MR. LEON MACLAREN
Founder of the School

            When Leon MacLaren was sixteen years old he asked his mother what was the book which his father prized so highly and used in his speeches? The answer was Progress and Poverty by Henry George. As the young man, having read the book, sat by a lake, it became very clear to him that there was such a thing as truth and there was such a thing as justice, that they could be found and, being found, could be taught. That lakeside inspiration has subsequently changed the lives of thousands.

            Leon MacLaren trained as a barrister and was called to the Bar in 1938. He practiced at 2 Paper Buildings in the Inner Temple. Meanwhile, as he had resolved to do, he had begun his search for truth on his twenty-first birthday. The first step was to Trafalgar Square and a meeting place set up for followers of Henry George. The depression had begun, the effects of unemployment and deprivation were visible everywhere and Leon MacLaren set out with a few others of like mind to convert the world to the principles of economic justice laid down by Henry George.

            A difficulty soon became apparent which was that, because words would be changed in the minds of the hearers, it was virtually impossible to communicate anything precise. The only way to deal with this was to start a School. He did not know what the idea forming in his mind meant, except that it was not to be an ordinary school but something in the manner of Socrates.

            The first groups attended weekly meetings held on the subject of Economics, often in a room at the House of Commons. This was at the beginning of the second world war.

            On call-up, Leon MacLaren was certified C3 and therefore was not allowed into the army. He spent the war performing civilian duties in London and maintaining the School through the vicissitudes of the time, which included the first house disappearing under the blitzkrieg. The next house occupied by the School was at 11 Suffolk Street, near Trafalgar Square. The house required repair after war damage and the work was carried out by members of the School. This led to the inception of physical work as a part of School life.

            The lectures depended on the material which Leon MacLaren wrote himself. For three years he was writing it only days, if not hours, ahead of its presentation to students. It would take him all of Saturday, Sunday and Sunday night each weekend. But then, after three years, he found that he could dictate it straight to a secretary, who herself was working with such fine attention that she could type direct onto a gestetner duplicating wax. He put this ability to dictate down to the years of practice of writing material and then removing anything which was not true, anything, that is, that could not be verified by the words of the wise. Sometimes, he said, he was left with nothing and had to start again.

            To run a School requires a formidable character. Leon MacLaren, in a talk he gave on the origins of the School, gave the credit for this to his father. They did not always see eye to eye, but Andrew MacLaren stood as the inspirer of his son, by first bringing his attention to Henry George, by his faith in natural law and universal principle, and in his complete contempt for experts. This last encouraged Leon to remain free from the influence of current ideas and, in the early days, to stay apart in his search for the truth.

            The need of the students for a textbook led Leon MacLaren to write The Nature of Society, a book which set out the principles of economics in a broad way. At the last chapter, and wishing to bring things to a conclusion, he found that the argument would go no further. He felt as if he stood on the brink of a dark abyss. Such was this experience that his health was affected and he was taken to the country for a weekend rest. On the journey he met a man who had just written a book containing many quotations from philosophic sources. This lit the darkness and led to this man, Peter Goffin, giving a course in Philosophy in the School.

            In 1953 Leon MacLaren was introduced to Dr Francis Roles of the Society for the Study of Normal Psychology - the Study Society - and through him he heard the teachings of Peter Ouspensky, himself a follower of the eastern European philosopher, Gurdjieff. Leon MacLaren was startled to find that the diagrams presented matched those he had devised for his economic courses, but that they had wider significance. Under this influence he started to write a Philosophy course for the benefit of his senior students and in 1955 this course was offered to the public and attracted hundreds of students. This was most fortunate as, with a rise in national prosperity, interest in Economics had declined considerably.

            Ouspensky had spoken of the need for a 'Method' to enable students to penetrate deeper. This was met by the arrival of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who gave the meditation to a few, including Leon MacLaren, and later it was taken up by all the senior students of the School. In 1962 Dr Roles went to India for a special satsanga, at the end of which His Holiness the Shankaracharya of the North, as he then was, appeared. Dr Roles immediately recognized him as the man he had been waiting for all his life.

            Leon MacLaren, on receiving a record of what had been said, also immediately appreciated that here was true knowledge, 'the real thing - a man who really knew what he was saying'. In 1965 Leon MacLaren was invited to meet His Holiness in India and this established the direct connection of the School with a man of true wisdom.

            With this introduction to the Vedantic teaching and the teacher, and through the practice of meditation, the School took the vital step from study to deep practice. Throughout the subsequent years, Leon MacLaren tirelessly led the way forward, keeping faith and holding to the truth without compromise.

            When Leon MacLaren met His Holiness, his devotion to his teacher and to the truth provided the model required for progress. Against the trends of the world towards coarseness, he refined the tastes and the minds of his students, imbuing them with a love of the finest music, the finest art and the finest literature. His work to have his students transcend their limitations created a body of people in the School willing to lay aside their ideas and opinions and to go beyond what they considered themselves capable of. From his work grew the many faculties of art and study outlined in this book; there grew also schools for children, and the foundation of similar Schools of Philosophy across the world.

            He worked for truth to the end, his final illness arriving during the tour of the world's Schools which he undertook each year. He was brought back to England from South Africa and gave up this life in a London hospital-on June 24th, 1994. The tour was continued without a break by his successor in the work, Mr Donald Lambie.