The Unity of Being and the very great things Ibn ‘Arabi made of it
Ibn ‘Arabi is arguably the greatest philosopher in the Islamic world, though controversial; Seal of the Mohammedan Saints, as he is known, alongside Shaykh al-Akbar, he is becoming more important again, especially against a backdrop of fundamentalism.Born into a noble family in Anadalusian, Moorish Spain, he adopted the Sufi way of life after a revelation. He was to leave Iberia and travel east across the Islamic empire. But what was his core teaching and understanding? What can he teach others drawn to a mystical participation in life?
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Jesus is the only God. And so am I and so are you. William Blake’s mystical Christianity
The first in a series of talks I’ll be posting in anticipation of my new book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, out in June/Sept (UK/US).Do consider pre-ordering! (Thanks: it really helps early sales and so bookshop notice.)“The best overall study of Blake I have encountered in a very long time. A joy to read, well worthy of its extraordinary hero,’ says Rowan Williams.
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Andalusia and machine anxiety. How new technology in Moorish Spain sparked insights that help us now
The extraordinary spread of Islam after 632 - from Central Asia to North Africa in a century - reached Europe from the eighth century, generating issues still energising to this day. Not ones of religion, though, but of technology.Within a few generations, the devices of the new civilisation hit the Iberian peninsula: vertical axis windmills, the clocks of Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi, astrolabes.Anxiety about machines, remaining to the present say, was born. Were we becoming uncoupled from the cosmos? How might our existence relate to our essence? Can the human mind still fit the divine mind?But with the technology came ideas, those discussed and disputed by Al-Ghazali, Avicenna, Averroes, Thomas Aquinas - all drawing on “the first teacher”: Aristotle.Their questions about occasionalism, the eternity of the cosmos, and unified intelligence can help us now. These reflections reveal how existence flows from divine being, the momentary nature of time reflects eternity, many minds echo the one intelligence.Their work offers us imaginative, spiritual space to refind participation with spirit and God as the millennia-long story of the machine continues.
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Christ the turning point. Owen Barfield in a secular age. A conversation with Ashton Arnoldy
Owen Barfield was the genius Inkling, said CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But why does he so much matter today?They consider how Owen Barfield addresses the idea of secularism developed by Charles Taylor and why that might matter in a cultural moment that feels like a folk in the road. They speak personally of how Barfield touched them and why his insights might matter to the psychedelic renaissance.A central idea is that of polarity - moving beyond the dualisms that trap people, on the left and on the right, in a flatland mentality.They ask how Barfield’s vision of final participation can be understood, even experienced, in language, in nature, with Indigenous traditions, in sacrament. They also consider how Rudolf Steiner, so important to Barfield, might be appreciated critically.Fundamental is the Christian insight that the transcendent is also immanent, the many are reflections of the one, and that humanity shares in divine purposes.For more on Mark, including his book on Barfield’s understanding of Christianity - www.markvernon.comFor more on Ashton - https://ciis.academia.edu/ashtonkohlarnoldy0:00 Barfield's relevance today06:47 Monotheism and the singular self12:02 Encountering worlds of spirit20:26 The task of integration27:49 The ongoing Christian revelation32:34 Steiner and politics today44:03 The experience of polarity49:22 Barfield and ecology53:03 Taylor's interspace and imagination56: 29 The divine power of language01:01:08 Poetry and the evolution of consciousness01:06:54 The past in the present and the future01:11:09 Questions of identity01:16:44 The future orientation of Christianity01:21:09 Residual unprocessed positivism01:25:38 Critical readings of Steiner01:30:42 Concluding remarks
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Living in an Age of Spiritual Crisis. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon
Much of the modern world has become uncoupled from the transcendent in a cultural experiment Nietzsche called the death of God. But might this spiritual crisis prove to be a time of rebirth? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, recorded live at an event organised by the Temenos Academy, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the evolution of wisdom traditions from west and east alongside the great modern enterprise called science and its continuing development. As the materialist, progressive ideology that has dominated the sciences for two centuries wanes, and as scientific studies show that religious and spiritual practices have major benefits for physical and mental health, what insights might we cultivate, as we live in and through these times?For more on the Temenos Academy - https://www.temenosacademy.orgFor more on Rupert - https://www.sheldrake.orgFor more on Mark - https://www.markvernon.com
Reflections from Mark Vernon on soulful matters including spirituality and psychotherapy, science and religion, consciousness and the divine. For more on see www.markvernon.com
Portugal