Selected Readings

Some of these texts are studied on courses at the Beshara School. All affirm the perspective of the unity of being from within their particular traditions. 

Ibn 'Arabi: Theophany of Perfection

An exquisite ode to love. The language of union doesn’t come any better than this!
Read the poem

Ibn 'Arabi / Balyani: Know Yourself

This short paper is a clear explanation of what unity of existence means, in the context of self-knowledge.
Read an extract

Bulent Rauf: Addresses

Many of these Addresses were written as advice and reminders to students at the Beshara School. They speak of many topics including union, humility, sentiment and prayer. 
Bulent Rauf was instrumental in the founding of the school, and served it as consult for from 1975 until his death in 1987. 
Read extracts

Jelaluddin Rumi: Rumi, Poet and Mystic

Translated by R.A. Nicholson
Some of Rumi’s best loved poems, masterly and faithfully translated.
Read an extract

Jalaluddin Rumi: Spiritual Verses - the Masnavi

Translated by Alan Williams
Though Rumi’s Masnavi is vast in scale, it is one of the most personal poems ever written. It is a revolution against imprisonment in personality and against estrangement from our true selves. The verses lead the reader along the path of divine love, towards an understanding of the deepest truth that underlies reality.
Read an extract

In Beauty May I Walk

A Navajo Prayer
Read

Adyashanti: The End of your World

Read an extract

The modern Mindfulness Movement

Kabat Zinn and others
Read an overview

The Gospel According To Thomas

Nag Hammadi Manuscript, translation by Jean-Yves Leloup
'It is almost as though an audible recording of the voice of Jesus had been discovered'.
Read an extract

Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching

The Chinese classic of the sixth century B. C.
Read an extract

Al-Niffari: Spiritual Stayings and Addresses

Al-Niffari
In these ‘Addresses’ the perfect servant is counseled by God with the subtle and precise exhortations of love that union evokes in the heart of the lover.
Read an extract

Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight

What happens when your brain shuts down?
This talk is an account of her experience which allowed her an extraordinary insight into her own mind. It addresses the very nature of what it means to be human – an astonishing story
Read her account...

Ibn 'Arabi / Hakki Bursevi: The Kernel of the Kernel

The interior journey and the way of self-knowledge.
Read an extract

Ibn 'Arabi: The Wisdom of the Prophets

Ibn ‘Arabi is an unsurpassed master in the exposition and explanation of universality of man and the unity of existence. This book expresses the quintessence of Ibn ‘Arabi’s teaching.  It is a deeply esoteric text with its own unique terminology. 
Read an extract
Translation from Ottoman Turkish, with extensive commentaries: Read an extract

The Twenty-nine Pages

An introduction to Ibn ‘Arabi’s metaphysics of unity.
Read an extract

Osman Fazli: Leaving all the space to God

It explains in a few sentences the mystery of thought and memory, and outlines the intimate inner work expected from a person aspiring to live life in complete awareness. An exquisite piece of writing.
Read the paper

The Bhagavad Gita

The Gospel of Lord Shri Krishna 
The sacred Hindu text The Bhagavad Gita speaks of the nature of action and of man’s function in the creation, and is without equal in the entire Sanskrit literature for the serenity and magnificence of its conception.
Read an extract

Plato: The Symposium

An extract from Socrates’ speech on Love of Absolute Beauty.
Read an extract

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

Shunryu Suzuki
Understanding the mind, through informal questions and answers. A book of intense, joyous reflection.
Read an extract

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Be As You Are

The essence of Sri Ramana’s teachings is conveyed in his frequent assertions that there is a single immanent reality, directly experienced by everyone, which is simultaneously the source, the substance and the real nature of everything that exists.
The book discusses life from an essential point of view through a progression of questions and answers.
Read an extract

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Read an extract

Üftade and Hüdai, two great Ottoman Saints 

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