You are invited to the…
‘Simply Be’ workshopChange is a natural aspect of worldly life, and things are certainly changing fast at this present time. This can make us feel confused, unsure, tense, and agitated.
However, all the great wise people in human history tell us there is an unchanging ‘spiritual’ aspect to life, and it is this spiritual aspect of our nature that Practical Philosophy seeks to discover, or to put it another way to ‘Simply Be’.
This will be the subject matter for the morning, to help us understand what it means to ‘Simply Be’ – to be the centre of the turning world, to help bring balance, stillness, and understanding to our lives.
Throughout the morning we shall:
The aim of these workshops is to provide a useful opportunity for students, friends and family to meet together and practice with a little more focus in a conducive, friendly environment, what has been discussed to enable us to discover more fully from a practical point of view what is presented at the evening philosophy meetings. A very useful and enjoyable morning for self-discovery.
The morning will be conducted in the school’s usual open and relaxed manner, beginning at 10am and finishing at 1pm. The cost for the workshop is £10 which includes light refreshments.
The workshop will be on Sunday 1st December at Walker Memorial Hall, 18, Ampton Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, from 10:00 to 13:00 and will be run by David Nock.
LIMITED NUMBERS (reserve your place here)
If you are interested I recommend early enrollment as these events do tend to be quite popular and we have to hold the numbers at 24 due to the size of the room.
Original price was: £25.00.£10.00Current price is: £10.00.
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A tutor presents material, and leads a discussion based on what arises. Being practical rather than academic, the emphasis is on personal knowledge. Students are encouraged neither to accept nor reject the ideas put forward, but to test them in practice for themselves, in the light of their own experience.
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How do we seek happiness? True happiness and unity: ‘May all be happy’ as an intent. Tolstoy: happiness through serving one’s neighbour. Observation, the conscious perceiver and the present moment.
Is happiness natural? Analogy of light bulbs. Relationship between happiness and law.
Bentham, Mill. Gandhi’s criticism and an alternative view to utilitarianism. The art of listening: practical exercise
Hedonism, Epicurus and Plato. Plato suggests two categories, necessary and unnecessary pleasures. Introduction to the Upanishads: finding satisfaction in oneself.
Divine goods: wisdom, self-control, justice and courage. Human goods: health, beauty, strength and wealth. Are these the way to happiness?
Introduction to Marsilio Ficino, renaissance philosopher. Key phrases inscribed on academy walls. Rejoice in the present. Richard Jefferies
Introduction to Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Tea ceremony. Exploring effortless action.
Introduction to Patanjali and the 8-fold system of yoga, meditation, contentment. What about ambition? Finding happiness in work: 2 principles for finding happiness in work.
Two more principles for finding happiness in work. Practical exercise to discover more about the principles of work in action.
The connection between wisdom and happiness. Marcus Aurelius; you don’t need much to live happily. Review of the term.
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These opening sessions consider how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful lives.
What is practical philosophy?
‘What would a wise person do here?’
Philosophy means the love of wisdom. Our course is intended to show how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful and more useful lives. This opening two sessions consider these aims, and introduces simple exercises in mindfulness and the application of wisdom you can practise in daily life.
You can download or listen to the Awareness Exercise, introduced in week one here. To download, right-click, choose ‘Save link as…’ and save the MP3 wherever you want.
You can also download a PDF of the Awareness Exercise
Who or what am I?
What is my potential?
Who am I, really? My body? My emotions? My strongly held beliefs? My soul? Possibly all of these? Possibly none?
Such questions have preoccupied philosophers down the ages. We look at practical ways to explore who we really are and how to tap our true potential.
What is our state of awareness?
Why does it fluctuate during the day?
Often the most notable quality of wise people is their alertness to the subtleties of a situation. They are awake, perceptive and curious.
We look at deeper levels of awareness, and consider how we may become more awake to ourselves, our surroundings, and the events we meet.
Living in the now, mindfulness.
What is the potential of the present moment?
We review our own experience of attention through a model featuring attention centred, captured, open and scattered, and how these each relate to the past, present and future.
We examine the extraordinary brightness and freedom naturally available in the present moment. A straightforward practice is introduced.
Plato’s views on justice.
What does it mean to live justly?
According to Plato, justice and injustice do not start ‘out there’. They begin within us. For justice to prevail, Plato suggests that we must learn to avoid being ‘tyrannised’ by our passions and fears to the extent they overrule our reason.
We discuss the practicality of Plato’s ideas on justice in our daily lives.
The Vedic model of three fundamental energies.
Sometimes we seem not to have enough energy, or the wrong kind. A wise person can act consistently despite these varying conditions.
We consider how to recognise differing energies, how to gain and conserve them and how to use them wisely.
What is reason? How can it enrich our lives? We look at guidelines for Socratic dialogue and how to use them. Developing reason in decision-making and action are also discussed, with practical applications. Obstacles to reason are considered. Everyone has the faculty of reason and we can all use it and develop it.
What is beauty?
Is there such a thing as absolute beauty?
Beauty has the capacity to open the heart and bring delight. In this session we discuss our direct experience of beauty in its different form: of the sensory world, of thought, of feelings, of the inner nature, and of conduct.
We consider Plato’s idea of there being ultimately one beauty – beauty absolute – ‘not knowing birth or death, growth or decay’.
Looking for the common thread in life.
What is the effect of finding unity?
When we look around, we see enormous diversity in nature. The wise person looks for the unifying factor: that which allows all this apparent diversity to be seen as part of a single whole.
Seen in this way, life then has the best chance of being led freshly and openly.
What is truth?
How does the desire for truth show itself?
Practical philosophy is about discovering the truth of things – not theoretically, but in our own experience.
In this final session we look back and ask ourselves how our search for truth has fared as the term has progressed. We discuss what has been discovered and how, in our own way, we may continue to develop it in our daily lives.
