Willigis Hunter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willigis Jäger (2010)

Willigis Jäger OSB (born March 7, 1925 in Hösbach ; † March 20, 2020 in Holzkirchen ), with the Zen name Ko'un Rōshi , was a German Benedictine monk and Zen master .

Life

Willigis Jäger joined the Münsterschwarzach Abbey in 1946 . From 1948 he studied philosophy and theology in Sankt Ottilien and at the University of Würzburg . He was ordained a priest in 1952 and was prefect and teacher in the boarding school of Münsterschwarzach Abbey until 1964 . From 1960 he was a consultant for “Mission and Development” at the Association of German Catholic Youth in Düsseldorf. Travels took him to the Third World , Asia and especially Japan, where he first came into contact with Zen. From 1969 he practiced Zen in Japan, first in the center of Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle in Shinmeikutsu, then from 1972 as a student of the Zen master Yamada Ko-Un Rōshi of the Sanbo-Kyodan school .

Jäger lived in Japan for six years. In 1980 he received permission from Yamada Rōshi to teach Zen. In 1996, Yamada Rōshi's successor, Kubota Rōshi, gave Jäger full permission to teach Inka shōmei , which identifies Jäger as the 87th successor to Buddha Shakyamuni . Thereby he was empowered as a Zen master to affirm others in this succession.

The now vacant boarding school of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey was converted into the St. Benedikt Meditation Center in 1983 and managed by Willigis Jäger until 2001. Around 1990, under his leadership, the Ecumenical Working Group on Contemplative Prayer was formed, from which the Würzburg School of Contemplation he founded emerged in the mid-1990s , with the aim of reviving contemplative prayer and mysticism in the churches.

In 2003, Jäger became head of the non-denominational educational center Benediktushof on the site of the former Benedictine provostry in Holzkirchen . In 2007 he withdrew from the operational management of the Benediktushof and handed this office over to Doris Zölls and Alexander Poraj. In the same year he founded the West-Eastern Wisdom - Willigis Jäger Foundation based on the Benediktushof. In June 2009 he founded his own Zen line, Empty Cloud . In October 2009 he was confirmed as Chan master and 45th successor to Lin-Chi (Japanese Rinzai ) from the Chinese Chan Grand Master Jing Hui . In 2010 Jäger transferred the Inka shōmei mastery to Doris Zölls and Alexander Poraj. He also appointed Jef Boeckmans, Marsha Linehan, Paula Weber, Manfred Rosen and Gisela Drescher as successors to Zen masters.

In June 2012 the new line of contemplation he founded was inaugurated with the name Cloud of Ignorance Willigis Jäger .

Jäger died in March 2020 at the age of 95.

Willigis Jäger's thinking

And the religions

According to Jäger, religions are aimed at an “ultimate reality”, but only aids to understanding, maps, models that become obsolete if they are not always revived from experience. He regards all religions as important and necessary achievements, but criticizes that religions find it difficult to overcome their rigidity in order to give people answers to the completely newly posed ancient questions of mankind, and that mystical prayer is not taught. He believes that evolution will bring about new levels of consciousness . He also thinks that experiencing God is experiencing love . All religions said that; but as long as this remains a commandment , it has no effect, as the history of religions and their wrong turns showed. Every religion should be transcended to Sophia perennis , the eternal wisdom that is only lived by a minority today, but which one day will be recognized as the true goal of every religion. Mysticism always comes to life when the spiritual experiences of the founders of religion solidify in objective, legal and dogmatic forms. When the law begins to dominate over life and the dogma over personal experience, mystical movements arise that seek direct contact with God. That is why theistic religions have always had a hard time dealing with mysticism.

“Every religion has scriptures, rituals, and commandments. They should help man to find what is called God, Deity, Essence Nature, Sunyata , etc. Scriptures and rituals can only point to God. [...] Whoever wants to experience God has to go beyond books, rituals and all mental comprehension. That is why all religions sought ways that lead to the experience of ultimate reality. In Buddhism developed Zen , Vipassana and Tibetan ways. The various forms of yoga originated among the Hindus . In Islam , the unfolded Sufism , in Judaism , the Kabbalah and Christianity the contemplation . These are spiritual paths that should lead to the experience of what the holy scriptures and commandments of the various religions teach. [...] They want to lead into the experience of primal reality. [...] The transcendental spaces of experience are part of the basic talent of our human existence, even if many people know nothing about it. "

- Willigis Jäger : Departure into a new country - Experiences of a spiritual life (autobiography), Herder Freiburg 2003, pp. 121, 24-26.

And the Christian faith

For Willigis Jäger, his Zen Buddhist worldview is not infrequently decisive for the interpretation and evaluation of Christian doctrines. In doing so, he often retains the Christian words, but robs them of their specifically Christian content by using ideas in their place that are fed by his Zen Buddhist orientation.

Willigis Jägers often uses the word “God” in his remarks. But one must not overlook the fact that he is usually not guided by the Christian image of God. For him there is no personal almighty God who is independent of creation, who created heaven and earth and who reveals himself to man neither as the Trinity nor in the sense of Jesus as Abba, Father. Rather, he understands the term “God” as an ultimate, non-describable IT. For him there is no fundamental difference between God, the cosmos, nature and people. They are nothing other than the appearance of the one divine, God reveals himself "in the tree as a tree, in the animal as an animal and in the human as a person", in the grass as grass. The evolution of the cosmos is the self-unfolding God as cosmic IT. There is no such thing as an absolutely good God. Hunter's God is good and bad at the same time. Evil also has its origin in this ultimate reality. And since there is no personal God, one cannot address the ES either, nor can the ES speak to us, love us and take care of us. Therefore there is no prayer in the sense of the Christian faith. Every prayer is nothing but the sending of positive energy.

Jäger's points of view are sometimes controversial. Against a dissolution of the ego in God and against the view that only God is now and all difference is radically negated, it is objected that the Christian experience of God refers to a personal you. Without a relationship, neither love nor freedom is possible. God must therefore not be thought of as a pure unity , but rather as a unity in diversity and thus trinitarian .

Jesus - Son of God

Jäger keeps talking about Jesus, including him, the Son of God. He counts him among the great, enlightened and holy founders of religions of mankind, who have penetrated into the deep dimensions of human consciousness. But according to Jäger, Jesus was only human. On the other hand, he has no problem calling Jesus “God's Son”. But that's nothing special for him. Because for him there is nothing that is not the Son of God. Everything that exists, be the Son of God Because the whole world is something incredibly divine.

Jesus - Redeemer of humanity through his death on the cross

Willigis Jäger is convinced that Jesus' death was the result of his work as a prophet and his conflict with the Jewish religious authorities. He even believes that Jesus was not buried at all and that his body was left to the dogs, as with all criminals at the time. For Jäger, however, what is decisive is “that Jesus himself did not understand his death as a redemption death”. He probably didn't think of redeeming humanity through his death. His death on the cross had been interpreted by theologians as an expiatory death. But none of the so-called founders of religion saw themselves as savior, not even Jesus. The interpretation of the death of Jesus as the ransom of people from the hands of Satan or to restore the glory of God presupposes "a primitive understanding of God." a personal consciousness ”. A necessary step in human evolution. It is not the evil I that falls away from the divine self, but God would have withdrawn from man so that he would grow up. So we see that Willigis Jäger completely rejects the redemption or redemption death of Jesus Christ and interprets it in a completely different sense

Jesus' resurrection

How does Willigis Jäger see the resurrection of Christ? He is convinced that Jesus was not really resurrected after his death. Rather, Easter would have been an event that took place in the experience of the disciples. Resurrection is an experience of the disciples in the sense that life is not everything, and that, like this Jesus, they too entered a new existence Existence will go. There is no evidence of a resurrection in the biblical sense. The resurrection reports are not reports of external, objective experiences, but internal ideas of the disciples, which are then clothed in external events or a myth. Here is the ancient myth of dying and resurrection. been effective. Furthermore, the desire for a timeless existence is expressed there. When we experience this timeless existence, we are resurrected. So the resurrection is not a special experience of Jesus, but a general human experience.

Jesus' ascension

According to Christian belief, heaven does not mean ascent to the clouds of heaven, but rather the final entry of Jesus as a human being into his divine glory, where he reigns with the Father and from where he will come again (Acts 1:11).

In contrast, Willigis Jäger says that Ascension Day is only “an expression of mythological forms of language. We are meant by the Ascension, and we could experience the same thing that Jesus Christ experienced. Heaven be the knowledge that we are of divine origin and that we have divine life within us. Heaven means the here and now and ascent means experiencing salvation in the here and now. "

Jesus and the salvation of man

Acts 4:12 offers the decisive orientation: “There is no salvation through any other than Jesus Christ. There is also no other name under heaven that human beings have given. Through him God decreed our salvation. ”Christ alone gives salvation to man.

Willigis Jäger has fundamentally distanced himself from Christ's claim to salvation. His distancing from Jesus Christ, the Church and Christianity in general were shown:

a) in his commitment to Zen Buddhism and its doctrine of salvation, which manifested itself in public in 1996 with the official appointment as Inka shōmei as authorized teacher by the teaching authorities of Zen Buddhism and in the transfer of the dignity of the 87th successor of Buddha Shakyamuni .

b) in his teaching activity, which had the teaching and way of life of Zen Buddhism as an unconditional life orientation. Willigis Jäger himself illustrates this vividly with the following words. He writes: "If someone wants to become his disciple, but he finds that this person is still strongly rooted in traditional religious beliefs" - which is probably the Christian faith - he would point out to them that "they are on the way, that she learns to walk with him, will see many things in a different light, which until then had seemed natural to her. "

Willigis Jäger's confession

The ONE is my true nature and that of all beings. It is timeless and immutable. It unfolds in time. It is revealed to be this form that I am. It is neither good nor bad and cannot be compared to anything. It is non- dual like the ocean. From this absolute now rise the many forms and beings of the universe. This is how people, animals, trees, flowers, stones, water, mountains, planets, moons, suns, even our feelings, thoughts, and intentions emerge from the one. It is the “nothing” that is constantly re-forming. "We are a form of nothing, just the blink of an eye in a timeless universe". As humans, we are just a mesh in a huge network. We should finally understand. that we are first a network and only then a mesh, that we are first one with the whole universe and only then individual beings. We are children of the cosmos. In the experience of our cosmic consciousness we know that we are connected to everyone, we experience the unity of being. Since we are one, we did not come into being and we will not perish. We are by nature unborn and immortal. We do not perish in death. We just lose this shape. The outer form will die. but what we are is immortal. It is immersion in the cosmic transmental, transpersonal one. To die is to return to our true being from which we emerged. The religions speak of a hereafter, which we will enter once. But this idea comes from a premodern worldview. But we live in the 21st century. He does not know a heaven and an eternal life. There is no heaven, hell and purgatory, only the reason of being that cannot be rationally grasped. It's about letting go of all images, concepts of Jesus and God in order to grasp what they refer to, the timeless now.

Conflict with the Roman Catholic Church

The conflict with the Catholic Church arose when Willigis Jäger accepted the full Buddhist teaching license Inka shōmei and the dignity as the 87th successor of Buddha Shakyamuni in 1996 , which from the perspective of conservative church circles as an act of apostasy in fide according to Can. 1364 § 1 of the Codex Iuris Canonici 1983 applied, in view of the fundamental differences between Zen Buddhism of this type and the Christian faith. In December 2001 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a ban on speaking, writing and appearing against hunters, which the Episcopal Ordinariate of Würzburg carried out in January 2002. This ban was initially limited in time and therefore left the possibility open that Willigis Jäger would be reinstated in his full function as a monk and Catholic priest if he were to revise the views criticized by the Church. In 2002, Willigis Jäger resigned from the priesthood and asked the Münsterschwarzach Abbey to be exclaustrated (on leave from the monastery). He was still a member of his monastic community; their abbot and community stood by him. He was also buried in the abbey cemetery under the direction of Abbot Michael Reepen and with the participation of the monastery community.

Publications

literature

  • Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion has no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (5 parts). In: Theological. Catholic monthly, David Berger (ed.), Part 1 , vol. 33: 387-404 (2003); Part 2 , Vol. 33 (2003), 461-478, Part 3 , Vol. 33 (2003), 601-612; Part 4 , Vol. 35 (4), (2005), 389-410; Part 5 , Vol. 35 (11), (2005), 705-730.
  • Peter Lengsfeld (Ed.): Mysticism - Spirituality of the Future: Experiences of the Eternal. P. Willigis Jäger on his 80th birthday. Herder, Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-451-28573-8 .
  • Hartmut Meesmann (Ed.): Mysticism - the true path to God? The controversy surrounding the Benedictine priest and Zen teacher Willigis Jäger. Publik-Forum, Oberursel 2010, ISBN 978-3-88095-205-8 .
  • Christoph Quarch (Ed.): Pearls of Wisdom - The most beautiful texts by Willigis Jäger. Herder, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-06208-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marcus Filzek: Benedictine priest and Zen master Willigis Jäger died. In: BR 24 . March 20, 2020, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Michael Utsch : Buddhism: Willigis Jäger founds western Zen line. (PDF; 333 kB) In: EZW material service . 9/2009, pp. 343-345 , accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Spiritual guidance Contemplation: Contemplation: Content and structure of the contemplation line "Cloud of ignorance Willigis Jäger". (No longer available online.) In: west-oestliche-weisheit.de. July 2011, archived from the original on February 12, 2013 ; accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Willigis Jäger, Where our longing leads: Mysticism in the 21st century . Via Nova, Petersberg 2003, ISBN 3-936486-21-2 . Pp. 261, 308, 229, 231.
  5. ↑ a b Willigis Jäger: Zen in the West. (PDF; 36 kB) In: willigis-jaeger.de. March 24, 2009, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Willigis Jäger: Mysticism and Confession. (PDF; 652 kB) In: willigis-jaeger.de. December 2004, pp. 1–2 , accessed on March 22, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Willigis Jäger: 'Integral Spirituality' - Path to a transdenominational religiosity. (PDF; 451 kB) In: willigis-jaeger.de. April 3, 2006, p. 1 , accessed March 22, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Ready for Another God? (PDF; 278 kB) In: willigis-jaeger.de. September 2006, p. 2 , accessed on March 22, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the truth. Paths - hopes - solutions . 2nd Edition. Via Nova, Petersberg 1999, p. 148 .
  10. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the truth. Paths - hopes - solutions. 2nd Edition. Via Nova, Petersberg 1999, p. 148 .
  11. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the truth. Paths - hopes - solutions. 2nd Edition. Via Nova, Petersberg 1999, p. 148, 94, 120, 143, 168, 201 .
  12. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Departure into a new country. Experiences of a spiritual life. Ed .: Christoph Quarch and Cornelius von Collande. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2003, p. 64 .
  13. ↑ Willigis Jäger: The wave is the sea. Mystical spirituality. Ed .: Christoph Quarch. 5th edition. Herder, Freiburg Basel Vienna 2000, p. 95 .
  14. ↑ To this: Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (Part 1) . In: David Berger (Ed.): Theological. Catholic monthly . No. 33 , 2003, p. 394 .
  15. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the truth. Paths - hopes - solutions . 2nd Edition. Via Nova, Petersberg 1999, p. 103 .
  16. ↑ Werner Thiede : Willigis Jäger's spiritual monism. In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt . 3/2007, p. 152 ff. , Accessed on March 21, 2020 . Hajo Petsch: Reply to Werner Thiede: Ask for dialogue instead of handing out censorships. In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt. 5/2007, accessed on March 21, 2020 . Klaus Stüwe : Objection to Thiede's criticism of Willigis Jäger: Revival of the Inquisition on an intellectual-zheological level? In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt. 6/2007, p. 308 , accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Klaus von Stosch, Introduction to Systematic Theology. 2nd Edition. Schöningh UTB, Paderborn 2009, p. 264.
  18. ↑ To this: Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (Part 1) . In: David Berger (Ed.): Catholic. Catholic monthly . No. 33 , 2003, p. 399 .
  19. ↑ .Willigis Jäger: Search for the truth - ways - hopes - solutions . 2nd Edition. Via Nova, Petersberg 1999, p. 39, 74, 10 .
  20. ↑ Willigis: Jäger: Religion Today . In: Peter Lengsfeld (Ed.): To the deeper meaning of religion. Religious Talks in Asia and Elsewhere. Via Nova, Petersberg 1993, p. 228 .
  21. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Redemption 1996 (EvErlösung96) . S. 1 .
  22. ↑ Willigis Jäger: The wave is the sea. Mystical spirituality . Ed .: Christoph Quarch. 5th edition. Herder, Freiburg Basel Vienna 2000, p. 87 .
  23. ↑ Willigis: Jäger: Departure into a new country. Experiences of a spiritual life . Ed .: Christoph Quarch Comelius von Collande. Herder, Freiburg Basel Vienna 2003, p. 38 .
  24. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the truth. Paths - hopes - solutions . 2nd Edition. Via Nova, Petersberg 1999, p. 23 .
  25. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life. Via Nova, Petersberg 2004 . Via Nova, Petersberg 2004 ,, Petersberg 2004, p. 229 .
  26. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life. Via Nova, Petersberg 2004 . Via Nova, Petersberg 2004, p. 179 .
  27. ↑ Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (part 2) . In: David Berger (Ed.): Theological, Catholic Monthly . No. 33 , 2003, p. 472 .
  28. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life . Via Nova, Petersberg 2004, p. 204 .
  29. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life. Via Nova, Petersberg 2004 . Via nova, Petersberg 2004, p. 204 .
  30. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Departure into a new country. Experiences of a spiritual life . Ed .: Christoph Quarch Comelius von Collande. Herder, Freiburg Basel Vienna 2003, p. 26-27 .
  31. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life. Via Nova, Petersberg 2004 . Via Nova, Petersberg 2004, p. 212 .
  32. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life. Via nova, Petersberg 2004, p. 204 .
  33. ↑ Willigis Jäger: Search for the meaning of life . Via Nova, Petersberg 2004, p. 206, 207 .
  34. ↑ Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (part 2) . In: David Berger (Ed.): Theological. Catholic monthly . No. 33 , 2003, p. 463 .
  35. ↑ Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (Part 1)). In: David Berger (Ed.): Theological. Catholic monthly (part 1) . No. 33 , 2003, p. 397 .
  36. ↑ Anselm Grün and Willigis Jäger: The Secret Beyond All Paths. What and what divides and what unites us . Ed .: Winfried Nonhoff. 2nd Edition. Vier Türme Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2014, p. 70-73 .
  37. ↑ That means there is no god differentiated from creation, so everything is one like the ocean
  38. ↑ nselm Grün and Willigis Jäger: The secret beyond the ways. What unites us, what divides us . Ed .: Winfried Nonhoff. 2nd Edition. Vier Türme Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2014, p. 29 .
  39. ↑ Anselm Grün Willigis Jäger: The Secret Beyond Paths. What unites us, what divides us . Ed .: Winfried Nonhoff. 2nd Edition. Vier Türme Verlag, Münsterschwarzach, p. 29 .
  40. ↑ Anselm Grün and Willigis Jäger: The Secret Beyond Paths. What unites us, what divides us. Ed .: Winfried Nonhof. 2nd Edition. Vier Türme Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2014, p. 22 .
  41. ↑ Anselm Grün and Willigis Jäger: The Secret Beyond Paths. What unites us, what divides us . Ed .: Winfried Nonhoff. Vier Türme Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2014, p. 43 .
  42. ↑ Anselm Grün and Willigis Jäger: The Secret Beyond Paths. What unites us, what divides us. Ed .: Winfried Nonhoff. Four Towers, Münster Schwarzach 2014, p. 49 .
  43. ↑ Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (5 parts). In: Theological. Catholic monthly magazine, David Berger (ed.) . Part 1, vol. 33: 387-404 (2003); Part 2, Vol. 33 (2003), 461-478, Part 3, Vol. 33 (2003), 601-612; Part 4, Vol. 35 (4), (2005), 389-410; Part 5, Vol. 35 (11), (2005), 705-730.
  44. ↑ Thomas Wittstadt: This cosmic religion knows no savior. A critical examination of Willigis Jäger's theses (5 parts). (PDF) In: Theological. Catholic Monthly, David Berger (Ed.), Part 1, 33 (2003). P. 387 , accessed April 19, 2020 .
  45. ^ Opinion of the diocesan manual on the report "Teaching proceedings initiated against Father Willigis Jäger". (PDF; 61 kB) (No longer available online.) In: kirchenserver.net. January 30, 2002, archived from the original on January 23, 2015 ; accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  46. ↑ Willigis Jäger; Departure to a new country - experiences of a spiritual life. Herder Freiburg 2003, pp. 121, 24-26.
  47. ^ Father Willigis has passed away ; Burial of Willigis Jäger in the monastery cemetery of Münsterschwarzach Abbey , accessed on August 11, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Hunter, Willigis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ko-un Roshi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Benedictine monk, Zen master and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Hösbach
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 2020
Place of death Holzkirchen (Lower Franconia)