Temenos Academy Newsletter September 2024

[Temenos Academy]

NEWSLETTER September 2024 EVENING LECTURES Abrahamic and Indian Spiritual Teachings: Similarities and Differences PROFESSOR RAVI RAVINDRA Wednesday 4 September In the chair Dr Joseph Milne There are many similarities among the Abrahamic and Indian spiritual teachings, such as the idea that the whole manifested universe is brought about by the highest level of consciousness with a call for each being to undertake its appropriate practices to enhance its quality in order to ultimately connect with the Source. The most significant difference is that unlike the Abrahamic traditions, where there is a myth of creation and each level in the created universe is unique, in the Indian traditions there is a myth of emanation and every level in the manifested universe has a particle of the Highest Reality, Brahman, within it. This one difference results in many consequences such as the emphasis on the oneness of everything or on the uniqueness of each being; freedom from individuality or everlasting individuality even after death; cremation or burial. In this presentation we will explore the cultural consequences of both the differences and the similarities in the major traditions and how we need to deal with them in a global culture. RAVI RAVINDRA is a Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he served as a professor in the departments of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Physics. He was a member of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, a fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, and the founding director of the Threshold Award for Integrative Knowledge. Among the books he has authored are Whispers from the Other Shore: Spiritual Search – East and West; The Yoga of Christ; Science and the Sacred; Krishnamurti: Two Birds on One Tree; The Pilgrim Soul and The Bhagavad Gita: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life. Venue & Timing Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road London, NW1 6XT Nearest Underground – Baker Street Doors open 6.10pm, Lecture begins 6.30pm Admission £10 or £5 Members of the Temenos Academy/Concession FREE for full time students with ID card E temenos...@myfastmail.com T 07513 883 335   Imagining Kells: A poetic exploration of the Book of Kells JAMES HARPUR Monday 16 September In the chair Professor John Carey In this illustrated talk, which features beautiful illuminations from the Book of Kells, James Harpur unfolds how he came to write a meditative poem about the book, a poem that was 19 years in the making and included inspiration from a number of different sources, such as Plotinus, Rilke, Abbot Suger and Bernard of Clairvaux. He expressed his poem through various voices, including those of an anonymous illuminator, a scribe, and the churchman Gerald of Wales. As he wrote the poem a number of themes evolved – twisting and circling throughout the poem like the decorative scrollwork of the Kells illuminations. These included the nature of pilgrimage, the idea of ‘home’, and the aesthetics of sacred art. James Joyce described the Book of Kells as ‘the most Irish thing we have’. This talk will make the case that in the Western world it is the most precious material thing we have. JAMES HARPUR has published eight books of poetry including The White Silhouette (2018), which includes his poem ‘Kells’; and The Oratory of Light (2021), featuring poems inspired by St Columba and the island of Iona. His debut novel, The Pathless Country (2021) won the JG Farrell Award and was shortlisted for the John McGahern Prize. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of the arts, and lives in West Cork. For more information visit www.jamesharpur.com Venue & Timing Brunswick Group, 18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields London, WC2A 3ED Nearest Underground – Holborn Doors open 6.10pm, Lecture begins 6.30pm Admission £10 or £5 Members of the Temenos Academy/Concession FREE for full time students with ID card E temenos...@myfastmail.com T 07513 883 335 READING ESSENTIAL TEXTS SEMINARS – NEW COURSE Hamlet by William Shakespeare DR JOSEPH MILNE 9 October – 11 December (Wednesdays, 10 sessions) How can the hidden crime of fratricide set in motion the decline of the Kingdom of Denmark? And why should the noble Prince Hamlet be brought down with Denmark’s tragic fate? Such are the questions the tragedy of Hamlet poses. As always with Shakespeare, the destinies of his protagonists are bound up in the fate of kingdoms, and kingdoms themselves bound by cosmic laws. Larger forces are at play in Shakespeare’s dramas than personal destinies. As with the classical Greek tragedies, miscalculated deeds and errors of judgement call forth unseen powers governing the order of nature. Nothing can flourish in a falling kingdom. How far, then, is Hamlet responsible for his own decisions? Must he deny love to find his way? And what remedy is there for Claudius’ monstrous primal crime? This play offers no simple answers to Hamlet’s dilemmas. It sets before us both the nobility and the fallibility of human nature. Venue & Timing The School of Philosophy and Economic Science 11 Mandeville Place, W1U 3AJ 2.30-4pm Admission £100 or £75 Members of the Temenos Academy E temenos...@myfastmail.com T 07513 883 335 THE ARCHIVE Our website Archive hosts many audio and video recordings of lectures, digital versions of all thirteen issues of the journal TEMENOS, and the texts of seventy articles from Temenos Academy Review. New material is added regularly. https://temenosacademy.org/main-lecture-archive https://temenosacademy.org/temenos-journal-archive https://temenosacademy.org/temenos-academy-review-archive Many of our audio recordings are available as PODCASTS. PAYPAL GIVING FUND UK The Temenos Academy is registered with PayPal Giving Fund UK. When using PayPal if you choose you may also make a donation in support of the Temenos Academy. Thank you FURTHER INFORMATION EMAIL temenos...@myfastmail.com TELEPHONE 07513 883 335 PRIVACY POLICY https://temenosacademy.org/privacy-policy