Rudolf Petri

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Rudolf Petri (born May 27, 1915 in Bonn ; † November 5, 1980 in Nouméa , New Caledonia ) was a German Buddhist monk and writer , head of the Arya Maitreya Mandala order in South Vietnam and an exposed Esperantist .

Life

As a staunch opponent of National Socialism, Petri reported to the French Foreign Legion after Hitler came to power . After a serious wound in Morocco , he lived in France . Picked up by the German occupiers, he was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp . After his release he managed to escape to Sweden , where he married. When his wife died in childbed after only one year of marriage , Petri decided to become a Buddhist monk . He wandered through India as a mendicant monk, where he studied not only Buddhism but also Jainism .

In India, Petri met his teacher Lama Anagarika Govinda , by whom he was accepted into the order of Arya Maitreya Mandala on November 21, 1953 . Although this order does not recognize celibacy , it also allows celibate monks to join its ranks. Rudolf Petri's initiation name was Anuruddha after the author of the classical script Abhidhammatthasangaha .

Petri settled in South Vietnam, where he founded the Buddhist temple Arya Maitreya Vihara in Vũng Tàu in 1969 . The temple was dedicated to Maitreya . From here he headed the South Vietnamese order province of the Arya Maitreya Mandala and looked after "beyond Vietnam members in South Asia, such as Singapore." For the training of religious candidates he established an academy at his temple , which was attached to the Alexander Csoma de Koros Institute for Buddhology led by Ernő Hetényi . In Vietnam, Petri developed an extensive publication and teaching activity. In addition, he campaigned for political and social freedoms for Buddhists in Vietnam.

In 1973, after the end of the Vietnam War , he was imprisoned for nine months by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam . After his release from prison, he took a vacation in Germany in order to devote himself to the care of Buddhists who fled from Vietnam in the USA and Asia until the end of his life.

Use against the oppression of the Buddhists

As from 1955 to 1963 under the rule of the Catholic nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem of Buddhism in Vietnam was suppressed, they sent Peter, who by his German citizenship some protection against attacks diems enjoyed with a call for help to other countries in Asia, including the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru : “A West German Mahāyāna monk, Bhikṣu Anuruddha (Dr. R. Petri), was commissioned by the Sangha in Vietnam to stand up for the cause of the Buddhists in Vietnam. He came to Burma on July 4th, 1963. At the end of July in India, he presented Prime Minister Nehru with an credential from the Buddhist Sangha Association of Vietnam. Nehru told him that President Diêm had laconically responded to his urgent warnings to resolve the conflict:

'Do not worry about the Vietnam Buddhist monks. They are Communists. ' ['Don't worry about the Vietnamese Buddhist monks. They are communists']

Nehru expressed his satisfaction that Anuruddha was able to confirm the untruth of Diem's ​​assertion. "

Literary activities

Petri translated numerous Buddhist texts into Esperanto because he was convinced that this planned language had a great future when humanity continued to grow together. He was president of the "Budhana Ligo Esperantista", the association of Buddhist Esperantists, which he represented at the fourth Buddhist World Congress in Kathmandu in 1956 . His books and treatises, mostly in English and Vietnamese, cover numerous topics from Buddhism and the philosophy of India , Vietnam and Tibet. From 1951 to 1961 he edited the magazine La Dharmo , in which specialist articles on Buddhism in Esperanto were published. Petri was also active in the Schopenhauer Society .

Works

Rudolf Petri published his books under various names including TT Anuruddha, RP Anuruddha and Dorje Gyaltsen Bhikshu.

  • TT Anuruddha: Tiel Parolis La Buddho Kaj Liaj Disciploj. Vũng Tau 1971
  • TT Anuruddha: Basics of Jainism: Religion of Nonviolence. From Indian sources. Bodhisattva Csoma Institute of Buddhology 1972
  • TT Anuruddha: La Vojo al Nirvano. Vũng Tau 1973
  • RP Anuruddha: An Introduction into Lamaism: The Mystical Buddhism of Tibet. First edition: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute 1959. Reprint: Literary Licensing 2011, ISBN 978-1-258-00092-9

literature

  • Hellmuth Hecker : "Rudolf Petri." In: Life pictures of German Buddhists. A bio-bibliographical handbook. Volume II: The Successors . University of Konstanz research reports 1992
  • Volker Zotz : “The ghost seer. Memories of Anuruddha Rudolf Petri. “In: Damaru ( ISSN  2225-4803 ), No. 27 1995

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Baumann : German Buddhists: History and Communities. (Religious Studies Series, Vol. 5). Diagonal Verlag 1993, ISBN 978-3-927165-14-4 , p. 159
  2. ↑ Birgit Zotz : "Eighty Years Ārya Maitreya Maṇḍala - A Chronology." In: Der Kreis No. 270, October 2013 ( ISSN  2197-6007 ), pp. 6–21 (quotation p. 12).
  3. ↑ Heinz Bechert : Buddhism, State and Society in the Countries of Theravāda Buddhism. Volume 2. ( Writings of the Institute for Asian Studies in Hamburg, Volume 17) Metzner Verlag 1966, p. 353
  4. ^ Karl Olov Sandgren, Leif Nordenstorm (Ed.): Religia literaturo en Esperanto. Boden: Nordenstorms förlag 1994 (second edition), ISBN 978-91-971004-2-7 , p. 29
  5. ^ "Nekrologoj." In: Esperanto n ° 901 (1, 1981), p. 18
  6. ↑ Schopenhauer yearbook. Volume 63. A. Lutzeyer Verlag 1982, p. 137
personal data
SURNAME Petri, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anuruddha, TT (pseudonym); Anuruddha, RP (pseudonym); Bhikshu, Dorje Gyaltsen (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION buddhist monk
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 1980
Place of death Nouméa , New Caledonia