BESHARA

MICHAEL SHALLlS Science, Religion and the Symbolic World ROBERT MULLER the United Nations BRIAN KEEBLE the Poetry of Vernon Watkins

TED PAWLOFF the Gaia Hypothesis· PETER YOUNG Ibn 'Arabi's Sufis of Andalusia' JANE TOWNES Peter Brook's Mahabharata . MICHAEL COHEN the Ghost in the Atom' CHRISTOPHER RYAN Suleyman the Magnificent and more ... Ismail Hakki Bursevi's translation of and commentary on

FUSUS AL-HIKAM

by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

rendered into English by BULENT RAUF with the help of R. Brass and H. Tollemache

The Fusus al-Hikam is one of Ibn 'Arabi 's most important works. It consists of twenty-seven chapters, each treating a unique aspect or 'bezel' of the Divine Wisdom as exemplified in a particular prophet in the line from Adam to Muhammed.

Volume 2, just published, includes chapters on Noah, Idris (Enoch), Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael.

Volume 1, consisting of Ismail Hakki Bursevi's Introduction and chapters on Adam and Seth, is still available.

"This book is beyond ordinary measure. It is beyond the general run of mystical writings and it is more than just a book of meanings. It is to do with the very meaning of meanings,

with the meanings, the realities and the knowledges of God ... " fr om Rosemary Brass's Foreword to Vo/ume 2

Hardback £40.00 (including postage worldwide)

A vailable from all good bookshops and from the Muhyiddin rbn 'Arabi Society, 23 Oakthorpe Road, Oxford OX2 7BO, England BESHARA

THE MAGAZINE OF THE BESHARA TRUST Issue 5 Spring 1988

NEWS FEATURES THEATRE 2 11 33 1000 Years of Christianity in Science, Religion and the The Mahabharata Russia Symbolic World Jane Townes reviews Peter Brook's The Millenium celebrations coincide Dr Michael Shallis considers the world staging of this great Indian epic with a new attitude to religion. view presented by the traditional, in Los Angeles A report by Jane Clark. sacred, sciences and their relationship to our modem science. 4 Able, reverent men 19 Martin Notcutt reports on the Gifford The United Nations Lectures, which celebrate their Robert Muller, former Assistant Secre­ centenary this year. tary-General, assesses the achievements of the UN in its first 40 years. 6 Can't we Make Mankind feel 22 EXHIBITIONS Grand? Time's Glass Breaks 35 Peter Yiangou comments on the Brian Keeble writes on the metaphysics architectural views of of vision in the poetry of Vernon Siileyman the Magnificent HRH The Prince of Wales. Watkins. Christopher Ryan reports on the Ottoman golden age as presented at the 8 British Museum. Gaia Comes of Age Ted Pawloff assesses a new scientific BOOKS BESHARA theory. 26 24 Sidney Street, Oxford OX4 3AG. Sufis of Andalusia Telephone:

31 BESHARA is published by the Regular Features Beshara Trust, a registered educational The Spiritual Hunger of the News in Brief 7 charity, No.296769. Modern Child Letters 25 Beshara Trust News 38 Extracts from 10 lectures introduced by Copyright on all articles is held by The Beshara Trust. Permission for multiple Notes on Contributors 40 J.G. Bennett, reviewed by Cecilia Twinch. photo-copying and reprinting is required. BESHARA 1000 Years of Christianity in Russia

NEWS

The Holy Trinity Monastery o/St Sergius at Zagorsk. Courtesy of KeslO1I College

1000 Years of Christianity in Russia

n 1988, millions of Christians in the describe it. We know only that God dwells her duty to protect the Christian fa ith and

I ". USSR and throughout the world will there among men ... the Orthodox tradition. The power and celebrate the thousandth anniversary of So it was that Vladimir decided to be influence of the Church grew and in 1589 the baptism of Grand Prince Vladimir of baptised into the Greek Orthodox church. it was able to declare itself a patriarchate. Kiev - an act symbolic of the beginnings Shortly afterwards, his choice was veri­ The 19th and early 20th centuries espe­ of Christianity in Russia. fied by a miraculous event. He went to cially saw a great flowering - both in Vladimir ('The Saintly') was prince of war, and on capturing the Greek town of terms of territorial expansion, with mis­ the medieval Slavic state of Rus to which Chersonese in Crimea, demanded of the sionaries reaching Siberia, Alaska, Cali­ three modern states - Russia, Ukraine and Byzantine Emperors' the hand of their forn ia and Japan, and in the development Byelorussia - trace their history. The sister, Anne, in marriage. Whilst waiting of Russian spirituality through exponents story of his conversion is recounted by the for his bride to arrive, he became blind, such as Saint Seraphim of Sarov and Saint monk Nestor of Kiev (late I I th century) but his sight was miraculously restored on Tikhon of Zadonsk. in his celebrated Chronicle. He tells how his baptism by the bishop of Chersonese. The revolution of 1917 saw the radical the prince, wishing to choose a religion, Completely converted, he returned to separation of Church and State and harsh invited delegations from the re ligions of Kiev with his new wife and commanded suppression of re ligious practices, with all his neighbouring peoples and how, that the pagan idols should be destroyed the closure of the majority of churches, consequently, representatives from Is­ and that the entire population should be monasteries and schools. The official lam, the Latin Christians, the Jews and a baptised in the Dnieper. teaching in schools condemned the role of 'Greek Philosopher' travelled to Kiev to This legend, which is clearly based on the Church in history and encouraged state their case. historical fact (although the date of 888 is atheism. Interestingly, the emigration of When they had returned home, Vladi­ only approximate), contains a number of many Russians during this period contrib­ mir retired to reflect on all that he had elements which have remained dear to the uted to an increasing awareness of Rus­ heard, then sent out embassies to inquire Russian church to this day; the deliberate sian Orthodox spirituality in the West, in­ how the Muslims and' the Christians choice of Orthodox Christianity, the cluding the art of icon painting which, prayed. Unimpressed by the worship of importance of prayer and the emphasis on derived originally from Byzantium, has Islam and the Latin Christians, the em­ the beauty of the liturgy. survived as a living tradition in Russia. bassy eventually visited Constantinople, The position of the Church began to where they witnessed a service in the improve after the second world war, and great church of the Hagia Sophia. Through Rus, Christianity s�read to other in 1943 the election of a patriarch was There, they were overwhelmed by the nations in EasternEurope, and beyond, as once again allowed. Soviet citizens are splendour of the Divine Liturgy, and re­ far as the northernterritories of the Asian guaranteed freedom of conscience under ported, on their return,that they knew not continent. Afterthe fall of Constantinople article 52 of the Constitution, but many if they were "In heaven or on earlh,for on in 1453, Russia became the last major activities, such as propagating or teaching earth there is no such splendour or beauty independent Orthodox State and, regard­ religion, are still forbidden. The official to equal this and we are at a loss how to ing Moscow as the 'Third Rome', saw itas endorsement of the Millenenium celebra-

2 ISSUE 5 1000 Years of Christianity in Russia BESHARA

The Virgin of tions marks a further change of attitude. Vladimir. The policies of glasnost and perestroika Known as 'Our have given impetus to tolerance (the Lady of Tender­ peace-making role of the church is much ness', this fa mous emphasised) and new legislation, which icon was commis­ will substantially improve religious free­ sioned }i'om an un­ doms, is expected this year (I). known artist in Constantinople hy Prince I:yaslov of Kiel' around J 132. Details of the celebrations themselves Now kept in the have only been partially made known. Trelyakol' Gallery Announcements have indicated that there in Moscow. it has will be a special Sabor (meeting of the exercised a Church's national council) in early June powelful influence at the Holy Trinity Monastery of St Ser­ over Russian icon gius at Zagorsk. This, only the third since painters and the the revolution and the first since 1917 greatest of them, which is not concerned with the election including Andrei Ruhlel', have of a new Patriarch, will include discussion produced their own on foreign relations, peace-making ef­ I'ersions of it. forts, publishing and the canonisation of saints. The Sabor will be preceded by a liturgy in the patriarchal cathedral of the Epiph­ any in Moscow on June 5th. On 10th and 12th June there will be official celebra­ tions, to which foreign guests are invited, in the Cathedral of the Resurrection in the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, and also in Kiev, Leningrad, Vladimir and other cities. Jubilee services and meetings will also be held in all the dioceses and par­ ishes. The Millenium coincides with what seems to be a religious revival in Russia, upbringing of children, in prayers fo r ter'. This special year in celebration of which has been quietly happening for the those who have diedfor the Fatherland." Mary within the Catholic Church began past ten or twenty years and gaining The emphasis seems to be on a life of on June 7th 1987 and ends at the Feast of momentum. Many people educated as simplicity and sacrifice, and there is a the Assumption in September 1988, and militant atheists - including large num­ large new entry into the priesthood and so encompasses the Millenium celebra­ bers of intelligentsia and young people - the monasteries. Churches and monaster­ tions. Pope John Paul refers to " ...the are turningspontaneously to spirituality, ies which have been closed since the Mm'ian light cast upon ecumenism" and ' particularly in the form of the Orthodox 1920's are being re-opened and reno­ calls upon those in the Western church to church. Their feelings are expressed by vated, and there is an increasing aware­ join in prayer with those celebrating the the writer Tatyana Goricheva, a recent ness of the great treasury of religious heri­ millenium of the baptism of the Saint convert, who writes (2), "I was born in a tage which may still be salvaged. Vladimir, affirming that "In the presence land fr om which the traditional values of There have also been sightings of the of Mary we fe el that we are true brothers culture, religion and morality had been Virgin Mary throughout Russia - at and sisters" . deliberately and successfu lly erased; I Grushevo in the Ukraine, in Ternapol, Further, a Papal visit to Russia is one was on a journey fr om nowhere to no­ Ozernaya, Berezhany and Kamenka­ of the Pope's dearest ambitions and it is where." The poet Yuri Kublanovsky has Bugskaya. At Medjugorje, in Yugoslavia, rumoured that one may occur before the recently been quoted (3) as saying, "Our the site of some of the most spectacular end of 1988. society is becoming more mature, more appearances of the Virgin in recent times, lane Clark intelligent and simply more spiritual by it is reported that she has said that in comparison to what it was in the 1960' s Russia, God will be more glorified than (J) Guardian, January 1988 and 1970' s.I can speak of a real religious anywhere else (4). And indeed, despite (2) Frontier, JanlFeh 1987 rebirth which is taking place not at all at continuing difficulties in the interfaith (3) Frontier, SeptlOct 1987 the level at which is it oft en imagined. It is dialogue between the Eastern and West­ (4) Medjugorje Messenger, July 1987. deep-seated; it does not advertise. It is to ern Churches, the Millenium is men­ be fo und in the potential readiness to sac­ tioned in particular in the Pope's encycli­ Our thanks 10 Keston College fo r much of the rifice,in honestyabove reproach ... in the cal on the Marian year 'Redemptoris Ma- information used in this article.

SPRING 1988 3 BESHARA The Gifford Lectures

liol, Oxford) whose series of three lec­ Able, reverent men ... tures is entitled 'The Kingdom of the Mind - Theology, Poetry and Philoso­ phy'; Or J M Roberts (Warden of Merton, The Gifford Lectures celebrate their centenary Oxford) who will give three lectures on 'History as Environment'; and the Most Revd. John Hapgood, Archbishop of by Martin Notcutt York, whose single lecture is called 'Is there reliable knowledge about God?' At the University of Edinburgh, begin­ E ighteen months before his death in ning in April, Alisdair Maclntyre, pres­ 1887, Adam Lord Gifford made ently an emigre Professor of Philosophy provision in his will for the establishment at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, will of a series of lectures at each of the fo ur present a more traditional series of ten existing Scottish universities - Edin­ lectures entitled 'Rival versions of Moral burgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St An­ Enquiry: Encyclopaedias, Genealogies drews. and Traditions'. Although his endowment was on a The lectures are generally presented scale which raised the Gifford lectures every second year at St Andrews and above any others, they did not immedi­ Aberdeen and the next series falls in 1989. ately achieve widespread acknowledg­ ment. However, in time they came to be regarded as amongst the highest honours Adam Lord Gifford was born in Edin­ which could be accorded a scholar. Un­ burgh in 1820. He took up advocacy as a like the Nobel prizes, which highlight a career and enjoyed both professional and person's achievements within their pro­ material success, culminating in appoint­ fe ssion, the Gifford Lectures ask some­ ment as a judge. During his later years, he thing extra of the person who gives them was much in demand as a speaker among - that they discourse on the knowledge of the many groups that met on winter eve­ A/hert Schweit:er God. nings to encourage intellectual pursuits. Certainly the people who have deliv­ and Alfred North Whitehead (1927). His brother said of him " He studied ered them include many outstanding fig­ The first person whose Gifford Lec­ and admired Spinoza, yet always denied ures from a wide range of interests. To tures definitely caught the imagination of that he himself was a Pantheist, marking name but a few, they include Karl Barth a wide public was the American-born the distinction thus: ' Spino:a holds that (1937), Niels Bohr (1949), Sir James psychologist William James. brother of CI'erything is God, I hold that God is Fraser (1911), Werner Heisenberg the novelist Henry James. His lectures, everything.' Thus he he/d that 'force', (1955), Dean Inge (1917), Iris Murdoch delivered in Edinburgh from 1900 to 'substance', 'heing' itself must be God, (1981), Sayyed Hossein Nasr (1981), 1902, were published as the book 'The quoting many a text to show that the Bible Steven Runciman (1960), Carl Sagan Varieties of Religious Experience', one agreed with his view, such as "I am... " (1985), Albert Schweitzer (1934), Paul of the dozen or so classic studies which implying that besides God nothing was. Tillich (1952), Amold Toynbee (1952) have emerged from the project. "He treated man's consciousness of In his book 'Lord Gifford and His personality and the testimony of his intui­ Lectures - a centenary retrospect' (l), tions with little reverence, holding God Professor Stanley Jaki says, "A distinct and God's infinite existence as all in all... pride of the British Isles, the Gifford The terms of his will, in fo unding the Lectures seem, aft er a hundred years, to lectureships in Natural Theology, illus­ have assumed a global mission. In a trate this characteristic of his mind." world increasingly bogged down in tech­ Indeed, the most striking feature of the nological pursuits and at a loss to cope Gifford Lectures is the basis on which with the problems they create, no aca­ they were established. The will states that demic organ has kep; so alive some higher they are intended for "promoting, ad­ perspectives as have these lectureships" . vancing, teaching and d(ffusing the study of natural theology" in the widest sense of � that term, which he saw as, " The knowl­ � U � In the centenary year, the niversity of edge of God, the Infinite, the All, the First -2 Glasgow has invited four speakers of and Only Cause, the One and Sole Exis­ '" distinction: Donald Cuppit (Dean of Im­ tence, the knowledge of His Nature and C() ,;;:: manuel College, Cambridge) who will Attributes, the knowledge of the relations .� ;:: deliver one lecture on 'Nature and Cul­ which men and the whole universe bear to Cl Niels Bohr ture'; Dr Anthony Kenny (Master of Ba1- Him, the knowledge of the nature and

4 ISSUE 5 The Gifford Lectures BESHARA fo undations of ethics or morals and of all obligations and duties thence arising." In keeping with this remarkable inten­ The Beshara tion, Lord Gifford wanted the lectures to be open to all kinds of people; they were to be 'public and popular' and he did not Trust want any restrictions placed upon the speakers. They did not have to take any Seminars oath, be of any particular denomination and could even be of any religion or way of thinking. Indeed, they could be so­ Keith Critchlow called sceptics or agnostics or free-think­ 'The Sacred Order' ers. But he wanted the trustees to seek out "able. rel'erent men, true thinkers, sin­ 27th-29th May cere !rJl'ers of, and earnestinqui rers after, truth" . As he said "the true andfelt knowledge (not merely nominal knowledge) of the Jonathon Porritt relations of man and the universe to Him, SH. NasI' and of the true fo undations o/, all ethics 'Dimensions of Deep beginning to be found. and morals ... when really fe lt and acted Ecology' upon, is the means of man's highest well­ Secondly, the lectures have both an being and the security ofhis upward prog­ open and a directed nature, and even 23rd June at 6pm ress" . Stanley Jaki, who brings a formidable intellectual apparatus to bear upon the matter, seems to have misread the inten­ tion. Focussing on the relatively well Dr Arthur Peacock defined technical term 'Natural Theol­ ogy', he feels that Gifford over-estimated 'God and the New what could be achieved. But it should be Biology' noted that when Lord Gifford referred to 25th June Natural Theology, he extended that by adding "in the widest sense of that term, in 9.30am-lpm other words, the knowledge of God, the Infinite, the All, the First and Only Cause ..." It seems that Lord Gifford was, quite Reverend Professor simply, committed to understanding Stanley Jaki himself, all things, from the essential Unity of Being, or, as he might have said, 'Cosmology and of Substance. In an age dominated by Iris Murdoch materialism, he wished to induce a wari­ Religion' ness of the claims made for the physical 5th-7th August Although the Gifford lectures have be­ sciences, to expose people to some of the come an important institution, it can be consequences of unity, and to arouse the asked whether, or to what extent, they idea "that if this be a part of metaphysics, Seminars can be attended as a have fulfilled the intention of their ifthis be only one chapter of metaphysics, residential weekend (£50 incl. founder. these metaphysics can be no empty and full board) or as individual The first point is that while they are barren science, but must be fraught with sessions (£5 each) indeed open to the whole community, in results and lessons as momentous as they Special rates fo r students and the practice they do seem to be primarily an are divine". unemployed. academic event, which might be an ex­ One would suggest that the lectureships pected result of making the universities have yet to come into their own in meeting For further information and to the executors of the will. But there is book, please contact the full scope of Lord Gifford's inten­ another factor - the audience. Gifford tions. Just as there may now be emerging The Secretary, found an audience for his own talks in an an audience for what he intended to be intellectually vigorous society, though Beshara Sherborne, heard, so there will come speakers with Stable Block, Sherborne perhaps this could not have been sus­ the disposition for it. Nr. Cheltenham tained for a long time outside a specialised Gloucestershire GL543DZ academic situation. It may be, even, that (I) 'Lord Gifford and his Lectures' by Stanley Telephone: 045-14 448 the potential wider audience is only now L. Jaki. Scottish Academic Press, 1986.

SPRING 1988 5 BESHARA Can't we make mankind feel grand

A View from SOI1lC/"sel Gardens looking 10- wards Londoll Bridgehy Canalello. Courresl' Can't we make ollhe Courrauld Inslilule Galleries. London (Princes Gale Collcc·tion). mankind feel grand?

Peter Yiangou comments on the architectural views of HRH The Prince of Wales "/ see no reason.. .why wealth should hoist the f7ag of Polycleitus ji-om the and the diversity makes him feel his not finance heauty that is in harmony highes,- tower hlock. He said, 'Pro­ own variety'. with tradition, today as in the past. portion is not a matter of individual "Can't we try and make mankind People too easily forget that the Lon­ taste, hut depends upon mathematical feel grand? Can't we raise the spirits don of Wren's time was the greatest laws of harmony, which could only be by restoring a sense of harmony: by trading empire the world had ever hroken at the expense of heauty'. re-establishing human scale in street seen. Yet it was of such splendour that "We have been led hy the nose for patterns and heights of buildings: hy the vista Canaletto painted surpassed too long down a path which totally redesigning those huge areas of what ancient Rome and even rivalled that ignores the principles of harmony is euphemistically known as 'puhlic of his own native city of Venice, itself and the well-calculated relationship space' between tower blocks, which a centre of world trade and one which of the parts to the whole. Rhythm, lie derelict, festering and anony­ knew so well how the fi'uits of com­ halance and equilihrium have heen mous? merce should be celehrated in the arts missing for too long. We must recall "Can't we restore people's pride; and architecture. We can make what Ruskin said: 'Architecture is hring back selj�confidence: develop choices ahout the surroundings in that art which so adorns the edifices the real skills of individual people in which we live and work. Prosperity raised by man that the sight of them this island? This may be a tall order, and beauty need not exclude each contributes to his mental health, / realise, hut how can any country other" . power and pleasure'. survive and prosper unless it has an "The exact opposite has heen hap­ aim and inspiration. Let us make /987 From a speech given at the Mansion pening for too long - people have the start of new renaissance for Brit­ House in 1987, commenting on the Pa­ been ignored. John Betjeman knew ain -from the bottom up." ternoster Square project adjacent to St what he was talking about when he Paul's in the City of London' wrote that 'Human scale is the size From a speech given in 1986 at the God made the world for mankind's launch of the Inner City Development sake, not to frighten or intimidate. Trust - a project founded to encourage "/ think it is time to resurrect the prin­ Every shape makes him feel human. self-help and community initiatives, of ciples by which classical Greece The highest mountain in the world is which HRH The Prince of Wales is the operated - in particular we should such a shape it makes him feel grand, patron.

6 ISSUE 5 Can't we make mankind feel grand BESHARA

News in Brief

Global Survival Conference From 11th-I 5th April, an unprecedented event took place in Ox ford when 100 spiritual leaders drawn from all the major re ligions met with 100 parliamentarians from over sixty countries to discuss the question of global survival. Participants included the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa of Calcutta , the Vice-President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Dr Evguenij Velikhov, scientists Carl Sagan and James Lovelock, and the UN Secre­ tary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar. Dr Runcie, in the opening speech, said that we are now "con/i'onted by problems t is significant that Britain is one of spring, and which imbue them with quite I the few countries which has suc­ a different meaning. which transcend national and credal boundaries .... which require no less than ceeded in maintaining a Monarchy with a Prince Charles has embraced a truly a global solution." The Dalai Lama, purpose. The fact that such a primal insti­ Royal vision, elevated and inspiring. He speaking of love and kindness as 'a uni­ tution continues not merely to survive has identified and understands that life versal religion ' pointed out that, "When alongside modern fonns of government, has a purpose, expressed through beauty, we talk about global crisis or a crisis of but complements them by representing and that where this is lacking there is humanity, we cannot blame a few politi­ areas of human development not readily ugliness and despair. He has attacked ur­ cians. afewfanatics or afew troublemak­ accessible to consensus politics, vali­ ban decay because it contradicts and in­ rrs. The whole o/humanity has a respon­ dates its place in human society. sults the dignity and purpose of humanity . sibility because this is 0111' business. True greatness in a monarch is accom­ He wants people to 'feel grand again' not human business. I call this a sense 0/ panied by the realisation that grandeur out of sentimental self-satisfaction, but belongs to God, that Monarchy is vicere­ because this is their heritage which he is IInil'ersal responsibility." The five days ended with a statement gency over part of His creation, that the bound to defend. He has criticised archi­ of intent and a commitment to continued majesty of their station is as a reminder to tects and planners not for personal mo­ dialogue. A full report in Issue 6. the people of their enduring spiritual heri­ tives or fickle dislike of their work, but tage. The intimate concern of the great because they have abrogated their respon­ monarch is to ensure that the people in his sibility to the society they are supposed to Symposium of the dominion are not oppressed and are in a serve to a degree which history may yet Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi position to respond to their innate poten­ adjudge criminally negligent. Commu­ tial. nity architecture or conservation, in them­ Society It is possible to view the public actions selves, are not the point; the point is that More than a hundred people met at Jesus of HRH The Prince of Wales from this dignity of purpose must be restored to the College, Oxford, from 25th-27th March perspective. The media, in their impa­ individual before there can be any prog­ for the fifth symposium on the great 12th tience for a story, have perhaps missed ress. century mystic, Muhyiddin Ibn ' Arabi. the point, doing themselves and the pub­ It is important for the future of Britain lic a disservice. They have made it seem that this vision is not allowed to be dis­ as though Prince Charles has over­ torted and buried in popular prejudice, stepped the mark, making life difficult for because it could be in this fair land that the architects and planners by imposing his first glimpses of a new vision will be opinions on them, and that he has become heralded. The coming era is likely to see obsessed with cranky 'alternative' views the dissemination of spiritual truths in all about ecology, society, medicine and re­ areas of society, following the emergence ligion. Or there is the establishment view of a comprehensive vision of life and that Royalty should be seen and not mankind's place in the universe. We are heard; that it is not their place to go about privileged to have a Prince who has seen commenting on serious issues and rock­ this vision, recognised its importance and Two speakers at the Symposium, Dom ing the boat. To my knowledge, nobody is compelled to speak out. We applaud his Sy/vester HOUlidard, a Benedictine monk at has yet reported on the compelling vision courage, but must also add that he is doing Prinknash Abbey and Professor Rundgren of from which these widely reported actions no less than we expect of him. the Unil'ersity of Uppsa/a.

SPRING 1988 7 BESHARA Gaia Comes of Age

"The Caia hypothesis posits that these Gaia Comes of Age chemical and thermal properties of the Earth's lower atmosphere and sUljace sediments ARE MAINTAINED BY LIFE. Ted Pawloff Assesses a New Scientific Theory Life has modulated these properties of" Earth fOl' hundreds of millions of years " "The Gaia hypothesis isfor those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the Earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the conse­ quences of our own presence here. It is an alternative to that pessimistic view In other words, it is suggested that the entire range of living matter on Earth which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered. It is also might be regarded as an organism - a an alternative to that equally depressing picture of the planet as a demented single living being endowed with the spaceship, forever travelling, driverless and purposeless, around the inner capacity of homeostasis (or self-regula­ circle of the sun." tion). To begin with, the Earth was fo l­ lowing its own, as it were, geological evo­ lution. At a certain point conditions be­ came suitable for life, providing it with a AlA is the answer to a scientific which, consisting overwhelmingly of car­ 'window of opportunity' to establish it­ G riddle. According to the current bon dioxide, conform to what science self. However, the very processes of geo­ scientific model, the Earth has supported would predict. Also, it contains in signifi­ logical evolution that had opened this life for 3500 million years, but there is no cant proportion a bewildering variety of window were bound to close it again. The reason why conditions on the planet's highly reactive gases such as oxygen and wonder and marvel is that life itself began surface should be so uniquely favourable methane which, according to the laws of to alter the conditions in its own favour, to its existence and evolution. On the physics and chemistry, are highly un­ integrating its biotic functions with the contrary, there is every reason why it stable and so unsustainable over long geological processes. To give an ex­ should have been quite the opposite - the periods of time. Yet the precarious equi­ ample: it is life in the guise of miniscule Sun's energy output has increased by 25% librium ofthis composition can be shown sea-organisms which reduced the carbon in that time without any apparent ill-ef­ to have been maintained for hundreds of dioxide content of the atmosphere, fect; and like its neighbours Mars and millions of years. chemically trapping it in the massive Venus, the Earth's surface ought to be Professor Jim Lovelock has proposed limestone deposits of the planetary sur­ subject to enormous temperature vari­ an answer to this riddle called the Gaia face. ations and a degree of acidity which Hypothesis, which he first published in a would make it unsuitable to any but the best-selling book 'Gaia, A New Look at most primitive life-forms. But in reality Life on Earth' (l) in 1979 and which he Predictably, such a formulation has surface conditions are near-ideal for sup­ has subsequently developed and elabo­ drawn the fire of much of the scientific porting living organisms. rated. His co-worker, Professor Lynn establishment; the very name Gaia, pro­ Even more extraordinary is the compo­ Margulis of Boston University, summa­ posed by the novelist William Golding sition of the Earth 's atmosphere. It is rises the hypothesis in a recent paper (2), from the Greek Goddess of the Earth (who completely unlike those of its neighbours, as follows: also provides the root of words such as Geology, Geography, etc), has provoked disquiet and opposition. But two recent conferences have served to bring Gaia into the foreground of scientific debate. Last Autumn, 'The Ecologist', the lead­ ing international environmental maga­ zine, organised a conference entitled 'Gaia: Theory, Practice and Implications' at the Wade bridge Ecological Centre in Cornwall, to coincide with a meeting of Ecoropa (3). The first part of this covered the basic ' hard' science of the hypothesis, while later parts explored its implications for epistemology, the philosophy of sci­ ence, theoretical ecology, evolutionary theory and other fields. Then in March, the American Geophysical Union held a conference in San Diego, attended by bi­ ologists, geologists, geochemists and cli­ matologists. Here the Gaian idea was taken as a framework for promoting new areas of scientific enquiry into the order

8 ISSUE 5 Gaia Comes of Age BESHARA

and organisation of life on Earth, and, as The first is that it entirely sidesteps the New Scientist reported, it marked, "by mechanistic versus vitalist controversy. common consent, the coming of age of Lovelock, in his book, even appears to be Gaia as a subject fo r respectable scien­ at pains to ensure that his formulation re­ What tlfi c enquiry. "{4} mains acceptable in traditional scientific makes a rabbit What has emerged from these confer­ terms. In the section entitled 'In the Be­ rabbit-shaped? ences is an appreciation of the many­ ginning' he takes note of the fact that levelled significance of the ' Gaian' idea. "indeed, the universe seems to be littered U17y On the one hand, it works as a science - with life's chemicals ...It seems almost as predictions made from the theory have if our galaxy were a giant warehouse con­ do new patternsof been verified, and have led to the discov­ taining the spare parts needed fo r behaviour ery of processes that would otherwise life"{p14}. Studiously avoiding drawing sp read so fa st? have been ignored. On the other hand, as any conclusions from this (even though the visceral reaction on the part of some facts of this kind form the basis of the view y scientists clearly shows, Gaia is not, and known as the ' Anthropic Principle ') he Wh cannot be, 'merely' science in the re­ goes on to assume the traditional 'random do societies fo rm stricted sense. The intuition, alive with combination ' hypothesis to account for in predictable wonder and compassion, of the whole­ the beginning of life. The point is that it ness of life transforms both scientist and matters little to the substance of the hy­ patterns ? science; for it is this wholeness which pothesis which explanation is adopted. gives rise to the law, which Lovelock The mechanisms are secondary - what is THE enunciates, that the more varied and rich required is that the attention be shifted an ecosystem, the more stable its homeo­ towards the phenomenon of life as a PRESENCE stasis - and not the other way around as whole, which is the only perspective from some might think. which the mechanisms become intelli­ OF In his book, Lovelock describes how gible. THE PA ST his starting point was to devise a method The second aspect is that the hypothesis Mo rphic Resonance of detecting life on other planets. "I ex­ requires an interdisciplinary, even a and the Ha bits of Na ture pected to discover somewhere in the sci­ transdisciplinary, approach which has entific literature a comprehensive defini­ long been called fo r, and which is obvi­ tion of life as a physical process... but I ously the hallmark of any holistic science RUPERT was surprised to fi nd how little had been ofthe future. The mere understanding that SHELDRAKE written about the nature of life such an approach is needed is insufficient Author of A New Science of Life itself."{p3}. He himself defines it for bringing it about in practice. It needs a as, "A common state of matter fo und at framework, methods and a great deal of A revolutionary and thought-provoking book the Earth's surfa ce and throughout its pioneering. Gaia fulfils these require­ that provides afascinating new oceans. It is composed of intricate combi­ ments and has a good chance of making a understanding of ourselves nations of the common elements ...Most significant contribution in this regard. and the world we live in that will fo rms of life can instantly be recognised enthrall not only sp ecialists without prior experience and are fr e­ but anyone interested in new ideas. quently edible. The state of life, however, Available 7 April 88 ISBN 0 00 217785 4 The third aspect is that the hypothesis is has sofa r resisted all attempts at a fo rmal Available/rom good bookshops. Or retum coupon below physical definition." open-ended, as much in the questions that it begs as in those that it seeks to resolve. It is from here that his examination of To : Collins Publishers, Oept LL, To explore this aspect it is necessary to life's history on Earth leads to the view of 1 8 Grafton Street, London WIX3LA make a critical examination of some ofthe life as a single planetary phenomenon (5). I assumptions and possible extrapolations Please send me copy/ies of In other words, the hypothesis is a real ThePre sence of the Pa st at £12.95 of Lovelock's formulation. I I step towards a vision of life at the level of plus 55p postage and packing. The fact is that it is inevitably subject to its own significance. However 'obj ec­ I I some of the effects of the scientific reduc­ tively' scientists may Deinclined to study Name tionism which, in other ways, it subverts. the 'Gaian mechanisms', they will be I I For instance, he says, regarding the capac­ Address dealing with a vision where the part has ity for recognition of life, that, "this I I been inextricably rejoined to the whole. powerful and effective but unconscious ·1 I process of recognition no doubt origi­ Postcode nally evolved as a survival fa ctor." It I I I enclose a postal order/cheque The singular fe at of the Gaia Hypothesis would beentirely, if not more, consistent made payable to Coil ins Publishers is to introduce such a perspective into a with the tenor of the hypothesis to argue I I fo r £ branch of science still particularly domi­ that, along with the properties of homeo­ I Allow 28 days I nated by a mechanistic and reductionist stasis, life exhibits a common and all­ fo r delivery. lns paradigm. Three aspects stand out. pervasive sensitivity to itself. I ColI' I L. ______-..I

SPRING 1988 9 BESHARA Gaia Comes of Age

More seriously, he fails to point out that ciates with life and of which he says on it is only the relatively recent mechanistic, page 143, "It would be dauntingly difficult KATHLEEN RAINE reductionist modes of thought which have to test experimentally the notion that the inhibited any comprehension of life per instinct to associate fitness with heauty se, due to their assumption that it would fa vours survival, but I think it might be The Presence eventually be explained in terms of the worth a try. I wonder if apositive answer laws of physics and chemistry. By con­ would enahle us to rate beauty objec­ POEMS 1984-87 trast, traditional teachings and civilisa­ tively, rather than through the eye of the The Presence is Kathleen tions have had a great deal to say about it. beholder. We have seen that the capacity Raine's tenth volume of poetry It is in relation to these that one of the greatly to reduce entropy, or, to put it in and the first since her Collected implicit assumptions of the hypothesis the terms of information theory, greatly to Poems of 1981. Here the poet's becomes apparent - that it deals entirely reduce the uncertainty of the answers to vision comes full circle; the with the class of phenomena which tradi­ the questions about life, is itselfa measure interpenetration of the world of tional descriptions regard as subject to the of life. Let us set beauty as equal to such a nature and the human world is 'vegetative soul', and confines the mean­ measure of life. Then it could fo llow that seen with the naked wonder of ing of the word 'life' to this. Although heauty is also associated with lowered the child but bearing the weight understandable within its context, this entropy, reduced uncertainty, and less of human experience. limitation must remain ultimately unsat­ vagueness ... It might even be that the isfactory and even self-defeating. In the Platonic absolute of beauty does mean cloth bound £7.50 traditional representation the vegetative something and can be measured against soul is merely one of a series, and this that unattainahle state of certainty about would seem to indicate that a much wider the nature of life itself' . framework is required to deal adequately If, indeed, the Platonic absolute of with the phenomena Lovelock is trying to beauty does mean something, then it is To be published in June on come to grips with; this is in any case clear that such an essential and universal the occasion of the author's entirely in accord with his own apparent reality cannot be reached from accidental 80th birthday intention. and particular phenomena. If the Gaia Hypothesis is to reach its full potential and encompass questions like these, then Selected In his own terms, Lovelock attempts a it needs to be inscribed within a vision treatment of these wider questions. But which starts from such a premise. It would just as there is a limitation in his treatment then include Life as an inherent quality of Poems of life as not extending to matter, so there the cosmos with which everything, from This is the first time a selection is the symmetrical danger of confining quarks upwards, is imbued- an under­ from the whole range of Kath­ intelligence and the capacity for self-re­ standing which can be found not only in oeuvre leen Raine's poetic has flection to vegetative life. "So fa r as is the traditional sciences, but also, and in­ been published. The author has known, we are the only creatures on this creasingly, is implicit in some of the new chosen work from among her planet with the capacity to gather and scientific formulations in biology and earliest poems up to and store information and use it in a complex including poems written in the physics (6). Unless it extends itself to last year. She has written a way. If we are part of Gaia it becomes incorporate these ideas - and there are Foreword especially for this intei-esting to ask to what extent is our signs that this is beginning to happen (7)

collection which should not collective intelligence also part of Gaia? - the Gaia Hypothesis, for all its value, only bring pleasure to those Do we as a species constitute a Gaian may well be condemned to fall between who are already committed to nervous system and a brain which can two stools. her poetry, but should serve as a consciously anticipate environmental timely and welcome changes?"(p147) Far from providing an introduction to her work for alternative to the various depressing those who have yet to discover models of the universe, this one could (1) 'The Gaia Hypothesis' Oxford Univeristy Press, its unique, paradisical vision. condemn man to the status of an intelli­ London, 1979. Re-issued with a new fo reword, 1987. gent amoeba with thejob of ensuring that paperback £7.95 (2) 'Gaia and Biospheres' by Dorian Sagan and the planetary supply of primaeval sludge Lynn Margolis, delivered at the Wadebridge Con­ For details of a special, signed does not run out. It is this aspect which fe rence. (3) Ecoropa is an international non-political group edition of one hundred copies, furnishes grist to the mill of those Jon­ concerned with environmental questions. athon Porritt described in his Schumacher write for a prospectus to: (4) New Scientist, March 17th 1988. Lecture as "post-industrial pagans" .(6) (5) See Issue 4 of Beshara GOLGONOOZA PRESS, In other words, we would have gradu­ (6) See. fo r example, Paul Davies' 'The Cosmic 3 CAMBRIDGE DRIVE, ated from mechanistic reduction ism to Blueprint' , Heinemann 1987. (7) For instance, a delegate at the conference of the IPSWICH, biological reductionism. This same ten­ SUFFOLK IP2 9EP, UK American Geophysical Union, Michael Rampino, dency is apparent in his treatment of has suggestt;d that Gaia may be a property of the beauty, which Lovelock intuitively asso- galaxy as well.

10 ISSUE 5 Michael Shallis BESHARA

Science, Religion and the Symbolic World Traditional Science and Modern Science

by Michael Shallis Extracts fr om a Seminar given at Beshara Sherborne

"He is a miserable man who knows all like to propose for contrasting the sacred way. Scientists will tell you that now we things and does not know God. And he sciences with contemporary Western sci­ know how it really is, but that is just is a happy man who knows God, even ence. If we look at the picture presented another allegorical story. though he knows nothing else. But he in the sacred sciences, we find that all But whatever sort of science we choose, who knows God and all else besides is cultures - the Chinese, the Islamic, the no-one is going to take much notice of it if not made more blessed thereby, for ludaic-Christian, and so on - have had it does not correspond to reality, and so the he is blessed through God alone." very much the same general view of crea­ allegory or story must also correspond to SI Augustine. tion and the nature of the universe. There sensory experience. And in this talk, I are of course differences; the presentation would like to look at the view given by the It is part of our human condition that we is slightly different or diffe rent names are sacred sciences through the particular have choices and that we are free to given to things, and whilst the differences allegory of number. orient ourselves in any direction we are obviously important and can tell us a choose. 1 ust as this applies to every aspect great deal, I want to look here at what is of our lives, it can apply to the way in essential, rather than what is contingent to Why do we have numbers? In a sense, which we explain and understand the culture. numbers are just another manifestation of nature of reality. One could say that the One of the main differences between the primordial ideas in the mind of God distinction between the traditional sacred the traditional view and that of our own that become manifest in what we call the sciences and the science of our present science is that the traditional sciences realm of numbers, which is a fairly ab­ culture is the direction in which they look, recognise a hierarchical structure of the stract realm - you can't just go out and which may in tum be determined by the world, of which material manifestation is find 'threes' in the world. The first num­ way in which society views reality in at a low level ofthe unfoldment of ideas in ber is one; it is unity, completely undiffer­ more general terms. If you believe that the the mind of God. In our contemporary entiated, containing all possibilities - a universe is a manifestation of God, then science, of course, the material world is property reflected in mathematics, where you will look in nature for 'clues' as to the all there is. The means by which the sacred the number one goes into everything. nature of that reality in a (metaphorically) sciences present what one might call their There is no number which cannot be di- . upward direction and to look downwards 'evidence' is through symbolism and vided by one, so you can say that it con­ would, in a sense, be to look in the wrong myth. In other words, it is an allegorical tains everything and that unity does not direction. But if you believe that the uni­ language. It is difficult not to use an alle­ just mean one thing, it means all things. verse is purely a physical set of more or gorical language; and in fact, all our scien­ All creation stories start with unity; it is less random interactions, then it is quite tific theories, even those which relate only the source, and the first act of creation is appropriate to look into matter to try and to matter, are in allegorical language the primal differentiation where one be­ understand what is going on. because it is really very difficult to de­ comes manifest as two- the first division. This is the sort of framework I would scribe this mysterious world in any other This is true even in modern, atheistic

SPRING 1988 I 1 BESHARA Science, Religion and the Symbolic World creation myths, such as that of the cos­ being the active principle and matter the the idea of spirit, soul and matter - the mologistPeter Atkins (1)and the situation receptive principle. The material world trinity - which of course is all one. This is is reflected at all levels - in the biological has been imprinted by active forms; we why the triangle is not too unlike a circle. realm, for instance, the basis of reproduc­ are like plasticine, clay, in the hands of In terms of the hierarchical schema, tion is the replication of a single cell God. therefore, we find below the level of which contains within it, potentially, the A nice illustration of this - which also duality the realms of spirit, soul and mat­ whole organism. shows how the active always contains the ter, which in turn each contain further Now originally the number one was passive within it, and the passive the ac­ ways in which unity can become mani­ represented by a circle, and this illustrates tive - is the seal and the sealing wax. At fest. The realm of the spirit contains the a general point - that there is a tendency, the moment that you push the seal (the realms of the archangels, angels and spiri­ through time, for symbols to decay and active) into the sealing wax (the passive) tual creatures, within which there will be degenerate. We are still surrounded by in order to make an impression, it be­ many further distinctions. Below that is very powerful primordial symbols but we comes passive. It just sits there and the the realm of the soul, which contains the have also down-graded symbols and we sealing wax, which is the receptive, essence of what is going to become mani­ tend to re-enact the great myths in lesser moves to take up the form. fe st later as souls; the essences of the and lesser forms. ( In the modem day, one This happens in all creative processes; celestial spirit, reason, life and so on. form of a myth appearing in a degraded the process of creating images, sounds, Here we are still in the world of the arche­ form is clearly the soap operas). We find words, is of the idea (which is the active typal essences, of ideas in the mind of God that today we use for the number one the form or principle) becoming manifest in becoming unfolded and therefore becom­ symbol which actually symbolises the matter through painting, dance, etc. In ing created in their own particular realm differentiation, and we have given the fact, it is one of the most remarkable or sphere; it is the level of Universal Spirit symbol for one, the circle, to zero, which things about our universe that everywhere and Universal Sou!. The Universal Body is not the same thing at all. we look, the same truths are being re­ completes the trinity and it is only in the If we draw the numbers in a traditional vealed and enacted before our eyes. Even latter that we can directly perceive the way, we can see how they indicate, first, the act of seeing is one of form being unfolding into the corporeal world, into the circle of unity and then the division of imprinted on matter, with the eye as the the world of bodies in which we seem to one into two. This divides into Yin and receiver and the ray of light as the active live. Yang, light and darkness, active and re­ form, and the act of seeing being one in There is a sense in which these first ceptive, all the pairs of opposites. The which the receiver actually does some­ three numbers contain the whole creation number two contains every pair of oppo­ thing, ie. generates a signal to our brains. myth; they are not just for counting things sites, it is every pair of opposites. If you - to count with them is in a way to misuse think about it, everything has its opposite them. The fourth number, which can be - day and night, young and old, black and symbolised as a square or as a cross, is the white - except unity. The Taoist symbol­ final stage of the unfolding of the primor­ ism is particularly beautiful here, as the oC]) dial unity. I say it is the final stage, and 1 2 movement put into the diagram is itself an you might say, what about all the rest of implication of the constant changing of the numbers? All the rest of the numbers the balance of opposites. Yin is constantly are, of course, further unfolding, but four changing into Yang and Yang is turning is the last of the basic ones. It is the into Yin in every possible combination, so LD3 4 solidity, the manifestation of the corpo­ that they are always, in a sense, equally real world. Although it is also complete in balanced, even though there may be at any The next stage of creation is the unfolding a sense - as with the triangle, whichever one moment a lot of one and less of the of duality into the number three, which direction you take you come back to the other. And since unity contains every­ should be represented by a triangle. Three beginning - in another way it is the oppo­ thing, when we have the first differentia­ symbolises a further unfolding, unpack­ site of a circle and the idea of turning a tion the opposite sides themselves contain ing, of what is contained in unity, and it is square into a circle correspondsto the idea the other - so on the black side we have a a number of completion in that it brings of turning the solidity of matter into pure white dot, and on the white side a black the opposites created by two back to­ spirit, re-uniting it with Unity. Whereas dot. gether again. Wherever you start in a two is the splitting into opposites, four is At this level of the first differentiation, triangle, whichever direction you take, the splitting into the opposites of oppo­ there is a sense in which nothing has been you come back to the place where you sites to give the four directions, the four created except the idea of creation. In started. Three brings in the idea of seasons of the year, things that are at right­ many representations of the hierarchical change, of journey- it even brings in the angles to each other, as far away from structure of reality you see at the top of the notion of time, which duality doesn't - each other as they can get. hierarchy God, Unity, all things, and at and the threefoldness manifesting in all the first level of creation the first pair of things, at every level of creation, brings in opposites. As the medieval mystics repre­ the idea of there being a beginning, a If you add up the numbers 1 to 4, you get sented it, this is the level of potential form middle and an end. We also have a number 10, which takes you, as it were, back to and potential matter; it is not form, but it of different combinations generated by unity, whi�h is why you only need the first is the idea of form andmatter - the form threeness; the separation, or division into four numbers; they symbolise the first

12 ISSUE 5 Michael Shallis BESHARA stage of completion. Everything else is a detail - very interesting detail but never­ theless not so important. So 3 is associated with the soul and 4 with matter, and combined, we find that they symbolise all the combinations of soul and matter in the corporeal world; as 4 + 3 they manifest as the seven principles which are found in the seven days of the week, the seven planets, etc. and as 4 x 3 they appear as all the significant ways in which soul and matter can become mani­ fest; the twelve months of the year, the twelve signs of the zodiac, etc. Twelve represents the universal; Christ had twelve disciples because they represent the twelve archetypal types of people, ie. everybody; the twelve tribes of Israel represent all people, etc. One of the most powerful aspects of symbols is that they have the power to reveal if you are in a state to receive the revelation; if you are not, they conceal the truth because you are not ready for it. So in numbers, we have a revelation about the nature of the universe, and it is one from which we cannot escape and which we constantly re-generate. It is quite inter­ esting to observe that computers, which are a wonderful example of a totally re­ The Geocentric View of the Universe, showinR the celestial spheres.jrom Peter Apiari' s ductionist technology, operate most effi­ 'Cosmographia', Antwerp, 1539. ciently in terms of noughts and ones - going back to the basic duality which which is the unfolding into fourfoldness principle; in the domain of the quadru­ contains every pair of opposites - in dif­ and the four points of the compass, the peds, the lion represents pure spirit and so ferent combinations to represent an four directions. And this is a very appro­ is regarded as the most perfect four­ enonnously large number of things. priate thing to engulf the corporeal world, legged animal; within the realm of birds it which is symbolised by the cross of matter is the eagle, in the realm of flowers the and the square. rose and the lotus, and so on. When we come to the corporeal world, the These two spheres drive the eighth In connection with the spheres of the traditional view is that it contains a ten­ sphere, which is that of the fixed stars, planets, I would just like to say that here fold structure - ten, as I just explained, within which are the spheres of the seven we find the perfection of position which containing the fourfold, the threefold, the planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, we would expect if the symbolism is cor­ twofold and unity. The corporeal world Venus, Mercury and the Moon. These are rect. As a symbol of unity, the Sun should has ten spheres and it begins with the idea incorruptible, celestial bodies, each of be central, and in that sense, the Coperni­ of the prinCiple of nature; this is what is which contains the essence of, and is the can construction of the solar system is going to become revealed further in the manifestation of, a combination of correct. But in the traditional view, the unpacking of ideas in the mind of God on threeness and fo urness in their added sun is also central, being shown always as a corporeal, material plane. The first of fonn. the middle sphere of the seven planets. the spheres, the outermost of the corpo­ Now within each realm of the manifest And so we can see that it is not its position real world, contains the idea of move­ - and indeed, the unmanifest - world, one which is altered by the Copernican revo­ ment, physical movement, and is itself the wilt find the manifestation of pure spirit, lution, but our perspective on it. This is primary movement of the corporealworld of pure receptivity, of twoness, threeness, always the case; if something is central -from east to west. And indeed, when we etc. So, within the planetary spheres, the because of its meaning, then we will look at the outermostreaches ofthe world, Sun is the greatest of the planets and lies always find that it is central in its appear­ the most distant things are moving east to at the centre because it symbolises unity. ance. west. The moon is the symbol of pure receptiv­ Below the sphere of the moon is the The ninth sphere is the principle of ity and the other planets are combinations, innermost region of the material world, contrary movement, which is north to whilst the earth, which is not included in which is the realm of corruptible matter. south. In these two outer-most spheres, the planetary spheres, is pure matter. This is encased in a fivefold shell, of we have a duality and a contrary motion Within other spheres, we find the same which the first realm is the notion of

SPRING 1988 13 BESHARA Science, Religion and the Symbolic World corruptible elements. One starts to see metals, and the two sciences of astrology thing else - there are no two people who that each realm begins with an idea which and alchemy are concernedwith the trans­ are identical, no two stones which are the then becomes drawn out; the idea of mutation of those symbolic realities so same. The symbol for earth is a circle with motron, for instance, becomes not a that we can become integrated. Just as we a cross in it; it is unity completely mani­ motion, but the idea of all possible mo­ talked yesterday of our science being one fested as matter. This implies a direction tions. So here, the idea itself is expressed which is never pure, never done for its for matter to move in, in that as it is in the highest form of the corruptible own sake but always for a purpose, this is contained in the circle of unity there is elements, and the one closest to pure also true of the sacred sciences. Their movement towards the centre. spirit, which is fire. This contains within it purpose is for the perfection of the soul, the subdivisions of the four elements. for the recombination or re-linking of I don't know if you are puzzled by a one's individuality to the whole. There is The other planetary spheres and alchemi­ fivefold structure of elements. Our usual a quote from C. S. Lewis: "For the wise cal metals are formed of combinations of division into four elements is simply men of old the cardinal problem had been these three basic symbols, and they fall another instance of the degeneration of to confo rm the soul to reality, but fo r into two groups; active/solar and passive/ symbols. If we go back to the Far-East, to science the problem is to subdue reality to lunar. Taking the lunar ones first, we find China, we find that their understanding the wishes of man " (2). various combinations of the cross of has always been of five elements. And So the signs for the planets are symbols, matter and the crescent of the soul, the even if we look back into the Western and combinations of symbols, which re­ first being where the crescent of the soul tradition, as late as the 15th century we fl ect the different ways in which the no­ is inferior to matter, buried in the earth, as find clues that there were five western tion of spirit, soul and matter become low as you can get. It is the symbol of the elements, which were fire, then air, water, manifest in the corporeal world. The two basest metal - lead - and the outermost earth and that which lies below the earth, primary symbols are those which repre­ planet - Saturn. His realm is that of chaos, metals. It 's interesting that the Chinese sent the active principle, pure spirit, where matter dominates the soul, and lead have water, earth, metal and wood, be­ which is the circle of unity, and the semi­ is the most unreflective metal, the most cause they regard air as so much con­ circle, which is pure receptivity, the pas­ dense, the one which sinks to the bottom. tained in fire that it does not require a sive principle. The circle of unity points The second lunar symbol illustrates the separate sphere. But having said all this, towards the centrality of the spirit; it is the rise of the soul above matter, but before it the fourfold structure is also not inappro­ circle with a point in it, which contains the can do so, it has to ascend and so it is priate, when you think about it. image of the centre from which every­ drawn as the cross of matter with the thing comes and to which everything is crescent of the soul in mid-position. This, directed; the hub of the wheel and the the emerging or beginning of the ascent of spokes that direct the periphery to the the soul, is the symbol of Jupiter and the centre. In the realm of the planets this is metal tin. Tin is a sort of semi-reflective represented by the Sun, and in the realm metal, it is silvery in colour but not as of the metals by gold. This is why we reflective as silver. The third position is value gold; it is incorruptible, perfect and where the crescent of the soul has risen the symbol of unity. All other metals are, above matter completely, and when it has as it were, shadows of gold, as all planets done that, it has ascended into heaven and are shadows of the Sun. the cross of matter just disappears, to The semi-circle, when put on its side, leave the symbol of the moon/silver. becomes the cup which receives the liq­ Following the same sort of pattern, the uid, and this is symbolised by the Moon, first of the solar symbols is where the which is the lesserof'the great lights', and active principle, the spirit, has been buried the perfect mirror. When we observe the underground and covered over by matter. moon, we are seeing pure spirit reflected This is the symbol of Mars and iron. The in the mirror of the moon, and its metal is symbol for Mars which you see nowadays The 'Diagram of the Supreme Pole' of Chou silver, which is purely reflective and is a degenerate form of the cross of matter Tun-I (1017-1073), showing. on the left , shiny. In fact, we make mirrors from sil­ above the circle ofthe spirit. It is the polar 'Yang, motion' and on the right 'Ying, ver and talk about the 'silver' of a mirror, opposite of the inverse glyph where the quiessence' ,with the fi ve elements below. even if it is actually made from something Spirit has risen above the cross of matter. else. There is no intermediate stage here; it is I would like to go on to look at the glyphs The third symbol is the cross of matter, an all or nothing situation. When the soul which are used to represent the planetary which contains the four elements and rose above the cross of matter, it dissolved spheres; this is a bit of astrology, but also implies the five elements. This is the cor­ it away and left the symbol of the moon. a bit of alchemy. Astrology and alchemy poreal, corruptible world in which is Here, this does not happen, but it appears are in a way mirror images of each other. implanted, as it were, all the different more like an excess; the active principle As we stand, as man, on earth we can manifestations of the ideas in the mind of re-inforces and spirit bursts out of matter metaphorically look upwards to the God. It symbolises complete differentia­ and overwhelms it. It is, of course, the spheres of the planets or we can look tion, the fact that everything which is symbol of Venus and copper. With iron, downwards to the earth and the realm of created as matter is different from every- the gold was masked but here the colour of

14 ISSUE 5 Michael Shallis BESHARA o ) +

Unity, Wholeness The Receptive Principle Multiplicity The Active Principle The Soul Matter Spirit Duality Differentiation " 1------+------1

o THE SUN the source, spirit, creator

THE MOON the receptive principle Diagram 1

MERCURY the bearer of all forms, the messenger of the Gods o ) VENUS an excess of spirit reinforcing differentiation

MARS the sun hidden in darkness o 00 4 JUPITER the receptive rises to the midpoint of matter

SATURN the receptive at its lowest ) Diagram 2 point, closest to chaos

gold is beginning to shine through. Venus in all three realms, because it contains all est metal. Immediately above it, we find is often seen as the symbol of love, which three realms. Jupiter and tin, still below the horizon but is this great, joyous bursting through, and this is the expanding principle, shaking its natural companion, Mars, is the polar­ free of the constrictions of the realm be­ ity of the situation - the lover and the If we draw a symbolic diagram of the low. Note that the lunar symbols are at the beloved. earth (Diagram 1), we can look at this bottom of the scheme. This is bec'!-usethe And finally there is the very curious from several perspectives. It is the cross of prime planet is the Sun and the prime planet which contains all three symbols, matter contained within the circle of metal gold, and the lunar is therefore the which is Mercury. Here we find the cres­ unity; it is the fo ur directions of the mate­ lesser, a further stage of differentiation cent of receptivity over the circle of the rial world, but it is also a map of what we from Unity. sun or pure spirit, where the centrality of see. H is the horizon, with the solidity of Above Jupiter we find Mars and iron, the sun is held between the receptivity of the earth beneath and the sky above; it is where iron is buried beneath the surface of the moon and the materiality of the earth. the division between the heavenly and the the earth and the sun is below the horizon, Therefore, it contains everything; or earthly and this is the way in which as­ sunk into matter. Above that is Venus, rather, it is the manifest version of that tronomers draw their maps. S is the divi­ where the sun has risen - and also, of which contains everything. The metal sion between the solar and the lunar; it course, we see Venus as the morningand associated with Mercury is quicksilver, denotes a day side, ruled by the sun, and a evening star; it is only visible just above or which is interesting because the silver night side, ruled by the moon. below the horizon. Next there is Mercury, dominates and it is liquid, so it can be We can further divide this diagram to which is the principle of that which can moulded by the form of spirit in any take in the rt

SPRING 1988 15 BESHARA Science, Religion and the Symbolic World

Each ofthe planets, each of the metals, has resurrection of King Gold, which is the springs to mind is that of the impregna­ a positive and a negative side, a day side passage of the Sun through the realm of tion of the Virgin Mary with the spirit and a night side, a male side and female metals, or, in the astrological world, the of God at the time of the Annunciation, side, and, just as demonstrated by the sinking of the Sun into matter and its re­ which seems to demonstrate that, in Yin!Yang duality, there is within the ac­ emergence. Pure Spirit, the symbol of the physical world, it is often the tive side a direction towards negativity Unity in the corporeal world, has to die to coming together of opposites in union and within the receptive side a direction be reborn, and this truth is re-enacted which produces birth. towards the solar. This is demonstrated in constantly at all sorts of different levels. the passage of the sun through the sky in In the agricultural year, for instance, the Shallis its daily motion and its annual motion. wheat in its glory, shining in the mid­ It is symbolised, of course, in the rela­ The sun moves (on our diagram in an anti­ summer sun, has to be reaped and die tionship of Mars to Venus, who are the clockwise direction) through all the away in order to nourish. The seed, a tiny celestial lovers, but it is consumated at phases; it transcribes the circle, falling fragment, is kept and buried in the ground, the mid-summer point, which is the away from its purity into chaos and re­ but by mid-winter (symbolically at the marriage of the King and Queen of emerging in the lunar realm, as it were, to bottom of the diagram, at W ) all seems heaven, the point where the sun and come back to its rightful position. dead and lost. But at the Spring Equinox moon touch. But there is another point This sequence of the hierarchy of the (Sp) green shoots appear; the seed has of conception which is in Taurus, planets and the alchemical metals also been growing underground, but now the which in most cultures is the time of gives rise to the sequence of rulership of shoots are above the horizon and it comes fertility rites. But in fact the fertility the zodiacal signs. Leo the Lion is the back into its glory. rites are meant to bring about the mar­ perfect expression of the solar principle, This great myth is lived out in the vege­ riage of heaven and earth, which hap­ and the sun on its journeytrav els through table kingdom; it is lived out in a different pens a little later, at S in Diagram 3, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capri­ way in the animal kingdom and at every giving rise to new birth nine months corn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, level of creation; even in our own daily later. Gemini, Cancer and their rulers (Diagram cycles it is reflected in the 'little myths' of 3). Whether we look at it from the point of our waking and rising, in our eating, etc. C The thing about the myth of the Virgin view of the planetary spheres or the al­ We see the same movement in the decline Birth is that it symbolises the complete chemical metals, the passage of the Sun, of great civilisations and their resurrec­ non-separation of spirit and matter, the King, the Spirit, goes through all the tion in a new fo rm, in the waxing and because Mary is known as materia realms of corporeal existence, moving waning of our faith; I have recently been prima, incorruptible, of both gold and through all the combinations of threeness doing some work in relation to the Chris­ silver. and fourness. This is the primordial myth. tian myth and it is interesting to see how In a sense, all these signs have sprung out the symbolic imagery is very very tightly S Yes, there is a sense in which it is the of the primordial myth of creation and built into the mythic description of the incorruptible moon which gives birth become manifest in their particular Gospels. The appropriateness of the to the Sun, and so we can say that the realms. In the realm of the corporeal, that symbolism speaks through. passage of the pure receptivity, includes, contains, the notion of move­ In a way, it is easier to see this cycle in materia prima, gives rise to, gives ment and therefore of change and cor­ the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds, birth to, without any interference from ruptibility. So we see that there is a move­ because although they are restricted in anywhere else, spirit. This is the notion ment from pure symbol to myths, which their spheres, being only 'little' manifes­ of the Virgin Birth which is fo und cul­ are symbols in action. tations, they are nevertheless perfect turally world-wide. The Great Myth - which is also the manifestations. For us, who are the uni­ great alchemical myth - is the one I have verse, the microcosm, who are given the C Another point is that, although you just outlined; the story of the death and choice to enact the myth perfectly and drew unity as a circle, within that completely - but also the choice to mess it circle there is a triplicity, because the up - it takes more unravelling to see it in moment you have consciousness, you our daily lives and in our collective lives. already have triplicity. Although con­ :rr: .It � And one can see how it becomes neces­ sciousness is saying 'I' to itself, and sary for the myth to be demonstrated to us, this is a singularity, for that singularity :0:: how necessary it is to have the great spiri­ to be established a triple action is re­ � Cl � tual teachers, because we forget and lose quired. Sp touch with our true natures. The truth is there all the time but there are times when S It is because there is a giver, a receiver t t '"r it needs to be re-taught to us. and a transmitter.

lj- lj- DISCUSSION C Yes indeed. This is why Ibn 'Arabi, with whom I think you are familiar � W � Comment through his 'Mystical Astrology' (3), How does the principle of fertilisation calls the Virgin Birth the symbol of Diagram 3 fit into the picture? The example that God's act of creation. At the point of

16 ISSUE 5 Michael Shallis BESHARA

the first epiphany, which you call the The circle of oneness, is the symbol of the Celestial Virgin and the Annunciation, which is Ladder, the announcement and the blowing of fr om the breath into that which is most suit­ Raymond Lull's 'De able for it. Nova

Logica' , C Does the moon, which is represented 1512. by a crescent, also contain the idea of Showin/? growth? the suhtle apprecia­ S Yes of course, because the moon also tion of the goes on the same journey. At the top, it different is fu ll; it is a total, complete, perfect levels of reflection of the Sun, but then it has to experi­ die away, fall below the horizon and ence in die to nothing to re-emerge. It goes the medieval round the same cycle as the Sun, but it Christian is a reflective cycle. tradition. The C Whatplace does modem empirical sci­ ladder of ence have within this structure. For con­ example, we now know that there are scious­ more than seven planets and I am inter­ ness is set ested to know how modem astrology out in takes these into account. Could you re­ stones, draw Diagram 2 including them, for plants and stars as instance? well as angels, S It is actually very difficult to re-draw it, men and but the whole question of these new animals. planets is an extremely interesting one. If we look at the glyphs assigned to them by modem astronomers, we find that the symbolism is so powerful that these completely materialistic, non­ symbolic thinking, hard-nosed scien­ are further away from the Sun than chemy, over the cross of matter. It is a tists have created - and employ - the Saturn and are heavier than lead, and mercurial symbol. right names and the right symbols. As so they will appear on our Diagram The correspondence between the you would expect, the three planets - below W. They are great spiritual names and glyphs given to these things Uranus, Neptune and Pluto - can be messengers, but with some very heavy and their natures is really extraordi­ seen as a reflection of, or a continu­ aspects to them, and it is almost as if, as nary. As I said, they lie below Saturn, ation of, the scheme we have just out­ we have gone away from any sense of unseen, below the realm of the visible lined. There is one solar, one lunar and the spiritual, we have to discover sphere of the planets, and so one could one combining all three basic symbols. tougher and tougher disciplines to say that they are underworld planets. Uranus, the first to be discovered, is the hammer the message home. The metals which correspond to them circle of the spirit surmounted by the The second new planet is Neptune, - Uranium, Neptunian and Plutonium cross of matter; it is sometimes drawn which is associated with Pisces and - similarly, must lie at the bottom of as a crescent but incorrectly so. Its assigned the properties of the Martyr. the world, and be underworld metals. meaning is matter confined within the Its symbol is the crescent moon which And indeed, if we look at their atomic square; ie. it is not just matter, but has been spiked on the cross of matter, weights, we find that Uranium is the hardened matter, matter under con­ like the spear in the side of Christ. heaviest of all the natural elements; it

straint, tense and taut, dominating the Here, then, is the spirit being domi­ _ has a number of 92 out of 92 chemical solar principle. nated by an even tighter constraint of It is actually quite a powerful matter, and this is under the lunar prin­ symbol. There is a tendency for as­ ciple. trologers to bandy around the new Pluto, the third planet, is the spirit planets as if they are all lightness and contained in a cup, a receptive cup, breeze. No doubt there is this aspect to rather like the notion of the Philoso­ them, but there is also the fact that they phers Stone and the chalice in al- Uranus Neptune Pluto

SPRING 1988 17 BESHARA Science, Religion and the Symbolic World

elements. The ones below it, the heav­ S Yes, but if I may return to my first one and it is also zero, showing that the ier ones, don't exist in nature because point, the difference between the circle with the point is both nothing they decay too quickly. We produce sacred sciences and modem science is and everything. It is unity and infinity, them in nuclear reactions and they the direction in which they look. In the and the periphery of the circle round appear, but because they are so dense, sacred sciences, the direction is quite the point is like the infinite manifesta­ the world is too ephemeral for them clear, it is upwards; their aim is to bring tion of the point. And so, the point, as and they fall out of the bottom of it. about a transcendence, to move us you have just expressed it, is one and Uranium just about hangs in there, but from being base metals to being pure any number is the circle, which is just it is unstable; as we saw, ir is matter gold. Our science has turned its direc­ an expression of one and directed contained, explosive. In fact, there is tion round and looked into the earth, towards it. only one thing that can contain these and the danger of that is forgetting that If I may make a final comment metals and that is lead, which, again, there is anything else. It is alright to before we finish; it seems to me that the fits in perfectly with the symbolism. look down providing you know that it importance of understanding symbol­ Similarly, with astrology, the cor­ is to die and be re-born, but if you ism and myth, and of understanding respondence between the symbolism forget that you get stuck down there. how these are expressions of primor­ and the reality is striking. When Wil­ Although, as I just said, the myth tells dial and fundamental truths about the liam Herschel first identified Uranus, us that we must come out of it eventu­ nature of reality - truths that "to deny it was found that people had in fact ally. them would be to lie" as Donald been seeing it for about 100 years, but MacKay said, - is that there is not a had not realised it was a planet. C Looking at the diagrams you have conflict between the reality that we see Whereas Pluto and Neptune cannot be drawn, they remind me strongly of the in this way, or the reality that we see seen by the naked eye, Uranus just 'Wheel of Life' of the Buddhists and through spiritual teaching, and the hangs in there, like Uranium. Hindus, who say that the point of our discoveries of science. There may be a existence is not to endlessly track the conflict of perspective and intention, C One thing that occurs to me is that one cycle, but to jump out of it. This seems but not between fundamental truths. It gets a lot of confusing and contradic­ to me to refer to the possibility for us, is not possible that there could be. tory results in nuclear physics and the as human beings, to live our lives in There is a sense in which science is a lower you go, the more confused it awareness ofthe primal unity; to know revelation, and many scientists work gets. This seems to correspond to that in the process of devolution you as scientists because they see it as a chaos. have described there is never any real way of reveal ing nature and the beauty separation. of God. My criticism of it is that as a S Yes indeed, it becomes more and more collective enterprise it is misdirected, unworldly, very strange and other­ S Yes, of course, these diagrams are only not in what it reveals, but in its under­ worldly. All of which reminds me of a a reflection ofthat unity in the world of standing of what it reveals. If one ap­ wonderful article written a few years corruptible bodies. We have to live it proaches it from a spiritual perspective ago called 'Black Alchemy' which out because we are corruptible bodies, and from an appreciation that what is was an analysis of nuclear physics as but at the same time we are pure spirit. manifest in physical reality in the the transmutation of base metals into This is the extraordinary thing about material world is always a mirror for something baser! b�ing human; we have these two tasks. something else, for something higher­ And this leads to an important Or rather, there is only one task, but it just as we are mirrors to the cosmos point. We were just talking about is achieved through the existence of and a stone is a mirror of stoneness mysticism and the new physics, and being a corruptible body as well. Our which is an idea in the mind of God - there is a danger that this other-world­ lives are a combination of acting out, then there is nothing wrong with dig­ liness can be mistaken for the spiritual­ as it were, these great myths in order to ging deeper and deeper into physical ity of the shining light. In fact, it is not, complete the cycle of unity which is manifestations because it will always it is a kind of dark spirituality, and it is our vertical dimension and our goal. be revelatory - and in fact, what will be necessary that we come out of it. We revealed is more and more, an infinite can use such things, maybe we have to C There is another point about number number of further differentiations and use them in order to come out of the which perhaps you will agree is inter­ manifestations. state we are in, but we will come out of esting. Any number from here to infin­ it because that is the direction of the ity is both a unique expression and at myth. the same time it is the counting of one. (J) See,for instance. his book 'The Creation', If you look at it like that, then it always Freeman, 1981 C In terms of the myth you were talking draws you back to the apex of your (2) 'The Abolition of Man' by C.SLewis. about, the bottom-most point must diagram. Fount, 1943 contain the seed or we wouldn't be (3) 'Mystical Astrology according to Ihn 'Ar­ down there; there wouldn't be any S Yes indeed. And further, the circle has ahi' hy Titus Burckhart. Beshara Puhli­ point in being down there. a point at its centre because the point is catiofhS, London, 1977.

18 ISSUE 5 Robert Muller BESHARA

The United Nations Edited Extract from a Speech given on its 40th Anniversary in 1985

by Robert Muller

I have been in the UN for 37 years. I on this planet - the only ones who ever have seen it grow, and therefore I tried to do it were the Romans and this is would like to take this as my subject. In how Jesus was almost caught in Bethle­ the first place, what are the major charac­ hem. For the first time in modem history, teristics that this world system, namely again through the UN, you have the the UN and the specialised agencies, have human species taking stock of itself - of acquired since 1945? I'm speaking now in children: of the handicapped: through the evolutionary terms. I am not going to generations, looking at the levels of liv­ speak about the Arab/lsraeli conflict or ing, health, education, down to individual things of this sort, but instead look at the human rights; taking stock of the fate of evolution of the human species on this crises are faced by the human species, the individual and the whole pyramid of planet, of which these matters are nothing people rush to the UN; as in the environ­ what humanity means on this particular more than local and temporary accidents mental crisis, the population crisis, the planet. which, sooner or later, in one way or energy crisis and the nuclear crisis, which The third characteristic is that once we another, will be resolved - even if they we desperately must solve. Certainly detected that the world population was take a long time. there is a place in one of the 32 specialised getting out of hand, the UN, beyond being The first characteristic which the UN agencies or world programmes, or in the a memory bank, an observation tower of has acquired is what I would call a 'geo­ UN itself, where you can find a memory what was happening on this planet, began graphic universality'. This is a phenome­ bank, an analysis, data where one can to act as a sort of global brain. We helped non which is very important for our evo­ reach some conclusions as to how a par­ the children of poor countries not to die. lution. You have for the first time a place, ticular problem fares with humanity. This They survived, but nobody told the moth­ an organisation, where every territorial is something absolutely unprecedented ­ ers to have less children because nobody unit, every culture, every system of gov­ I'm speaking only of unprecedented knew the problem. Out of statistical igno­ ernment- all that has emerged from thou­ things, things that are so fundamental that rance we created a population explosion sands of years of history and from a longer they will determine our evolution and not and it took us until about 1960, ten years evolution before - has been brought to­ that which one reads in newspapers. You after the first world population figure of gether in a political organisation. You cannot stop evolution. Evolution will two and a half billion people, to de.tect that have in the organisation of the UN all the continue and it is these factors that will something was going wrong. We did so dreams, the values, the visions, all the come very powerfully to the fore. only after statisticians looked into fertil­ ways which have ever been devised by the Under substantive universal ism you ity and mortality rates. The warningwas human species through the thousands of have something which goes from the infi­ given. World conferences were convened years of its history, coming together for nitely large to the infinitely small - from on population, on the environment, on the first time. We should not underesti­ astro-physics, to our planetary systems, to energy etc, and as a result the human mate the fact that it is all there: the Chinese the sun, to the biosphere; from the ozono­ species began to react. cultures, the African cultures, the western sphere, to the lithosphere, to the seas and The brain is now beginning to func­ cultures, the easternphilosop hies, Greek oceans, down to the flora and fauna of the tion. It functions on the nuclear scares of law - all this has coalesced for the first planet, to the atom and micro-biology and this planet, it functions on the environ­ time in a political organisation. inside the crust of the earth. In other ment and in many cases the environment The second major characteristic, again words, there is not one single layer of our .has improved. We are beginning to have a from an evolutionary point of view, which place in the universe for which we do not global brain that gives certain warnings the organisation has acquired during these have internationalcooperation. and these warnings are beginning to be 40 years is a 'substantive universality'. In heard by governments. They are not in­ other words, for the first time in human sensitive to these things. How long it will history there is a kind of real universal Secondly, since 1945, we have been de­ take them to take heed is another matter. university, a place where every subject veloping the same substantive knowledge But at least there is a beginning of an conceivable has been brought forth by one of our human species itself. Until 1951 we understanding that they will have a global or several governments. Now, when didn't even know how many people lived responsibility.

SPRING 1988 19 BESHARA The United Nations

The fourth characteristic that the UN has acquired, even more recently, con­ cems the fact that now we know our planetary home, the human species and its aspirations (even though there is still a big debate about these aspirations), we are moving into a period in which this planet will be devoted to finding harmony in life. People sometimes ask me what are the new crises which will break out in the next 15years and I say none, because they have already all broken out. The problem in the years before the year 2000 is to make progress towards the solution of these crises - to find the proper harmony be­ tween the human species and its planetary home. We must manage this planet well forthe ultimate fulfilment of the numbers of people who will live on it, constantly re­ newed through births and deaths; and find harmonies between the components of the human species itself. In other words, we United Nations Security Council. must discover harmony between the na­ Showing the commemorative meeting on 29/4/85 to celehrate the 40th anniversary. Courtesy tions, which is what the UN charter says ­ of the United Nations. Photo 165801. to seek to harmonise the actions of na­ much faster than we expected. We in the human family? tions, to find harmony between the races, UN in 1945 thought that de-colonisation First, I think that where we have done a harmony between males and females, would cause a big problem, that it would tremendous job of understanding is that harmony betweeen cultures, harmony be­ take between 100 and 150 years. It was we have now reached the necessary physi­ tween religions (where there remains so settled in 40 years. Today we might think cal consciousness of our place in the uni­ much fanaticism and hatred). We must that disarmament might take 500 years verse, from the infinitely large to the infi­ find understanding between the immense and it might be settled in 100 years. The nitely small. We have to tip our hats to the number of groups that have emerged from equality of men and women was very fast rationalists and the scientists and techni­ history and expressed, in a great variety of in making progress; the question of hu­ cians and engineers who have been able to ways, common human desires. All lan­ man rights is making slow progress. Cer­ extend our eyes, our ears, our brains guages on this earth say the same thing. tain things are easier to achieve, others are through computers, our arms through We are all basically constructed in the difficult to achieve and others are not even machines and our legs through modem same way as perceptive units of this discussed, for example the question of forms of transport, so that we have be­ planet, but through history we have found democracy or the question of how this come a new species that has been able to many strange expressions of it. We have planet as a whole should be governed. comprehend the universe in which it lives. to find what we have in common and This is not being discussed, but it will also The outer reaches still escape us and the enable the diversities to work harmoni­ have to be discussed. Of course, when you infinitely small also has no real limit to ously together in order to achieve a soci­ look at the various countries they have investigation, but for all practical pur­ ety which will bring happiness to all dur­ preference for one or for the other: for the poses we have now a tremendous image ing their lives. We need harmony with the poor countries it is development, for the of our physical place in the universe and past and harmony with the future to leave rich countries it is environment, for West­ on this planet. This is an enormous ad­ a better planet to our children and grand­ em countries it is human rights. Every vance in our evolution. children. We need harmony in the indi­ country has a different perception of what Secondly, we do not have as yet, but we vidual, in the totality and - what is not yet is important to it because they all have are beginning to acquire, a mental con­ being discussed in the UN -harmony with diffe rent histories and different levels of sciousness of our place in the universe. the heavens. I will return to this a little understanding and they are playing this When it comes to putting the universe later on. role in the UN. together and how we shall behave towards it - how we should dissect it, how we There is a fifth element which is impor­ should re-compose it, how we should re­ tant, especially for governments but also What is the end result of all that has now organise this planet, how we should be· for private groups. It is the fact that as all been attempted and only very partially have in totality, in groups and as individu­ this advances, you should never forget achieved? What, in terms of our presence als - this we are only beginning to under­ that every great subject that is brought to in the universe, of our presence on this stand. the UN has a certain time dimension. planet, has been achieved now that we We should always remember that we Certain things go suddenly very fast, know that it is one planet, one globe, one are only at the very beginning, in the kin-

20 ISSUE 5 Robert Muller BESHARA

dergarten, in our comprehension of how I thinklif e wants to live-nobody wants ions to constantly remind the political this is all going to work out. This is why to die, humanity doesn't want to die and man that we are part of the universe, that our society on this planet at this moment individuals don't want to die. The best we are part of the heavens. Religions is still pretty chaotic. You can have all strength to keep well and to keep alive and differ because each of them was sure they sorts of values about how this planet to keep humanity on an ascending path is had found the ultimate truth. Today we should be organised or how we should to love what we are doing, to love this need a global spirituality in which relig­ behave. The developers will want to con­ particular planet on which we are living, ions will find what they have in common, tinue developing; the people who produce to love this human family and love what despite their diversities. This is a very im­ atomic energy will continue to want to each of us does for its success in the portant dimension because in addition to produce atomic energy. They say they are universe. As Dante said, "it is love that our love for our planet I think there is an right, the environmentalists say they are holds the universe together". This is our even greater transcendence needed. It is to wrong. It is a period in history where the human way of being on the positive side consider ourselves as cosmic beings. My wrongs and the rights have never been so of evolution. This is very fundamental. body is made of cosmic matter, this earth numerous on a planetary scale. We are in All you have to do to see how the cosmos is cosmic matter, the sun is cosmic matter, the process of formulating an ethic that is operated is to see the relationship be­ when the sun explodes we will return concerns the relationship between the tween a mother and a child. A mother, of again somewhere in the universe as cos­ human species and this planet, and I be­ course, observes her child all the time. It's mic matter. So in addition to this physical lieve we will at one point achieve the same an extreme intelligence which is used to consciousness of our place in the universe understanding of this as we have achieved observe the child, but the mother doesn't we must remember that we are in the for our physical place in the universe. consider this to be a matter of intelligence. middle of the heavens, that we are in the It is something that goes way beyond - it process of cosmic evolution - that the is the total devotion, the total donation, universe, or cosmos, or God, has pro­ There is then a third consciousness which the total givingness of the individual, of duced on this particular planet something in my opinion is only beginning to come the person, in order that the child may which might be unique, but which in any to the fore in very, very small glimpses. It survive and progress. case is different from what you see on is almost non-existent, but it is going to be This is a cosmic function, and if we do other planets, namely life. From these life the next important phase. It is that the not translate this, if we do not begin to forms with their given perceptions we mere utilisation of our senses - what we love this planet and humanity as a mother learn thatour perceptions are sometimes see, what we hear, what we perceive, what loves a child, then we have not understood inferior to the perceptions of animals. I we touch, the comparison between all what the whole cosmos is expecting of us. certainly don't have the sense of smell of this, the mere intellectual understandings The cosmos is expecting us to succeed my dog, but we ha ve other perceptions through our brains - is not sufficient to and therefore it is time that, in addition to that he hasn't. He never looks at the stars, bring about the fulfillment of the human our physical consciousness and our men­ he is not curious about the stars. He is not species, of what that means and how it tal consciousness, we must also acquire a curious. When he has eaten he's happy, he should interrelate and how I should inter­ sentimental consciousness of our place in sleeps. But we now know, and we want to relate to it. There is one consciousness the universe. This is the understanding of know more about, our universe; and from which needs to be added which in my life the poet. I read yesterday a few pages of now on we must understand that we have I have considered always very fundamen­ Pablo Neruda - what this man says about a cosmic responsibility. tal. I don't know what one can call it. The the water, what this man says about the I always feel that as individuals we have most popular word for it is love. deserts, what this man says about the two tendencies. We are heavy beings, but It is the fundamental decision of the skies, it's all there; but this is an outflow we are also very light. For all practical human person and of humanity to love of the heart, not an outflow of his intelli­ purposes we are heavy - we are submitted your life, your relationship with this gence. It is infinitely more beautiful than to the law of attraction so we are always planet and with humanity. I can tell you what any scientist could ever write, and it earthbound. But at the same time we have very frankly that I would not have been is necessary to translate the knowledge of each of us within ourselves a light being, able to survive for 37 years in the UN if I the scientist into a higher dimension. a being that wants to see the universe, had not, at one point at least in my career, Years ago I wrote that you never hear wants to go back to this cosmic matter. We abandoned the exclusive use of knowl­ the word love in the UN, but now it is call it God, meditation, prayer. This re­ edge and intelligence and transcended it beginning to appear. There are more and membrance of our cosmic origins which by a decision to love what I was doing. In more seminars about the concept of love. we have in our internalfunc tioning gives other words, I adopted an almost poetic, In addition to the brain which we have and us the answers to our behaviour towards emotional attitude towards my work. I our global sensory capacities we are also this matter and to this particular planet. In loved my work in the same way my father beginning to acquire, I believe, a global a dialogue with God, or in a meditation loved to make hats; and I love this planet heart. with your self, you just speak to your and I love humanity. With this love, this cosmic being, and this cosmic being look­ type of attitude which permits you to ing at you and at this planet from the forgive so much when things are going The last consciousness which is still in the universal point of view will give you the wrong, you maintain yourself in a positive future is the highest of all, which is the answer. It never fails to give you answer attitude which is the fundamental ingredi­ spiritual or cosmic consciousness of our the right as to how you should behave. ent of life. place in the universe. We have the relig-

SPRING 1988 21 BESHARA Time's Glass Breaks

So this is more or less where we stand in an evolutionary way in the UN. Let me make a few final remarks about the future. As the world stands at present it looks like Time's Glass Breaks utter chaos and this, of course, is also produced and contributed to by people The Metaphysics of Vision in the Poetry of who want to seJI their values. They are unhappy iftheir values are not universally Vernon Watkins adopted. Everybody contributes in a cer­ tain manner to the chaos. This should not be something to discourage us, because in by Brian Keeble every transformation - personal, physi­ cal, chemical - you have, always, local chaos. There is no transformation that is totally smooth. If you transform, you TA LIESIN AND THE SPRING In a time of darkness the pattern of life change the disposition of matter, of vari­ OF VISION is restored ous groups, of various entities, of values. By men who make all transience seem So it is quite normal that in a period of an illusion fundamental transformation there should "/ tread the sand at the sea's edge, Through inward acts, acts correspond­ be chaos. sand of the hour-glass, ing to music. Let us not close our eyes and ears and do And the sand receives my footprint, Their works of love leave words that do nothingjust because there is chaos. On the singing: not end in the heart. " contrary, let us consider these contradic­ 'You are my nearmost, you who have tions in the UN as the way of proceeding. travelled the farthest, He still held rock. Then three drops fell It cannot be otherwise. There has to be And you are my constant, who have en­ on his fingers, friction first. There has to be the statement dured all vicissitudes And Future and Past converged in a of the purpose of all these cultures as they In the cradle of sea, Fate's hands, and lightning flash: come together, and if suddenly you don't the spinning waters. "It was we who instructed like a new way, don't quit. You will lose The measure of past grief is the meas­ Shakespeare, who fell upon Dante's if you quit. You have to continue until ure of present joy. eyes, finally from all these comparisons you Your tears, which have dried to Who opened to Blake the Minute Par­ find what is the right behaviour for this Chance, now spring from a secret. ticulars. We are the soul's rebirth. " planet in a real worldwide sense. Here time's glass breaks, and the world We are in the middle of evolution at is transfigured in music'." Taliesin answered: "I have encoun­ work. This is not a static society - this tered the irreducible diamond society has undergone incredible changes So sang the grains of sand, and while In the rock. Yet now it is over. Omnis­ since 1945, incredible to the point that it is they whirled to a pattern cience is not for man. amazing that we're still alive, that we Taliesin took refuge under the un­ Christen me, therefore, that my acts in have had no world war. One conclusion is fledged rock. the dark may be ju st, that all groups - nations, entities, relig­ He could not see in the cave, but And adapt my partial vision to the limi­ ions, whatever you have - if they want to groped with his hand, tation of time. " survive, will have to be cognisant of what And the rock he touched was the socket is going on. If you are not cognisant of the of all men's eyes, magnitude of change that is going on on And he touched the spring of vision. He this planet, if you fanatically stick to had the mind of a fish things which belong to the past, and if That moment. He knew the glitter of capitalism and communism stick fanati­ scale and fin. cally to the past, they will disappear. You He touched the pin of pivotal space, cannot stop evolution and the new evolu­ and he saw tion is our right relationship to this planet. One sandgrain balance the ages' cumulus cloud.

ROBERT MULLER is aformer Assistant Sec­ Earth's shadow hung. Taliesin said: retary-General of the UN. Offi ce of Economic "The penumbra of history is terrible. Matters. This address was fi rst Riven at the Life changes, breaks, scatters. There is World Goodwill Seminar in New York in 1985, andfirst printed as a World Goodwill Occa­ no sheet-anchor. sional Paper: October 1987. Time reigns; yet the kingdom of love is Further information on WORLD GOODWILL every moment, can be obtained from Suite 54, Whitehall Whose citizens do not age in each Court, London SW I A 2EF. other's eyes.

22 ISSUE 5 Brian Keeble BESHARA

"/ am not a nature poet, nor a descrip­ not to say that the objects of the natural Here, the 'permanence' of the Eternal is tive poet." world are so many 'subjective: phantoms: glimpsed through the fluid web of mul­ "/ am entirely concerned with meta- it is to question the ontological signifi­ tiple impressions registered by the discur­ physical truth." Veri/on Warkins cance ofappearances. Watkins' imagina­ sive mind. The continuity of each separate tive vision pre-supposes that there are apprehension remains paradoxical since, T he poetry of Vernon Watkins will many levels of reality or degrees of being, considered analytically, they are subject not reveal itself on purely literary each removed from ultimate Reality. The to the dying and renewal of each moment terms for it demands a type of knowledge diversity of the appearances of nature - of time. The relation between perceived and sympathy capable of acknowledging consistently symbolised in the poetry as and perceiver, at that level of cognition, that the multiplicity and transience of the the spectrum or 'music' of colours - can thus never be immutable. Watkins is natural world are underwritten by an eter­ forms the extreme reflexive limit of that employing here the law of analogy that nal unity of essence. At all times this Reality which is never comprehended sees reflected in the most transient of essential unity is the focal point and directly or wholly in man's natural expe­ objects the very archetype of Beauty it­ moment of orientation ofthe poet's elabo­ rience. self. The motif of fl ux embodying 'con­ rate poetic vision. It might be said that the Watkins, in his symbolism of Light, stancy' the poet had earlier explored in specific aim of his poetry is to show the Stream, Fire, Fountain and Music implic­ The Replica where the Waterfall, as a many and variegated ways in which time itly claims the act of poetic imagination as symbol of ontological renewal, creates is interfused with the eternal, and how the means by which man is able to per­ both the human and natural worlds are ceive the interpenetration of all levels of a perpetual music, and gives light themselves the expression of, and are shot reality so that the qualitative essences of In always fading from the measuring through with, the divine, the sacred. things may be expressed in a language mind. For Watkins art is the principle of all that uses the world of nature as its imme­ creation, so that man has the possibility of diate source of reference. Thus while all In 'Candle Constant', however, the sym­ recapitulating within himself, essentially, transience is an illusion, nonetheless it has bol of renewal is only tacitly expressed. all wisdom and all truth. Through his being in a moment of time, and so, as a The act of poetic vision itself is the intui­ praise of the joyousness of the Creation manifestation of the Divine Essence, is tive agent of that immanent and inex­ and through his exultation at the sacra­ never lost to the order of the Eternal.Th is haustible spirit of being 'established per­ ment of life, the poet returns what is symbolism is implicitl¥ present in nearly fect' in the seeming continuity of those human and what is created to its true all of the poems from first to last. The late individual, fleeting impressions. Only in source in the Eternal. sonnet 'Candle Constant', for instance, the cognitive act of imagination is the From the beginning we must be alert to perfectly concentrates the theme into an consubstantiality of 'candle light' and the fact that Watkins does not share in that expressive unit: archetypal Fire ('all flames') guaranteed, rejection of the qualitative dimension of for there it is the constant witness of every nature that has become the norm for the This man perceived that time could perception despite all igneous flames post-Cartesian world. This impoverish­ never catch having been extinguished. ment of reality that reduces all things The candle, where it flickered The recurrent symbol of Fire in relation exclusively to their material dimension, and declined. to the notion of intuitive perception is im­ in the terms of Watkins' poetry, must be Each flying thought a second thought portant, being central to Watkins' imagi­ 'conquered' if we are to understand his would snatch, native 'topology' where, as traditionally, constantly implied assertion that the natu­ Leaving the outline of the first behind; it is indicative of the one substance that is ral world is not the ultimately real. This is A certain aura from a blown-out match alike the soul's intelligence and the Intel­ Was lost, then re-established lect of Divine origin that is Cosmic activ­ in the mind. ity. The poet's 'constant fire' is none other Vernon Watkins was born in the min­ What, then, was constant? Still, beyond than the immediate 'fiery Breath of the ing town of Maesteg, in Wales in 1906. all doubt, Total Presence within us' (Coom­ He began writing poetry at the age of eight. The writing of poetry was to Allflames were gathered where araswamy). Watkins' ability to visualise absorb him almost totally fo r he wrote the last burnt out. what from the viewpoint of common no substantial work of prose. He was, experience is paradoxical but to the intui­ however, a prolific translator of po­ True for him also, certain notes tive perception becomes transparently etry fr om many languages. Aft er a would stay, clear stems directly from the 'revolution term at Oxford he rejected the aca­ demic world and began a lifelong The meaning of their own of sensibility' he underwent as a young working career as a bank clerk at supreme desire man. The change was irreversible and he Lloyds Bank in Swansea. As a poet he Established perfect where found himself unable ever again to write was encouraged by Yeats, published they died away. from the perspective of temporal dura­ by T.SEliot, and his close fr iendship Such music, not unlike that with Dylan Thomas, who thought him tion. On the evidence of the poems them­ the greater poet, is well known. He constant fire, selves, the intrinsic characteristic of al­ died in Seattle, as Visiting Professor Made Earth, as though afountain tered sensibility was an unequivocal ac­ of Poetry, in 1968. His 'Collected were to play, knowledgement of the transient nature of Poems' was published by Golgonooza Fresh for a thousand seasons, all knowledge derived from sensory expe­ Press in 1987. night and day. rience alone.

SPRING 1988 23 BESHARA Time's Glass Breaks

Watkins envisaged every terrestrial effect vision, of the interplay between the eter­ cal significance underlying its imagina­ as the mirror of a celestial cause. That is nal and the actual worlds. In his view the tive application. Just how consistent in the paradigmatic formula he strived to specific function of the poetic vocation is thi-s respect Watkins' use of the Light realise in poetic terms. There is a cosmo­ to effect a redemption of this incomplete symbol is we can discover by turning first logical principle involved in his belief that mode of perception. The subtle all-perva­ to its earliest use in Prime Colours where nothing of the generated world is created sive presence of this theme is woven into it appears in conjunction with the Foun­ in vain. The principle reveals the absurd­ the imaginative fabric of a great many tain motif. Here, Light, being in its origin ity of any notion that the Infinite Essence, poems. One such is 'Poets, In Whom and potentiality free ('innocent') of any in the process of its manifestation from Truth Lives' where it becomes the polar­ determination emanates (jets forth) from essence to substance, could give rise to ising core of a sustained lyricism of ex­ the primal source, and, like the waters (the anything superfluous. From a cosmologi­ ceptional delicacy, illustrated here by inexhaustible potentiality of cosmic pos­ cal perspective the Spirit's progressive these, the first and last two stanzas. sibility) of the Fountain break from a exteriorisation of Itself is a'de scent' from single transparent column into the multi­ the principial perfection into individu­ Poets, in whom truth lives plicity of the colours of the spectrum. The ation and limitation. Since created nature Until you say you know, variegated nature of these qualitative is the extreme limit of this process the Gone are the birds; the leaves essences, by their very hue, manifest material world represents the objective Drop, drift away, and snow ('replicate' in the terms of Watkins' po­ reflection of the Essence, and as such its Surrounds you where you sing, etic language) the beauty of the Divine Unity is the immediate symbol of the A silent ring. Love in the aspects of its Creation. There Divine Principle. That which explains is a symbolic resonance here that recalls Plato's view of the world as the fairest of * * * those traditional doctrines positing the creations also explains the profound rev­ Creation Itself as a primordial act of the erence accorded to the 'minute particu­ The abounding river stops. Divine Mercy that wanted its Perfection lars' in Watkins' vision. If, in their nega­ Time in aflash grows less to be known. The immediately relevant tive aspect, appearances are 'illusory', True than these glittering drops lines of the poem 'Prime Colours' form then in their positive aspect they are di­ Caught on a thread of glass the poem's final stanza: vine 'art '. Clearly, there can be no sepa­ Two frosty branches bear rate source of ontological manifestation In trance-like air. Bornof that mud, innocent to create what is 'other than' an expres­ light he sees, sion of the Spirit. As Traherne, whom Stoop; for the hollow ground The cornerstone in Watkins often echoes, put it, "Since there Integrity yet keeps crumbling masonries. cannot he two Gods the utmost endeavour True as a viol's sound His washed eyes, marvelling, of Almighty Power is the Image of God" . Though the musician sleeps. resurrect the mountain For Watkins, the natural law of renewal Strong is your trust; then wait: Where love's five colours leap into at the level of created nature becomes, at Your King comes late. light's fountain. the level of intuitive perception, the mir­ ror-image of Eternity itself. Thus the Here, moreover, we find a further exten­ poem conveys a sense of the beauty of sion to a belief of Watkins' poetic faith With that of Light, the motif of Time and nature as the magical 'play ' of Cosmic that the craft of poetry, in giving the Eternityhad, from first to last, a consum­ Power, all the more tellingly perhaps for measure to ecstatic vision, establishes the ing interest for Watkins. It is, with the its being informed by his belief in the true imaginative locus that permits a pre­ light symbolism, of cardinal importance power of art itself to hold sway over the sentiment of the cosmic correspondence to the metaphysics of his imaginative soul as mediator of the Eternal.If man did relating the archetypal essences to their vision. Its repeated appearance in the not already possess in his incorruptible embodiment in the corporeal world. The poetry is best understood in terms of the soul that for which he continually thirsts­ motifs that most elaborate this aspect of realisation that non-spatial, non-temporal a faculty of transmundane origin that the poet's faith are those of Light and intuition remains the condition for any permits him, in moments of visionary Time whose symbolic ramifications di­ interpretation ofthe terrestrial world. The perception, to see beyond the limits of rectly impinge upon the metaphysics of natural consequence of such a realisation individualised consciousness - then the his poetic vision. is that for those ' on whom time's burden degeneracy, loss and suffering that is so Although simply to equate Watkins' fa lls' the Real is perpetually 'absent' or indissolubly a part of 'time's wrong' symbol of Light with Divine Intelligence hidden. Just as we grasp the operation could never be redeemed. is to do less than justice to its contextual rather than the essential nature of retinal variety as expressed in the poems them­ perception by reference to its objects, so selves (the appearances of the motifs of we cannot grasp Reality itself, but only its The partiality of our sensuous involve­ 'music', 'white', 'lightning' and 'foun­ properties, in the discursive knowledge of ment in generated existence - our inabil­ tain', for instance, represent various any thing in its existential nature. For ity at the level of common awareness to do modes of the actualisation of the primal reflected in all created things, as the poet other than direct our thoughts towards essence of Light prior to any differentia­ wrote--jn 'The Replica', is the "image of

that which is by its very nature 'incon­ tion), such an equation provides a defini­ our life" - that world known to the senses stant' - forms the ground, in Watkins' tion which satisfies the basic metaphysi- which "lives by being consumed" and

24 ISSUE 5 Brian KeeblelLetters to the Editor BESHARA whose countless changes Accumulate to nothing but itself. Letters to the Editor

But when the organ of perception, that Dear Sir: Alison Yiangou replies: 'greatest light' of intuitive vision, tran­ In the review of the book 'Beyond scending all reference to accidents and Therapy'by Alison Yiangou in Issue 4 of Firstly may I thank Mrs MacDonald fo r properties having an anticipated future or BESHARA, concerning the compatibil­ drawing attention to this very important remembered past, perceives the 'interval ity of psychotherapy and a true spiritual point. Due to the limitations of space in of glory', then all division, particularity tradition, there is a sentence which, taken writing a short review I was confining my and mutability is conquered. Then, as the at face value, implies that the 'ego' is use of the term 'ego' to the way it is poet put it in 'Great Nights Returning'the necessarily an obstacle to spirituality, as commonly used in the majority of psycho­ soul knows the fire that first composed it, fo llows: " ... as most psychotherapies analytic theories, namely, referring to the the informing essence of the Eternal seek to satisfy and strengthen that which individuated sense of self as author of Mercy for the productions of Time. Here is the very obstacle to true spirituality - one's identity and agent of one's actions. is the theme as it appears at the close of the 'ego' - then the only sense in which It is the ego as thus understood whiCh the 'The Replica': one can speak of an influence is where the theraputic process commonly attempts to validity of psychotherapy itselfbegins to reinforce, and this is an ohstacle to spiri­ Yet to man alone, be effaced in the light of knowledge or ex­ tuality .. not in the sense that it is a thing in Moving in time, birth gives a timeless peri'ence gained fr om the tradition". itself, but rather that it is a concept which movement, It would be a pity to lose in misappre­ so completely pervades and dominates To taste the secret of the honeycomb hension a valid point made in this review, the person's knowledge of himself that it And pluck fr om night that blessing that that which is lower cannot encompass veils him fr om his true identity. which outweighs that which is higher, but that which is However,from the standpoint of know­ All calamities and griefs of time. higher does encompass and inform all ing the creature to he no other than Real­ There shines the one scene worthy within itself. The view that 'ego' is the ity, which is the standpoint of the great of his tears, "very obstacle to true spirituality" is spiritual traditions, then the 'f' of the per­ For in that dark the greatest fraught with difficulty, because it implies son assumes its true value of being a light was born that it is a thing in itself and is therefore in uniquely individuated expression of the Which, if man sees, then time need of removal. Attendant upon this one and only 'f' . The ego cannot be known is overthrown, view are all the ramifications of how to go in this way unless there is complete ad­ And afterwards all acts are qualified about this, which serve only to embroi­ mission and submission to the fa ct of an By knowledge of that interval of glory: der the realms of sleep in ignoring the ultimate and all-encompassing unity,for Musicfrom heaven, the raison d' etre of spirituality, that is, Real­ otherewise - and herein lies the danger to incomparable gift ity as It is, Itself. which I was trying to drawing attention - Of God to man, in every infant'S eyes The most complete understanding of there results only more and more subtle That vision which is ichor to the soul the situation is pointed to in Bulent Rauf's self-deception. Transmitted there by lightning majesty, address on Humility, an extract from It would have profound consequences The replica, reborn, of Christian love. which appeared in the same issue. There, fo r psychotherapy ifitwere to regard the he says that, "Again, one must be re­ ego fr om the point of view of its reality Clearly, this 'incomparable gift' is minded that 'passing away' does not rather than its veil. Suffice it to say that man's theomorphic nature so that Eternity mean complete obliteration of the '/' but were this the case, then Mr Claxton's is not 'distant' from us though in common simply the relegation of it to its true value, book may never have needed tobe written. experience we are 'far' from It. What its relative existence in immanence, but needs to be shattered is the illusory conti­ also its transmutation into relegation to nuity created by the unending series of the Oneness and Its Ipseity as Its own I, as transient projections which our psycho­ we see in the phrase 'I was a hidden Beshara Magazine welcomes physical existence throws upon the screen treasure and I loved to be known'''. One letters to the editor, comments of the Self. When 'time's glass breaks ' a of the implications here seems to be that and contributions from its new reality is not suddenly substituted for 'I'ness is isthmuseity, neither absent from the familiar one, but the 'breaking' re­ immanential or transcendent expression, readers. veals the transparency of phenomena it­ nor identified with one or the other, but in self to its luminous source beyond .the a 'place' of complete active dependence, Please write to : formal and particular nature of its reflec­ of 'no-otherness'. In this manner, the BESHARA Magazine tive surface. By the terms of the abso­ identity can be restored to the Singular 24 Sidney Street lutely Real the temporal world is but a and Indivisible that It is. Oxford OX4 3AG passing image of the Eternal Now. Dee MacDonald. by June 15th/or inclusion in Issue 6. This piece is extracted fr om a longer study. -

SPRING 1988 25 BESHARA Sufis of Andalusia BOOKS

Sufis of Andalusia

Peter Young introduces Dr R. W.J. Austin 's translation of Muhyiddin Ibn 'A rabi's work, which has just been re-issued.

ny piece of writing illuminates in The opening sketch presages well the rest his own interior, just as he himself is the two directions; it may be read at of the book: summary detailing of his origin. That onceA fo r the light it sheds on the subject 'Sufis of Andalusia' is partly autobio­ matter, and also, since it flows from the Oh (AI-Uryani) knew, immediately he graphical is precisely the same point, even author's hand, for the knowledge it con­ met me, the spiritual need that had though in some of the sketches the young fe rs of him. Those who have had the brought me to see him. Ibn 'Arabi describes himself as "a new­ benefit of a study of the Shaikh's work "He asked me, 'Are you firmly re­ comer to the way at the time" and in one will know that the writing can perform solved to follow Cod 's wa\'.?'. I instance he is corrected on a point of this combination since it is of man, and replied, 'The ser\'Ollt may resolve, hut dispute with a Shaikh by al -Khidr him­ man is of God: Man himself is his it is Cod Who decides the issue'. Then self' His part is sometimes to observe, at Author's book and may be read, for those he said to me. 'If you wif! shut out the other times complementing a viewpoint who can read, for the light he sheds on his worldfmm you, serer af! ties alld take with its correlative and very often allud­ origin. Alternatively, perhaps, he can be the Bounteous alone as your compan­ ing to a mystery. read simply for the benefits he confers, as ion, He wif! speak 10 you without the one might read a novel with no thought of need for allY intermediary'. I then o "One day, when I went to see this its author. But to combine between the pursued this course until I had suc­ Shaikh, he said to me, 'Be concerned two directions would be to see how the ceeded". with your own soul, my son'. I re plied author is detailed in his book and how the that when I had visited my Shaikh book illuminates the qualities of author­ The ultimate 'success' of Muhyiddin Ibn Ahmad he had told me to concern my­ ship. It can be that in this combination no 'Arabi, also mentioned in Or Austin's self with God: so I asked him to which essential diffe rence is perceived between invaluable introductory biography, is that one of them I should give heed. He said, author and book. This is particularly the he attained his own real ity of Seal of 'My son, 1 am concerned with my soul, case in the writings of a great saint such as Mohammedian Sainthood. This rank while he is concerned with his Lord. Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. As the saint is does not imply the termination of the line Each of 115 guides you in accordance paradigmatic of his origin, his books are of Mohammedian Saints, as the corre­ with his own spiritual state. May Cod exemplar of the paradigm that is himself. sponding rank of Seal of Prophets does. hless Ibn 'Abbas. and make me to reach Two works, the 'Ruh al-Quds' and the Rather, sainthood being an interior qual­ his eminence' . Such was his impartial­ 'Ourrat al Fakhirah', contain biographi­ ity, it is sealed in an interior way by the ity. cal sketches of some of the sheikhs and Seal being an interior summary of the "He was always very open and frank saints whom Ibn 'Arabi met during his realities of past, present and future saints with me, which only served to increase early life in Andalusia, and these have in the Mohammedian line. Hence is de­ my respect for him. I surprised him in been limpidly translated by Or R.W.J. rived another title proper to the Seal of that I maintained this formal attitude Austin in this collection entitled ' Sufis of Sainthood, that of 'Contemplator of towards him while he was so open with Andalusia'. Originally published by Ranks'. me. When he would return to the de­ George Alien Unwin, its return to com­ His qualifications for writing this col­ meanour of servanthood I, for my part, merial booksheJves through Beshara Pub­ lection are therefore immaculate, for the would then be open with him, The rea­ lications is, by those with a regard for Ibn ranks that these saints occupy are known son for this is a wondrous mystery 'Arabi, welcomed as one would welcome to him in knowing himself. His descrip­ which you will understand, my friend, a sailor home from sea, long overdue. tion of the various saints is the detailing of if you ponder upon it, if God will",

26 ISSUE 5 Peter Young BESHARA

There is many an encounter with dog­ matic theologians, doctors of law and From 'Nunah Fatimah pretentious people who are dealt with Bint Ibn al-Muthanna' according to their state, sometimes se­ verely, sometimes mildly, but always for She lived in Seville. When I met her, the sake of truth which, if they have the she was in her nineties and only ate the humility to accept, liberates them from scraps left by people at their doors. Al­ their oppressed and oppressing condition. though she was so old and ate so little, I was almost ashamed to look at her face o "A certain judge, one ' Abd al-Wahhab when I sat with her, it was so rosy and al-Azdi, a jurist from Alexandria, From 'Abu Ya'Qub Yusuf soft. Her own special chapter of the talked with me one day in the Sanctuary B. Yakhlaf al-Kumi' Quran was 'The Opening'. She once at Mecca. The Devil has instilled into said to me, "I was given 'The Opening' him the belief that the times were com­ After the prayer, the Shaikh suggested and 1 can wield its power in any matter pletely lacking in spiritual degrees (of that we all return to the town. He I wish". attainment) and that all claims to this mounted his horse and set off, while I ran I, together with two of my compan­ effect were fabrications and supersti­ alongside holding onto his stirrup. ions, built a hut of reeds for her to live tion. I therefore asked him how many Along the way he talked to me of the in. She used to say, "Of those who come lands belonged to the Muslims, to virtues and miracles of Abu Madyan. As to see me, 1 admire none more than lhn which he replied that they were very for myself, I was so absorbed by what he Al-'Arahi" . On being asked the reason many. Then I asked him how many of was telling me, looking up at him all the for this she replied. "The rest of you these lands he himself had visited, to time, that I was completely oblivious to come to me with part of yourselves, which he replied that he had been in six my surroundings. Suddenly he looked at leaving the other part of you occupied or seven of them. Then I asked him how me and smiled, and spurring his horse, with your other concerns,while Ihn al­ many people, in his opinion, lived in made me run more quickly to keep up 'Arahi is a consolation to me, fo r he these lands, to which he replied that with him. Then he stopped and said to comes with al! of himself· When he rises they were very many. Then I further me, "Look and see what you have Left up it is with all of himself and when he asked him which were in the majority, behind you l'" When I looked back I saw sits it is with his whoLe self. leaving the ones he himselfhad seen or those he that all the way was waist-high with nothing of himself elsewhere. That is had not seen, to which he replied that thorn bushesand the whole ground was how it should be on rhe Way." the majority were, without doubt, those covered with thorns.Then he told me to Although God offered to her His he had not seen. Then I laughed and look at my feet and my clothes, I looked Kingdoms, she refused, saying, "You said, 'How smitten and stupid is one and found not a single trace of thorns. are all, all else is inauspiciousfor me". who thinks he has seen many when he Then he said, "This is the result of the Her devotion to God was profound. has only seen afewandjudges the many spirituaL grace engendered by our talk­ Looking at her in a purely superficial hy the fe w. elevating such a judgement ing of Ahu Madyan; so persevere on the way one might have thought she was a to the status of an expert opinion. Surely Way, my boy, and you will surely fi nd simpleton, to which she would have any thinking he lie vel' would admit that salvation." Then he spurred his horse said that he who knows not his Lord is there might be one he hasn't seen even and left me behind. I learnt much from the real simpleton. She was indeed a from the fe w he thinks he has seen. and him. mercy to the world. that that one might he blessed with spiritual attainment. How then is it possihle to douht the ignorance of one who admits he has only seen a fe w countries and even fe wer people, and yet holds such a beLieF God causes such a one to perceive only the de.flcien­ cies of this world and none of rhe good, so rhat,judging by whar he has seen, he is wrerched in rhe sighr of God.'"

This book is a rich vein of ore, containing many treasures in potential, which even the unwary reader may discover. How much more is there for the reader who is prepared to dig for himself, or having read the lines, then to read between them?

SuJis of Andalusia was reissued in paperback by Beshara Publicmions in January 1988, by John Brass przce £7.50.

SPRING 1988 27 BESHARA The Ghost in the Atom

The Ghost in the Atom tion. The classical (and common-sense) view of a physical system - that it consists ed. P.C.W. Davies and J .R. Brown of particlesand fields with physical attrib­ Cambridge University Press 1986, reprinted 1987 utes having precise values = is replaced in quantum mechanics by a 'wave-function' P/back £6.50 which (roughly) represents the system as having many values for each physical Reviewed by Michael Cohen attribute. It is only at the moment ofobser­ vation that one of these values is 'chosen' so that just one of the possibilities repre­ sented by the wave-function is actualised. It is well-known that the twentieth cen­ aether' and the pattern on the screen is Furthermore, an accurate observation of tury development of quantum physics, formed by light waves from the two slits one attribute may preclude observation of so triumphantly successful in its predic­ interfering with each other. another - a principle embodied in tions of the behaviour of matter and en· In about 1900, experimental results of Heisenberg's fa mous Uncertainty Prin­ ergy, and so essential to modern technol­ Planck and others revealed this picture to ciple. ogy. has led also to startling philosophical be inadequate, and in 1905 Albert Ein· conclusions, seemingly opposed to any stein proposed the alternativetheory that common-sense notion of reality. light consists of particles. His view was Davies goes on to explain the main In the last decades this has led to an confirmed by later work and the particles schools of thought as to how quantum entire academic industry of ph ilosophers of light became known as photons. But mechanics should be interpreted. The examining the issues involved, although view still held by the majority of physi­ most physicists have been content to pur­ cists is the so-called Copenhagen infer­ sue their researches without regard to pretation of Niels Bohr. According to wider implications. However, renewed Bohr, quantum mechanics is merely a set attention has arisen on all sides as a result of rules for relating experimental obser­ of seminal experiments on the phenom­ vations, and any notion that an observa­ enum of 'non-locality' by the physicist tion is a passive description of a situation Alain Aspect in 1980. The enormous in­ external to the observer must be aban­ terest caused by these results stimulated a doned. What we have prior to observation number of semi-popular expositions, and is the wave function; ie. a nexus of possi­ in 1982 the BBC producer J.R. Brown bilities. For Bohr, it is not possible even to collaborated with the physicist and sci­ talk of the existence of an attribute until it ence writer. Professor Paul Davies, to pro­ has been measured by an observer. This duce a Radio 3 documentary on Aspect's interpretation clearly gives the act of Youngs Slit Experiment. experiments and their implications, in observation or measurement a central Electrons or photons fr om the source pass which Davies interviewed a number of position. But any measuring system is through two near-hy apertures in screen A physicists holding differing views on the itself a physical system, and so is subject and travel on to .w·ike screen 8, where their question. This book is taken from that rate of arrival is monitored. The ohserved to the laws of quantum mechanics. This programme and includes near-complete pattern of vp rying intensity indicates a wave leads to difficulties - the so-called 'quan­ transcripts of the interviews, preceded by intelference phenomenom. tum measurement problem' - which have a chapter written by Professor Davies not yet been resolved satisfactorily. even which introduces the subject for the gen­ adopting this 'particle' view made it for followers of Bohr. eral reader. impossible to explain Young's experi­ In addition, many physicists have re­ ment, especially when it was observed coiled from abandoning the classical view that the interfe rence pattern was formed of an external world of well-behaved In forty pages Davies sets the scene with even when the light beam was so dim that particles. Chief among these was Albert remarkable clarity. He explains how the only one photon at a time met the first Einstein. He did not want to discard quan­ present conceptual problems originated in screen. How could the photons in the light tum mechanics - he was one of its original the attempted interpretation of certain beam, moving randomly so each had an architects - but he regarded it as an incom­ classical experiments in the interference equal chance of passing through either plete theory, believing that underlying the of light. For example, in Young's two-slit slit, conspire with one another to produce wave-function description of nature there experiment of 1801, a beam of light is the interference pattern? is a deeper level of description that is passed through two slits in a screen and The accommodation of these difficul­ deterministic and observer-independent. finally reaches a second screen where it ties led to the formulation of quantum Such a theory has become known as a forms an image. An alternating pattern of mechanics when Niels Bohr was led to hidden-variables theory, the hidden vari­ light and dark stripes is observed on the abandon the idea that a subatomic particle ables being the hypothesised deeper level second screen. The nineteenth-century has a definite spatial position and other of description, not directly observable, in explanation of this result was that light physical attributes (mass, charge, mo­ termsof which the physical system can be consists of waves in the 'luminiferous mentum etc.) prior to any act of observa- objectively described. Einstein himself

28 ISSUE 5 The Ghost in the Atom BESHARA did not produce such a theory, but for some years continued a fierce debate with Bohr in an attempt to show the Copen­ McALLISTER hagen interpretation to be inconsistent. Davies gives an account of this cele­ brated dispute and then proceeds to de­ TECHNICAL SERVICES scribe recent developments. In 1965 1.S. Bell elaborated some of Einstein's ideas and proposed an experimental test to clar­ ify the interpretation of quantum mechan­ ics. The test exploits the fact that an obser­ Manufacturers of surface analytical vation made on a particle can, under cer­ instruments and devices tain circumstances, give information about a distant particle. Subsequently a number of experiments were performed, most successfully by Alain Aspect's group at Orsay in 1980-82. McAllister Technical Services The results show that any hidden-vari­ 2414 Sixth Street ables interpretation of quantum mechan­ Berkeley, California 94710 USA ics must allow for the possibility that an Phone: (415) 644-0707 event can influence instantaneously an­ other event far away in space - a feature Telex: 9102501666 (McAllister UQ) known as non-locality. Non-locality con­ tradicts the common-sense view, desired by Einstein and central to physics for centuries, that an event should only be M.R.C. able to influence the near-by region. It also appears to be counter to the special What you need to know theory of relativity, a corner-stone of When you need to know it modem science, which dictates that any effect cannot be transmitted through Commercial decisions rely on accurate and professionally assessed in­ space at a speed faster than that of light. fonnation at the right time. Before Aspect's results, hidden-vari­ ables theories had been developed by M.R.e. provides the infonnation and analysis combined in an unparal­ several workers, notably Louis de Broglie leled consultancy service. M.R.C. reports can cover any company, and David Bohm, and they do indeed en­ anywhere in the world, with special expertise in the shipping and oil compass non-locality. They are also industries. rather complex, and for this reason there has been renewed interest in a third ver­ M.R.C. provides an invaluable support to the decision makers at the sion of quantum mechanics - the many top of the market. universes interpretation, introduced by Shipping - Oil - Industrial Hugh Everett in 1957. In this, all the possibilities contained in the wave-func­ M.R.C tion occur, but in different universes. 115 Magdalen Road, Oxfo rd OX4 IRQ. England Thus in Young's experiment, at the Telephone.' (0865) 245908 Telex.' 875585 MRC OX Facsmile.· (0865) 722103 moment a particle meets the slits, the universe splits into two copies of itself, each containing a copy of the observer. In one universe the photon passes through one slit, and in the second universe commissioned KITCHENS through the other slit. by Everett's idea appealed to an influential minority of physicists, who saw in it a ELLIOTT & CO. simple way of recovering the notion of an No environment is identical. Each of our kitchens is uniquely conceived and external world. It also gives meaning to crafted to do justice to both client and �ome. Please telephone for an the wave-function of the entire universe, a appointment. necessary concept in cosmology which is problematic in other interpretations be­ Sherbome Gardens, Sherbome, Windrush (045 14) 522 cause the entire universe must necessarily We also sp ecialise in circular dining tables contain the observer. Not surprisingly,

SPRING 1988 29 BESHARA The Ghost in the Atom perhaps, many others have found One's final impression is that the similari­

Everett's ideas to be so bizarre as to be ties between the various interpretations - -- -- beyond comment. are more important than the apparent dif­ .•..+ •• ...•• ..., ferences. They all imply that the tangible +.+ .•..+ •• ...·.1... world of appearances has no self-stand­ ...... - The first of the interviews is with Alain ing, independent existence. In the Copen­ Aspect, in which he gives details about his hagen interpretation this follows from the experiment. The remaining interviewees active 'creating' function of observation, BESHARA are all theoreticians. John Bell gives the and in the various realist interpretations background to his work and expresses his by the proposition of a latent underlying PUBLICATIONS dissatisfaction with all present attempts to reality. The feature of non-locality serves The Slables, Sherborne, Nr Chelten­ make quantum mechanics secure. The to further emphasise these implications. ham, Glos GL54 3DZ England eminent American physicist O. Wheeler The interpretations diffe r in the various explains his temporary flirtation with the positions they assign to the conscious ob­ Sufis of Andalusia many-universes interpretation and his re­ server, but here again the difference cent interest in the quantum measurement seems not essential but rather one of view­ by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi problem. The late Sir Rudolf Peierls point. The interpretation that seeks most champions the Copenhagen interpretation completely to put the observer on the Translated by RWJ Austin unreservedly. David Deutsch explains his sidelines is that of the many-universes, version of the many-universes view, and and it is perhaps striking to consider One of Ibn ' Arabi's most imme­ suggests a possible future experimental Deutsch's experiment in that light. Also diately accessible works, 'Sufis test.( I) John Taylor describes the en­ pertinent is Peierl's suggestion at the end of Andalusia' consists of bio­ semble interpretation , in which quantum of his interview that the many-universes graphical sketches of some of the mechanics is regarded purely statistically. can be reconciled with the Copenhagen contemplatives and spiritual Finally, David Bohm and his co-worker interpretation by regarding the universes masters amongst whom he spent his early years. It brings to life Basil Hiley explain their reasons for hold­ as a 'dictionary of possibilities'. with great vividness a remark­ ing to a hidden-variables interpretation. As is well-known, the holistic implica­ able spiritual milieu and a group Each contributor is questioned inci­ tions of quantum mechanics have led of individuals who manifest su­ sively by Davies and the resulting diver­ many to consider connections with the perlative wisdom in their inten­ sity of views gives a better picture of the great mystical traditions, a thread that sity of devotion and service to current ferment in the fo undations of begins with Schrodinger's interest in Reality. physics than would be received from Indian mysticism. It would seem that the many a straightforward exposition. Par­ reconciliation of the different viewpoints Soft cover, 176pp, £7.50. ticularly noteworthy is the humility ex­ should result from taking seriously the pressed by several of the contributors standpoint of traditional metaphysics, (notably Wheeler and Bell) in emphasis­ which regards existence as many-layered, ADDRESSES ing how open and unresolved the situation each layer being a different degree of by Bulent Rauf IS. description of a principial, all-inclusive Certain themes recur throughout the Unity, in which the observer and the ob­ interviews. In several, Davies adopts the served find their identity, and which is all "These addresses are fo r those viewpoint of a hard-nosed physicist and that exists. (2) It is the great merit of the who want to come to understand asks whether there is any real meaning to present book to expose the need for such their relationship to Reality, what their purpose is and how the different interpretations, considering a synthesis, and to draw our attention to consequently they should pro­ that they have the same experimental the fact that after sixty years it has ceed... This is the publication of implications. Can we not regard quantum scarcely begun. what is already fo r the many who mechanics (and by implication, science in know the addresses, a classic of general) merely as a model for relating the esoteric literature, which should results of experimental observations, and (J) In what I confe ss I fo und the maddest part be read, re-read and read not look further? Bell, Deutsch and Bohm of the book, he suggests the construction of an again." all give essentially the same reply - that electronic superbrain which will split in two from Peter Young's Foreward as physicists they are driven by a desire to universes, then merge with itself af!,ain, then understand the world, which they wish to tell us about its observations! Soft cover, 72pp, £4.80 regard as objective. Furthermore, if sci­ (2) See To Suggest a Vernacular' by Bulent Rauf, Issue I of BESHARA . ence were conceived merely as the con­ Telephone enquiries; struction of algorithms for connecting Oxford (0865) 243406 A fo llow-up radio programme on the subject of observations, then the exercise of creative cosmology - concerningsuperstring theory - For personal orders in the UK, imagination by which new theories are please add 75p per book fo r post took place earlier this year and will appear as -. discovered would be stifled. Their motiva­ a book entitled 'Superstring Theory' (2 Vol­ and packing. Overseas and trade terms on tion, in short, is philosophical as much as umes) in June, also published by Cambridge application. practical. University Press.

30 ISSUE 5 Spiritual Hunger of the Modern Child BESHARA

The Spiritual Hunger of the Modern Child taught. Sp irituality is there, hut to keep it, just as to keep the body, you must fe ed it J. G. Bennett, Mario Montessori and others from birth ." (p54) This begs the crucial question: what are the spiritual needs? Claymont Communications, 1984. p/back, 220pp, £6.95 This is tackled by John Bennett in his in­ troduction, where he points out the need to Reviewed by Cecilia Twinch distinguish not only between spiritual and material needs but also between spiritual and psychic needs, which is much more difficult. he Spiritual Hunger of the Modern T Chi Id' comprises a series of ten lec­ He feels that psychic hunger arises from tures originally delivered in London in all kinds of emotional and intellectual 1961 under the auspices of the Institute for demands that satisfy our personal desires the Comparative Study of History, Phi­ and curiosity but these often disregard the losophy and the Sciences. There are con­ needs of others . Spiritual hunger, tributions from a wide variety of speakers, however, "starts with this necessity fo r us including Or Mario Montessori, son ofthe 10 'helong', 10 have a place, to fe el that we famous educationalist Maria Montessori; are not isolated, that there is something Rev. Adam Bittleson on Or Rudolf Steiner heyond our psyche which is not a stranger and the child; and representatives from the to us, which is not outside of us. And this Catholic, Jewish, Quaker and Buddhist quality in the spiritual need means that it faiths. There are also four pieces by Mr is a need that cannot he satisfi ed ...except John Bennett, who introduced the series, in relation to a Whole. in relation to a gave the final summing up and delivered reality that is more than ourselves." (p4 ) two further lectures - one on Gurdjieff' s Following this initial stirring, John approach and one on Subud. Bennett considers the spiritual need to The lectures vary in quality a great deal make sense of life - to know who we are, but several ideas worthy of thought are why we are here, why we have a duty to brought up, especially by John Bennett. live one way rather than another and why Since most of the contributors agree that it it matters. He connects this spiritual part of is not so much religious instruction that our nature with what he calls "the '/' of matters as the whole attitude and approach man, with his will and with the freedom 1. C. Bennell to life of those who care for and educate that is his most precious attrihute." Courlesy of Ben Bennell children, it is clear that this is an area One way that these distinctions can be where little advice of immediate practical focusse.d in our dealings with children is application can be agreed upon, save the For this, there needs to be recognition of illustrated by the presentation of morality. importance of putting spiritual values the different stages of childhood (gener­ When a child wants to know why he first. ally considered to be three in number, should or should not do something, is he The subtitle - "In our relationship with with major transitions occuring at about confronted with a morality of rewards and the young, what must we do to preserve the seven years and around puberty) and the punishments determined by cause and religious potential that is latent in every need for all those concerned to respond effect, or with a sense of obligation which child? " - draws out one of the main appropriately to the child's state of devel­ involves submission to an order beyond themes to emerge - that the innate spiritu­ opment. Where young children are con­ personal consequence? ality of the new-born, hiscloseness to God cerned, all contributors agree that relig­ The distinction between the psychic and which is demonstrated in his ability to ion or spirituality is 'caught not taught' - the spiritual is again emphasized by John engender love and a desire to serve, is and that it starts with simple things like Bennett when he talks of love. Whilst something to be preserved. Yet, at the developing honesty and sincerity. The acknowledging that the natural bonds of same time, the child will not be able to inherent quality of trust, in particular, love at a psychic level have their rightful reach his potential as perfect image of God which is so evident in small children place, he feels that if it goes no further unless he learns howto control and use the needs to be guarded and allowed to de­ parent and child will find difficulty in instruments at his disposal - the body and velop into a 'faith in' rather than a grafted adapting to the changes which take place the psychological faculties which depend on 'belief that' , and it is even felt that as a child grows up. Spiritual love, on the on it - and how to behave in a manner formal religious instruction at this stage other hand, is unconditional; it is non­ appropriate to this order of existence. This can lead to confusion as the child's under­ possessive and does not make demands, requires education, which as John Bennett standing grows. and its contagion can help the child, whose says " ...should not be done in such a way relationship to the parents mirrors the rela­ as to produce a complete fo rgetfulness of tionship of the parents to God, to develop whence we come, and whither we shall Mafio Montessori expresses the View, the love of God - "or rather participation return, and the reason fo r our presence held also by his mother and echoed by in the love with which God loves his crea­ here." (p I48) others, that, "Spirituality cannot be tion."

SPRING 1988 31 BESHARA Spiritual Hunger of the Modem Child

For those to whom all this may seem a viewpoint amongst the lecturers in the and yearningfor knowledge, his spiritual daunting and impossible task, John Ben­ matter of whether it is only necessary for hunger, is not merely due to lack but is an nett offers practical advice when he as­ the child to preserve and nourish his in­ e�ression of God's own love to be serts �hat this is not something beyond us, nate spiritual awareness, or whether, as known, which is endless. but starts with simple things. "It is more some believe, the child brings with him an Bennett speaks of this 'hereditary de­ important that parents should provide an additional burden which is called by some fect' in all four of his lectures, but as environment of trust fo r their children 'original sin' or 'hereditary defects'. The existing only at a psychic level. In his than that they should provide a condition Roman Catholic, Father Thwaites , be­ lecture on the Subud approach, he points of psychic stimulation." and he goes on to lieves that "but fo r that original sin. the out that "this condition cannot he dealt say that it is through the child's direct modern child would not know sp iritual with by the action of another psyche that experience of positive qualities expressed hunger. His appetite fo r God would be is also tainted with the same defect; we by his parents that he comes to a feeling perpetually and completely satisfied" cannot deal with the egoism of other for those qualities in his relationship with and sees formal baptism and repentance people when we are also tainted andfWed God. as the way of purifying the child. with the same" and he goes on to affirm And this highlights a point which There is a real sense in which this con­ that paying attention to God or the Real, is comes up often in this book -that perhaps cept of original sin could be misleading. what enables one to transcend all hin­ "you should not attempt to teach your From the esoteric point of view, original drances. "It is remembrance of that children anything ahout sp iritual reali­ sin does not exist; it is only in the exterior Source that turns me away fr om my own ties. hut devote yourselves to the worship that the negative effects of relativity are egoism. As I see it. worship of God is the of God. " (Bennett. p159). Far from abdi­ given credence, necessitating purifica­ means by which man can liherate himself cating responsibility, this attitude, if taken tion. The interior perfection is always from his own egoism because he is putting to its logical conclusion, would demon­ present and is the birthright and potential himselfin front of a Va lue. a Meaning. strate the utmost attention to the spiritual of everyone -and everyone has the choice that is so much greater than himselfthat hunger of the child. to claim it or not. Moreover, since man is his own attachment and obsession with It also overrides a certain divergence of created in the image of God, his thirsting himselfhecomes ridiculous." (p 159).

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32 ISSUE 5 The Mahabharata BESHARA

THEATRE

The Mahabharata acquires weapons of ultimate destruction. Both sides ask Krishna to help them, and Directed by Peter Brook he offers either himself alone and un­ anned, or all his warriors. Arjuna chooses Performed at the Los Angeles Festival, October 1987 Krishna alone. "Will the war take place in the battlefield or in my heart?" he asks Reviewed by Jane Townes him. Krishna answers, "I don 't see the difference" . The final section opens with the great sacred poem, the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna, facing members of his family who are now his enemies, cannot bring himself to fight against them. Krishna counsels him: "Victory and defeat, pleasure and pain are all the same ... Renunciation is not enough ...You must not stay without ac­ tion,for we are here to serve the world" . What follows is the extraordinary chess game of the war, as each side pits their powers, physical, magical, miraculous and spiritual, against the other. The battle ends in devastation, leaving eighteen million dead and the Pandavis almost alone in the world. Finally, come 36 years ]fit is not in the Mahahharata it is not ahout?" He replies: "It is ahout you .. if of peace and then the heroes' ascent to to he fO llnd anywhere in life" accord­ you listen carefuffy, at the end you wiff he paradise - 'the inconceivable region'. ing to Indian tradition. This great Hindu someone else" . Twelve hours later, this epic - the longest and possibly the oldest promise is fulfilled as the viewer has been poem in the world (it is fifteen times the taken through the creation, destruction This journey is not at all hard going. There length of the Bible and dates from the 5th and redemption of the world and/or man, is much joy and humour in the play, and it or 6th century BC) has been adapted for and nothing seems quite the same. is peopled with a cast of mesmeric charac­ the stage in a marathon nine and a half In fonn the epic concerns the violent ters, part Gods, part men, part animals, hour production by Peter Brook in what struggle between two groups of cousins elementals and spirits. People slip in and has been called one of the theatrical events over who should rule the kingdom. On the out of disguises and no-one is qu1te what of the century. one hand there are the five Pandavi broth­ they seem. Even the narrator becomes Peter Brook is a fonner director of the ers, sons of Gods. The first-born is involved, and at one point is obliged to Royal Shakespeare Company at Strat­ Yudhishthira, born to be king; he is the step in and impregnate two princesses to ford-upon-A von, who subsequently di­ son ofDharma, the God beyond whom all prevent the race, and his story, dying out. rected a stage adaptation of Attar's 'Con­ thought must stop. Another son is Arjuna, At the centre of the action, Krishna is ference of the Bird's' and a film of 'Meet­ bornto conquer; he is the son ofIndra, the the most imponderable of them all. He has ings with Remarkable Men' based on king of the Gods. The Pandavi 's cousins been recreated as he appears in the earliest Gurdj ieff's book. He and his collaborator, and rivals, the Kauravas, are the hundred versions of the Mahabharata; sometimes Jean-Claude Carriere, who wrote several sons of their blind uncle and aunt. The God-like, sometimes all too human, he of Buiiuel's film scripts, were introduced first section of the play deals with the may or may not be a reincarnation of to the Mahabharata by a Sanscrit professor fantastic origins of the protagonists and Vishnu. Brook and Carriere deliberately in Paris who recited tales from it to them culminates in the famous game of dice maintain the ambiguity and thus make over a period of five years. After several when, through trickery, the Pandavis lose clear who he really is. He becomes an­ trips to India, where the epic is still very their kingdom to the Kauravas. The noyed, makes mistakes, he cheats, grows much alive in daily life, and much rework­ mother of the Kauravas says to their fa­ tired and is finally killed accidentally. He ing of the script with Brook's international ther: "When one prefe rs one's own chil­ is also wise; he perfonns miracles and theatre group, they arrived at this first dren to the children of others, war is transfonns us all when he reveals his known adaptation of the whole story. near" . universal fonn to Arjuna before the battle. 'Mahabharata' means, by derivation, The second section tells of the He says: "Everything rests on me like 'The Great History of Mankind'. In the Pandavi 's exile in the forest and the inevi­ pearls on a thread. 1 am the earth's scent opening lines of the play, the narrator is table approach of war. The wise men seek and the fi re's heat. 1 am appearance and asked by a young boy "What is your poem ways to avert the war whilst each side disappearance. 1 am the trickster's hoax.

SPRING 1988 33 BESHARA The Mahabharata

[ am the radiance of all that shines. All one marathon session (however uncom­ of LA. The bill-board outside exhorted beingsfall in the night and all beings are fortable the seats!). Even the intervals, passers-by to "Come and meet the most brought back to daylight. [ have already when the cast members circulate with the interesting people you will ever meet on defeated all these warriors, but he who audience, become a part of the experi­ Melrose". It seemed an appropriate set­ thinks he can kill and he who thinks he can ence. ting in this city, which has provided the be killed are both mistaken. No weapon The Mahabharata is also a very beauti­ world with many of its dreams and fanta­ can pierce the life that informs you. nofire ful production. The stage design, the cos­ sies in modem times, offering it a chance can burn it; no water can drench it; no tumes, the props and music are evocative to see how original the forms derived wind can make it dry. Have no fe ar and rather than literal. The cast is interna­ from universal ideas really are, even when rise up . because [ love you". tional, coming from many different theat­ they are 2,500 years old. rical, cultural and religious backgrounds; the musicians include a Japanese percus­ Peter Brook calls this 'rough and holy sionist, a Danish jazz flautist and a Turk­ At the end of the play, Yudhishthira theatre'. To have such an epic made so ish Mevlevi ney player. This diversity ' climbs to the 'inconceivable region' and accessible and so compelling is a great seems quite fitting in a play with such a knocks on the gates of paradise. Twice he gift. He intends it to be a play of shared universal theme. is tested and twice he rejects the form of ritual rather than a spectacle and offers the Peter Brook's sense of the theatrical paradise presented to him. As the forms audience a chance to participate in the clearly extends to the staging of the pro­ recede, he is accepted and the narrator great questions of mankind. The sublime duction. It was first performed in French declares, "This was the final illusion". passages of the text, often already well­ in a quarry in Avignon and the first Eng­ The Mahabarata itself is a theatrical illu­ known, are experienced by the spectator lish language version was staged in a sion in a grand manner, and an illuminat­ as they are by the protagonists. When the boathouse in Zurich, the back wall of ing one. Wherever it is next staged in the ascetic tells the Kauravas' father what which was lowered at the end of the play world, it will be well worth a day's partici­ death is, or when Dharma questions to reveal the sun rising over the lake. In pation. Yudhishthira on the nature of things, the Los Angeles it was performed in one of meanings conveyed are so powerful be­ the original sound studios in Hollywood cause the audience discovers them with (where Mickey Mouse, amongst others, The Mahabharata is heing staged in the the heroes. The sense of shared ritual is made his first appearance) just off UK at Glasgow ji'om 13th April to 17th heightened by seeing the production in Melrose Avenue, the current 'hip' centre May 1988

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34 ISSUE 5 TheAge of Siileyman BESHARA EXHIBITIONS

Siileyman the Magnificent The British Museum 13th February to 30th May 1988 Reviewed by Christopher Ryan

ike a great wave, the armies of tings, the rewards are immeasurably L Siileyman II (1494- 1566), twelfth richer. sultan of the House of Osman, poured out Take as an example the lamp from the from Istanbul. Throughout much of the mosque of Sokollu Mehmet Pasha 16th century the history of three conti­ (cat.no. 152). Against a background glaze nents was dominated by the momentum of of deepest cobalt glow medallions and this extraordinary Ottoman empire, the blossoms in turquoise, white and red, the grandeur and eminence of which seemed perfect and unrepeatable colours of clas­ to be concentrated and reflected in the sic Iznik ceramics. Around its neck, in a actions of one man, the 'Grand Turk', white so pure it seems self illuminated, is Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. written the 'kelime-i-tevhid': 'la ilaha Aside from a brief interruption when ilallah, Mohammed rasulillah' (there is Sultan Bayazid I lost to Tamerlane at the no god but God, Mohammed is the battle of Ankara in 1402, successive gen­ Prophet of God). The character of the erations since had prepared the place for calligraphy is strong and certain, yet him. Mehmet II (1451-1512» , 'the Con­ expansive like the widening neck it orna­ queror', had brought an end to the Byzan­ ments. A wise and honest counsellor to tine Empire by capturing Constantinople Siileyman in the last years of his reign, in 1453. Mehmet's grandson, Selim I Sokollu Pasha, a slave from Bosnia, had (1512-1520), known as 'Yavuz' (mean­ risen to become commander of the army and Grand Vizier, holding the empire ing 'resolute', though often interpreted to Portrait of Siileyman. Anon. Vcnetian together during the rule of Suleyman's 'the Grim') was an uncompromising cam­ woodcut published by Mathio Pagani, paigner who consolidated the Ottoman Venice. c/550. Cat.No. 4a. Courtesy of the successor Selim II (who preferred poetry position in Asia, defeating the Shah of British Museum. and wine to government). The little Persia, taking Syria and Egypt, and bring­ mosque in Istanbul which bears his name, ing back to Istanbul the sacred relics of the armada of the Emperor Charles I, the Pope built by Mimar Sinan, can be found not far Prophet Mohammed, the outward sym­ and the Doge, under the flag of Admiral from the old Byzantine Hippodrome. bols of the Caliphate. Doria, were scattered by the much smaller Bulent Rauf wrote of it, "Perhaps the Si.ileymantook over the empire in 1520, Turkish fleet. most beautiful of the smaller mosques, it and his conquests more than doubled the It was in this atmosphere of expansion can be considered a gem in that it synthe­ area of the estates he had inherited. His and success that the Ottoman civilisation sises the idea of a mosque as an example, reign was of one victory after another, reached a height in its government and its a mean against which all mosques should defeating the armies of the Persian Shah arts, the impetus of which was to carry, in be measured like a yardstick fo r meas­ Tahmasp at Tabriz and Baghdad in the spite ofthe Empire 's later decline, into the ure." (J) east, and twice besieging Vienna, thus present century. Some of the most arresting of the ob­ ensuring even to the present day Turkey's jects arrayed here are the Imperial position in both Asia and Europe. Rhodes Tughras, the extraordinary illuminated was wrested from the Knights of St. John The organisers of'Siileyman the Magnifi­ seals or signatures of the Sultan which who after a long and bloody campaign cent' at the British Museum have chosen headed all his written commands and were allowed an honourable retirement well and with good measure.Technically edicts, all documents announcing gifts (only to returnand haunt SUleyman in his and artistically, the pieces shown here and grants, and all official and diplomatic old age in the terrible siege of Malta of rank among the world's finest. Taken in­ correspondence. Of these cat. no.9, which 1565, his most ignoble defeat). di vidually, the items of costume, calligra­ appears to be an exhortation in prayers His navies under Khair-ad-Din Bar­ phy, ceramics, weaponry, paintings and and praise to one of Si.ileyman's Grand barossa made the Mediterranean an Otto­ furniture, are ample evidence of the re­ Viziers, demands time and our full atten­ man lake, sweeping the Spaniards off the fined taste of the Ottomans in their tion: from the leaf-gold 'invocation' of Barbary Coast to the Straits of Gibraltar Golden Age. If, however, we allow our­ God's name descend finely traced scrolls and forcing them to develop their interests selves to be enticed to deeper investiga­ of flower patternsand foliate turnspour­ in the New World; and in the famous tion into the significance of some of these ing down in gilt and lapiz as fine rain Adriatic battle of Prevesa the combined pieces, placing them in their original set- scattered by a celestial hand. Wrapped

SPRING 1988 35 BESHARA TheAge of Slileyman within this mist, the strident curves and In Turkey to this day Slileyman is known ments - usually in their teens - they were strokes of the calligraphy scribe the as 'Kanuni' - the lawgiver - one aspect taken to Istanbul. Here they were scruti­ Sultan's name in full panoply of titles and among many in which he appears as a nised, and according to their own charac­ epithets, like some great battle galleon harmonic of his namesake, King Solo­ ter and ability, and irrespective of back­ declaring itself upon the main, leaving the mon. It seems that a strong sense ofjus tice ground or race, they were allotted to the destinies of men carved in the wake of its was innate in him, as this extract from a various departments of army and govern­ decrees below. letter to one of his commanders shows: ment. The most promising and the most A dramatic sketch by Melchior Lorchs pleasing to the eye were taken into the (cat.no. 7), carries the spirit of the time and "EI'ery I'irluc /lows from juslice. Whal­ Imperial Household. It was a rigorous and the place. Crossing the Golden Horn ever is done hy an unjusl person is an el'il life-long education to which they had to from Pera to the old city, one building in acl. Don' l he deceil'ed hy Ihe appearance submit both mind and body, but the best particular dominates the marvellous sky­ of Ihe officials 011 your slaif- and nel'er would rise to become generals and grand line which rises before us. On the highest employ in an official pOSI allyolle who is vIzIers. of the hills of what was once greed,l'for material possessions. hecause It was in this multi-national framework Constantine's New Rome, sits like a great Iher are Ihe ones who oppress Ihe com­ that the great achievements in art, litera­ king, majestic and benevolent upon his mon people whom God has elllmsled 10 ture and architecture were set. Slileyman throne, the mosque of Slileyman - the me. /n dealing wilh n/V soldiers alld sub­ himself was trained as a goldsmith, and Slileymaniye by the great architect Sinan jecls whom / hC/l'e placed in YOllr Irusl, was also, as were many of the sultans, an - with its attendant complex of schools. Ireal lhe YOllng as wl/lr childrell . Ihe old accomplished poet. He actively promoted library, kitchens for the poor, orphanages as your ownfalher. and Ihose YOllr age as the arts. His own 'Divan-i-Muhibbi' was and a cemetery containing the mausole­ your brolhers. "(2) copied by the best calligraphers in the ums of the sultan and his equivocal wife palace school with illuminations of the Roxelana. From its huge dome, its mag­ Innate though such a quality may bc, it highest quality (cat. nos. 30 and 31). His nitude restrained only by the four slender requires a certain kind of education to patronage of Mimar Sinan, the unrivalled pinions of its minarets. the smaller cupo­ draw it out and give it the expression it master of Ottoman architecture and him­ las of its surrounding courts descend as so deserves. Such an education was to be sel f Cl product of the slave system, is the many repercussions of a single order. It is found in the schools of the Ottoman Rul­ paradigm of effective cooperation be­ a fitting symbol of the theme. and an apt ing Institution, in which Slileyman would tween master and man - industrial rela­ reflection in the Ottoman system of the have enjoyed the best of tuition. In what tions par excellence! image of the Divine Viceregency, known was known as the 'devshirrne ' (the collec­ Just as his public life was often one of in Islam as the Caliphate (arabic: khalifa­ tion) a yearly levy of youths was taken high drama, so also the tragedy in his successor or viceregent). and described from the non-muslim families of the con­ private affairs at times reached thus in Genesis: "50 God crealed Mall ill quered lands of the empire. At an impres­ Shakespearean proportions. His own uxo­ His own image" and then "PUI him inlo sionable age. old enough to be straying riousness was matched by a jealous and Ihc garden ofEdcl1 10 drcss il and 10 kccp beyond the apron strings, but still young intriguing wi fe in Roxelana; his generos­ If enough not to have fo rmed other attach- ity by the greed and corruption of his

The Sii/ermaniye l'iewedfi'om the North-East hy Me/chior Lorchs Fienshurgensis. 1570. Cat. no. 7. Courtesy of the British Museum

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36 ISSUE 5 The Age of SUleyman BESHARA

Vizier Rustem Pasha, who, it is said, was the first in the system to accept a bribe, and thereby initiated the downfall of the Empire: and his selfless endeavour by the ambition of his daughter Mihrimah, Charity Rustem 's wife. Those closest to him seemed to conspire against him most. By the most devious means they forced his Link hand against Ibrahim, his childhood fr iend, later Grand Vizier and the best man in the Empire. He was framed on a We are pleased to treason charge and executed. Of his seven announce the creation sons, all but Selim predeceased him. Two of a company which will were executed, again on fa lse charges of Dish. cl550-70. CatNo.J39. Courtesy of the be trading as Charity disloyalty and rebellion. British Muse/lln. Link. Its purpose is to act as an insurance trinity, of the action of his father, Selim I, broker and national No appreciation of the Ottoman world who, fulfilling the prophecy concerning estate agency. Insur- would be complete without mentioning the tomb of Muhyiddin 'Ibn Arabi (that it ance covered will those people termed in the west 'sufi mas­ would be rediscovered "when the SIN (the include house, contents ters '- those sultans of the spirit who pre­ 'S' of Selim) shall enter the SHIN (the and motor insurance. ferred more often than not the humble 'Sh' of Damasc-i-Shams"), had a mosque The estate agents will garb of mendicants' robes to the lux ury of built around it when passing through place houses fo r sale cloth of gold , and the seclusion of distant Damascus on his Egyptian campaign in with local estate agents. mountain villages to the worldly gran­ 1516. deur of palaces by the Bosphorus. Hazreti At his investiture, every sultan was Uftade of Bursa and Sha'ban Wali of girded with the sword of the House of Kastamonu (3) are from this period. Osman, the symbol of his office, by the All profits will be SUleyman himself was sufficiently in awe head of the Mevlevi dervishes, a direct de­ covenanted to the of these 'Buyuklar', the 'Great Ones', and scendant of lelaluddin Rumi whilst the Beshara Trust, or an cognisant of their influence in affairs both sultan's bodyguard, the lanissaries, equal portion can be spiritual and mundane, to see to the resto­ aligned themselves to Hajji Bektash Wali, given to the Beshara ration of the tomb of Abdul Qadir Gilani counsellor of Orkhan, second sultan of the Trust and the charity of in Baghdad, and that of Mevlana lelalud­ empire. The Bektashi movement has had a the client's choice. din Rumi in Konya - a fitting corollary following throughout Anatolia since the perhaps, and appropriate completion in 14th century.

Whether our interest is for art's sake, a Applications are now love of history or simply an indefinable invited fo r insurance nostalgia for that grandeur and subtlety of cover (which, if pre- expression which seems so little apparent fe rred, may remain with in our present stage of civilisation, your exisitng insurance SUleyman the Magnificent, the age and company) and estate the exhibition, serves well to lead us to a agency services. � vision beyond the ordinary and the mun­ dane; a vision in which society itself, from j top to bottom, is seen to be the reflection of the image of the Divine Order; and where Please write to: JlE Man, in submission to Truth, and accord­ Paul Finnegan ing to Beauty, is the preserver and main­ Charity Link tainer of all he comes in contact with. It is 300 Balby Road said that the Caliph is the one who is Doncaster DN4 OQF completely responsible, and in SUleyman this responsibility was demonstrated with surpassing magnificence. Branchcause Ltd. trading as Charity Link. (I) A Vi sit to the Olloman Empire, May 1987. Directors: T. Pawloff, (Privately printed.) S. Kenner, C. Mark (2) Suleyman the Magnijicent Poet. Talat S. Halman, /stanhul,1987 3) Both students of Hadji Bayran of Ankara

SPRING 1988 37 BESHARA The Beshara Trust

Stanley Jaki will give two lectures on 'The Stillbirths and Birth of Science' and BESHARA TRUST NEWS 'Cosmology and Rei igion'. The Rever­ end Jaki, who won the Templeton Prize in 1987, is a Benedictine Monk and visiting Professor at Seton Hall University, USA. Robert Muller, fo rmer Assistant Secre­ n this first anniversary issue of conferences. In April, Adam Dupre tary-General of the United Nations, has I BESHARA it is interesting to look joined Paul Davies and John Polking­ also accepted to give a seminar sometime back over the past year to see how the horneon the platform at a conference on this year, dates yet to be arranged. work of the Beshara Trust has evolved. 'The Future of Religion' organised by The year has seen not only change and SAROS, and in May he will be speaking expansion for the Trust, notably with the at an lnterfaith Festival to be held at West­ addition of a new centre in Australia, but minster Cathedral Hall under the auspices also each of the different Beshara Centres of Cardinal Hume. Also in May, the Trust has witnessed a great strengthening of its will be taking a stand at the Festival of activities. Mind and Body in London and providing The Trust is now responsible for three a representative for the panel discussion main centres, in each of which the expres­ on the Saturday. In August, they have sion taken by Beshara is necessarily dif­ been invited to speak at an Interfaith fe rent in form , yet complementary. conference at the Tibetan Buddhist centre The Sherborne centre in Gloucester­ at Samye-Ling in Scotland. Chisholme shire concentrates on introductory The Beshara Trust is currently looking courses, and upon dialogue with other for new premises in the south of England Up until April, three courses were running approaches and disciplines through lec­ to replace the Sherborne Centre, whose at Chisholme. In addition to the Introduc­ tures and seminars by guest speakers. the lease expires in September. As a suit­ tory and Advanced 6-month courses, 10 Since they started in 1986, these latter able property may not be easy to find, it is days each month were devoted to the have proved to be a valuable forum for possible that premises will be rented for reading of Bulent Rauf's translation of the open debate on such issues as the wider the next year or so before purchasing. Ibn 'Arabi 's Fusus al-Hikam together understanding of the results of scientific with the commentary by Ismail Hakki \ h enquiry, and many eminent speakers have Bursevi. Without exception, all who were accepted the invitation to visit. privileged to attend these readings fo und Chisholme House in the Scottish bor­ that, to quote the Principal of the Beshara ders is the home of the Beshara School of School, Peter Young, "their I'alue is infi ­ Intensive Esoteric Education and remains nitely more than the alfention they were specialised for intensive courses. With able to bring to bear would merit" . increasing numbers of students attending In March Chisholme was honoured to the Introductory six month courses, and receive as a guest the Panchen Yudol with students who have completed long Lama, who is currently staying at the courses returning regularly for periods of Samye-Ling Centre. During his stay the study and conversation, it is now full to Panchen Lama, who is traditionally the Sherborne capacity for much of the year. head of the Tashi Lhumpo Monastery in In Australia, the centre at Canonach is The line-up for the 1988 Beshara Trust Tibet, addressed the students on Bud­ still in preparation, for although the prop­ Seminars is an exciting one. In February dhism and answered questions. erty has been bought and courses have Or John Barrow, Lecturer in Astronomy During the summer months, a pro­ been planned, there remains a great deal of at Sussex University and co-author of gramme of courses on many levels is work to be done before the intended 'The Cosmological Anthropic Principle ' planned, including introductory IO-day school can be established. gave a seminar on 'New Ideas in Cosmol­ courses; the Introductory six-month In addition, study groups are being held ogy', an extract from which will be fea­ course (which continues to attract stu­ throughout the U.K. and in a number of tured in the next issue of BESHARA. In dents from all over the world: this year, other countries, such as America, Holland May Keith Critchlow will give a seminar from Britain, America, Australia, Israel and Israel. In response to this increasingly on 'The Sacred Order'; and on 23rd June and Turkey); a one-month retreat course; international demand, the Beshara Trust Jonathon Porritt, Director of Friends of and for those who have completed the has co-opted three new Trustees respon­ the Earth, will give an evening lecture on long courses, readings of the Fusus and a sible for activities taking place under the 'Dimensions of Deep Ecology'. further continuous course along similar name of Beshara overseas. Christopher On 25th June Dr Arthur Peacock, lines to that run last summer. This further Shelley has been co-opted as Trustee for Director of the lan Ramsey Centre in course, which students can join at any America; John Metcalfe and Michael Oxford and author of 'God and the New point for any length of time, has made it Tieman for Australia. Biology: will discuss the points of conver­ particularly apparent that the process of The Trust has recently been asked to gence in science and theology; and from education which is expressed at Chish­ provide speakers for several meetings and 5th-7th August the Reverend Professor olme can have no end.

38 ISSUE 5 The Beshara Trust BESHARA

Trust representative, with special respon­ sibility for supervising the courses there. The property consists of 62 acres of The Beshara land and a small farmhouse capable of housing about eight people. The task of School of setting up the school is a large one, even at the level of providing the physical ameni­ Intensive Eso­ ties; an improved water supply will have to be arranged and additional accommo­ teric Education dation built from scratch before the first long intensive course can be run. However, several short introductory Courses Summer Canonach courses are planned for the summer and a small seminar programme is planned 1988 In October last year, this property near for July, including Rev. Trevor Moffat Yackandandah in the State of Victoria was on 'Truth and Illusion in Psychoanalysis Ten Day Introductory bought with the intention of establishing a - its relationship to religious experi­ Beshara School of Intensive Education in ence' and Jock Clutterbuck, lecturer at 30th May - 8th June Australia. Richard MacEwan will be the University of Melbourne, on the 16th July - 24th July emigrating with his family in July as the artist Roger Kemp. 27th August - 4th Sept 17th Sept - 25th Sept

REFLECTIONS ON THE MEANING OF PLACE One Month Retreat

3rd July - 31 st July Anne-Marie Morrissey

Weeks of Fusus al-Hikam "As one of" the Zen Masters had put it, at nature and ...allow us to be on the sUI/ace Readings first the disciple, his mind still entangled what we are in depth " (2J. In similar in the cosmic mirage, heholds around him vein, the Algerian Shaykh Ahmad Al­ 23rd April -1 st May objects such as mountains and trees and Alawi, in an autobiographical fragment, 14th May - 22nd May houses; then with the gaining of partial writes after being invited to settle in 18th June -26th June knowledge, mountains, trees and houses Tripoli. "I went fo r a short walk around fa de from sight; hut lastly having arrived the district and fo und myself very at­ at complete understanding, the man, no tracted hy that neighhourhood as if" it longer a disciple, again heholds moun­ corresponded to something in my /10- The 17th 6-month residen­ tains and trees and houses, but this time ture" (3 J. tial course will start on without the superimposition of" illusion." Here sentiment and place are inextrica­ October 1st 1988. (I) bly linked, and the perception of the es­ For the seeker after truth, certain places sential qualities of a place originates in can be special. Exoteric religions have conjunction with the innermost self. It Application fo rms and a always had particular places which have follows that whether we feel at home or prospectus, plus information performed an invaluable function for estranged, much of the cause can be found and booking fo r all courses, believers, and mystics in all ages have within ourselves; fe elings of distance may be obtained from: found inspiration through contemplation from our 'spiritual home' are expressions of natural beauty orthe nurturing environ­ of an interior state. In his Fusus al-Hikam, The Secretary ment of a cloister or retreat. Ibn 'Arabi writes that, "distance and The Beshara School of Intensive Recently I spent some time at Can­ closeness are two qualify ing orders, Esoteric Education onach, the site of the Beshara Australia where closeness is related to certainty Chisholme House School, and I was struck by a special and application, and distance is related to Roberton quality beyond that fleetingly appre­ the lack of this and to deviation" (4 J. Nr. Hawick hended by the senses in the quiet, the Roxburghshire TD9 7PH sound of running water, the night sky. A So if the perception of the qualities of Scotland noted esotericist of the 20th century, intimacy and beauty originates in the self, Tel: Borthwick Brae (045 088) Frithjof Schuon, states that we love some­ can those qualities be limited to a place? 215. thing because it causes us to experience The Divine Promise assures us that the feelings "that are in conformity with our Divine response "[ am present" is always

SPRING 1988 39 BESHARA The Beshara Trust/Notes on Contributors

there (5). The implications of that prom­ ise, and the ability to hear the response, The Beshara Trust have been expressed by many in different ways. A North African Shaykh, Zarruq, referred to this truth when he said, "We do Beshara Sherborne The Beshara Foundation not care where we are so long as we are Stable Block PO Box 42283, numbered amongst the Beloved" . A fe l­ Sherborne, Nr. Cheltenham San Francisco low student on one of the Beshara courses Gloucestershire GL54 3DZ, UK California94 101, USA once likened it to, "walking not through a Tel: Windrush (045 14) 448 garden, but with a garden ". This is not Beshara Australia just an intellectual apprehension, it is The Beshara School of Intensive Canonach R.M.B. 2060 actually perceived in the physical. In Esoteric Education Bells Flat Road other words, the physical becomes an Chisholme House Yackandandah expression of interior certainty. Roxburghshire, Scotland Victoria 3749 Some places, for example wilderness Tel: Borthwick Brae (045 088) 215 Australia areas, require only a receptive apprecia­ Details of local groups from Beshara Sherborne tion of the beauty and grandeur they rep­ resent. Other places rely on human en­ deavour for the expansion of their quali­ ties. Chisholme was just such a place; the NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS beauriful physical setting becoming, through the efforts of many over the years, Jane Clark studied engineering and Martin Notcutt grew up in South Africa also a place of spiritual orientation. Can­ physics. She now works as a marketing and came to England in 1972. He is a onach, too, is a beautiful setting, and consultant and is editor of Beshara Maga­ Trustee of the Beshara Trust and currently much effort has been, and will be, put into zine. works as a company analyst. it. The physical labour, the financial con­ tributions, the emotional commitment Or Michael Cohen obtained a PhD in Ted Pawloff was educated in France, will establish its sensible beauty. God Mathematics at Newcastle in 1978. He Austria and UK. He is currently .Manag­ willing, the spiritual effort will make it a has studied on the courses at the Beshara ing Director of the Beshara Press. special place. Schools and currently teaches Mathemat­ Bayazid Bestami once wrote, "Wher­ ics in London. Christopher Ryan is a free-lance jour­ ever God is constantly remembered, that nalist who lives in Cambridge. He is a Di­ is paradise, and all talk carried on there is Brian Keeble has contributed to many rector of the Chisholme Institute. more worthy than the greatest secret told journals. He was a founder editor of under the tree in paradise" (6). One can 'Temenos' and has published a selection Or Michael ShalIis is an astrophysicist say that place actually takes its meaning of Eric Gill's prose called ' A Holy Tradi­ and a lecturer in the Department of Exter­ from the Zikr that happens there, and this tion of Working'. He is the publisher of nal Studies at the University of Oxford. is the real meaning of 'in', to be 'in God'. Golgonooza Press books and is currently He is the author of several books, includ­ For the lover ofGod, the only 'place' is in editing a collection of the unpublished ing 'Silicon Idol' (Oxford University the Ipseity, a situation intimated by Asiya, essays of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Press, 1984) and 'On Time'(Pelican, the wife of Pharoah, in her prayer, "Near 1983) You, a house in Paradise" , thus, as Ibn Anne-Marie Morrissey is a child-care 'Arabi purs it (6), " ...giving priority to trainee instructor in Sydney, Australia. CeciIia Twinch (M.A.Cantab) gained a Him over the house." She has attended several courses at certificate of Education from the Froebel Beshara Sherborne and Chisholme. She is Institute. She has three children and secretary for the Australian branch of the works as a teacher in Ipswich. (I) The Way and the Mountain by Marco Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. Pallis, published by Peter Owen. Jane Townes is an architect who studied (2) Esotericism as Principal and as Way, Robert Muller is a distinguished author at the Architectural Association. She now Frithjof Schuon. Perennial Books. and worldwide lecturer who recently re­ lives in Los Angeles. (3) A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century by tired as Assistant Secretary-General of Martin Lings, Alien and Unwin. the United Nations after a career spanning Peter Yiangou studied Architecture in (4) Fusus al-Hikam, Chapter on Job. Pri­ more than 35 years. He was responsible Durban and at the Architectural Associa­ vately printed. Beshara School of Intensive for organising the fortieth anni versary tion, is a member of the RIBA and now Esoteric Education. celebrations for the United Nations and is practices in the Cotswolds. He is a Trustee (5) The Divine Promise is "Invite Me and I the Chancellor of the United Nations of the Beshara Trust. shall answer you". (6) Altar's Memoirs of Saints, trans. Behari. University for Peace in Costa Rica. Re­ Ashraf Lahore. cent publications include 'New Genesis: Peter Young M.A.(Cantab) is the Princi­ (7) FLlsLls al-Hikam, as (4), Chapter on John. Shaping a Global Spirituality ' (Dou­ pal of the Beshara School at Chisholme bleday 1984) and 'What War Taught Me House. About Peace' (Doubleday 1985).

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