Anagarika Govinda

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Lama Anagarika Govinda with his wife Li Gotami Govinda (left) and Nyanaponika (right)

Lama Anagarika Govinda (born May 17, 1898 in Waldheim , Saxony as Ernst Lothar Hoffmann; † January 14, 1985 in Mill Valley , California ) was a modern German interpreter of Buddhism and Daoism , writer, painter and founder of the Arya Maitreya Mandala .

biography

Early years

Nyānatiloka, Govinda's first Buddhist teacher

The son of a German father and a Bolivian mother already studied comparative studies of the world religions of Christianity , Islam and Buddhism as a schoolboy . He studied philosophy and archeology at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg im Breisgau . From 1920 to 1928 he carried out archaeological studies at the University of Naples Federico II and at the University of Cagliari . He devoted himself to extensive research on the grave tumuli throughout the Mediterranean region including North Africa.

During this time Ernst Lothar Hoffmann lived in an artists' colony on Capri , where he also worked as an artist. There he conducted an ever more intensive examination of Buddhism through reading, learned Pāḷi , conducted Abhidhamma studies and began to meditate systematically according to the Satipatthāna Sutta . In 1928 he traveled to Ceylon , where he took the vows of Brahmacari . His first Buddhist teacher in Asia was Nyanatiloka (1878-1957), the originally German Anton Gueth, who had become abbot of a Buddhist monastery community on the island of Polgasduwa in 1911. From him, with whom he also traveled to Burma , he received the name Govinda at the ordination.

Conversion to Vajrayana

Tibetan statue of Maitreya Buddha

In 1931 Govinda met the Tibetan Lama Ngawang Kalsang , called Tomo Geshe Rinpoche , who convinced him of Vajrayana and got him enthusiastic about Tibet . Maitreya , the Buddha of the future, played a special role in the practice of Ngawang Kalsang, who became Govinda's teacher . Govinda reported on Ngawang Kalsang that he had statues of Maitreya erected in many places,

“To remind the followers of the Buddha that it is not enough to bask in the splendor of the past, but that it is necessary to participate actively in the shaping of the future and in one's own spirit, as well as in that of everyone after completion aspiring people to prepare for the coming Buddha. "

Govinda called the order, which he founded in 1933, inspired by his teacher Ngawang Kalsang, Arya Maitreya Mandala, "Circle of the noble Maitreya".

University professor in India

Rabindranath Tagore, 1931

From 1931 to 1935 Govinda taught European languages, Buddhist philosophy, psychology and archeology at the Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan, founded by the Indian Nobel laureate in literature Rabindranath Tagore . Indira Gandhi , who later became Prime Minister of India, who studied in Shantiniketan, learned French from Govinda here. Govinda had an intense relationship with the director of Rabindranath Tagore University. Tagore also supported the founding of the Arya Maitreya Mandala in 1933 and joined it.

1935-36 taught Govinda at Patna University , where he treated in a series of lectures "The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy". Govinda has also taught at Allahabad University , the University of Lucknow, and Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi . From 1935 Govinda worked as the general secretary of the "International Buddhist University Association", which had set itself the task of building a Buddhist university in India.

Research trips

Govinda's research and pilgrimages, which should make him a bestselling author with the book "The Path of the White Clouds", began in 1932. He toured Sikkim and the Chumbi Valley in southern Tibet, in 1933 Ladakh and the Chang-thang in western Tibet, and in 1938 again Sikkim and the Tibetan border area. Although he has meanwhile become a British-Indian citizen, Govinda was arrested at the outbreak of the Second World War - as were the Buddhists Nyanatiloka and Nyanaponika of German origin - in the internment camp Dehra Dun , made famous by Heinrich Harrer's book "Seven Years in Tibet" , because he was part of the Indian independence movement to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru .

1947-49 he was able to resume his research trips through southern, central and western Tibet. The expedition to Tsaparang came about . Since 1955 Govinda lived as a writer and hermit with his Indian wife Li Gotami Govinda in the Kasar Devi Ashram in Almora  - today a retreat center of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, in the Kumaon Himalayas.

From 1960 he began extensive lecture tours in the West; 1960 and 1965 to Europe, 1968/69 to the USA and Japan, 1971/72 to Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, the USA, Europe, South Africa, 1974/75 to Southeast Asia, USA, Hawaii and 1977 to Germany and the USA, where he has been living in California since 1978 and, among other things, was on friendly terms with Alan Watts .

Govinda always worked as a painter. Important exhibitions of his paintings took place in Calcutta (1934), Allahabad and Lucknow (1936), Delhi (1939), Calcutta (1945), Bombay (1946), Basel and Bonn (1977), Stuttgart (1984) and a retrospective in Konstanz (1996).

Govinda saw his work as a bridge between the spiritual traditions of Europe and Asia: "May it be an incentive that inspires others to cross the bridge in both directions. In no case should it induce someone to move from one side to the other convert."

Arya Maitreya Mandala

Inspired by his teacher Ngwang Kalsang and Tagore, Govinda founded the Arya Maitreya Mandala in 1933, over which the King of Sikkim Tashi Namgyal took over the patronage. Members of the Arya Maitreya Mandala take a Bodhisattva vow upon entry . However, the order does not prescribe a certain way of life such as celibacy or lack of property for its members, but allows them every personal freedom. He takes an integrative view of Buddhist philosophy and practice. The members cultivate the study of Buddhist philosophy and Tantric Sadhana Exercises that as a secret doctrine by initiation are transmitted from teacher to student. The order requires a novitiate of at least three years, which serves the study of Buddhist philosophy and meditative training.

Indian scholars joined the order when it was founded, including the Indologists Benimadhab Barua (1888–1948) and Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (1897–1964). From 1952 the order spread internationally, with the first branches in Vietnam and Germany. Hans-Ulrich Rieker brought the European branch of the order into being. In Germany the order was headed by Lionel Stützer and Harry Pieper , in Switzerland by Henry Noel Marryat Hardy , in Hungary by Ernö Hetényi . In 1982, three years before his death, Anagarika Govinda passed the leadership of the order, the office of Acharya , on to his secondary school student Karl-Heinz Gottmann , who held it until 1999. Armin Gottmann was at the helm of the Arya Maitreya Mandala until March 20, 2015 . The new head of the order is Volker Zotz .

effect

As an interpreter of Buddhism and Daoism, Govinda was influential on intellectuals and cultural workers. His books have been instrumental in promoting interest in Buddhism in Europe and the United States since the 1960s. His work "The Path of the White Clouds", which has been translated into numerous languages, has made a significant contribution to promoting public interest in Tibet, its culture and its political fate.

“I didn't know who this Govinda was, but his answers were the ones that made the deepest impression on me (although I am Catholic and have studied theology for many years) and that corresponded to me as if they came from within myself. [ ...] His language and the underlying thought method were European. With this method he can bring the most difficult Eastern subjects closer to us Europeans without simplifying them without permission and without diluting deep secrets into a mere 'philosophy of life'. "

- Luise Rinser

His important direct students in Europe include Jack Austin , Karl-Heinz Gottmann , Armin Gottmann , Ernst Pagenstecher , Harry Pieper and Volker Zotz . According to Zotz, who partially distanced himself from him after Govinda's death, "Govinda's view of Buddhism" has a strong subjective note that let him see above all what he was looking for. His perception of Asia and Buddhism was the creative creation of his own reality. ". On the other hand, Zotz pays tribute to Govinda's achievements up to the present day: "The intensive personal encounter and longstanding engagement with him had a strong influence on my way of reading Indian classical literature when it came to the search for practically effective essential statements."

The founding of the Komyoji institution , which deals with intercultural spirituality, goes back in part to ideas from Anagarika Govindas. Govinda's estate is administered by the Lama and Li Gotami Govinda Foundation .

Works

  • The basic ideas of Buddhism (Leipzig 1920)
  • Rhythmic aphorisms (Dresden 1926)
  • Thoughts and Faces (Dresden 1927)
  • Abhidhammattha Sangaha - A Compendium of Buddhist Philosophy and Psychology (Munich 1931)
  • Art and Meditation (Allahabad 1936)
  • The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy (Allahabad 1939)
  • Stupa Symbolism (Allahabad, London 1940)
  • Basics of Tibetan Mysticism (1956)
  • The stupa - psychocosmic life and death symbol (1976)
  • Mandala - poems and reflections (1961)
  • The Path of the White Clouds (1966)
  • Creative Meditation and Multidimensional Consciousness (1977)
  • The Inner Structure of the I Ching (1981)
  • Buddhist reflections (1983)
  • Living Buddhism in the Occident (1986)
  • The dynamic of the mind (1992; = new edition of "The psychological attitude ...")
  • Living in the spirit of Buddhism. (Slightly abridged new edition of: The Book of Conversations). Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt 2006. ISBN 3-936018-41-3
  • Buddhist Paths to Silence - Creative Meditation and Multidimensional Consciousness (2007)
  • Initiation. Preparation, practice, effect. Edited by Birgit Zotz . Luxembourg: Kairos Edition 2014 ISBN 9782919771073

literature

  • Annette Belke: Lama Anagarika Govinda. Pioneer of a “creative” Buddhism in the West and founder of the Arya Maitreya Mandala . Dissertation. Catholic theological faculty of the University of Vienna 1995.
  • Peter Michel: Lama Anagarika Govinda. The big signposts . Grafing 1999, ISBN 3-89427-121-3 .
  • Ken Winkler: Lama Anagarika Govinda. The biography . Grafing 1990.
  • Birgit Zotz (Ed.): Tibet's Saxon. Ernst Hoffmann becomes Lama Govinda. With contributions by Peter van Ham , Peter Michel , François Maher Presley, among others . Munich: Edition Habermann 2016, ISBN 978-3-96025-007-4 .
  • François Maher Presley: Waldheim Top 25 . Lama Anagarika Govinda or simply Ernst Lothar Hoffmann, in-Cultura.com, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-930727-55-1 .
  • Benedikt Maria Trappen : Luise Rinser and Lama Anagarika Govinda. Analysis and documents of their encounter. Scientific series of the Anagarika Govinda Institute for Buddhist Studies. Volume 1, edited by Volker Zotz , Edition Habermann, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-96025-015-9

Prominent European students of Anagarika Govindas

in alphabetic order

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Lama Anagarika Govinda: The way of the white clouds . Zurich 1969, p. 26
  2. ↑ Annette Belke: Lama Anagarika Govinda. Pioneer of a “creative” Buddhism in the West and founder of the Arya Maitreya Mandala . Dissertation. Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna 1995, p. 255
  3. ↑ Lama A. Govinda. The founder of the Arya Maitreya Mandala
  4. ↑ Lama Anagarika Govinda: Creative Meditation and Multidimensional Consciousness. Freiburg im Breisgau 1977, p. 11
  5. ↑ Birgit Zotz : "Eighty Years Ārya Maitreya Maṇḍala - A Chronology." In: Der Kreis No. 270, October 2013 ( ISSN  2197-6007 ), pp. 6–21.
  6. ↑ Volker Zotz : "Message on taking office as Mandalacarya" In: Der Kreis No. 273, May 2015 ( ISSN  2197-6007 ), pp. 8-11.
  7. ↑ Volker Zotz: On the blissful islands , p. 199
  8. ↑ Volker Zotz: Kamasutra in Management (2008), pp. 17/18
personal data
SURNAME Govinda, Anagarika
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Ernst Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German interpreter of Buddhism
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldheim
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1985
Place of death Mill Valley