[written by request for a memorial to John held August 23rd 2025 in Vermont] To Johnny Seonaidh, Dharma Brother, Siddha from Sidcup Preamble: Several years in the Court, with Rinpoche, Jeannie, Sophie and a taste of tiny Tillie in Maitland, Nova Scotia; then a year or so in Halifax, there at the end; then a year or two in Vermont with a spicy siddha interlude in Michigan. When we first met again in Vermont, after decades apart though occasionally corresponding, as I gazed into your old familiar Kalapa Court eyes, I saw Rinpoche gazing back at me, then all three of us laughed in mutual recognition. ‘We shall grow old together, Johnny’ wrote the Vidyadhara long ago; and so it came to be. So many hours, meals, drinks, days and months together. Words fail when considering your impact, imagination, humour, playfulness, discipline, insight, boldness, generosity, passion, fearlessness, wisdom, service and kindness. And yet I must try, for Julia has asked. Spontaneously then, and in memory of my best and dearest Dharma Brother – for so you often called me - off we go: ===================================================================== Johnny walks with the Siddhas With the old gods like antlered Cernunnos, erstwhile Stag and dastardly Dung Beetle, With the musing, sneaky dakinis of the underworld, the overworld, the dream world, With the timeless gurus: Lord of Space Dingo Khyentze, whose gestures effortlessly lassoed galaxies King of Mind, the Gyalwa Karmapa, whose every mantra beaded together majesty and modernity, Chögyi Gyatso, servant chum of profoundly poetic unreal realities, the master, the lover, the friend, the teacher, the leader, the trickster, the ultimate Golden Sun of Glorious Being.... So Johnny: now you’re up there, in the Refuge Tree where you belong, Rubbing elbows with your betters, all together now, Lords of space, merry of mind Fresh and majestic, cockney and cuckold Sacred and naughty, cook and housekeeper Butler and footman, thief and ravisher Comic and craftsman, Lord and Lady... Treading the luminous realms of the waking-body dreamer Imagination dripping like summer rain from grateful leaves of generous spontaneity Johnny is walking, Johnny is treading, Johnny is soaring, Johnny is flying Johnny is serving his beloved guru, Chögyi the Chakravartin Lord of the Three Times, the Ten Times Table, Conqueror of the American 70’s Hero of here and back again So sweet - sweeter than any port in a storm or poured in crystal So precise - cutting the sandwich just so, placing the pin in particularly perfect position So gallant - salute all a-quiver, angle acutely cutting through cumbersome cavalry Cannons a-blazing, sabres rattling, home into harbour, dead-on reckoning, Beat into stiff breeze, lunge on a broad reach, relax on a run Easy swales of a following sea, Gleaming in moonlight the fulsome fool moon of Purnachandra, Smiling and laughing, dancing and twirling, Tickling your moustache Johnny, pinching you to dance a jig again, Summon Gilkerson’s Pipes again Tease Gimian’s temper again, smash the glass against the wall in the Court Arouse Lady Diana’s disapproval again, Rail against the bored bureaucrats in the PIC building Shock the locals in Maitland at The Great Ship Inn Scandalize the kinky Madames in Manhattan, slaves to outrageous fortunes, Ransack the dreams of the war-wounded in Sidcup Steal once again for your mother in suburban bardos... Major to this, Major to that, Major to Nelson, Major to Montgomery Waltz with the Mahasiddhas Johnny, waltzing forever All eighty four of them, all of them plunder All of them pirates, all of them plenty All of them weaving their Dream Body splendour All of them bowing, all of them laughing, All of them joyful, all of them waiting, Waiting for you Johnny, Butler and Master, Slave, Servant, Admiral, Lord of all Laughter, The Siddhas all bow to you, Siddha from Sidcup, Go now and play with them, lightning and thunder Go now and trick them with Great British Humour, Go now with Chögyi your friend now forever... But never forget us, dear Johnny – No! No! Always remember us here down below And send us your blessings in sunshine and rain Send us your blessings in heartache and pain Send us your wisdom, your daughters, your wives Send us your marvellous happenstance life. Long may you live in our hearts old companion Long may you live in our hearts old companion Long may you live in our hearts old companion. The Venerable Sir Ashley Playfair-Howes Baron of Bras D’Or, Lord of the Isles Your unworthy Dharma Heir. Postscript: The waking world never caught you, Johnny, not for an instant so no doubt the bardos didn’t either; one day, may the net of your lineage catch the vessel of your next rebirth – though you are already reborn, I trow, and beyond our imagining