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Can I See Myself and the World as One Self

S Y M P O S I U M  2 0 0 9

Wednesday September 09  to  Friday September 11

Scottish Borders

The Beshara School at the Chisholme Institute

http://www.beshara.org/symposium2009/

I N V I T A T I O N

Self Knowledge and Global Responsibility

T o w a r d s  a  U n i f i e d  V i s i o n

You are warmly invited to the first of a series of symposia

to be held annually under the auspices of the Beshara School.

         Humanity is currently facing such a range of unprecedented, interrelated problems that, added together, they might appear immense, complex and daunting.  These are, to name but a few, the established facts of climate change, population growth, depletion of natural resources, and dwindling of bio-diversity on the one hand, and on the other, the lack of global political institutions and will, national self interest, cynicism and defeatism. In the past few months we have, in addition, been witness to two unprecedented meltdowns, first the Arctic icecap and then, of the global economy. However, even more recently, we have experienced a massive and inspiring vote for change and for hope in the American Presidential election.

Our symposium is dedicated to a unified and global vision of humanity today

and it's responsibility to itself, the world and to all it's inhabitants.

       Our aim is to reach towards a unified perspective on what is happening in the world today. Can we find a point of vision from which, rather than a great number of different issues to be tackled all at once, these interrelated factors may be viewed as so many symptoms of a single cause?

       It is self-evident that the very interrelatedness of these manifold aspects indicates an underlying unity. It is fundamental to the Beshara School's education, that it is within our human potential to observe this unity in a closer way, from unity itself. We have found here through practice that when people come together with a real question to discuss and converse together, as a single body, the very oneness that is our common foundation can express itself through us and as us, all together; and that it is from here that all real and lasting change proceeds.

      We sincerely hope that you will be able to join us in this endeavor and that it will be fruitful,

rewarding and enjoyable.

Peter Young, Principal

The Beshara School

A follow up page for the Symposium  Can I See Myself and the World as One Self

S P E A K E R S

Scilla Elworthy Ph D founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund, promote and learn from peace-builders in conflict areas. Previously she founded the Oxford Research Group in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. It is for this work that she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.  In 2005-7 she was adviser to Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson in setting up The Elders initiative, and in 2007 was appointed a member of the World Future Council and the International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy. She also advises the first lady of Egypt and SEKEM University, Cairo, on peace education.

Colin Tudge was born in London in 1943; educated at Dulwich College, 1954-61; and read zoology at Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1962-65.Ever since then he has earned a living by spasmodic broadcasting and a lot of writing—mainly books these days, but with occasional articles. He has a special interest in natural history in general, evolution and genetics, food and agriculture, and spends a great deal of time on philosophy (especially moral philosophy, the philosophy of science, and the relationship between science and religion).

He has two daughters, one son, and three granddaughters, and lives in Oxford with his wife, Ruth (nee West).

CT nurses the conviction that human beings are basically both sensible and nice and that if only democracy could be made to work—creating societies based on people's real desires and values, as opposed to those assumed by economists and governments—then the world would be a much better place. After so many decades of muddle-headedness and abuse, it may well be too late to keep the world in a tolerable state. Yet this still may be achievable, and is surely worth a try.

Felia Salim Commissioner, Bank Negara Indonesia, Indonesia. Ms Felia Salim sits on the Board of Commissioners of Bank Negara Indonesia. Before her appointment as Commissioner, she was Executive Secretary of the Financial Sector Policy Committee. Ms Salim has a strong background in the corporate sector, having been a Director of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, Vice President of PT Jardine Fleming Nusantara and Vice President of Citibank NA.

Ms Salim was Deputy Chair of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA). As Indonesia revamped its banking industry, Ms Salim was charged with monitoring and restructuring banks
under IBRA’s control.

Ms Salim is a Founder of TIFA Foundation, an organization that promotes open society in Indonesia and one which respects diversity and honors the rule of law, justice, and equality. As a supporter of civil society organizations, she is a Board Member of the Partnership for Governance Reform, a grant-making body supported by the UNDP, World Bank, ADB and other international donors. Ms Salim is also a proponent of good corporate.

governance, being a member of the Forum for Corporate Governance of Indonesia as well as a Board Member of the Indonesian Chapter of Transparency International. Ms Salim obtained her Bachelor Degree in Carleton University, Otawa,Canada in 1983.

   
Giles Chitty co-founded The Financial Initiative Ltd, the first UK ethical financial institution, in 1984 and Barchester Green Investment, the first green IFA, in 1989. From 1997 to 2005 he worked at Holden Meehan. Giles has a BA degree in Philosophy and an MBA in Finance.He has been a leading figure in socially responsible investing for over 20 years, and joined Holden & Partners in 2005.

Giles enjoys developing proactive, profitable and innovative arrangements for clients, pushing forward the effectiveness of investing in a sustainable future. During his career he has advised the Indonesian Minister of Finance on public enterprise planning and management, and has been a Trustee of the Findhorn Foundation.

Giles lives near Salisbury with his wife and the youngest of their five sons. He likes canoeing, sailing, walking, camping and gardening.

Aliya Ryan fell in love with the Amazon rainforest whilst traveling in South America in 1999, and moved to Peru in 2002 after completing a degree in Social Anthropology. There, with friends, she helped found the indiginous rights organization Shinai, working with indiginous people in the Peruvian Amazon.

Over the last six years she has worked with the Nahua, Matsigenka and Achuar peoples and gas exploration on issues including illegal logging, oil and gas exploration and territory management. She also ran campaigns defending the rights of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.

Aliya has produced articles, reports and maps on indigenous land rights issues and is currently co-authoring a book about the Achuar and their relationship with their ancestral territory. Aliya left Peru at the end of 2008, but still involved in indigenous rights issuesin Peru and Latin America.

Peter Young, Educationalist, Principal of the Beshara School (b. 1949 London). He studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge, and subsequently mental nursing. He has also studied Ottoman Turkish at Oxford.

His interest in education was kick-started by studying Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi’s work at the Beshara School in 1975. From this time on he adopted education, or perhaps it was vice-versa, for his life’s work, and he has been closely involved with the Beshara School since.

He is currently the Principal of the School at the Chisholme Institute, and has run Beshara courses and lectured worldwide. He lives with his wife at Chisholme House, and has four children and four grandchildren.

Dr Niels Detert studied Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University (1990-3).  Following this he worked as an assistant psychologist in the National Health Service, before completing doctoral training in Clinical Psychology (2000), and further qualifications in Clinical Neuropsychology. He now works at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford as a Clinical Neuropsychologist, taking a special interest in mind/body connections. He has recently been developing and teaching a group programme in mindfulness training for patients at the hospital, based on the work of Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn. He is a student of the Beshara School, having undertaken the six-month intensive and advanced courses (1995, 2000), and serves on the board of directors of the Chisholme Institute.