Buddhist Catechism (Olcott)
The Buddhist Catechism of the American Henry Steel Olcott first appeared in German in 1887 in a translation by Dr. Erich Bischoff in Leipzig . Shortly afterwards, namely in 1888, Friedrich Zimmermann published his Buddhist catechism in Braunschweig, with the postulate that it would do better than the Olcott catechism to meet the demands of adults and Europeans.
In fact, the first Sinhalese and English editions (Buddhist Catechism, 1881) were intended for students in Ceylonese schools to halt the decline of Buddhism under English colonial rule . The 33rd edition (English) 1897 tries to offer a higher level by including a whole series of new questions and answers. On this basis, the 35th edition (German) published by Bischoff in 1902 appears, which contains 386 questions and answers as well as comments by the translator, a glossary and a bibliography.
Also noteworthy is the appendix of 14 Buddhist beliefs that were jointly signed in January 1891 at a Buddhist conference organized by Olcott in his Indian domicile, Adyar (in Madras ). In addition to the representatives of southern Buddhism from Ceylon (today: Sri Lanka ), Burma (today: Myanmar ) and Chittagong (today part of Bangladesh ) there were also representatives of all major Japanese schools of thought ( Tendai , Shingon , Zen , Pure Land and Nichiren Buddhism ) represented.
literature
- Henry S. Olcott: Buddhist Catechism . Littera-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-933246-36-9 (1 CD-ROM)
Web links
- Part II. The "Dharma" or teaching (excerpt)