Paul Arnold (Author)

Paul Arnold (actually Charles Joseph Paul Arnold; born February 11, 1909 in Sulz , † July 31, 1992 in Menton ) was a French writer, theater historian and esotericist . He was the initiator and co-founder of the European Buddhist Union .

Life

From 1926 he studied art and law in Strasbourg and later Paris . After his studies, he worked as a senior civil servant in the French Ministry of Justice and later as chairman of the Paris Court of Justice. His writing career began in 1946 with the publication of his book Frontières du théâtre , which received an award from the Académie française the following year . He later translated from German and English into French. As an esoteric specialist, he was primarily interested in Rosicrucianism . His book History of the Rosicrucians and the Origins of Freemasonry was a milestone and has been adopted by various authors including Frances Yates , Bernard Gorceix , Roland Edighoffer, and Umberto Eco (who republished it in French and translated it into Italian). Several of his works deal with esotericism, especially his works on William Shakespeare and Charles Baudelaire .

Through extensive travels in Asia from the mid-1950s, Paul Arnold came into contact with Buddhism , which he had been interested in since childhood. He describes his experiences in the books Among Tibetan Lamas (1971) and Among the Wise Men of Japan (1975). In 1973 he founded the Buddhist association La Tradition Bouddhiste and opened a spiritual center in the fortress Fort-le-Bancs at the foot of the Alps in the Jura ( Ain department ), which was visited by a few Tibetan lamas and a Japanese Zen master. In the same year he organized a European Buddhist conference with other societies and suggested the establishment of the European Buddhist Union . Together with other European Buddhist organizations, he founded the Union in 1975 and became its chairman.

Works

• Frontières du théâtre , Paris, Éditions du Pavois, 1946
• Le Dieu de Baudelaire , Paris, Savel, 1947
• Ésotérisme de Shakespeare , Paris, Mercure de France, 1955. (German esotericism in Shakespeare's works , Berlin, Henssel, 1957)
• Histoire Des Rose-Croix et les origines de la Franc-Maçonnerie , Paris, Mercure de France, 1955; New edition with foreword by Umberto Eco , Mercure de France, "Essais", 1990
• Le Théâtre japonais. Nô, kabuki, shimpa, shingeki , Paris, l'Arche, 1957
• Les Dévoyés , roman, Paris, A. Michel, 1958
• Le Silence de Célia , Paris, Mercure de France, 1960
• Une Larme pour tous , roman, Paris, Mercure de France, 1961
• Avec les lamas tibétains. Chronique d'une expérience spirituelle , Paris, Fayard, 1970 (German among Tibetan lamas. Chronicle of a spiritual experience , Berlin, Henssel, 1971)
• La Rose-Croix et ses rapports avec la Franc-maçonnerie. Essai de synthèse historique , Paris, GP Maisonneuve et Larose, 1970
• Lecture de Shakespeare , Paris, Culture, art, loisirs, 1971
• Avec les sages du Japon , Paris, Fayard, 1972 ( Ger . With the wise men of Japan , Zug (Switzerland), Ingse, 1975)
• Ésotérisme de Baudelaire , Paris, J. Vrin, 1972
• Les Grands inspirés. Fondateurs de religions, de Pythagore à Mohammed , Paris, Culture, art, loisirs, 1973
• Le Zen et la tradition japonaise , Paris, Culture, art, loisirs, 1973
• Clef pour Shakespeare. Ésotérisme de l'œuvre shakespearienne , Paris, J. Vrin, 1977
• Le livre des morts Maya , Paris, Laffont, 1978 (German The Maya Book of the Dead , Bern, Scherz, 1980)
• Histoire secrète de l'Alsace , Paris, A. Michel, 1979
• Le Neuvième soleil. Récit d'une apocalypse , Poët-Laval, Curandera, 1980
• Le Mystère basque dévoilé , Monaco, Éditions du Rocher, 1982

proof

• Short biography at the International Association of Arnold Families, accessed on March 16, 2010