Ernest Wood (theosophist)

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Ernest Wood

Ernest Egerton Wood (born August 18, 1883 in Manchester , England ; † September 17, 1965 in Houston , USA ) was a British yogi , theosophist , Sanskrit scholar and author of numerous yoga books, including the meditation textbook Concentration - An Approach to Meditation .

Youth and education

Wood studied chemistry, physics and geology at the Manchester Municipal College of Technology. Because of his interest in Buddhism and yoga - evoked by reading Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia - he began to learn Sanskrit as a student .

Theosophy

After hearing a lecture by Annie Besant as a young man and being deeply impressed by her, Wood joined the Manchester Lodge of the Theosophical Society . When Annie Besant became president of the Adyar Theosophical Society , Wood followed her to India in 1908 and became one of its assistants. Wood also worked closely on numerous publication projects with Charles Webster Leadbeater , who had arrived in Adyar in 1909 .

In his role as assistant to Leadbeater, Wood was an eyewitness in 1909 to the "discovery" of the young Jiddu Krishnamurti by Leadbeater, who soon declared him to be the "vehicle" of the coming "world teacher" . Wood's account of these events and his increasingly critical assessments can be found in his autobiography, Is this Theosophy ...? Published in 1936 . , as well as in two later articles.

At the suggestion of Annie Besant, Wood began to work in Indian education and served from 1910 as the school director of several schools and colleges maintained by the Theosophical Society. Wood became Professor of Physics and Principal and President of Sind National College and Madanapalle College, both of which were affiliated to the Universities of Bombay and Madras as teaching colleges . Wood spread theosophical ideas on numerous lecture tours and published articles and books on a wide range of topics, including a condensed summary of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's monumental secret doctrine . Wood's lecture tours have taken him to many countries in Asia, Europe and America. Wood resided in India until the end of World War II, after which he moved to the USA.

As a result of the Krishnamurti affair, which had split the TS, Wood began to doubt the direction of the Theosophical Society. After Annie Besant's death, Wood ran for president, but was defeated by Leadbeater supporter George Arundale in a tough fight that Wood felt was unfair . Impressed by Krishnamurti's development and disaffected by the political atmosphere within the TS, Wood turned to studying the classical yoga scriptures.

yoga

In India, Wood had intensive contact with numerous yogis and Hindu scholars, as he was usually warmly welcomed as a long-time practicing yogi, vegetarian and teetotaler who had also adapted to Indian lifestyles and learned Sanskrit. During his early years in Adyar, Wood received the honorary title "Shri Sattwikagraganya" from the head of the Vedanta order Shri Shringeri Shivaganga Samasthanam in Mysore , Sri Jagat Guru Shankara Charya Swami, because he had campaigned for Indian disciples to be taught in Sanskrit as well teaching.

Despite his friendly relations with numerous yogis, Wood never officially became a student of an Indian master. However, the grown-up Krishnamurti, who had been Wood's pupil as a boy in Adyar, later exerted a strong influence on Wood. When Wood met him again in New York in 1928 , Krishnamurti was about to leave the TS and establish himself as an independent teacher because he rejected the occult hierarchies and ceremonies of the TS leadership at the time. This meeting made a big impression on Wood and prompted him to turn to an intensive study of the yoga classics. Wood spent the remaining years of his life writing about yoga. He moved to the United States, where he briefly served as President and Dean of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco . He later moved to Houston , Texas and worked for the University of Houston . Together with his wife Hilda, Wood helped found a Montessori school in Houston, which was named after the Woods "School of the Woods".

Shortly after his arrival in India in 1908, Wood began translating his first Hindu classics. In the late 1920s, with the assistance of some Hindu scholars, Wood undertook a thorough study of the yoga classics and subsequently published translations and commentaries on famous yoga texts, including Bhagavad Gita , Patañjalis Yogasutra, and Shankara's Vivekachudamani . His commentaries are consistently characterized by an effort to relate the philosophical ideas of the classical yoga texts to the problems of modern life, and they contain numerous allusions to his own practical experiences. Together with the early publications on concentration and memory training ( Concentration - An Approach to Meditation and Mind and Memory Training ) as well as the compact overview presentation "Yoga" (German: Grundriß der Yogalehre ) Woods writings contain a complete introduction to the classical texts of Raja Yoga .

Wood died on September 17, 1965, just days after completing his translation of the Viveka Chudamani . This was published posthumously under the title The pinnacle of Indian thought .

Partial directory of his works

German

  • Outline of yoga teaching. The practice and the world of thought , with a detailed directory of the yoga vocabulary, translated from English by Christian and Otto Albrecht Isbert, Stuttgart: Hans E. Günther Verlag 1961.

English

  • The Garuda Purana (Saroddhara) . The Sacred Books of the Hindus, Vol. 9. Indian Press 1911.
  • The Seven Rays . 1925.
  • The intuition of the will . The Theosophical Press 1927. ISBN 0-7661-9095-1 .
  • To Englishman Defends Mother India. A Complete Constructive Reply to "Mother India" , Ganesh & Co. 1929, revised 1930.
  • The Occult Training of the Hindus , 1931 (republished in 1976 under the title Seven Schools of Yoga by the Theosophical Publishing House).
  • The Song of Praise to the Dancing Shiva . Ganesh & Co. 1931.
  • Mind and Memory Training . Theosophical Publishing House 1936.
  • Is this Theosophy ...? (Autobiography) Rider & Co. 1936. ISBN 0-7661-0829-5 .
  • Practical Yoga, Ancient and Modern , with an Introduction by Paul Brunton. EP Dutton & Co., Inc. 1948.
  • Concentration - An Approach to Meditation . Theosophical Publishing House 1949. ISBN 0-8356-0176-5 .
  • Practical Yoga, Ancient and Modern, Being a New, Independent Translation of Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms, Interpreted in the Light of Ancient and Modern Psychological Knowledge and Practical Experience . Rider and Company 1951.
  • The Glorious Presence, A Study of the Vedanta Philosophy and Its Relation to Modern Thought, Including a New Translation of Shankara's Ode to the South-Facing Form . Rider & Co. 1952.
  • Great Systems of Yoga . Philosophical Library 1954.
  • The Bhagavad Gita Explained, With a New and Literal Translation . New Century Foundation Press 1954.
  • Yoga Dictionary . Philosophical Library 1956.
  • Zen Dictionary . Philosophical Library 1957. ISBN 0-14-021998-6 .
  • Yoga . Penguin Books 1959. Revised 1962.
  • A Study of Pleasure and Pain . The Theosophical Press 1962.
  • Vedanta Dictionary . Philosophical Library 1964.
  • The Pinnacle of Indian Thought, Being a new, independent translation of the Viveka Chudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination) with commentaries . The Theosophical Publishing House, 1967.
  • Come Unto Me and Other Writings . The Theosophical Publishing House 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernest Wood: "Clairvoyant investigations by CW Leadbeater on Alcyone's (or Krishnamurti's) previous lives." (with extensive notes by C. Jinarajadasa)
  2. ↑ Ernest Wood: "There is no religion higher than truth", on the discovery of Jiddu Krishnamurti, his youth and upbringing and Leadbeater's role in this
  3. ↑ a b Wood, Ernest E. (1936). "Is this Theosophy ...?", Rider & Co.
  4. ↑ Homepage of the School of the Woods, history section (accessed September 4, 2011)
  5. ↑ Wood, Ernest E. (1967), "The Pinnacle of Indian Thought", editor's note by Hilda Wood, p.161.
personal data
SURNAME Wood, Ernest
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wood, Ernest Egerton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British theosophist and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester , England
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 1965
Place of death Houston , USA