Michaelmas Term 2025 Evening Lectures
Further events to be announced
Monday 29th September 2025
The Tradition of the White Hill: The Living Legacy of the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism
H.E. ASANGA VAJRA SAKYA RINPOCHE
In the chair Professor Grevel Lindop
The Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the four major traditions, holds a rich and unbroken lineage that stretches back to the 11th century, rooted in the ancient Khön family. Founded by the great scholar and yogi Khön Könchok Gyalpo, and flourishing under the towering genius of Sakya Pandita, the Sakya tradition became both a spiritual and political force in Tibet, guiding the region through periods of profound transformation. This talk will explore the origins, key figures, philosophical contributions, and enduring spiritual legacy of the Sakya School—from its formative years and influence over the Mongol Empire, to its continued role in global Dharma transmission today. Through historical insights and living heritage, we will uncover how the Sakya tradition has upheld the profound teachings of the Buddha with clarity, scholarship, and compassionate guidance for nearly a millennium.
His Eminence Khöndung Asanga Vajra Rinpoche, born in Seattle in 1999, is a direct descendant of the ancient Khön lineage through the Sakya tradition. He began his monastic training at age five in Nepal and received teachings from eminent masters of Tibetan Buddhism. From 2014 to 2024, he studied Buddhist philosophy in India. Appointed as Head Lama of Sakya Vietnam and Guru Sakya Monastery in Darjeeling, India, he also founded Sakya History Resources project. In 2024, he completed the traditional Buddhist philosophical studies and began an MA in Buddhist Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Venue & Admission
The Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT
Doors Open 6.10pm, Lecture Begins 6.30pm
£10 General Admission
FREE for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with student ID card
Book HERE or contact temenosacademy@myfastmail.com or 07513 883 335
Monday 13th October
We are all born Alchemists!
DANIEL DOCHERTY
In the Chair Tom Bree
Nine months in utero is akin to three turns of mercury around the sun. Perhaps this thrice-great gestation, a blessing from our most fleet-footed planetary neighbour, is an invitation, in time, for us all to become alchemists.
Can a deepening understanding of the wily and wisdom-filled ways of mercury shed light upon the shadows of our ignorance, help us to rarefy subtle from gross, and uncover the mysteries of ‘this being human’?
Guises of Hermes/Mercurius will accompany our explorations, together with insights gleaned from the objective, universal ‘ever-true’ arts of the quadrivium.
Daniel Docherty is co-founder and senior tutor at SAOG Studios, a practice-based arts studio focussing on research and short courses exploring the practice and philosophy of sacred geometry and the quadrivial arts. He is a visiting tutor on the MA programme of the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. He lives in the heart of the Ashdown Forest with his family.
Venue & Admission
18 Linoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED
Doors Open 6.10pm, Lecture Begins 6.30pm
£10 General Admission
FREE for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with student ID card
Book HERE or contact temenosacademy@myfastmail.com or 07513 883 335
Monday 27th October
Pattern and Contemplation: Journey into Islamic Geometric Art
RICHARD HENRY
In the Chair Emma Clark
In this illustrated talk artist and geometer Richard Henry will reveal his very personal relationship to the art of Islamic geometric patterns, from his early travels in the Islamic world and his fascination with the contemplative dimension of the art, to its impact upon his own artistic practice. He will examine the symbolic role of geometry, the visual hierarchy within Islamic art and the underlying language of symmetry hidden beneath surface forms. He will also discuss his educational work and research, which has spanned several countries, and the revival of Islamic geometric art as a contemporary practice.
Richard Henry is an artist and teacher with a specialism in Islamic geometric pattern. He has worked in painting, print and tile-mosaic and is interested in traditional methods (using compass and straight edge) of pattern construction for artists and craftspeople. He has carried out research in Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Iran and regularly leads international study tours to many of these locations. He previously developed courses for British Museum’s World Arts and Artefacts programme and is currently Director of Studies on the MA programme at the Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts.
Venue & Admission
18 Linoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED
Doors Open 6.10pm, Lecture Begins 6.30pm
£10 General Admission
FREE for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with student ID card
Book HERE or contact temenosacademy@myfastmail.com or 07513 883 335
Monday 17th November 2025
Poussin’s Meditations on Providence, Time and Eternity
JULIA CLEAVE
In the Chair Christine Rhone
This illustrated talk will focus on five exceptional paintings by Nicolas Poussin: A Dance to the Music of Time (Wallace Collection) and the final works which crowned his career: The Four Seasons (Musée du Louvre).
In the case of Dance these themes are presented under the guise of classical mythology, whereas in The Four Seasons, they are framed in terms of Biblical eschatology, the cycles of nature and of human life. Though differing markedly in mode, and dating respectively from the 1630s and the 1660s, in both cases they explore the relationship between our mortal and immortal destinies.
While the authority of these compositions derives from Poussin’s subtle deployment of number, geometry and harmonics in their deep structure, what is immediately engaging to the viewer is his power to invoke human dramas and the beauties of nature, while haunting us with his often enigmatic symbolism.
Julia Cleave is an independent scholar with a special interest in the Pythagorian, Hermetic and Christian Mystery Traditions as they are to be found, still largely unacknowledged, in Renaissance and Early Modern art and literature. Her previous lectures at Temenos have included studies of works by Verrocchio, Leonardo, Botticelli, Giorgione and Poussin, and of three plays by Shakespeare. Her essay ‘An alchemical reading of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra‘ is available on the Temenos Academy website. She is a Fellow of the Academy and a member of the Council and Academic Board.
Venue & Admission
18 Linoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED
Doors Open 6.10pm, Lecture Begins 6.30pm
£10 General Admission
FREE for Temenos Academy Members/Full-time students with student ID card
Book HERE or contact temenosacademy@myfastmail.com or 07513 883 335
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[Image: Part of a larger Batik painting, The Holy City, by Thetis Blacker]
