Lotus Lake, Dragon Pool

Collected by the author over many years, these stories from the Yoga and Zen traditions are the flint and steel that strike a spark that lights up the mind with insights that one should ponder daily to bring to light ever deeper meaning. They may be similar in intent to Zen Koans - but they are rather different in content. In many Zen Koans someone says or does something extraordinarily inappropriate, which catches your attention just because it's extraordinary -but afterwards the light from them has to be applied to daily life. In contrast, the stories here are often ordinary incidents from ordinary lives (not that there aren't some extraordinary ones too!) that nevertheless open the mind's eye to the vast potential for realization and inspiration to be found in daily life.

The pictures featured throughout this book were brushed by Jacques Allais in the Suiboku style, in which he was an acknowledged expert. The innate beauty of this ancient monochrome ink-painting technique lies in its subtlety of expression, in which infinitely more is suggested than is drawn on the page - making it the perfect vehicle for focusing meditation practice as well as an ideal complement to the stories in this book.

Autorentext

Trevor Pryce Leggett was an author, Judo expert, Buddhist, and was for twenty four years the head of the BBC's Japanese service. He studied Zen and Judo while in Japan, and published several translations of major Zen texts in his numerous books on the subject, along with translations of the Sanskrit writings of Shankara. Prior to his move to Japan in 1938, Leggett began to study Judo, and eventually held 6th Dan in Judo from the Kodokan and became one of the leading European Judoka.
Leggett studied Adhyatma Yoga under the instruction of Hari Prasad Shastri, and was a senior member of his Shanti Sadan yoga centre. As well as his translations, Leggett produced his own teachings, training stories and instructive works on Yoga, Zen, and the Martial Arts, as well as producing the first book by a non-Japanese author on the subject of Shogi, or Japanese chess, in which he held 4th Dan. Leggett gave lectures on Yoga and Zen to spiritual groups such as the Albion Yoga Movement, the Theosophical Society and the Buddhist Society over a period of many years, and wrote articles for publications such as The Middle Way, Self-Knowledge and Tattvaloka.
A number of these talks and articles are available to the public on the website for the Terence Leggett Adhyatma Yoga Trust, or TLAYT. TLAYT was formed upon Leggett's death in 2001, as was instructed in his will, and its objective is to promote the knowledge of Yoga, Vedanta, Zen, Buddhism, Judo and Shogi. The Trust's main means to achieve these objectives is through the republication of Leggett's books, which include 'Encounters in Yoga and Zen' and 'Lotus Lake Dragon Pool', two fascinating selections of traditional Japanese and Indian stories that can be used to illustrate and illuminate a variety of moral and spiritual dilemmas, as well as a translation of Shankara's 'Vivarana' sub-commentary on the Yoga Sutras, which includes an introduction by Leggett. 'The Old Zen Master' contains stories related not only to Buddhism but also to other religions, as well as to Martial Arts and to other aspects of life, such as music, chess, and everyday incidents, and is designed as an ideal introduction to Zen for beginners as well as a fresh take on Zen for longer term practitioners. 'Jewels from the Indranet' is Trevor Leggett's final book, completed but unpublished at the time of his death. The title refers to the fabled net of the god Indra of which the strands have a jewel of truth at each junction, and the pieces on Eastern methods of inner training and realisation are designed to point towards actual practice in life and to hint at deeper practice.
Trevor Leggett published over thirty books in total, and was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Third Class) by the Japanese government for his services in introducing Japanese culture to the UK, and later received the All-Japan Buddhist Association Literary Award for Translations of Japanese.
TLAYT aims to make all of Leggett's writings available to the public at affordable prices in both printed and e-book formats, along with a selection of audiobooks available as downloads from the TLAYT website (tlayt.co.uk).