Gerta Ital

Gerta Maria Luise Karoline Ital (* July 7, 1894 in Hannover, † July 21, 1988 in Munich) was a German artist, actress, author, Zen Buddhist and mystic.

Gerta Ital wore next to Eugen Herrigel, Hugo Makibi Enomiya - Lassalle SJ and Karlfried Count Dürckheim decisive contribution that the Zen Buddhism became known in Europe.

Look Playful interaction in Dresden and Berlin. Recitals and concerts with musical director Leo Blech, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss. Disease over seven years (tumor of the neck ) with temporary loss of voice and termination of the artist's career.

1926 Beginning of the way to the inside. Study of Egyptology and Indology at the Heidelberg Heinrich Zimmer. 1953-1955 student of Eugen Herrigel. March 1963 trip to Japan. As the first western woman she is allowed equivalent to live in a Japanese Zen monastery with monks and meditate. Duration of 7 months. May 1967 invitation by Mumon Yamada Roshi. Gerta Ital takes 7 months participated in the meditation in the monastery. For the hardness of the traditional Zen path, which is represented in the books by Gerta Ital as a condicio sine qua non, Osho takes place in 1989, his last lecture on April 10.

Instruction seeker

From 1970 taught Gerta Ital spiritual seekers with the objective: " How do I make God in my life? " The Zen meditation is adapted to the needs of Western society. "What we practice together, is ' ZEN ', it is meditation., But not exactly Zen, as it is practiced in the monasteries, because I will not initially confront with the 'nothing'. Why? I know myself as a western man that we who are of the forest, unlike the eastern man, slowly at first in this nothingness into annihilation have to be received and penetrated by the nothing through it, from the totality of God. "

At the request of the students given in the meditation instructions are issued together.

Works

  • Master the monks and I, a woman in the Zen Buddhist monastery 1966 Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag; more editions in jest Publisher
  • 1987 English edition The master, the monks and I, by Thorsons Publishing Group, ISBN 0-85030-565-9, translation by Timothy M. Green.

Marital status

  • Change of Gertrud in Gerta on July 27, 1982 ( Berlin, Wilmersdorf district office )
  • Protestant; Withdrawal from the Protestant church on 23 July 1987 ( Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, Berlin, A 834/87 ).
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