Encounters in Yoga and Zen

Gleaned from the author's experiences over many years of yoga and Zen training, as well as from conversations with teachers, folk stories and temple magazines, this is a fascinating and enlightening compendium of tales from the yoga and Zen traditions. Stories such as these are used in many spiritual schools' teaching - they're the flint or steel that makes the spark which, when nurtured daily, fires the imagination, heralding enlightenment and insight.

Trevor Pryce Leggett (1914-2000) studied Ved?nta and the traditional Yoga of the Self for over sixty years and for eighteen years was a pupil of Hari Prasad Shastri. He lived for a number of years in Japan where he learnt Japanese and studied Judo and Zen. He was the first foreigner to hold the sixth Dan in Judo from the Kodokan, Tokyo, and he was fourth Dan in Shogi (Japanese chess). He was one of the leading teachers of Judo in the United Kingdom. From 1946 until his retirement in 1970 he was Head of the Japanese Service of the BBC. Trevor Leggett was the author and translator of marvellous books on Yoga, Zen, Judo and Shogi. In 1987 the All-Japan Buddhist Association gave him a literary award for his translations and in 1990 he was invited to speak on his ?a?kara translations to the three day International Seminar on ?a?kara held in New Delhi. His books of teaching and training stories include stories used by teachers in the Eastern spiritual schools to assist students in their training and those drawn from his own personal training experiences. Their aim is to find realisation and inspiration in daily life. Trevor Leggett provided in his will for a charity to be established to promote the study of Yoga, Ved?nta, Buddhism, Zen, Judo and Shogi and the Trevor Leggett Adhyatma Yoga Trust ('TLAYT') was registered with the Charity Commission (number 1086172) in 2001. TLAYT holds the copyright to all of Trevor Leggett's books and it has worked steadily to bring them all back into print, which following the republication of 'Kata Judo,' is now the case. To this end we have been greatly assisted by our friends at the Buddhist Society Trust, M-Y Books Ltd and a number of Trevor's old Judo friends and pupils.