Walking the Path of Living Beauty – Exploring Beauty and the Beautiful
Explore the nature of all-pervading Beauty in the company of five enlightened Guides — Diotima of Mantinea, Socrates, Plato, Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino. Come into touch with your own innate beauty through meditation exercises drawn from these Guides. This course encourages us to open our eyes to living beauty.
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Lifetime access
One-time investment £15, under 35’s £10
Seven parts with total duration of just under an hour
Free downloads for you to keep and enjoy
What you will learn
- Expand your perspective on Beauty.
- Come closer to the heart of Beauty with the help of Diotima of Mantinea, Socrates, Plato, Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino.
- Meditations designed to help you relax and discover Beauty within and without.
- Opportunity to explore Beauty further in a live session.
About this course
The region in which our lives should be spent is in the contemplation of Absolute Beauty
- Diotima of Mantinea
This course serves as an introduction to Beauty and the beautiful through the writings of Plato, Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino and through the influence of Socrates and his teacher, Diotima of Mantinea. The idea is to survey Beauty in all its forms, looking at how it flows out into the world around us and how it lives within. At little under an hour, these sessions are not intended to be an exhaustive examination of the subject. Each of the teachers is introduced and a meditation, using their actual words, or purported words, in the case of Diotima, is given. As the course unfolds, there are questions designed to educe your own thoughts and feelings about Beauty. The student is encouraged to press the pause button at any time and sink into the meditations offered. There is an opportunity to follow the course with a live session where ideas can be explored further.
There are free downloads to take you further into the heart of Beauty.
Course outline
Walking the Path of Living Beauty – Exploring Beauty and the Beautiful helps to expand your understanding of Beauty and the beautiful through the golden words of Plato, the influence of Socrates, Diotima, Plotinus and, lastly, Marsilio Ficino. The Course is largely in the form of meditations designed to deepen the enjoyment of the ever-present beauty in your life.
Part 1: Introduction
Duration: 6 mins 34 secs
This will give you an overview of the Course, including Course Outcomes (what you might learn). This is an experiential Course designed to explore and expand your ideas about Beauty and beautiful things. Our distinguished Guides are Diotima of Mantinea, Socrates, Plato, Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino.
Part 2: Invitation to Participate… a reflection designed to centre & calm.
Duration: 8 mins 12 secs
This is your invitation to participate in a meditation designed to centre and calm, bringing you into a receptive space, ready for the jewels offered by our Guides.
Part 3: Exploring Beauty through the five senses
Duration: 3 mins 28 secs
In preparation for Diotima’s meditation, we invite you to explore Beauty through the fives senses.
Part 4: About Diotima of Mantinea followed by a meditation and questions for consideration
Duration: 11 mins 57 secs
This session draws on the wisdom of Diotima of Mantinea using her words in Plato’s Symposium as the basis for meditation. There are questions designed to stimulate your thoughts around the nature of Beauty. You are invited to share these, if you wish. Alternatively, we can arrange an open discussion session, focusing on these questions and others in the Course.
Part 5: The Power of Ideas. What does Beauty mean to you? A series of reflections.
Duration: 6 mins 45 secs
A consideration of the nature of ideas and Ideals and of Beauty and ugliness. We draw on the words of Plotinus. How do we feel and experience Beauty? What does beauty mean to you – some statements designed to nourish your own reflections.
Part 6: About Plotinus: A meditation from Plotinus drawing us from physical beauty to intelligible Beauty. Some questions to ponder.
Duration: 7 mins 09 secs
A brief introduction to Plotinus and meditation drawn from his treatise Plotinus on the Beautiful, On Intelligible Beauty. We include two downloadable PDF files of this treatise. Again, there are some questions to aid your reflection on beauty and Ideal Beauty.
Part 7: About Marsilio Ficino. A participative meditation from Ficino.
Duration: 10 mins 01 secs.
This session serves as introduction to Marsilio Ficino and a participative meditation based on Chapter 17 of On the Nature of Love, Ficino on Plato’s Symposium.
About your course guide
Elizabeth Medler
Elizabeth Medler has been a student of the perennial wisdom since her late teens when she was introduced to the Fintry Trust and its inner heart, The Universal Order, which offers a systematic training inspired by the Universal Ideals of Truth, Goodness, Beauty and Unity. Today Elizabeth works as a freelance Editor and has edited a number of books for both a London publisher and private commissions. For many years Elizabeth managed a small educational charity, dedicated to Right Thinking, in Bosham, West Sussex. She was Editor of its magazine, New Vision (formerly The Science of Thought Review), which was published continuously since 1921. She also organized an all-year-round programme of events and courses. Earlier in her life Elizabeth worked in London and Devon as a paralegal on two large national cases in the fields of litigation and medical negligence.
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