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In the spirit of Trevor Leggett - The Middle Way THE MIDDLE WAY The drawing in of the evenings and the shortening of the days remind us that winter approaches. The summer has not been particularly good, and there is a tendency to look forward to the cold dark wet mornings with some dread despite the central heating and modern convenience that make them more than tolerable. Much as we try we find it difficult to accept that life is made up of light and dark, pleasant and unpleasant, joy and unavoidable suffering. Were it not so, the Buddha’s message would have no value. It is our reaction to circumstances that causes us problems, not the circumstances in themselves. This first teaching of the Buddha was to avoid the extremes of self-denial and over-indulgence. This implies self-control, but of what? The longing to have things our own way. Even if this yearning is for our very highest ideal or even humanity’s enlightenment, world peace, saving the whales or even having congenial weather, friends or work; it ultimately boils down to having things our own way. This might suggest a fundamentalist return to nature or a blind acceptance of things in a passive, fatalistic resignation to human affliction. (The charge of navel-gazing and turning away from the immediacy of life and its demands is often levelled at Buddhism.) This is to miss the point. It is the passion-charged need to have the world fashioned in our own image, to have it live up to our own expectations. The Buddha pointed out that the basis of this one-sided and partial view lay in our lack of awareness or ignorance of our wanting and of our ill-will when it is frustrated. Intellectually most of us understand this, the problem arises in doing something about it. Here speculation ends and practice begins, We urgently need to become aware of the blind impulsive forces that drive us. Becoming familiar with the teachings, reflecting on them and then putting them into action are the three stages of following in the Buddha’s footsteps. These, if wholeheartedly pursued, will bring us into intimate proximity with the fires of desire, anger and delusion. Once truly seen into and worked with they become a source of warmth, action and clear seeing, untouched, they remain a hazard not only to ourselves but to all. Trevor Leggett — reminiscences I don’t think Trevor would approve of what is going to be said, but it is offered with affection. Many of us here today are experiencing a sense of deep sadness when, perhaps, we hear in our mind’s ear Trevor’s voice making an amusing comment, or a memory of him sharing with us an insight or a fruit of his scholarship and practice, or even remember his broad grin when he was being teased. To each of us Trevor showed friendship. No-one will have the same picture of him but each of us will be reminded of him innumerable times in the future. This may be when we hear again a piece of music that he used to play on the piano; or perhaps if we see a pair of dumb bells being swung from side to side, it will remind some of us of his determined efforts mastering the syntax of complex passages in Sanskrit which he had written on large sheets of paper hung on his wall. But whatever the circumstances of our contact with him, we all will agree that he tried to produce beauty and excellence in whatever he did. The pictures we have of him are many faceted because his life was rich in interests. We will hear of his judo training both in this country and in Japan, his training of judo teachers, his frequent visits to Japan as Head of the Japanese Section of BBC Radio, and his weekly broadcasts in Japanese with John Newman, a real friend. But there was also his deep interest in Yoga and Buddhism which brought him into contact with followers of other faiths. It would be too easy to say that Trevor was a Buddhist or a Christian or Trevor was a follower of Yoga, in the tradition of his teacher Dr Han Prasad Shastri. His studies in these faiths were deep and prompted by the wish to make the teachings understandable and available to all, as he understood that his teacher wanted him to do. He lectured for many years at Yoga groups around the country, at Buddhist and Theosophical groups and always included vivid training stories, helpful cameos of situations that could be applied in daily life, and always his talks were well received. He regularly used to say that there are many in our society who are bewildered, who are crying out for spiritual teachings. They recognise something is wrong but have lost their way among the glittering offerings of a materialistic society. He did his best to show that there are Ways, and that Truth is not the exclusive right of any one Way, but each can offer a particular facet or approach according to the temperament of the seeker. His love of the traditional teachings of Yoga and Buddhism was deep, and his commitment to carrying out the wishes of his teacher was firm right up to the end of his life. Two of us visited him in hospital on the Saturday before he passed away. Perhaps this typifies his life of overcoming difficulties - not solely by will but also in a sort ofjoy. Trevor was lying in bed wearing an oxygen mask. Around him were several monitors and bleepers, flashing and peeping in unison with his pulse and so on, three doctors were discussing his progress and two nurses were taking readings from the equipment. A scene of intense activity. We backed off not wishing to intrude, but a nurse told him we were there and he waved us to him. What were his first words to us? A description of how he felt? A complaint that he found the oxygen mask difficult to breath in? No, his first words to us were about the text we were going to study. He told us that there were more things waiting to be discovered in it, that there was a particular reference to Knowledge which needed to be followed up and we should look out for one verse in particular. Then despite his fever he started to quote the verse in Sanskrit through his oxygen mask. There was twinkle of delight and love in his eye as he did so, that will not be forgotten by either of us. No-one can take the memories we have of him away and equally no-one here would have wanted him to continue dealing with the obstacles he was facing each day. This is said with the greatest respect: The man was an eagle, now he can stretch his wings. Have we lost a friend? What would Trevor say? One of his books on the website is based on the Bhagavad Gita, the text that he quoted from through the oxygen mask. One section called Rebirth has the following passage quoting the Gita itself: As the wearer casts off worn-out clothes and puts on himself others which are new, Even so, casting off worn-out bodies, the body-wearer passes on to new ones. He said a master of meditation remarked that the idea of reincarnation contains hints at wider truths than the bare idea of things wearing out and being replaced, which to many older people has a depressing ring. They find their bodies less and less reliable, and less competent to fulfil most of the purposes of life as they have understood them. The master continued: a personality, if it has been used properly and polished every day by meditation, may become less active in the affairs of the world, but it spreads an atmosphere of quiet peace. It has a sort of subdued radiance. in fact old clothes are generally much more comfortable than new ones; they have come to adapt to the body. When we are wearing new clothes, we generally are not quite at ease. We take care that not a speck of anything drops on them, and we don’t care to go out even for a moment into rain. Whereas with old clothes, though it is true that we handle them with care too, it is done with a kind of affection and without any worry. When they are finally laid aside, we give a little thought of gratitude for their faithful service. And it can be the same with the personality when it is time for that too to be laid aside. “In this way we can bring meaning to the whole of the incarnation in which we find ourself, instead of thinking of it as just the first part with the later parts as without real meaning.” Trevor then added, “Spiritual life can and should grow stronger every year!” May we in our own lives try to follow his example of one-pointedness, despite all the obstacles he encountered, in carrying out what had been asked of him in the real spirit of the Ways. Henry Curtis
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The Kano Society |