Leon MacLaren
Encyclopedia
Leon MacLaren (1910–1994) was a barrister, politician, philosopher and the founder of the School of Economic Science
School of Economic Science
The School of Economic Science , a registered charity based in Mandeville Place, near Oxford Street in London, provides courses in what it calls "Practical Philosophy" and "Economics with Justice". The courses are based on the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, which sees an underlying unity in...
(SES) MacLaren was inspired by Henry George, Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Dr Francis Roles, Pyotr Ouspensky
P. D. Ouspensky
Peter D. Ouspensky , , a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915.He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with...
, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
, and finally the philosophy of Advaita Vedānta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
through the Shankaracharyas
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
of Jyoti Math
Jyotirmath
Jyotirmath , also called Jyotir Math and Joshimath , is a city and a municipal board in Chamoli District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is home to one of the four cardinal pīthas established by Adi Shankara.-Demographics:...
Early life
MacLaren, christened Leonardo Da Vinci MacLaren, was born in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
on 24 September 1910. He was the son of Andrew MacLaren
Andrew MacLaren
Andrew MacLaren was an Independent Labour Party politician. His passions were economic justice and art; he persistently campaigned for Land Value Taxation, and he was a painter. He represented Burslem for three separate terms during the 20th century.-History:Andrew MacLaren was born in a poor...
, a Labour Member of Parliament who was a staunch advocate of Henry George. MacLaren's father was a great influence on his life and his economic and political aspirations.
Schooled at Rutlish School
Rutlish School
Rutlish School is a comprehensive school for boys. It is on Watery Lane, Merton Park, south-west London. It was formerly a grammar school.It is noted for caning its most famous alumnus politician, British Prime Minister Sir John Major in its grammar school period.-History:The school is named after...
in Wimbledon, MacLaren later became attracted to the law and trained as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
. At the age of 16 he said: “It became very clear to me that there was such a thing as Truth and there was such a thing as Justice and that they could be found and being found, could be taught. It seemed to me that that was the most valuable thing one could pursue.”
Career
MacLaren joined the Henry George movement in London in 1931, serving on the executive committee from 1933 until 1937. At the 1936 International Conference of Georgist Organisations held in London, a contingent from the US presented a question-based method of teaching Henry George's ideas. MacLaren created a similar method and taught the course in London.In 1937 MacLaren left the Henry George movement and founded the School of Economic Science
School of Economic Science
The School of Economic Science , a registered charity based in Mandeville Place, near Oxford Street in London, provides courses in what it calls "Practical Philosophy" and "Economics with Justice". The courses are based on the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, which sees an underlying unity in...
(with its former name of The Henry George School of Economic Science) with the support of his father. In 1938 he was called to the bar and practised in Chambers at 2 Paper Buildings in the Inner Temple.
MacLaren was nominated as a Labour candidate for Epping, where Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
was the sitting member but withdrew before the 1950 election. He instead ran for public office as a Liberal for Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...
at the 1950 election and also in Hendon North in 1951 without any success.
During the 1950s MacLaren became a member of the Society for the Study of Normal Psychology (usually known as the "Study Society") which utilizes the teachings of P. D. Ouspensky
P. D. Ouspensky
Peter D. Ouspensky , , a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915.He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with...
. In 1965, MacLaren studied Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
philosophy when he trained with Shantananda Saraswati, the 'Śaṅkarācārya of the North', in India. MacLaren's influences include his father Andrew MacLaren
Andrew MacLaren
Andrew MacLaren was an Independent Labour Party politician. His passions were economic justice and art; he persistently campaigned for Land Value Taxation, and he was a painter. He represented Burslem for three separate terms during the 20th century.-History:Andrew MacLaren was born in a poor...
, Henry George
Henry George
Henry George was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land...
, Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff
G. I. Gurdjieff
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff according to Gurdjieff's principles and instructions, or the "Fourth Way."At one point he described his teaching as "esoteric Christianity."...
, P. D. Ouspensky
P. D. Ouspensky
Peter D. Ouspensky , , a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915.He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with...
, Francis Roles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
, and Shantanand Śāntānanda Sarasvatī, who was one of the Śaṅkarācārya
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
s or spiritual leaders of North India.
Beginning in the early 1970’s MacLaren spent three months of the year traveling around the world visiting the SES affiliated schools. MacLaren's illness came during his final world tour. He was brought back to England from South Africa and died in a London hospital on June 24, 1994. (The tour was continued by his successor, Donald Lambie.)
In 2009 MacLaren's former personal assistant, Dorine Tolley, published a biography of MacLaren's life called The Power Within: Leon MacLaren, A Memoir of His Life and Work.
School of Economic Science (SES)
MacLaren founded the SES in 1937. One reference claims MacLaren's father founded the school, although elsewhere states it was Leon.At SES, MacLaren introduced and developed philosophy courses to complement his economics courses. Over time the philosophy courses became SES's principal area of teaching. According to the group's literature, from the mid 1960s onwards, MacLaren presented, in addition to some of the ideas of P. D. Ouspensky, the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
, a philosophical theology of absolute non-duality as taught by the eighth-century Indian philosopher-theologian Śaṅkara. Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
is an idealist philosophy, and involves the assertion that only one entity exists, Brahman, characterized by existence, consciousness and bliss, and that our varied, daily cognitions are essentially erroneous.
After attending a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
at the Albert Hall in London in 1959, MacLaren and the Study Society began integrating meditation into the activities of the Study Society and the SES and founded the School of Meditation http://www.schoolofmeditation.org/ in 1961. The SES prescribed disciplines involving many aspects of one's personal life, including diet, musical tastes and sexual behaviour.
The SES became controversial after the publication of the book Secret Cult by Peter Hounam. In 1994 the SES was listed on a survey conducted by the Family Action Information Resource
Family Action Information Resource
In November 2007, FAIR , Britain's main "anti-cult" group, re-established itself as The Family Survival Trust ....
Review concerning New Religious Movements. The SES was referred to in the Synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...
Report, confirming that the Church of England considers dual membership impossible, even when organizations said to be a new religious movements, present themselves as philosophies. The SES does not regard itself as a religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, although some authors of books on new religious movements identify it as one.
MacLaren wrote a book called The Nature of Society, setting out the principles which were taught in SES schools.
The current leader of the SES is Donald Lambie.
Reception
MacLaren was criticized for unreasonably applying his rules of diet, daily regimen, marriage and sexual absitinence as part of his method of developing self-knowledge and self-determination, as if they constituted a spiritual method. Rules about limiting sleep were sometimes applied as a rigid rule and are said to have caused some members of the SES to suffer from sleep-deprivation.The SES began a school for the children of SES members and the public. In 1983 there was a controversy over the school's system of corporal punishment. A series of articles published in the London Evening Standard during 1982 quoted parents who complained of their children's punishments and bizarre homework. In some cases, MacLaren himself is said to have verbally disciplined the children in a harsh way.
It is difficult to obtain the syllabus taught by the School of Economic Science
School of Economic Science
The School of Economic Science , a registered charity based in Mandeville Place, near Oxford Street in London, provides courses in what it calls "Practical Philosophy" and "Economics with Justice". The courses are based on the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, which sees an underlying unity in...
However, in recent years the SES has published some information about its history.