| Ethics & Moral Philosophy |
|
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 5 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Very inspiring Jul 03, 2009
By R. van Dijk
"Rommert"
As a former pupil of the Platoschool, a primary school, founded by the Dutch School of Philosophy in Amsterdam, it was very interesting to get to know more about the roots of my School. Because of Leon McLaren's work I was fortunate to learn about true values at a very young age.
I was really touched by Dorine's story. Her complete surrender, all the sacrifices she made, ceaselessly following Leon McLaren everywhere he was going (especially on the spiritual level), point out her true devotion to the non-dual truth.
This book was very inspiring for me, and I'm sure it will be also very inspiring for all serious seekers for truth.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
at last the truth Jun 19, 2009
By Paul G. van Oyen
At last the truth about Leon MacLaren - 'Sir'- as he was usually respectfully called. He was like a lion who searched for the ultimate reality - the truth - all his life and who was usually surrounded by a host of acolytes and followers. I knew Leon MacLaren personally for more than 35 years and from the beginning I recognised in him a real teacher and master. He was certainly no saint but a hard working 'seeker' and formidable person as Dorine Tolley's book clearly shows. If one is lucky to find a real man, a true man, well, here he is. It is strange to note how few live up to the recognition of his great example. This book was long overdue and fills the gap of lack of information and lots of innuendo's about this very special and evolved man.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Excellent work... May 02, 2009
By Pandanus
A tremendous book, especially for those who have spent some years or longer in the School. This book helps to fill in the gaps of information on the origin and organisation of the School. It is well written and to the point, supportive of Leon MacLaren and the School, but Dorine Tolley doesn't hesitate to show how it was in her experience, high points and difficulties included.
This book seems to have come out at just the right time. It seems there was a need for greater information on the history of the School (especially it's beginnings and early times with Dr Roles) and Leon MacLaren's illustrious and substantial life, supported as he was through thick and thin by Dorine Tolley.
Also there is an excellent short history of the Advaita tradition of the east and the Fourth Way tradition (Gurdjieff and Ouspensky) in the west.
Interested persons may wish to look at the MacLaren Foundation web site:
[..]
I'm very grateful to Dorine Tolley for writing this book!
Five stars without a doubt!
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
The Power Within All Apr 08, 2009
By D. V. Short
"Enzo Short"
This is a magnificent memoir of one of the Teachers of the Fourth Way (a way for "spiritual" householders). It is a book well worth reading, by cynics, followers, and seekers alike. His personal assistant Dorine Tolley wrote it.
The memoir gives a sense of what it is like to be human, struggling to reconcile a world as most of us know it with a deeper calling that some of us experience. Leon Maclaren's love of life and mankind reflected in his search for the meaning of this deeper calling, and he taught others to help find it. In the search one discovers many things about life, oneself and others along the way.
Leon Maclaren helped found a spiritual School that brought together spiritual guidance from various spiritual teachings from the East. The School could be described as having its roots indirectly in "The Fourth Way" (according to Gurdjieff, which is a spiritual path other than the paths for yogis, monks or fakirs). The School now exists under the name of "The School of Economic Science" (SES), and it is not related to the academic London School of Economics. Ouspensky, who wrote "In Search of The Miraculous", was a pupil of Gurdjieff, and a Dr Roles, who in turn was Ouspensky's pupil, introduced the Fourth Way to Maclaren.
However, "Mr Maclaren" cannot be spoken of without speaking of the SES (known to transient and "permanent" members as "The School"), because he "owned" the School in his mind right till his dying day. (Other School leaders also took possession of it in their minds before his end, largely through fear of losing it.) No matter how one hides things with indifference (in the "unattached" sense of the word as the School uses it - not in the colloquial sense of "uncaring"), things somehow have a way of showing themselves. The core of the School's heart is in the "middle earth" (not on the surface, and not in the "Inner Circle" or "bone" of the School), so there are always many good, fine folk there. The "middle earth" is like middle management in a business, having to deal lovingly with what is above and below them. There is still the "Old School", who give hint of their existence at the Maclaren Foundation website; they believe, as can be seen on the website, the current School no longer serves it's original purpose under higher directive, and sadly, to some extent, this is true. No place is without politics, and there is still an inordinate partiality to its members who are "qualified" by university education, which brings me to the original purpose of the School:
The SES began at the beginning of the last century as a school for understanding and teaching fundamental economics, but the founders, who looked deep into the truths about economic activity, found themselves looking at human nature and the universal purpose of human existence as well, which is why the School is also called "The School of Philosophy".
The SES is a non-academic, disciplinary school that has branches in many Westernised countries (Australia, America, Britain, and elsewhere). More information can be found on its British website called the "School of Economic Science": [...] (Oops! Automated Amazon maggots worldwide have eaten the URL names in my reviews again!)
As for the purpose of its name, "School of Economic Science", which portrays its origins, I would say from observation & experience that the economics course serves as one of its means to attract the more cerebral members of society to its courses. I've studied both the original (pre-2000) and later economic material, and the latter is definitely more academic (technical) in content.
To get a sense of those from the "Old School" who were with Maclaren at the time of the School's development in the last century, examine the contents of the website at Maclaren Foundation website (- type in Maclaren Foundation as one word; Amazon deletes URLs in reviews), as well as read the book "The Heart of the Eastern Mystical Teaching" (ISBN: 0854240306), which gives background to such spiritual teachings as that of Gurdjieff, amongst others.
I have on occasions asked folk the rhetorical question: "Would you recognise a true Spiritual Teacher if perchance in passing you encountered him or her?"
____________________________
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Mrs Helen Nel Apr 23, 2010
By H. Nel
I loved reading the book about Leon MacLaren(LM). I believe Mrs Tolley has written with honesty and integrity about her life with LM. I particulary enjoyed reading about the sequence of events leading up to LM meeting HH Shantananda Saraswati including the Russian Philosophers Gurdjieff and Ouspensky as well as the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Helen Nel, Durban South Africa
|
| | |
|
|
