Impersonal Compassion

Day seminar with Avi Abadi

September 28, 2019
Saturday 10am to 5pm
Suggested donation £15 including lunch.
Booking required: secretary@chisholme.org

The Chisholme Institute, Chisholme House, Roberton, Scottish Borders, TD9 7PH, UK

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The distinction between non-theistic and theistic spirituality according to Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (1165–1240)

While Buddhism embraces the concepts of the inexpressible and of compassion as the quality that alleviates suffering, it does not address the matter of the Compassionate as Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi presents it, as the Single Being who, due to His mercy, lends existence to the infinity latent in His Essence. It is perhaps all too easy to identify the Buddhist ‘inexpressible’ with what Ibn ‘Arabi means by ‘the Essence’. Hence the question arises whether the distinction between non-theistic and theistic spirituality is just a matter of semantics rather than one of significant difference.

The seminar aims to explore this question with some relevant film clips and a study of two passages from Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam.

Avi Abadi, who will lead the seminar, is a student of the perspective of unity of being as revealed in the works of Ibn ‘Arabi.

The film Samsara by Pan Nalin will be screened in conjunction with this seminar on Sunday 29 September at 2.30pm at Unit Four: The Cornucopia Room in Hawick