Annual Report 2013–14


Welcome to the Beshara Trust annual report, which reflects the current work of the Trust and illustrates how the Trust has grown in its activities in the last year building on the work of previous years. The Trust is supported entirely by philanthropic donations and voluntary work by people supportive of its aims. This has enabled the Trust to initiate and support events, collaborate with like-minded groups and actively support the work of the Beshara School.


AGM – July 2014
The Beshara Trust AGM was held this year at Chisholme House. There were several changes of Trustees, with the retirement of the Chairman of 6 years, Elizabeth Roberts, and the election of  the new Chair, Gill Williams. Michael Tiernan resigned and Martin Lam was elected to join the Trustees. Read the minutes

Beshara Lecture 2014:  “A Heart Capable of Every Form: atheism, agnosticism and belief”

In this fascinating lecture Jane Carroll looked at atheism, agnosticism and belief not as incompatible positions from which to view the world and ourselves but rather as different aspects of a single vision which shifts according to the context. Her lecture was not billed as a philosophical or theological review but a personal response to how these positions find resonance in our own lives where meanings arrive and disappear as circumstances change.

In particular Jane set out to imagine how radical changes to the understanding of the world have impacted personal belief by putting ourselves in the position of those who first encountered the changes. Scientific advances from the 19th century onwards have repeatedly challenged religious belief. The response of Modernism in all its cultural forms has shown a way to re-envision a world without fixed meaning by itself challenging our means of perception.

Using the progression through a few examples of 20th century art she traced the unfolding of a process of engaging with reality which requires continual questioning and the relinquishment of the requirement for answers. These cultural challenges also reflect the demands of modern society to re-imagine human relations in a more socially just way if we are not to fall into constant division.

The recent plethora of books and articles on atheism, the ubiquitous debates about the compatibility of science and religion and the increasing number, according the surveys, of the religiously unaffiliated have shown how necessary it is to understand belief in a more profound way if we are not to abandon it entirely as delusional. The accusation amongst popular atheists that religious belief is nothing but a creation in the imagination of the believer finds full agreement from a mystical thinker such as Ibn ‘Arabi.

Looking at Ibn ‘Arabi’s understanding of the imagination as the realm where meanings present themselves by continually appearing and disappearing and his invitation to a point of view which is not fixed, but continually recognizing reality as it appears at each moment, we find a reconciliation of the points of view of atheism, agnosticism and belief. It demands a radical cleansing of the self from fixed forms of belief for which religion, science and art can all offer help if understood from a single perspective.

Jane delivered her lecture to audiences in London, Edinburgh and at Chisholme House. It was much appreciated by atheists, agnostics and believers alike.

See the website for video recordings of the full hour lecture and an abbreviated 40 minute version given as keynote address to a Talk Forum in Edinburgh. Here panellists included Robin McAlpine, Director of the Jimmy Reid Institute and Rt Rev Brian Smith, formerly Bishop of Edinburgh.

Events in London 2013-14

Seminars at the October Gallery
The seminars take place on Saturday afternoons and usually attract about 20 people. The aim is to make them as interactive and participatory as possible.

In 2013 five seminars were held with topics ranging from Sacred Geometry to the poetry of Hallaj.

In April, May & June 2014 three seminars were held under the general title of “Whatever may happen the man of wisdom will not be caught up in any one definite belief because he is wise unto himself.” The subject was directly inspired by Jane Carroll’s Beshara Lecture. The textual material for the seminars was mainly drawn from Rumi and Ibn ‘Arabi, particularly extracts from the “Kernel of the Kernel.”

These seminars have attracted an enthusiastic audience, and the level of participation and quality of comment have been high.

As there was such a positive and enthusiastic response to the summer series of seminars it has been decided to continue with an autumn series, in September, October and November. There has been a rich diversity of events in London and there is an intention to develop a continuing thread for those that attend, as well as each event standing in its own right. The autumn series continues with the overarching theme of “being wise unto yourself” with a particular emphasis on exploring the meaning of “sensibility” according to Osman Fazli, “Man does not possess anything else but his sensibilities as his real organ of intelligence...” See the events calendar.

It is hoped to explore this in reference to metaphysics and relevant readings, poetry and in ourselves with the continuing intention of developing a quality of  conversation.

We intend to move on from these seminars to a study group on the Kernel of the Kernel in early 2015. Other seminar topics are being explored but it is unlikely there will be any of these before next year.

A number of people who have not been able to attend a seminar have asked if it would be possible to make some sort of record. Recording the seminars has been previously discussed but decided against. However there is now a “Beshara London” Facebook page designed as a forum for conversation about Beshara events in London and related matters. This page has been used so far for some appreciative messages from seminar participants and for notices of seminars, but not much else. A report on future seminars will be put up on this page, together possibly with links to some study material. Material will be made accessible to those who don’t use  facebook.

Study Group
In 2013 Stephen Hirtenstein asked if there was interest in trialling the new translation of the chapter on Adam from the Fusus being done by himself, C. Twinch and J. Clark. The chapter was studied by a group of about 10 people in November-December 2013. The feedback was very positive.

Discovering Unity in London
The Beshara Trust is pleased to support the Beshara School’s upcoming ‘Discovering Unity’ course. The Trust has funded an initial event introducing the course in London and publicized the course through the Trust mailing list. The course is being held over 7 weeks on Wednesday evenings starting 1st October 2014.

London Seminars at the October Gallery, 2013-14
April 2013, The Wisdom of Solomon, with Carolyn & John Markson-Brown
May 2013, The Poetry of Uftade, with Michael Cohen
June 2013, The Poetry of Hallaj, with Stephen Hirtenstein
Oct 2013, Geometry: Sacred Art and Symbolic language, with Tom Bree
Nov 2013, Religion and Spirituality: The Inevitable Conflict, with Avi Abadi
April 2014, Whatever may happen the man of wisdom will not be caught up in any one definite belief because he is wise unto himself, with David Hornsby & Janet Bowers
May 2014, Whatever may happen the man of wisdom will not be caught up in any one definite belief because he is wise unto himself: The Culture of the Spirit, with Janet Bowers & Michael Cohen
June 2014, Whatever may happen the man of wisdom will not be caught up in any one definite belief because he is wise unto himself: Journeying in God, with Michael Cohen & David Hornsby                                                                                                                           

UPCOMING EVENT:
Film premiere: ‘Looking for Muhyiddin’ by Nacer Khemir
To be held at SOAS on Saturday 29th November 2014.
Sponsored by Wallada Production with the Beshara Trust and the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society.
Bookings and more details


Events in Bristol

Discovering Unity
This evening course was held during June-July 2014 and facilitated by Peter Yiangou. There were 6 students. The Trust supported this course with funding.

Seminars
During the period Sept. 2013 to April 2014 a series of seminars were held at Hamilton House, a community centre in Bristol. More seminars are planned for October, November and December 2014, given by Muriel Mauffroy, Peter Yiangou and Aaron Cass (see Events calendar). These were organised by Sarah Malone, with help from Peter Yiangou and Michael Cohen. The seminars were initially publicised by leaflets and some advertising. A mailing list of 53 people has now been established. The number of attendees at seminars varies from about 8 to 15. They usually include a few people who have previous acquaintance with Beshara, but the majority are new and from diverse backgrounds. The age-range is wide. The younger participants are often students; Hamilton House is in a university area. The quality of conversation at the seminars has been high. The Trust has paid for room hire partly offset by donations, and also for some advertising.

List of seminars to date
Sept 2013, Rumi in the Present, with Peter Yiangou
Oct 2013, Know Yourself, with Cecilia Twinch
9 Nov 2013, Ibn ‘Arabi on Human Happiness, Jane Clark
30 Nov 2013, The Vision of Rumi’s Masnavi, with Alan Williams
Jan 2014, The Poetry of Uftade, with Michael Cohen
Feb 2014, Psychotherapy and the Unity of Being, with Janet Bowers
March 2014, Some mystical quatrains, with Jane Clark
April 2014, Religion vs. Spirituality, with Avi Abadi
Sept 2014, Whatever may happen the man of wisdom will not be caught up in any one definite belief because he is wise unto himself, with Michael Cohen

Events in Edinburgh

There has been a steady increase in Beshara events in Edinburgh over the past couple of years. This has especially been the case during this past year with the Happiness Conference, the Beshara Lecture using the Talk Forum format to involve other well-known speakers, as well as several Discovering Unity courses run by the Beshara School. In addition The Salisbury Centre has become available as a venue.

It seemed a good idea to draw all this and other activity into a common programme and to form a local group in Edinburgh to take this forward. For this purpose eight of us met at The Salisbury Centre earlier this summer and agreed to work on a programme leaflet for the coming autumn/winter period for events being held at The Salisbury Centre.

Events include:
• Discovering Unity course, Oct-Nov 2014
• Monthly Discovering Unity follow-on group (led by Martha Rafferty)
• Monthly Rumi Study group (led by Shamsuddin Antle)
• Monthly zikr
• Series of 6 seminars, Nov 2014 – March 2015

  • Religion vs. Spirituality: the inevitable conflict, with Avi Abadi
  • "You thought yourself a part, small; whereas in you there is a universe, the greatest." Hazreti Ali, with Janet Bowers
  • Ibn ‘Arabi: The Journey of Transformation, with Cecilia Twinch
  • Rumi in the present: is Rumi a benchmark for contemporary spirituality? with Peter Yiangou
  • A Framework for Tolerance, with Jane Clark
  • Seminar with Stephen Hirtenstein (to be announced)

The seminars are organised and sponsored by the Beshara Trust (see events calendar)


Happiness, Health & Wellbeing
Edinburgh Conference (October 2013)
Last autumn the Beshara Trust organised a joint conference at The Sanctuary, George IV Bridge in Edinburgh together with EICSP (Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace) entitled ‘Happiness, wellbeing and health’. The subject matter took up the theme of the first ever World Happiness Report published in 2012 by the Earth Institute. This followed from the UN General assembly’s suggestion to its member states that they should in future give more attention to this subject of happiness in their public policy making.  The Report and the Scottish Happiness Index provided the context for the event.

Our conference began on Friday evening with a Talk/Forum event where a keynote speaker and 3 panellists introduced the topic and started the dialogue. The Saturday looked at happiness, health and wellbeing from the perspectives of spirituality, psychotherapy and education. The event also included cultural and artistic expressions of the same.

There was an extraordinarily varied and interesting line-up of speakers and presenters - for full details and to listen to the audio, click here

This was our first experience of working in partnership with another organisation on such a venture. We learned a lot, both about what worked well and what could be improved next time, and had some very good feedback. It was also an excellent experience in networking.


The Fez Festival of Sufi Culture (April 2014)
Elizabeth Roberts and Janet Bowers attended the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture, a 7-day event devoted entirely to the thought of Ibn ‘Arabi.
Read the full report


The Angela Culme-Seymour Fund
In 2014 the Trust has allocated £1500 to support the work of the Beshara Development Office (BDO) with the production and promotion of new study and learning materials, such as the Developing Unity courses which are now running worldwide. These courses have received positive feedback from participants and there are requests for follow on study material, which are currently under development by the BDO.

In 2013 the fund sponsored the MIAS Young Writer’s Award 2013. Elizabeth Roberts was invited to be on the judges’ panel. More details


Trademark
The name Beshara has been registered as a trademark in the UK by the Beshara Trust. This was agreed with the Principal and worked on jointly by representatives of the Trust and Chisholme Institute.

The aim in doing so was to safeguard the use of the name in so far as this is possible. Benefits of registering a trademark are that no other group or organisation can legally use the name within the categories listed below. Equally important no-one else can take out a trademark on the name Beshara and then claim that we cannot use it.

The categories under which it is registered are:

Class 16
• Printed publications of a spiritual and philosophical nature involving enquiry into the Unity of Existence and self knowledge in relation to this.

Class 41
• Organising of classes, study groups, seminars, symposia and conferences. The provision of Educational services and courses. The provision of electronic publications (not downloadable), Publishing, Publishing of electronic publications.
• The content of all of the aforementioned concern a spiritual and philosophical enquiry based on an understanding of the Unity of Existence and self knowledge in relation to this.

Class 42
• Design services.

Training Day
Last October Mhairi Macmillan kindly agreed to lead the trustees in a training day. The aim was to foster communication and understanding between the Trustees (many of our meetings happen on the phone through Conference call so it is always a treat to meet face to face together). The specific agenda was to clarify our guiding principles and to plan ahead in the light of these.

Guiding principles
Our key guiding principle in recent years has been to learn better how to work collectively in reaching decisions and to take individual responsibility for decisions made. This is in fact what every charitable trust in the country is expected to do and also echoes the will in Beshara to consult among ourselves in establishing a shared ‘platform of knowledge’ that is not reliant on individual teachers.

Practically speaking the Trust initiates and supports talks, seminars, and events in line with its aims and actively supports the education of the Beshara School. This includes:

• Initiating: being proactive & responsive in developing the public face of Beshara eg. organising new events
• Facilitating: encouraging/supporting others to take the initiative with organising eg. talks, seminars, public events, publications, short courses.
• Collaborating: network/collaborate with other like-minded groups or organisations.

Looking ahead to the future
The way in which the Trustees agreed to take these principles forward in the coming year is to:
• Find new trustees
• Have an open meeting as part of the AGM
• Continue to support and/or initiate events across London, Bristol & Edinburgh
• Work with the Beshara Development Office
• Involve more people in the work of the Trust eg. trustees, co-opted trustees, form working groups
• Develop connections with other like-minded groups / organisations
• Increase public understanding of what the Trust does eg. open meetings, website, publicity
• Continued training for trustees as necessary


Financial Report 2013–2014