Nyanaponika Thera

wikizero.com/en/Nyanaponika_Thera

Nyanaponika Maha Thera

Title Mahathera (Great Elder)

Personal

Born Siegmund Feniger

July 21, 1901

Hanau, German Empire

Died October 19, 1994 (aged 93)

Forest Hermitage, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Religion Theravada

Occupation monk; co-founder, Buddhist Publication

Society

Senior posting

Based in Forest Hermitage

Predecessor U Nārada

Successor Bhikkhu Bodhi (at BPS)

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Nyanaponika Thera or Nyanaponika Mahathera (July 21, 1901 – 19 October 1994) was
a German-born Sri-Lanka-ordained Theravada monk, co-founder of the Buddhist
Publication Society[1] , contemporary author of numerous seminal Theravada books, and
teacher of contemporary Western Buddhist leaders such as Bhikkhu Bodhi.[1]

Biography
Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (Siegmund Feniger) was born in Hanau, Germany on July 21,
1901 as Siegmund Feniger, the only child of a Jewish family.[2]

In 1921, he moved with his parents to Berlin, where he met with German Buddhists and
also had access to Buddhist literature in the German language.[3] He first came across
the writings of Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera (1878–1957), the former German violin virtuoso
Anton Gueth, which had already been published in Germany.[3] Young Siegmund had
learned that Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera had established a monastery for Western monks on
an island lagoon (opposite the Railway station) Polgasduwa, Dodanduwa named Island
Hermitage. This news stirred his conscience to go to Asia and become a Buddhist
monk.[3]

However, circumstances prevented him from acting on this plan for quite some time. In
1932 his father died, and he did not wish to leave his widowed mother in the lurch. Then,
Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.

In November 1935 he and his mother left Germany and moved to Vienna, where they
had relatives. Having arranged for his mother to stay in Vienna, in early 1936 he finally
was able to leave Europe for Sri Lanka, where he joined Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera at the
Island Hermitage, Polgasduwa, Dodanduwa.[4]

After several months of studies, in June 1936 he was ordained as a novice and was given
the name Nyanaponika.[2] In 1937 he received Upasampada (Higher Ordination) under
the tutelage of Nyanatiloka Thera.

In 1939, after the Nazis invaded Poland, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera arranged for his
mother and other relatives to move to Sri Lanka. Through the influence of her son and
the generous hosts, she embraced Buddha Dhamma and became a devoted Buddhist.
She died in Colombo in 1956.

When World War II broke out in 1939, the British Government had all German males
resident in their colonies consigned to internment camps, suspecting them to be
German spies. Nyanaponika's and Nyanatiloka's internment was first at Diyatalawa Army
Cantonment in Sri Lanka, and later at Dehra Dun in northern India.

Despite these traumatic experiences as a prisoner of war, during this period Ven.
Nyanaponika Thera completed German translations of the Sutta Nipata, the
Dhammasangani (the first book of the Abhidhamma Pitaka), and its commentary. He also

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compiled an anthology of texts on Satipatthana Meditation. This work was begun at
Diyatalawa, and it was finished while he was interned at Dehra Dun.

With the cessation of war, the two bhikkhus were released from internment at Dehra
Dun. They returned to Sri Lanka in 1946 and resided at the Island Hermitage,
Dodanduwa. In early 1951 Sri Lanka granted citizenship to both of them.

In 1946, Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera was offered a hermitage in the Udawattekelle Forest
Reserve, but being advanced in age he preferred the cooler climate of Kandy to the hot
and stuffy sea-coast climate of Dodanduwa. In 1947, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera joined him
at the new Kandy Hermitage.

In 1952, both Venerable Nyanatiloka Thera and Nyanaponika Thera were invited by the
Burmese (Myanmar) Government to be consultants to the Sixth Buddhist Council, to be
convened in 1954 to re-edit and reprint the entire Pali Canon and its commentaries.[5]
After their work with the Council was completed, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera stayed in
Burma for a period of training in Vipassana (Insight Meditation) under the renowned
meditation teacher Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw Thera.[6]

The experience he gathered motivated him to write his best-known work, The Heart of
Buddhist Meditation, published by the Buddhist Publication Society. This work was
reprinted in many editions, and was translated into more than seven languages.

In 1954, the teacher and the pupil returned to Burma for the opening ceremonies of the
Sixth Buddhist Council,[6] which was held in a cave-like structure built similar to the
Sattaprani Caves in Rajagaha (Rajgir), India, where the First Buddhist Council had been
held. For the closing ceremonies in 1956 Ven. Nyanaponika Thera went to Burma alone,
as his teacher Nyanatiloka was indisposed at that time.[6]

In 1957, the health of Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera deteriorated, and he moved to Colombo
for easy and ready medical attention. Finally, on May 28, 1957, the great pioneering
scholar monk died, and he was accorded a State Funeral at Independence Square,
Colombo, attended by the Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, many State officials,
and both the laity and religious dignitaries and prelates of all Nikayas.

His ashes were enshrined at the Polgasduwa Island Hermitage, Dodanduwa, and a
tombstone was built to perpetuate his memory. Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, thereafter
dutifully honoring the request of his teacher, revised Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera's German
translation of the complete Anguttara Nikaya, retyping the five volumes in full by himself,
and also compiling a forty-page Index to the work.

Six months after the death of his teacher, the career of Ven. Nyanaponika Thera was to
be launched in a new direction, a permanent contribution to the spread of Buddhism
worldwide. A.S. Karunaratne (a prominent lawyer in Kandy, who was Mayor of Kandy in
1945) suggested to his friend Richard Abeysekera (d. August 1982) (Trinity College
teacher in retirement), that they start a society for the publication of Buddhist literature
in English, mainly to be distributed abroad. The unanimous decision was that Ven.
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Nyanaponika Thera, in the Udawattekelle Forest Reserve Aramaya, would be the best
director of the institution. Thus, on January 1, 1958, the Buddhist Publication Society
(BPS) was born.

Devoting his entire time and energy to the publications of the BPS, Nyanaponika Thera
wrote tracts, encouraged others to write, collated and translated important suttas, and
had them published. In addition to his own writings, 200 Wheel titles and 100 Bodhi
Leaves (booklets) - authored by numerous scholars - were issued during his editorship at
the BPS.

Ven. Nyanaponika Thera's biography is completely submerged in his writings. With

advancing age having a heavy toll on his strength, in 1984 Ven. Nyanaponika Thera
retired as editor of BPS, and in 1988 he retired as President, ending his career there with
recognition as a Distinguished Patron of BPS. His fame as an exponent of authentic
Theravada Buddhism reached all corners of the globe.

In 1978, the German Oriental Society appointed him an honorary member, in recognition
of his combination of objective scholarship with religious practice as a Buddhist monk. In
1987, the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka at its first convocation, conferred on
him its first ever Honoris Causa Degree of Doctor of Literature.

In 1990, he received the Honoris Causa Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University
of Peradeniya. In 1993, The Amarapura Maha Sangha Sabha, to which he belonged for 56
years, conferred on him the honorary title of Amarapura Maha Mahopadhyaya Sasana
Sobhana (The Great Mentor of the Amarapura Maha Sasana Sabha, Ornament of
Teaching).

His last birthday (which fell on July 21, 1994) was celebrated by his friends and the BPS
staff with the release of the BPS edition of his book The Vision of Dhamma, a collection of
his writings from the Wheel and Bodhi Leaves series. On October 19, 1994, the last day of
his 58th Rains Retreat as a bhikkhu, he breathed his last in the pre-dawn quietude of the
Udawattekelle forest hermitage.

Selected publications
Thera, Nyanaponika (1999). The Life of Sariputta compiled and translated from the Pali
texts.
Thera, Nyanaponika (2000). The Vision of Dhamma: Buddhist Writings of Nyanaponika
Thera. Pariyatti. ISBN 978-1928706038.
Thera, Nyanaponika; Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2000). Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Yale
University Press. ISBN 978-0300165203.
Thera, Nyanaponika (2001). The Power of Mindfulness (PDF).
Thera, Nyanaponika (2003). Great Disciples of the Buddha : Their Lives, Their Works,
Their Legacy. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 978-0861713813.
Thera, Nyanaponika (2014). The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. Weiser Books. ISBN 978-
1578635580.[8]
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References
1. ^ In the Preface of the posthumously published Numerical Discourses of the Buddha:
An Anthology of Suttas from the Anguttara Nikaya (1999, co-authored with Bhikkhu
Bodhi, published by Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, CA), p. xv, Bodhi writes: "The
original version of this anthology was compiled by my personal mentor, the
eminent German scholar-monk Venerable Nyanaponika Thera...."
2. ^ a b "Buddhism and Judaism: Exploring the phenomenon of the JuBu" . Thubten
Chodron. March 19, 2010. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
3. ^ a b c Thera 1986, p. xv.
4. ^ "Contributing Authors and Translators Biographical Notes". Access to Insight.
Retrieved September 11, 2015.
5. ^ a b c Thera 1986, p. xvi.
6. ^ a b c d Thera 1986, p. xvii.
7. ^ Shrader, Douglas W. (2000), Review: Abhidhamma Studies: Buddhist Explorations
of Consciousness and Time by Venerable Nyanaponika Thera, Bhikkhu Bodhi,
Philosophy East and West 50 (4), 637-640
8. ^ Scaligero, Massimo (1959), Review: Satipaṭṭhāna. The Heart of Buddhist
Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera, East and West 10 (3), 230-231

Sources
Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). "Nyanaponika Thera", in Princeton
Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691157863.
Thera, Nyanaponika (1986), The Vision of Dharma, Rider and Company,
ISBN 0877286698
Musch, Sebastian. Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture. Between
Moses and Buddha (1890-1940). Palgrave 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-27468-9.

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