ready-made organism was in th e sperm, an d he Platonic tradition (at least in its most th e egg merely nourished it; the minority T popular fo rm which has been accepted was that the organism was in the egg and that within science) would suggest that there is th e sperm merely triggered off development. an archetypal fe rn - an eternal fe rn fo rm - This entire debate was superceded and made which is reflected in the matter of this irrelevant when close observations of embr­ particular fern. This is the approach which yos showed that the organism underwent many biologists have taken and at the beg­ genuine development which was more than inning of the 19th century it was probably the unfolding or inflation. Whole sheets of most orthodox. People tried to study the tissue fo lded in, fo r instance, to fo rm new archetypes of organisms. Richard Owen, the British biologist, fo r example, wrote a book ito ask "Ho w do organisms take up their form?" on th e archetypes of vertebrates, in which he is to ask about their most characteristic feature, showed that th e same pattern of the five­ and brings us to one of the most central fingered limb could be seen in cows, people, problems of the whole science of life. � whales, fish, birds, etc. and concluded that these were all variations of a fu ndamental structures such as the gut and the nerve cord, archetypal theme. But he did not think of it producing complexity which was not present as an evolutionary process. He thought of it to start with. Th e technical term fo r this is in a much more Platonic sense, ie. that the epigenesis. (3) 3. The idea of mind of God had basic themes on which He, Another argument against th e Pre­ the UlIfolding of as it were, rang the changes and these were Formationist view was, that if rabbits, fo r pre-existing th en reflected in the different forms of living example, grow fr om tiny rabbits in th e egg, structure was things. In the Platonic view, the affinities then they themselves must contain eggs in called between different kinds of animals and which are the next generation of tiny of evolution_ Thus the plants were thus understood in terms of rabbits, and those must have little ones with ­ original meani­ affinities of fo rm, not, as Darwin said, in in them and so on. Somebody calculated in ng of the word terms of historical affinities arising fr om the 18th century that, assuming that the world was . UlIfo lding descent fr om common ancestors. was created in 4004BC, the first rabbit must of pre-existing have contained 101 0,000 miniature rabbits, germ structure' he problem of the Platonic view, inter­ each within another! T esting and satisfYing though it is in many ways, is that it does not immediately evertheless, Pre-Formationism has lend itself to an evolutionary interpretation N always been the view most attractive to of nature and has therefore, traditionally, the mechanists, whose tendency is to find a tended to be associated with a static or cycl­ pre-existing material structure wherever ical view of th e universe. This was one of possible, and we have it back again now, in a Darwin's strongest points; if th ere is a fixed modified form, in th e notion of the genetic archetype, how can species change? How can programme, which says that its all there in we develop new breeds of animal - great the structure of the egg or, in this case, the danes, dachsunds, pekinese, greyhounds DNA. In our democratic age, it is, of course, and spaniels - if th ere is a fixed dog generally believed that th e DNA is archetype? An archetype, if it exists, must be contributed equally by the male and th e flexible and capable of developing in female. different ways, since th ese are the fa cts we The Aristotelian view is that th ere is an see before us. And so the Platonic view has organising principle, the Soul or th e Psyche, gone out of fashion in biology since the time which is neither inside th e egg, nor an of Darwin and although there are still eternal transcendent archetype, but which is defenders of it, it is now very much a an invisible organising principle associated minority view. with the organism and this is what gives it

SPRING 1987 17 BESHARA The Presence of the Past

[> fo rm; it contains the fo rm, as it were, In an ction not yet fu lly understood". In other word, invisible, non-material manner. we don't know; and that's the pres-ent state of play and it's been the state of play all along. We really have no better idea now than people A New Approach did 100 years ago. To approach th e problem of fo rm in a slightly different way, think of an architectural n the case of human constructions like analogy, such as a house. The house has a I buildings, we know that the fo rm arises as form, a shape, a structure and it is made out a kind of idea from outside the building and of materials. The fo rm, however, is not th e mechanistic theory is based on just th is determined by the materials; it depends on analogy; ie. the analogy of th e machine. It them but with the same building materials says that just as the designs and purposes of you could build houses of different shapes. machines lie outside the machine, in the hum­ There is, of course, a certain limit - you an mind, so the entire universe has designs could not build a sky-scraper out the and patterns which are in th e mind of God materials fo r a suburban house - but you and the whole thing is imposed fr om without, could build suburban houses of different by Go d, on to matter. The mechanistic theory does not exactly deny purposes an d designs, it • fields in modern science play much the same simply says that they are outside nature in the role that Souls did in yesteryear, but they are a mind of God or, in the modern fo rm, in the better defined concept.� laws of nature (although the laws of nature are now supposed to be purposeless). But the shapes and forms. If you demolish the house, problem in applying this view to the and analyse the materials out of which it is biological realm is that, in living things, the made, you can produce a complete chemical designs and purposes do, in some sense, seem analy-sis in th e laboratory, with very nice to be internal. This is what leads us to the computer print-outs and everything accurate idea of a designing mind being associated and true. If you demolish another house with the organism - not outside but somehow made fr om th e same building materials but in it - what Aristotle calls the Psyche or Soul. of a different fo rm, it will have exactly the This does not have to imply a fu lly conscious same chemical analysis. The chemical mind, and one of the difficulties that we have analysis tells you nothing about the fo rm now, in understanding th ese th ings, is that because the fo rm disappears as you grind it we hardly have the language to deal with up to analyse it. them any more.

Ow exactly the same is true in realm of new way of approaching the problem N biological organisms. You can anal­ A was put fo rward in the 1920's, when it se any plant in the garden by grinding it up was proposed that th e fo rm of the living and analysing its chemicals and proteins, organism was organised by invisible, and you can produce a true analysis of its organising fields. Now fields in modern constituents, including its DNA and genetic science play much th e same role that Souls material, but this does not tell you why the did in yesteryear, but they are a better defined plant has the fo rm it does. To bring it closer concept. Fields are invisible, they are organ­ to ourselves, consider your arms and legs. ising and most of them are teleological (or These have exactly the same chemical purposive): even gravitational and electro­ constituents and if ground up and analysed magnetic field have goals and purposes and are chemically identical. The bones, the lead to attractions and tendencies and muscles, the nerves, the skin, the cells - all strivings, as it were. It was proposed that in or these are th e same in the arm s and the legs, around a developing embryo there is an yet they have different forms. Moreover, the organising field called the morphogenetic DNA is th e same. In fa ct, the DNA is exactly field (from morphe meaning fo rm and the same in every single cell of your body, genesis meaning coming into being). including the eyes and the ears and the Morphogenesis means the coming into being kidney and the brain. If we say that develop­ of fo rm and th e morphogenetic field is the ment of fo rm is all th ere, programmed, in the field which organises the coming into being DNA, we then have the problem of explaining ofthe fo rm. how, with identical DNA in every cell of the This idea, which was first proposed in 1922, body, they develop differently. Its obvious has been quite widely adopted within biology, that DNA alone cannot explain th is and all especially within embryology and develop­ biologists will admit this. What they will say mental biology. In a cat embryo, fo r example, is that the DNA is influenced by "complex it is considered that th e embryo is developing spatia-temporaL-chemical patterns of inter- within a cat embryo field, and that th e field is

18 ISSUE 1 Rupert Sheldrake BESHARA an invisible orgamsmg structure that shapes with a complete magnetic field and if you cut the development. It is important to under­ a hologram (which is an electro-magnetic stand that the field is not just within, but also field phenomenon) into pieces, each of them around, the embryo. The analogy fo r this is can give you a complete structure. Fields the magnetic field, which is also not just seem to have a property of inherent within magnets, but also around th em; they wholeness which material objects do not involve an invisible patterning of the space, have, and it seems as if it is th e fieldwhich is which can be revealed by sprinkling iron the bearer or possessor ofthe wholeness. filings around the magnet. Even without the With living things, it is supposed that the iron filings, the field is there; you can't see it, morphogenetic field is around the organism, touch it, smell it, hear it, taste it but it's th ere, and even if you cut part of it off, or cut it into even though it is not material.

hen the field concept was first put -Many of us think ofmater ialism and matter in W fo rward in its more or less modern terms ofgrossly out-dated concepts which bear fo rm by Michael Faraday (4), he was not no relation to the modern physical quite sure what fields were. One thing he was understanding.� sure they were not, was matter. He had one idea that they might be modifications of the small pieces, in many conditions the pieces 4) See Hesse, M ether (which was not ordinary matter but still remain a whole field and can grow back (1961) Forces some more subtle form) but the idea that he or regenerate into a whole organism. This and Fields (Nelson, phenomenon is very hard to explain from a preferred was they were "modifications of London) mere space". Maxwell (5) preferred the ether mechanistic point of view which tries to ex­ interpretation but Einstein got rid of the ether plain everything in terms of the interaction 5) See in his Special Theory of Relativity and since of parts, because if you remove a part, there Nersessian,N J. 1905 it has not been taken seriously within should no longer be a whole. For this reason, (1984) physics. Fields are now regarded as "mod­ the idea of morphogenetic fields has been AetherlOr: the ifications of mere space"; ie. space itself has very widely accepted - it is almost indis­ creation of a fo rm and a structure which does not arise pensable fo r understanding how embryos scientific fr om matter - rather, matter arises fr om it. develop. There must be many sorts of fields - concepts Studies in In modern physics, matter is not primary but cat fields, dog fields, kangaroo fields, apple History and represents energy or potentiality within fields - and not only does each species have Philosophy fields. its own field but there are fields within of Science When this very powerful idea was applied to fields. For example, within the fields of our lS,p1 75·212 . biology, it lead to the proposition that there are body there are fields for our eyes, our ears spatial fo rms which organise matter but and our arms and legs, our kidneys, livers, which are not themselves material. This and within those, tissue fields and cell fields, would have seemed a highly occult notion and then fields for cell nuclei and mit­ had it not been for the fa ct that physics ochondria and further fields fo r molecules already has this idea as a commonplace, and proteins, etc. taught to every student of the subject. Many of us think of materialism and matter in The Nature of MorphicFields terms of grossly out-dated concepts which Now if th ese fields are so important and have bear no relation to the modern physical such explanatory value, how do we explain understanding. them? Well, this is the great problem. Over the past 60 years, two approaches have been he huge advantage of applying this idea favoured. On the one hand, there is a re­ T to biology was that it was able to explain surgence of the Platonic idea that they re­ something which is otherwise virtually present eternal fo rms or eternal mathem­ inexplicable, which is the way that living atical structures which are somehow transc­ things seem to be wholes that are more than endent of space and time. This view is advoc­ the sum of their parts - that wholeness can ated by a number of modern biologists, remain even though parts are removed. If including Brian Goodwin, Professor of the you cut a leg offa newt, it grows a new leg; if Open University. The other view is that, yes, you cut a flatworm into pieces, each grows we adopt the concept of fields because we need into a new flatworm; if you cut a piece off a it but actually it is only a concept and they do willow tree, each piece can give you a new not correspond to anything in reality. What tree. This property of wholeness is not fo und they are is simply a short-hand way of talk­ in machines (if you cut a computer into ing about "complex spatio-temporal-physico­ pieces, all you get is a broken computer) but it chemical patterns of interaction not yet fu lly is fo und in fields; if you cut a magnet into understood". In this way, one return s to the pieces, you get lots of little magnets, each conventional position. �

SPRING 1987 19 BESHARA The Pre sence of the Past

I> What I am suggesting - and this is the basis communicate by squeaking or any other of the entire hypothesis - is that morpho­ means with th e rats here.And already, ex­ genetic fields do exist, that they are not just periments have been done which show that ideas in our minds (or at least, that th ey are this sort of effect does in fa ct occur. The as real as fields in physics such as gravity experiments were not done to test this th eory, and electro-magnetism) and that they have th ey were done to test others because, as you histories; ie. morphogenetic fields have a know, people have been doing experiments on structure or pattern which depends on rats fo r decades, and there is a vast literature previous similar fo rms. This means that the on rat psychology. Experiments measuring cat field depends on th e actual forms of the rate of rats escaping from mazes and such previous cats; tomato fields on th e actual like do show th at they generally get better at fo rm of previous tomatoes, etc. and through doing it as time goes on, and not only better in these morphogenetic (or fo r short, morphic) one place, but all over the world; and not only better if they are descended fr om rats who .. as a scientist it is no use talking about these have been trained, but all the rats in a given kinds of ideas merely at a ph ilosophical level. breed seem to get better. In my book The New Unless one can show that they have a predictive Science of Life (7) I give a particularly value, and th at they lead to unexpected results, striking example of th is and give the details sc ientists are not going to be very interested. � and data for th ose who are interested.

fields th e organisms within them are in a his is not a unique example. There are a kind of resonant connection with all T number of others in the literature on rat previous similar fo rms. This process is psychology, and in other fo rms of behav­ called morphic resonance. iourist research. B.F. Skinner, the bete noire An organism, such as a fe rn, is shaped by of Arthur Koestler, the chief behaviourist who morphic fields which are in turn shaped by believed that you could explain everything in morphic resonance with all previous fe rns of terms of reflexes and so on, specialised in the species. The fields contain a kind of training pigeons to peck at lighted panels in memory (collective memory) of th e fo rm of order to get corn, a process called operant previous fe rns and the morphic resonance conditioning. He had a complicated proc­ takes place through or across space and time. edure, by which he trained them in a series It is not coded in the genes or carried in the of stages until after quite a long time he got material structure of the fe rn ; rather, it is as them to peck at th e panel and obtain th e grain if the fe rn 'tunes in' to the fo rm of previous of corn. After he and several generations of fe rns. his PhD students had been doing th is, somebody discovered th at it was all quite his th eory leads to a number of clear, unnecessary; one could simply put th e pigeon 6) The value of T empirical predictions, and this is where in the box, turn on th e lighted panel and the a scientific it begins to make contact with laboratories pigeon would peck it straight away. They theory is partly, as Sir and all th e paraphenalia of science, because concluded that Skinner and his students were Karl Popper has as a scientist it is no use talking about these rather fo olish not to have noticed this fa ct, but said, in kinds of ideas merely at a philosophical th e alternative explanation is th at Skinner proportion to level. Unless one can show that they have a and his students had actually changed the the predictive value, and that they lead to collective psyche of the pigeons, so that the unexpectness of unexpected results, then scientists are not pigeons th emselves - all of them - had just its predictions. going to be very interested. But if they do been getting better at doing the task. lead to predictions of results th at are This sort of ph enomenon has been observed unexpected, th en that means that it is an by many experimental psychologists, and 7) Sheldrake,R (1987) A New interesting scientific theory. (6) indeed, animal trainers. Since my book was Science of The th eory applies in the realm of published, I have received letters fr om all tife (new behaviour, and so it predicts th :>t if you train over th e world, fr om people involved with edition) rats to learn a new trick here in Sherborne, animals, fa rmers, etc. telling me the most Paladin, th en rats all over th e world should sub­ interesting anecdotes which seem to support London sequently be able to learn th e same trick the th eory - only anecdotes, but very very more quickly - just because th e rats here interesting ones based on observation and have learn ed it - and th e more rats th at learn experience by people who know animals and it here, th e easier it should become every­ work with them all th e time. ... where else. It should happen even in the absence of taking th e Sherborne rats th ere, or Rupert Sheldrake 's article in the June issue of making telephone calls telling people how to BESHARA will discuss morphic fields which do it; and even if people there do not know, extend beyond the level of the individual, including and even if th e rats have never been able to collective behaviour in the animal and human realms.

ISSUE 20 1 Richard Twinch BESHARA

Me:m.ory and the Brain

Some thoughts from Richard Twinch following Rupert Sheldrake's seminar

The aspects of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake's stimulating seminar that most struck me were those relating to memory and perception, since these are directly applicable to an immediate and direct grasp of the scientific concep ts, whilst at the same time amplifying what is meant by (Kn ow Thyself - a matter close to the heart of those of Beshara. As Dr. Sheldrake said during his talk on memory: ((It makes a difference to your life where you think your memories are stored".

e are indebted to Osman Fazli of the it is taken fo r granted. Yet, as Sheldrake 1) /smai/ Hakki W Jaluti sect, educator, initiator, teacher explained, there is no fi rm scientific evid­ Bursevi (1 653· and friend of Ismael Hakki Bursevi, (1) who ence to prove it. Descartes' th eory of memory 1725). Succ­ wrote in the 17th century concerning these storage proposed a hydraulic mechanism, essor to Osman Fasli and author matters: whereby pores were enlarged by flow of of an extensive liquid. This has been supplanted in the 20th commentary on "Ma n does not possess anything else bllt his century by an equivalent theory of mod­ the Fusus ai­ sensibilities as his real organ of intelligence ulations to the 6ynaptic nerve ends through Hikam by and without Divine action man cannot even electrical stimulation. Muhyiddin Ibn use his memory which is his sacred treasury 'Arabi (recently rendered into of experience acquired long ago. The r. Sheldrake sees himself primarily as English by initiate, the saint, the insan-i·kamil (2 ) is he D a scientist, ie. a person who carries out Bulent Rauf and who possesses the fa culty of being able to experiments th at are repeatable to prove published by recognize the true non-existence of his certain theories. The skill of a good scientist the M uhyiddin fa culties of thought and his own impotence in resides in being able to find simple (and if Ibn 'Arabi putting them in motion. It is he who leaves all possible cheap) ways of demonstrating the Society the 'space' to God and who passes his life in proof of a particular th eory. Perhaps another 2) Isan-i Kamil. controlling his intimate fa ithfulness, in criterion might be 'painless', since th e The Perfe ct Man actions, 'thought' or In the acts that descriptions of th e efforts of scientists (in materialize them. It is he who prays particular Karl Lashly (3)) to prove th at 3) Lashley, K.5 constantly to God, even if it is only by a memory resides in the structure of the brain (1950) In breath or by a movement of the heart, when he must have inflicted great distress on the search of the perceives the natural and constant numerous monkeys, rats etc. that were di s­ Engram. Symposia of phenomena of thought. In fa ct everybody sected to such little avail to discover 'memory the Society knows that this fa culty lS permanent, traces'. After 30 years of looking, Lashly for Exp. constant, irresistibly active. " concluded that it was virtually impossible to erimental find memory traces, which in no way Biology 4, rom a historical point of view, Sheldrake deterred the scientific community fr om p454483 F would no doubt agree th at 'everybody continuing the search. knows' is a statement of th e traditional view Fortunately, Dr. Sheldrake is not alone in of memory and thought that pervaded Europe, his view of memory as a holistic phen­ (and indeed most of the world), until the omenon, which according to him is another rationalists of the 17th Century, spearheaded manifestation of 'morphic fields' ie. by Descartes, re-proclaimed the Delphic or­ invisible fields to wh ich the brain 'tunes in' acle as "I think, th erefore I am". Sheldrake in the same way as a television set 'tunes' entertainingly described how this egocentric into a particular channel. He pointed out th at 4) Stevenson,l. (1974) vi ew of the world became the dominating such an explanation would account fo r the Twenty 'fact' in th e development of western scientific ability to recover 'lost memory', despite Cases thought; a key belief of which is that accidental (or purposeful) brain damage. It Suggestive memories are stored in th e brain which dis­ would also account for the well-documented of Reincarna­ solves on death into 'nothing'. He fu rther (by Professor ran Stevenson at Virginia tion. University of pointed out that not only has thi s belief University) ability of children in India to Virginia Press, become an underlying assumption of remember 'past lives' (4), which phenomenon Charltonville. western though t but, through the spread of Sheldrake ascribed to the ability to 'tune into' western scientific method, has supplanted other memory fi elds. Inabilities of the mind 'traditional' understanding, so much so that - such as remembering fa ces, which is quite

SPRING 1987 21 BESHARA Memory and the Brain

I> common - might equally be due to a fa ilure but in some sense in the reorganised cellular in the 'tuning mechanism' rather than the networks that the molecules fo rm. " elimination of the part of the brain where Here then is yet another variation of the these memories might be stored. In the same holistic view of memory, albeit couched in way, we would not say that Channel 4 had terms of cellular networks. Looked at fr om ceased because a fault in the set no longer th e wider viewpoint, recently acquired by allowed it to be received. physicists an d intuitively appreciated for An example of this ability to 'tune into' thousands of years by mystics, all matter is particular memory, and even 'ability' fields, considered as a particular crystallisation of is perhaps a solution to the conundrum energy that appears because of th e conditions presented by a recent television programme of the 'place' viz. space & time. Other in­ 5) QED. (5) called ''The Foolish Wise Ones" which visible fields (e.g. gravitation, electro­ BBC1 showed the remarkable talents of three magnetic fields etc.) do not appear th em­ Wednesday severely mentally handicapped young people selves in space/time but are evinced by their 11th February who had, respectively, an extraordinary effects on space/time. The visible and 1987 ability to calculate dates, remember music invisible are both equally real, being in­ and draw accurate perspectives fr om trinsic unfoldments of th e 'Universal', whether expressed as th e universal field or -The agreed fa ct that memoryitsel fis holistic, The Conscious Reality i.e. God. Mystics, perhaps implies that it need be neither visible however, make a di stinction between th e mat­ erial and the spiritual, the visible and the in­ nor invisible, 'inside ' nor 'outside' the brain, visible. This gives priority to unconditioned but that it should concur with 'p lace' and 'levels' (i.e. invisible) over conditioned fu nction.� levels (visible) since the unconditioned memory. In each case these talents were far reflects more clearly the Universal. The in advance of the normal abilities of even spiritual rules and governs the material intelligent people, let alone th ose with IQs of everywhere, th ough ultimately they are of the 65. Indeed there was no evidence, or even same Source. clue, as to the processes involved either in the learning or the doing! he agreed fa ct that memory itself is T holistic, perhaps implies that it need be nother scientist holding a parallel hol­ neither visible nor invisible, 'inside' nor istic view of memory is Karl Pibram 'outside' the brain, but that it should concur 6) Karl A (6) who sees memory as a holographic image with 'place' and fu nction. In th e case of the Pribram. AsJa r as we mow, 'etched' into th e fabric of th e brain by some chicken, rejecting a bitter bead is a fu nction there are no sort of 'interference pattern'. Such a hol­ of 'chicken-ness' and may affect th e survival readily ographic theory implies that detailed analy­ or otherwise of the individual. It would not available books sis of a cell would reveal the whole pattern, then be surprising that such a memory would aboUl his work, although as yet there is no evidence of thi s. leave a molecular trace, albeit 'trivial'. At the which has been publ ished in Sheldrake is sympathetic and admits, as a same time it is quite within reason to assume specialist good scientist, that should the theory of that this has an effect on the 'invisible' i.e. the journals. 'morphic fields' be disproved then he would 'morphogenetic field' of all chickens. Indeed "plump for the holographic theory". it is to be expected that such interraction It is perhaps a measure of the penetration of occurs constantly, as proposed by David such holistic concepts of memory that even Bohm in his th eories of the Implicate and Ex­ the biologist Professor Steven Rose of the plicate Order, with which Sheldrake broadly Open University, who admits to adopting a re­ agrees (8). Sheldrake's theory of morphic ductionist strategy in his research and who, resonance proposes th at other chickens after 5 years, has just isolated a change in the (wherever they are) should sub sequently find 7) Steven Rose protein molecules of new born chicks taught th e process of learning not to peck bitter beads "Memories and a fa ster one. Rose may find in addition th at Molecules" New to reject bitter beads, (7) admits: Scientist 27th the offspring of th e original chicks have an November " Yet I am not arguing that memory - even even greater advantage, though even such 1986. p40. so simple a memory as a chick's avoiding a assertion of th e 'inheritance of acquired char­ bead it has once experienced as tasting acteristics' is itselfheretical in some circles! 8) DavidBohm. bitter- can be reduced to molecules. Indeed, see if our model is correct, the molecular hat memory can be brought under Wholeness changes that we observe are in one sense T different categories is accepted by both and the relatively trivial 'housekeeping' processes Rose and Sheldrake; fo r instance 'short term Implicate fo r cells whose fo rm and connectivity are memories' - like remembering a telephone Order. Ark number long enough to dial it - are different Paperbacks, remodelled during the learning. Th e 1980 memory does not lie in the molecules at all, fr om th e memories of consciously acquired

22 ISSUE l Richard Twinch BESHARA

skills like riding a bicycle or learning that arise. The individual having given up the pecking bitter beads is unpleasant. Indeed the fal se idea of limited consciousness "and left memory that is most vital (for Sheldrake's all the space to God" thus ''perceives the theories are related to a Nature that is alive natural and constant phenomena of rather than dead matter ruled by Timeless thought". Laws) is the memory that perpetuates some­ Here then there is a question of choice, thing in existence. The example given by which is not possible for the chicken which Sheldrake was of a fern which retains its has only the possibility of 'resonating' with form fr om moment to moment by virtue of its its own form and those of its kind and this memory of itself, since the closest possible fo rms the limits of its self-knowledge or 'paradigm' to itself is itself at the previous consciousness. For the genus Man the instant. Steven Rose perceptively picked on a situation is different and choice is exercised similar point at the start of the article at every 'level' of being (social, moral, mentioned above: "Yet, while we remember, psychological, spiritual) and this we exist as individuals. One tragedy of the determines self-knowledge. Indeed fo r th e diseases of senility is the loss of personal memory,and hence ofwho we are. " -For the genus Man choice is exerc ised at every Scientists, and Sheldrake is no exception, 'level' of being and this determines self­ do not like to speculate about consciousness knowledge. Indeed fo r the mystic there is no (the experimental evidence is not repeatable), need to look fo r processes that support the "I but it would seem that this process of dynamic think, therefore I am" philosophy. Th ere are recollection is very close to self-conscious­ matters of greater importance which touch on ness and touches on Osman Fazli's the Universal.� perception of the matter taken to the highest degree, the degree of Perfe ct Man, where the mystic there is no need to look fo r processes process of thought is "permanent, constant, that support the "I think, therefore I am" irresistibly active". philosophy. There are matters of greater importance which touch on the Universal. ndeed, as Sheldrake explained, it is quite Recollection is not merely confined to the I beyond science at present to explain how continuation of the bodily or even psycho­ memory works, since mechanistic biologists logical 'form' but to th e Zikr (Recollection) of (i.e. those looking fo r a purely physico­ the Universes Itself. What better way of chemical answer) are caught in the well­ concluding than with the continuation of known philosophical trap that in order to Osman Fazli's teaching: retrieve a memory it has first to be known that it exists and further where to find it, and "The intimate work of the mystic consists, so on in infinite regre ss. In 'morphic field' therefore, in trying to attain the Divine theory, fields are 'nested' one within another proximity, to respond to His infinite until all are held within th e universal field clemence by his recognition, or through Zikr, ie. there are memory libraries within mem­ whenever thoughts, 'v isitors from heaven', ory libraries. This explains the process of manifest in his interior. Good or tempting, recall, but Sheldrake remains uncertain on these visitors have fo r mission the exercising the matters of choice and the location of of our discernment to the most subtle degree of consciousness. Osman Fazli has no such 'Good and Evil', whereby we accord them our doubts. Consciousness resides with the Univ­ consentment or refuse them." ersal fr om which thoughts and memories

LETIERS TO THE EDITOR ROBERT CLARK

In fu ture editions of BESHARAwe hope Fine & Antiquarian Books to have a page of letters to the editor. - especially English literature & history, theology, Ifyou would like to comment on any­ plays and pamphlets 1600- 1 900. thing in this issue, or add anything which you fe el is relevant, please write, Regular catalogues before May 10th 1987, to : The Editor Visitors welcome by appointment. BESHARA Magazine 24 Sidney Street, Oxford OX4 3AG 24 Sidney Street, O:ifo rd OX4 3AG. Tel. 0865-243406

SPRING 1987 23 BESHARA

The Beshara Trust

The Beshara Trust was set up in 1971 in England with the purpose of providing an environment where any person who wishes to establish a spiritual dimension in their life can come together with others to study and work towards this common aim.

The Trust runs two schools of esoteric education offering courses of varying lengths.

Beshara Sherbome is an introductory centre which offers

- short courses, lasting a weekend or ten days. They are residential and consist of a balanced programme of study, work, meditiation and devotional practices.

- seminars by distinguished speakers which last for a day or a weekend, and can be attended for individual sessions. Forthcoming speakers include Kathleen Raine on "Nature, House of the Soul " and Paul Ekins, author of "The Living Economy".

- Open afternoonsevery Sunday,which are informal occasions to which anyone is welcome.

For further information, and a programme of events, please contact: Beshara Sherborne, The Stable Block, Sherborne, Nr Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Te lephone Windrush (045-14) 448.

Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education, Chisholrne House offers six month courses beginning in April and October each year. The nature of these, which have a similar programme to the short courses at Sherborne, is direct as well as intense in order to bring the student to an immediate and constant awareness of the oneness of life and the consequent position of mankind.

For furtherinf ormation and a prospectus, please contact The Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education Chisholme House, . Roberton, Nr. Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland. Te lephone Borthwick Brae (045-088) 215.

Beshara Study Groups are active throughout the UK and elsewhere. At present there are groups in

UK Cambridge Edinburgh Huddersfield Hull Ipswich London Oxford Manchester York

Outside UK

Australia - Manly (NSW), Brisbane, Melbourne, Cairns Canada - Quadra Island (B.C)

Holland - Maastricht Israel - Tel Aviv

USA - Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Austin (Texas)

For further information on any of these, please contact Beshara Sherborne.

24 ISSUE 1 Reviews - God and The New Biology BESHARA

Revievvs

Richard MacEwan reviews two recently published books - God and The New Biology by Arthur Peacocke and a new translation of the Tao Te Ching by R. L. Wing

God and the New Biology ative in sights of early evolution­ level of increasing system compl­ by Arthur Peacocke. ists such as ErnstHaeckel who exity there are emergent phenom­ 1986 . J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd. wrote ena characteristic ofthat level £10.95 hIb " Our Monistic system, the and these cannot be reduced to connecting link between science 70wer level theories and od and the New Biology is and religion, brings God and the concepts' Gthe rather odd title ofthis rec­ world into a unity in the sense ently published book; the subtitle that Goethe willed, thesense that rofessor Peacocke then goes 'Were matter, life and humanity Sp inoza exp ressed long ago and P on to explore "the most Created?' is even more odd. Giordano Bruno had sealed with complex and all-embracing of the However, let us not judge the book his martyrdom" (1). levels in the hierarchies of by its cover alone; far better to let What it does not do, however, is systems, namely the complex of the text speak fo r itself, fo r in an clarify a spiritual aim. This nature-man-and-God". (page 30). era that is littered with things Arthur Peacocke sees as the role This exploration is an enjoyable 'new' - new physics, new oftheologybut to do this, theology one to follow, taking in as it does economics, New Age - it may be has to adopt a new role in which it the concept of God as both the publisher's device to sell must draw on the evidences of transcendent and immanent, the another new book and not truly science and "recognise its new process of continuous creation representative ofthe sentiment and exciting brief'. and the macrocosmic place of and thesis ofthe author. Consequently, the book sets the man. Chapter 9, which discusses Arthur Peacocke, who is a ground for just such an matter in religion and science, is physical biochemist and an endeavour. one ofthe most interesting, Anglican priest, is the director of containing Peacocke's the Ian RamseyCent re in Oxford, od and the New Biology is theological-scientific correlation which is concernedwith ethical Gvery analytical and can be ofthe eucharist and an problems in science and heavy going at times, but it is explanation of his view ofthe medicine and with the theological orderly and carefullywritten. world as sacrament (which is and philosophical issues There are excellent reviews of the reminiscent of de Chardin's involved. Overall, the book is a changing interpretations of Hymn of the Universe). dedicated attempt to correlate the biologyand a sound analysis of views of reality presented in the the 'holistic' and 'reductionist' he book containsonly a realms of biochemistry and socio­ modes which is a good source fo r T fleeting reference to Taoism biology withthe spiritual the layman familiar only with and none at all to any ofthe other understanding of the Christian the terms in a general way. In major religions, remaining tradition. This correlation aims Chapter 2, Peacocke dismisses the within the boundsofthe Christian at the development of self­ assertion that all biologycan be interpretation of'God'. But that is knowledge in the contexts of the understood as "nothing but only a criticism ofits title, not of spiritual and material life - physics and chemistry", pointing the book itself, which is an "Our mental and sp iritual life, it to the need to understand the enlightening contribution to the seems, must fu lfillat least basic, organisation, processes and task of closing the hiatus between evolutionaryrequirements long behaviour of systems at the level religion and science. In its established, but we then go on to oftheir appearance as systems, rigorous appraisal fromthis point interpret ourselves to ourselves at not only in terms oftheir of view, without popularising, it our own culturally developed functioning 'parts'. On the achieves a most difficultob jective level". (p 115J. question of what is real, he says and is in this respect, in the that each level has to be regarded opinion ofthis writer at least, a hat the new biologydoes as a cut through the totality of more significant contribution W fo r this process is to reality - "t here is no sense in than FritjofCapra's Tao of provide data at previously which subatomic particles are to Physics. (2) inaccessible levels which be graded as 'more real'than say, 1. Ernst Haekel. Last Words on confirm the assertions of unity a bacterial cell or a human EvolutWn 1906 and the inter-relationship of all person, or, even, socialfa cts" 2. Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. creation. It supports the imagin- (page 28). At each ascending Flamingo 1975 .

SPRING 1987 25 BESHARA Reviews - 'TheTao of Power

The Tao of Power. Ching and, according to the Translated by R. L. Wing. terms in which I have grown to The Aquarian Press 1986. £6.99 appreciate this book, a perversion. (USA edition published by The paradox is that the Doubleday and Co.) translation itselfis in spirit completely fr ee of such bias, new translation ofthe Tao te although the 'sage' is now an A Ching is a happy event ifit 'evolved individual' and there brings with it refreshing versions are manners of expression that do offamiliar verses. This edition, seem to be 20th century which I came across in a bookshop Californian in style. in Hollywood Boulevard (and which now available in U.K), is o help the reader, Mr Wing an intriguing presentation (it T has given the verses titles was sitting on a display shelf of and added a little metaphysical new publications next to a large analysis at the end of each verse; hardback copy of Me in Kampf!). in addition, there are, on each It is new translation by facing page , descriptions ofthe RL.Wing and fr om the cover Chinese characters and their con­ proclaimed itselfto be Lao Tzu's struction and meaning, or reprod­ classic guide to leadership. uctions of drawings of Chinese influence and excellence, wh ile emperors accompanied by brief The Character for Tao on the back it gave the useful biographies (and fo r those who The character for Tao is composed of advice to file under Eastern like writing in books, there are several ideograms. At the top, there is Philosophy / Leadership even some blank pages set aside the head of a leader, which is represenJed Techniques , announcing again for precisely that purpose). The by a square with two little tufts of hair that Chinese text is also included, but, on top. It is combined with, "The Tao ofPo wer is a to make it easier fo r th ose who (underneath), the marks of fe et running magnificentph ilosophical 'cannot read Chinese (and to irr­ and stopp ing , which means to advance. treasure that can reveal the path to itate those who can) the text reads Together, they symbolise the higher extraordinarysocial influence fr om left to right instead of from mind, along with thefe et, advancing on the same path. and personal excellence" right to left. From the Tao of Power It did not stop there, but went on to What it all adds up to is an say attemptto bring to the Tao te "The Tao of Power blends the Ching'to the people' ('today's To give a couple of examples, principles of management, reader') and the style ofpackag­ Verse 1 is rendered as- physics and evolution with the ing is consequently inapprop­ philosophical insights of China. riate, even tasteless, to a serious The Tao that can be exp ressed Accompanying the text are a student of th e Tao. The edition is Is not the Tao of the Absolute. series ofPe rsonal Power in the same size fo rmat as the 1973 The name that can be named approaches to help today's reader edition ofthe Tao te Ching trans­ Is not the name ofthe Absolute tap the secrets of the Tao". lated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane The nameless originated Heaven English,(l) which has been used and Earth. ell, this is California and on Beshara courses since 1976, but The named is the Mother of all W Hollywood, no less, I it is on poorer paper and has none Things. thought, and having prepared my­ ofthe dignity or grace ofthe Th us, without expectation selffor more potential distortions, latter. It is perhaps an object One will always perceive the I opened the book to find a series of Jesson in why the highest truths subtlety; introductory passages concern- should not be 'brought down' to an And, with expectation, ing how Lao Tzu was the world's easy level of comprehension or One will always perceive the first theoretical physicist and how wrapped in more appealing (?) boundary. to study the Tao of Power with the packaging fo r mass consumption left or right hand side ofthe The source of these two is brain. There was also an index- owever, even when all that identical, ing ofthe chapters according to H has been said against it, Ye t their names are different. topics such as Power in Leader- th is is a tran slation that com­ Together they are called ship and Power in Organis- municates the flavour ofthe profound, tions. It was all seemingly verses well and I would recomm­ Profound and mysterious, indicative of an American end it as a useful counterpoint to The gateway to the Collective businessman's guide to the Tao te other translations. Subtlety.

ISSUE 1 26 Reviews - The Tao of Power BESHARA

Verse 4 is rendered as: BESHARA The Tao is empty and yet useful; Somehow it never fillsup . Beshara magazine appears fo ur times a year and is available So profound! only by subscription fromthe Beshara Trust and fr om selected It resembles the source ofAll newsagents and bookshops. Things. The June Issue will include

It blunts the sharpness, Rupert Sheldrake - Part2 of The Presence of the Past Unties the tangles, in which Dr Sheldrake considers collective behaviour - in the And harmonises the brightness. animal kingdom in termites and flocks of birds and in the It identifr, es with the ways of the human realm in crowds, sports,ceremony and ritual, initiation world. and religious practice.

So deep! Richard Waddington - Heart, Art & The Artist It resembles a certain existence. A reflection on thesaying "Indeed the Selfis extremely I do not know whose offsp ring it beautiful and loves beauty" which considers the true place ofthe is, creative artist. This image in front of the source. Richard Twinch - Perceptionand The Mind in contrast to Arthur WalIey's (2) Adam Dupre - What is Esoteric Education, News and Views, Reviews and more. The Way is like an empty vessel Ifyou would like to subscribe and receive your copy through th e trhat yet may be drawn from post, please fill in the form below and return it, with a cheque or Without ever needing to be filled. postal order made payable to Beshara Magazine, to It is bottomless; the very TheBeshara Trust,Stable Block, Sherborne, Nr. Cheltenham, GLOS. progenitor of all things in the GL54 3DZ world. In it all sharpness is blunted, Please send me the next fo ur issues ofBESHARA . I enclose a All tangles untied, cheque/postal order fo r 0 £7.50 (UKlCommon Market) All glare tempered, o £9.00 (Other -Surface Mail. ) All dust smoothed.(3) All overseas subscriptions must be cheques or girocheques in sterling It is like a deep pool that never drawn on a UK bank. Otherwise add £fjfo r currency conversion. dries, Airmail on quotation Wa s it too the child of something Name else? We cannot tell.

But as a substanceless image, it Address ------existed befo re the Ancestors. (4) and Gia-Fu Feng and English's

The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used but never filled. Oh, unfathomable source of the ten thousand things! Blunt the sharpness, Untangle the knot, Softenthe glare, Merge with dust. Oh, hidden deep but ever present! I do not know from whence it comes. It is the fo refather of the emperors

(1) Tao te Ching translated by GiLl-Fu Feng and lane English. Wildwood House, 1972. (2) The Way and1ts Power. Arthur Wa lley. George AlIen and Unwin. 1968 (3) Dust is the Ta oist symbol for the noise and fuss of everyday life . (4) Substanceless image - a HsiLlng, ie an image such as the mental images that float before us when we think.

SPRING 1987 27 BESHARA

Chisholme Antiques

5 Orrock Place, Hawick Roxburghshire, Scotland Tel: 0450-76928

For the restoration of fine antique furniture and cabinet making

-= H· t , ! It t ! , !!1 I

/

Peter Yiangou ELLIOT & CO. Associates

Chartered Architects

Fine Furniture Specialists in Country & Cabinet Work House Conversions and Cotswold Designs Specialist Architectural Joinery wish the Beshara Magazine Classic Interiors every success

Sherborne Stables, Sherborne, Sherborne Gardens Sherborne Nr. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire Nr. Cheltenham, Gl;s. GL54 3DZ Telephone: 045-14 43 1 Telephone: Windrush (045-14) 522

ISSUE 1 28 The Beshara Trust- Reaffirmation of Intent BESHARA

The Beshara Trust - Ne\Vs and Events

Reaffirmation of Intent Chisholme and to ensure that schol­ arships are available as needed. The The objects of the Beshara Trust, as is working closely wijh a Public basis of the fund is a sizeable bank expressed in its new constitution, Relations Consu�ant to prepare the loan, secured by the guarantees of are : ground for a large scale commun­ individuals, which is to be invested ications exercise involving the through The Beshara Company Ltd . Th e advancement of education in press, television and radio. The Whilst it is anticipated that this fund the considera tion of the basic unity steps currently being taken are the will go a long way toward meeting all of all religions, in particular by the design of graphics for consistent Chisholme's needs, it must be provision of courses to provide an use on all printed material, the prepa­ emphasised that at this stage other understanding of the relationship of ation of a series of new brochures sources of income are also vital. man to the universes, the earth, the and the training of a small number of environmentand the society he people in the skills needed for eff­ 3) Science lives in, to Reality and to God'. ective communication in the media. At the frontiers of science, knowledge of our universe is Over the past year there has been a 2) Finance undergoing a radical reappraisal. great change in our perception of Over the past years, finance The conclusions emerging are the magnitude of what this implies, (economics) has come to assume a consistent with the spirijual wisdom and of the urgent necessity for it to far greater unifying role in world of God as universal Being, thus be fully expressed. This evolution affairs. In line wijh this, the Beshara preparing the way for the from the understanding of a princ­ Trust has adopted radical new emergenceof a vision which unites iple to its expression has demanded approaches to financing the ex­ the spiritual and physical universes. not only the clarification and re­ panSion of Beshara and ijs existing As Bulent Rauf comments in his affirmation of existing intentions, but activijies. All financial needs will now article 'To Suggest a also has given rise to a number of be handled by The Beshara Comp­ Vernacular..... 'on page 9 of this new intitiatives. any Ltd ., an investment company magazine, "It is the required Until recently the Beshara Trust set up and wholly owned by the birthright of today that it should be has necessarily concentrated on the Beshara Trust. The Beshara Comp­ allowed to benefit from a new educational aspects of ijs work. any Ltd . operates BEST (Beshara expression of both religion and Now, the need for expression in this Educational Securities Trust) and is physics in the fo rmulation of a new

world has naturally resulted in the expanding to include under ijs vision, and this vision is Beshara ". extension of Beshara into areas of umbrella a number of other Keeping informed of progress in today's incentive, the foremost of schemes. scientific thought, allied to contin­ which are science and finance . uous exchange of ideas with the Thanks to the great progress being BEST scientific co mmunity, is therefore made in these areas, a balance and a BEST has now been operating seen to be of central importance to new understanding of reality today is extremely successfully for one year Beshara. developing which can provide a sec­ and has received deposits in excess This has already begun with the ure foundation fo r future expansion. of £1 09,000. The interest rate offer­ visit of Professor Brian Goodwin of At a recent joint meeting of all the ed to investors remains at 13% per the Department of Biology at the various committees which administer annum, and a new facilijy has rec­ Open University to Chisholme in Beshara Trust projects, a schema ently been introduced whereby July last year and the seminar given was proposed fo r considering how subscribers may make small regular by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake at the different fu nctions and activites deposits by Standing Order. As a Sherborne in the autumn. It will interrelate within the Beshara Trust. scheme whose aim is to generate continue with the forthcoming This is shown overpage, and profits for use in the expansion of seminar programme and with reports delineates the major functions of Beshara, the success of BEST dep­ and articles in future issues of education, communications, ends on continuing investment by Beshara .. expansion, science and those who endorse ijs aims and ij is finance and the principle activities hoped that the level of interest and Education within each. investment will remain high. 4) The programme of seminars and 1) Communications Chisholme Endowment Fund lectures at Sherborne which proved In responseto this need for Beshara This new investment inijiative has so successful last year will continue to 'go out and express and show just been launched. Its aim is to and expand. In accordance with the itself' a co mmunications commijtee meet the financial needs of fact that "B eshara must set the

SPRING 1987 29 BESHARA TheBeshara Trust - Reaffirmation of Intent

'Arabi', which was planned for Spring this year has been postponed and instead a tour of the most important Covenants • Chisholme Institute EducaTraveltional l Higher Ottoman sijes in Turkey will take H Education place in late May under the guidance Sherborne of Bulent Rauf. The itinerary will � Preparatory Chisholme Centre I� concentrate on the centres of the I School The Scientific Endowment Establishment Ottoman Empire and will retrace the Fund ,/' EDUCATION SCIENCE movement during the conquest of New I the Byzantine Empire from Bursa • K in Centre BEST BESHARA South through Edirne (Adrianople) FINANCE . ...EXPANSION TRUST culminating in Istanbul. Further I I ---. ustr l details from Peter Yiangou at I---.J A aia Sherborne. The Beshara COMMUN ATIONS Holland Company Ltd. f U.S.AI Expansion Communications 5) Covenants a As has been reported in previous Committee c n��t n o l t I issues, the Beshara Trust is in the I I Il I I process of establishing itself in I Mag�Zine I I Brochures I Media Australia, where there is an urgent I I need for a proper representation of the Trust and the Beshara School because of the demand from potential students. pace and the example of thought "The primarymeaning and purpose The process of registration in trends and directions". (Quoted in of the Beshara Preparatory School is Australia has been delayed by the Beshara News Bulletin No vember to facilitate a sound education fact that the Trust is changing its 1986) , those at the forefront of informed by the universal and constijution, but we are pleased to knowledge in their particular field unifying visionof the child's unique­ report that the new constijution has have been invited to come and ness and potentiality as a being of now been approved and it is hoped share their views, in order to God, placed in man 's care. that the registration in Australia can stimulate a genuine exploration and It is the very bestof visions, the be effected quickly. enriched appreciation of the most encompassing, which entails Great progress has been made on meaning of Unity in expression. the very best educational practice; the location for a school of Intensive Eminent speakers from a number of fo r itis encumbent upon educators Esoteric Education. Dan Carberry disciplines, wijh the emphasis on to treat well those who are depend­ has made available to Beshara 70 science and economics, will be ent upon them. Such a conception acres of land at Yackandandah ( see conducting weekend or one-day is the root ground of child-centred map) on the borders of Victoria and events throughout the coming year. education, fo r the child is a place of New South Wales, very well sijuated Chisholme has received an meaning and purpose. within a few hours drive of the major application for the introductory six Quality and excellence willbe the cities of Melbourne, Canberra and month course from a student hallmarkof the school, and the Sydney. When Richard MacEwan studying Ibn 'Arabi at an American pro vision of an effective opportunity arrives in Australia, he will begin the University and hopes that the for acquiring those life skills and process of designing, building and studies at the Beshara School of sound educational qualifications vital establishing a Beshara School Intensive Esoteric Education can be fo r the child's fu ture as an adult. But there. A full reporton these very credited towards her university above all, such an education will exciting developments will appear in course. This recognition is most foster the lo ve of beauty, a lo ve of June's Beshara. welcome, and ij is hoped that many life and a lo ve of learning commen­ more such links will be forged surate with the vision of the child as between the Beshara Schools and a receptacle of God's meaning and recognised courses of further purpose, beyond dogma. " education. Travel Brisbane The Beshara Preparatory School The visit to Turkey in December Members of the Schools committee each year has always been have been workingto clarify the real considered an integral partof the process of education within intention behind the school, in order 1000 I( "" that this may be expressed in all Beshara. In the past two years, other stages of its establishment. The visits have taken place in late spring, following statement has been each wijh an historical theme. The Sketch Map showing location of prepared: visit to Andalucia, 'In the Steps of Ibn Yackandandah

ISSUE 1 30 TheBes hara Trust- News from Chisholme and Sherborne BESHARA

News from Chisholme the Institute by Dr. Richard Gau�. This plantation of young conifers by Peter Young (Director of Courses) reaches to the roadside by the entrance to the Estate, and whilst Over the past two years it has It will be a new course, the immed­ Or. Gault wishes to retain rights over become increasingly clear that iate purposeof which is the reaffirm­ the conifers, he is happy for Beshara has entered a new phase of ation of our intention, motivation and Chisholme to plant hard-wood expansiveness. This has been resolve. seedlings in areas free of conifers. reflected in certain new moves and If, for want of a better word, this This means that when the conifers changes; for example, there is the project has been referred to as a are felled, a young crop of hard­ recent public relations initiative, the course, it should be understood that woods will already be present. BEST Beshara Educational Securities it differs diametrically from the other has offered to purchase this land as Trust, the Sherborne seminar two courses ru n at Chisholme in that its first donation to the Institute. programme, as well as the establish­ there is neither a date of beginning Thinning activities in the ing of a school in Australia and a nor end, noris there a text or coniferous area opposite the Gate preparatory school in Oxford. At definite programme to follow. This Lodge have yielded not only £1 150 Chisholme, the estate has been summer will see Chisholme House but also wood for fuel and useful amplified by the gift of land, the adapted to the needs of all of us timberforfuture fencing. Windblow house is all but completed and both who have done the two six-months in this area is less severe than last six month courses now run side by courses, where we can go and join a year as, with each growing season, side over the winter months. converse through which to reaffirm the trees that remain begin to Beshara is reaching towards a far our resolve and re-establish our stabilise. Planting continues on the greater number of people. Those of potential. front clear-fell area with 200 Scotts us who are its potential represen­ Therefore, please note that any of Pine seedlings and an experimental atives must also evolve similarly. us can join in this summer session at batch of 70 mixed hard-wood There must be a body of people any point during the six summer seedlings. ready, highly tuned, and capable of months from April 1 st to end Since the New Year, I have been coping with a surge of interest September, at any time that is most joined by Geoff Thomas, and the resulting from these inititatives, of suitable, and leave at any time nec­ value of having two people working talking to the medida, supervising essity determines. full-time on the Estate is already and correlating courses and fulfilling being felt. In addition, there are a host of other needs. The Chisholme Estate plans to buy a new compact tractor In direct response to the demands A report by Graham Falvey, The which will reduce that burden of of this situation, a course will be Estate Manager laborious work,incr ease the quality ru nning at Chisholme this summer The solum of a further9 acres of the of the maintenance work and allow which is open to all who have original Chisholme Estate has very more landscaping schemes to be completed both six months courses. generously been made available to implemented.

News fr om Beshara Sherborne a month, to which everyone is welcome. Limited nursery facilities by Arthur Martin (Centre Director) will be available. As reported above , the seminar In concordance with the need for and context of Beshara. These will programme is to continue. At the Beshara to be publicly expressed, also continue, and the 'content' will time of writing, Kathleen Raine, activities at the Centre are gaining be developed in line with the writer and a leading scholar of William momentum. Weekend and 10-day children's inclination and capacities. Blake, is coming in the Spring to give courses will re main the heart of the A weekend for those who have a talk on "Nature, House of the Centre's programme, and will completed both 6 month courses is Soul"; Paul Eklns, Director of the continue throughout this year. planned for 22nd-24th May, to coin­ New Economics Foundation and The children's courses, which have cide with the Night of Power. It is author of 'The Living Economy' is been held over the past two years, essentially an opportunity to reaffirm coming in September; the physicist have proved so important and one's desire and intention towards Paul Davies and the biologist Or, popular that they will continue to the One and Unique Truth. Such ArthurPeacocke are expected in expand. A cou rse for 10-13 year weekends have taken place at 1988. olds will be held over Easter, with Sherborne since 1981 . The future of a new centre in the others later in the year. In February, In addition to the two study South of England depends very the first day- for younger children (7- evenings held weekly at the centre, much upon what has been 8 year olds) was held, the aim being and a weekly Zikr now held on Sun­ developed at Sherborne. God that they could enjoy and express days at 9.30pm, it is proposed to willing, activities at, and supportfor, themselves within the environment hold a study day one Sunday the centre will continue to grow.

SPRING 1987 31 BESHARA TheBeshara Trust - Letterfrom HollandINotes on Contributors

A Letter from Holland. Notes on Contributors By Elli Deutschmann

Elli Deutschmann has been running study groups at her home in Bulent Rauf Maastricht, Holland, for many years. was born in Instanbul in 1911. He was educated in Turkey, where he Mercy. In the action of complete The Prayer 'Rabb zedni 'ilman' (Lord, had a classical Otto man education - surrendering is the seeing that all increase me know/edgewise ), which reading Turkish, Arabic, Persian and action is His, which is the interior of is the prayer of the Prophet three European languages - then at the message of Ibn 'Arabi. Muhammed, is a very important Roberts College. He read English To love wijh His Love is not an easy prayer in Beshara. Its full meaning is literature at Cornell University and thing, It means the complete giving "Lord, since You are the Only and Hittite archaeology at Yale. over and consequently the giving Absolute Knower (a/im) , bring me to He settled in England in 1966 and up of what we consider to be our know the complete non-existence now lives in Scotland, engaged in concept of love and of what we of myself so that it is realised counselling at the Beshara School consider to be our capacijy to love ; it completely, with certainty and by of Intensive Esoteric Education and means going beyond that. taste (dhawq) , in the place of your in research and translation. In There is only One Unique Being, manifestation that is your particular,he is currently working on and the bringing out of Beshara (the individuation as me, that there is a new translation of Ibn 'Arabi's announcement that it is He that is only You, the One and Unique, the Fusus al-Hikam, the first part of the essence of everything, so that Self-Subsistent (wahid-a/-ahad, which was published by the there is no 'thing', only Him) is a samad ) and not 'I' ". Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society in 1986 In the News Bulletin of July 1986, it great pleasure . Does not He say, "I was a hidden treasure and I loved to said "Clearly it is time that Beshara is Cecilia Twinch widely known. This is our duty, be known". Beshara is the invijation read modern and Medieval responsibilijy and pleasure". to consciously participate in this. languages at Cambridge University Reading this , the question we ask The value of Beshara courses are and, after teaching English as a ourselves is: how to do this in the beyond description. For me, they Foreign Language in Cambridge best way? Because the best way is are as a miracle in 'life'. The and working as a secondary school the only way in which it is proper. knowledge given there is teacher in London, she gained a And here the prayer 'Rabb zedni knowledge from the highest level; certificate of Education from the 'ilman' gives an indication. As there and through balancing the four Froebel lnstitute in 1975. She has is only one Unique Being, what aspects (which are all equally attended a number of courses at the remains for us to do is simply to be in important)of study, meditation, zikr Beshara School of Esoteric Remembrance of this as constantly and work, they integrate , through Education, has 3 children and now as possible, so that ij might be given theirform, the principle that He, works as teachera in Ipswich. to 'see' that all there is in God, is both transcendent and immanent. Thus, they act as a manifestation is His Zikr of Himself. Dom Sylvester Houedard Or, to put in it terms of Beauty, that support in making clear or studied at Jesus College, Oxford all there is in relativity is His Beauty 'remembering' how the proper and St . Anselmo Colege, Rome. He reflected in the mirror-image of His attitude - the attitude to prepare the has been a Benedictine monk at Self-revelation. As He is always in place enti re Iy - s hou Id be. Prinknash Abbey since 1949. He love with what He is, this means, for In Holland, in Maastricht, we are us, to love wijh His Love, not only in very grateful that people come to its quality but in its universality. If study groups. It is not only important there is a meeting with people, and fo r them to be confronted with His this meeting is the consequence of invitation, but it has the same this attitude, then ij is the proper way importance for those who have of bringing out Beshara. done courses; it is a necessary Because 'we' do no necessarily support. The most difficult thing is know who is interested or not and the waiting until sentiment awakes. what is the best thing to say to a When this is established, people not designed andc011SlTucled wilh imaginaliy� planling only come more regularly but also, ce rtainperson at a certain moment, by sometimes, bring new people along, all this is given. Here the 'hearing' SHERBORNE GARDENS (and of course the acting which is wonderful. Sherbome, m No rthlench. accordingly) become very important. There is still a lot to learn for all of Gloucestershire. Tel: Even the ability to be as constant as us. May He guide us in our way, He (045-14) 522 possible in His Zikr is given, as it who is the Hadi (the guide) and the would be impossible without His Hakim (the wise) . own nurseries

ISSUE 1 32 TheBe shara Trust - Notes on Contributors BESHARA

Notes on Contributors Contd. Display Advertising

has been a member of the National development of plants. He is BESHARAaccepts display Lijurgical Society, Vice-President of consultant plant physiologist to the advertising of appropriate goods the National Poetry Society and International Crops Research and services. acted as lijerary advisor on the Institute in Hyberadad. Jerusalem Bible. He introduced Dr. She Id rake lived for a year and a RATE S are concrete poetry into this country as half at a Christian ashram in South Full page £120.00 part of his interest in the unified India, where his controve rsial book Half Page £ 60.00 theory of the contemplative A New Science of Life was Quarter £ 30.00 traditions of the East and West and completed. Third £ 40.00 has had several exhibitions of his Sixth £ 20.00 work. Richard Twinch Dom Sylvester is a member of the studied architecture at Cambridge These rates are fo r camera-ready Benedictine committee for dialogue and the Architectural Assocation. He copy or for text only, which can be with other monastic traditions and is has attended boththe introductory set. Logos and photographs, etc. currently helping the Venerable and advanced courses at the are charged extra. Akong in arranging the first Interfaith Beshara School of Esoteric Conference at the Buddhist Education. We reserve the right to refuse any monastery Samye-Ling in He currently runs a specialist advertisment. September 1988. computer software busines, is computer correspondent to Copy fo r the June issue of Rupert Sheldrake Building Design and acts as BE SHARAmust be sent by May read Natural Science and took a consu Itant on building technology. 11th 1987 to: Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge He has known RupertShel drake as the Rosenheim Research Fellow since 1976, when they were both Beshara Magazine, 24 Sidney of the Royal Society. He carried out members of Clare College, Street, Oxfo rd OX4 3AG. research at Cambridge on the Cambridge. Telephone enquires. Oxford (0865) 243406

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SPRING 1987 33