Patrick Mahony born January 29th 1943 died March 23rd 2004
I first met Patrick Mahony, my colleague and friend, who died on March 23rd following a stroke on March 19th, when he started training as a vision teacher in the autumn of 1997; I was one of his tutors. Nine months later it was apparent to me that Patrick's insight into and practise of the discoveries of Dr Bates, the author of Better Eyesight without Glasses, was already greater than anyone I knew.
I wondered what would it be like in two or three years time?
After the first weekend of his training, Patrick broke his foot very badly and limped for the rest of his life. An accident which allowed him to devote himself full-time to his new career as a vision teacher. One of the things Patrick used to teach his clients was, "There is pain, and there is the identification with the pain". I realised later that his rapid adaptation and growth from this accident was an example of transcending the identification with that pain. This realisation has helped me both personally and in my work.
Just a few weeks after Patrick was given his certificate as a vision teacher he gave me a session in his own original way. At the end of the half hour my vision was incredibly clearer. Despite all that I had observed of him on the training course, a part of me was still refusing to acknowledge that someone new could change people's eyesight better than anyone else. Now my wiser part let go of the debilitating pride that I still had about being the experienced teacher and he the student. Over the next four and a half years I realised that Patrick was always going to, without fear, hold a mirror for me or anyone who worked with him. If they were willing to look in the mirror they would see clearly. As he wrote, "the first and last step of seeing clearly is to see things as they are".
( published in Yoga and Health magazine, July 2004)
