INTRODUCTORY PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY COURSE

Further to the successful Practical Philosophy courses held since 2019, 2020, and 2021 In Bosham, The Wessex School of Philosophy are pleased to announce that a new afternoon Introductory Practical Philosophy course is being offered at The Green Door Centre (formerly known as The Hamblin centre) in September 2023 on:

Wednesday 27th September at 3.00pm – Introductory Practical Philosophy Course

Course cost: £60
Book your place here: https://www.schoolofphilosophywessex.org/about-the-course/locations-enrol
Or Call: 07808 931 241
Or Email enquiries@philosophyinwessex.org

Further information please visit our website via this link: www.schoolofphilosophywessex.org

This course takes place at The Green Door Centre, (formerly The Hamblin Centre), Bosham House, Main Road, Bosham, PO18 8PJ

This course is a 10-session weekly introductory course in practical philosophy offering day-to-day guidance to help you live more wisely, happily and with more understanding of yourself and others around you. Discover new ways of thinking which can lead to greater happiness and connecting more meaningfully with the world around you. The course inspires a fresh outlook and approach to living a harmonious, purposeful, peaceful and happy life in the present.

For the first time in our Introductory Practical Philosophy Courses, we are planning to introduce students who wish to participate  to mantra based meditation.

Topics in the Practical Philosophy course include: discovering inner wisdom; attending to the present moment; living justly; finding unity in diversity. The teaching is based on classic eastern and western philosophies, but no previous knowledge of philosophy is needed.

The course is open to anyone looking for a fresh outlook on life – all we ask is that you attend with an open heart and an open mind. You are specifically requested not to accept or reject any of the ideas / exercises put forward, but simply try them out and let us know how you get on – personal experience is the key to progress.

The Wessex School of Philosophy is a regional Branch of The School of Philosophy & Economic Science which was established by an educational charitable Trust (The Fellowship of The School of Economic Science, Charity # 313115) for the furtherance of its charitable objects.

Through the School’s head office in London and its fifteen regional “Branches”, courses are offered to the public at over fifty locations, and on-line throughout England and Scotland. There are also sister Schools in fourteen overseas countries most of which were started by students from London returning home and wishing to continue their work in the school. There are around 3,000 students attending classes in the UK,

Our local Branch is Wessex and has run classes in Poole, Winchester, Southampton, Lovedean, Petersfield (daytime), Emsworth and Bosham in addition to on-line zoom courses and for this Autumn term we are offering Introductory Practical Philosophy courses in Southampton and Poole as well in Bosham.

The courses treat philosophy as a personal and practical attitude to life and its opportunities, enabling people to deepen and develop an understanding of life and of themselves. They are not academic courses such as would be followed in a university but develop as far as possible on practice and experience and are intended for people with everyday working and family lives.

For this reason, the School’s courses are traditionally held as evening classes. However, afternoon courses having been successful in the past another is now being offered at Bosham.

The 10-weekly meetings during the term are usually supplemented by a weekend study morning and there are opportunities to attend short residential retreats at one of the School’s country houses at Waterperry in Oxfordshire. More details of these retreats will be given at the start of the Course. Regular weekend and week-long residential seminars are available to students who have studied in the School for some time. Residential centres in the UK are located in addition to Waterperry House at Nanpantan Hall in Leicestershire and Brinscall Hall in Lancashire.

The Fellowship of the School of Economic Science is an educational Charity established in 1937 by Leon McClaren, the son of a Labour MP Andrew McClaren. At this time the UK was plagued with the effects of the Stock Market crash and operating with a depressed economy, characterised by high levels of unemployment, with widespread hard-ship and inequality.

The Fellowship created the School of Philosophy & Economic Science (“the School”) to teach ideas of economic justice derived and developed from the insights of the American economist Henry George. However, It soon became apparent that the answer to economic problems lay not just with economic systems but also with human understanding and in the early 1950’s philosophy courses were added to the economics programme. The economics and philosophy courses were directed by the founder and senior tutor, Leon MacLaren from 1937 until his death in 1994. Since then they have been led and directed by the present Senior Tutor, Donald Lambie.

It became very clear to me that there was such a thing as Truth and there was such a thing as Justice; and that they could be found and being found could be taught.

  Leon MacLaren

Philosophy in the School quickly took a practical bent focussing on the need to awaken human consciousness through coming to rest in stillness. This in turn led to a meeting in 1961 with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the adoption of mantra meditation as a key feature of the School’s approach to understanding and practice of philosophic principles.

Leon MacLaren later met with Shri Shantanada Saraswati, a teacher of the philosophy of non-duality, called Advaita, which has since become central to the School’s work in both economics and philosophy. Parallels were found among many philosophers and writers from the world’s philosophical, theological and literary traditions which through practical application in daily life led to deepening understanding of human nature and of the application of philosophic principles in personal and social life.

Courses in economics and philosophy continue to develop from a growing understanding of the philosophy of non-duality, “ADVAITA”. They work by encouraging personal practice and observation and enquiry shared in groups of like-minded people whose collective experience facilitates the development of individual understanding.

Meditation

The School has found that exploring natural laws governing the inner life requires a method of cultivating inner stillness and for this purpose students are offered an introduction to the practice of mantra meditation, now for the first time in the Introductory Practical Philosophy Course in the Wessex Branch. Thereafter, regular practice of meditation is central to the study and practice of philosophy. The value of meditation has become very widely accepted in recent years and the Fellowship is pleased to support and participate in that development with the benefit of over 60 years’ experience of continuous practice.

The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught transcendental meditation to the senior students of the School in 1961. The School, together with the Study Society set up a new charity “The School of Meditation”, which is responsible for teaching the meditation practice to our students. The meditation is based upon a long-established eastern tradition and an appropriate specific “Mantra” is given to our students. The new Introductory Practical Philosophy course will offer to students an opportunity to be given more information about how to be introduced to mantra meditation through on-line meetings, which will be in addition to our in-person meetings at Bosham.

Economics and Law

The study of economics arose from perceiving injustice in society and a deep desire to establish justice and equity in its place. The study is directed to enabling anyone who is interested to discover and understand natural laws governing human society to formulate and propose a more natural and just economic system and law with the aim of securing freedom, prosperity and happiness for all. Online economics courses are available, please  see School website.

The aim of the study of Economics in the School – “That people may live together naturally, finding freedom and prosperity.”

We look forward to you attending the new Introductory Practical Philosophy course at the Green Door Centre. More information may be obtained at: www.schoolofphilosophywessex.org website.