Nyanaponika Thera

Nyanaponika Mahathera ( born July 21, 1901 in Hanau, † 19 October 1994 Forest Hermitage, Kandy ) was born as Siegmund Feniger in Hanau and was for 57 years a Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition. His work as a Buddhist teacher and scholar, as a translator and author of Buddhist scriptures and as editor and lecturer have made him an inspirational figure for the renewal of Buddhism in Asia, especially Sri Lanka. His participation in the 6th Council in Rangoon is testament to the great appreciation that was shown him in Asia. In addition, his work especially for Buddhism in Germany and Switzerland of great importance.

Life

Siegmund Feniger was born on 21 July 1901 as the only child of a shopkeeper in Hanau near Frankfurt. Siegmund enjoyed a traditional Jewish education and was very interested in religious matters. He started in the book trade to work and came across Buddhism. After the family moved to Berlin in 1922 he came in contact with Buddhists. So he learned of Nyanatiloka, the German monk who founded the Ceylon " Iceland Hermitage ", a hermitage, which was open and Western monks. Given the increasing racial fanaticism in his home in 1935, he emigrated to Austria in 1936 finally his plan to Nyanatiloka to join in Sri Lanka to realize. In the same year he received novice ordination, and the following year he was appointed fully ordained bhikkhu named Nyanaponika ( " inclined to knowledge ").

Together with his teacher Nyanatiloka he was interned at the outbreak of the war by the British as "enemy German " in the camp Diyatalawa and later moved to northern India in the Heinrich Harrer's book by seven years became known in Tibet stock Dehra Dun. Nyanaponika used this time for translations from the Pali canon into German. After the war, he was able in 1946 to return to the Hermitage Iceland. After Ceylon became independent from Britain in 1948, Nyanaponika in 1951 to the citizenship of his adopted home. Together with his teacher, he moved into the new meditation center " Forest Hermitage " in Kandy in the highlands of Sri Lanka.

Preparations for the 6th Council in Burma brought him the opportunity to meet the Mahasi Sayadaw meditation master. His most well known book " mind training through mindfulness " partly reflects these experiences.

1958 could use the experience of its original profession Nyanaponika, when he was asked to become director and editor of the newly founded (BPS Buddhist Publication Society). The BPS, which he headed until 1984, became a world-renowned publishing house for the dissemination of Theravada doctrine.

When traveling from the late 60s to the early 80s, mainly in Switzerland, Nyanaponika met with many personalities of European Buddhism and was visited by them in his forest hermitage.

In the last years of his many honors were bestowed.

Work

Translations of Nyanaponika

  • Grouped Collection ( Samyutta Nikaya ) Book II ( 17-21) and the whole book III ( 22-34 ) [ first edition: 1925/30 ]. ISBN 3-931095-16-9
  • Filed In Collection ( Anguttara Nikaya ) publication and revision of the translation of Nyanatiloka. ISBN 3-59108218 -X
  • The only way. Buddhist texts for Training the Mind in right mindfulness. Translated from the Pali and Sanskrit and explained by Nyanaponika. ISBN 3-931095-04-5

Writings of Nyanaponika

  • Nyanaponika Mahathera: training the mind through mindfulness. 1970 ( particularly valued by Erich Fromm ) ISBN 3-931095-02-9
  • Nyanaponika Mahathera: training the mind through mindfulness. Free version on the Internet
  • Nyanaponika Mahathera: In the light of the Dhamma. In 1989. Ed. Kurt Onken. ISBN 3-931095-01-0.

Literature on Nyanaponika

  • Onken, Kurt ( ed.): The spirit regularity. Commemorative publication for the 75th birthday. Christiani 1976. ISBN 3-931095-48-7
  • Onken, Kurt ( ed.): inclined to knowledge. Commemorative volume to mark the 85th birthday. Christiani 1986. ISBN 3-931095-07- X
  • Scharlipp, Matthias Nyanacitta (ed. ): A noble friend in the world. Nyanaponika Mahathera (1901-1994) commemorative publication for the 100th anniversary. Jhana 2002. ISBN 3-931274-21-7.
Buddhism in Switzerland Dehradun Buddhism in Europe Integrated Authority File
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