Nyanatiloka Thera
| Nyanatiloka Mahathera | |
|---|---|
Nyanatiloka Mahathera
|
|
| Religion | Buddhist |
| School | Theravada |
| Lineage | Amarapura Nikaya |
| Personal | |
| Nationality |
 German
|
| Born |
10 February 1878 Wiesbaden, Germany |
| Died | 28 May 1957 (aged 79) Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Island Hermitage |
| Title | Mahathera (Great Elder) |
| Religious career | |
| Students | Nyanaponika Thera, Silacara, Lama Anagarika Govinda, Paul Debes, Nyanamoli, Nyanavira, Nyanavimala |
Nyanatiloka Mahathera (19 February 1878, Wiesbaden, Germany – 28 May 1957, Colombo, Ceylon), born as Anton Gueth, was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to become a Bhikkhu, a fully ordained Buddhist monk.
Nyanatiloka was born on 19 February 1878 in Wiesbaden, Germany as Anton Walther Florus Gueth. His father was Anton Gueth, a professor and principal of the municipal Gymnasium of Wiesbaden, as well as a private councillor. His mother's name was Paula Auffahrt. She had studied piano and singing at the Royal Court Theatre in Kassel.
He studied at the Königliche Realgymnasium (Royal Gymnasium) in Wiesbaden from 1888 to 1896. From 1896 to 1898 he received private tuition in music theory and composition, and in playing the violin, piano, viola and clarinet. From 1889 to 1900 he studied theory and composition of music as well as the playing of the violin and piano at Hoch’sches Conservatorium (Hoch Conservatory) in Frankfurt. From 1900 to 1902 he studied composition under Charles-Marie Widor at the Music Academy of Paris (Paris Conservatoire).
His childhood was happy. As a child Nyanatiloka had a great love of nature, of solitude in the forest, and of religious philosophical thought. He was brought up as a Catholic and as a child and adolescent he was quite devout. He went to church every evening and absorbed himself in the book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. As a child he wanted to become a Christian missionary in Africa and as an adolescent he ran away from home to become a Benedictine monk at Maria-Laach monastery but soon returned. From then on his “belief in a personal God gradually transformed into a kind of pantheism” and was inspired by the prevailing atmosphere of weltschmerz (world-weariness). From the age of seventeen he was a vegetarian and abstained from drinking and smoking.
Around the age of fifteen he began to have an “almost divine veneration for great musicians, particularly composers, regarding them as the manifestation of what is most exalted and sublime” and made friends with musical child prodigies. He composed orchestral pieces and in 1897 his first composition called “Legende” (“Legend”) was played by the Kurhaus Orchestra of Wiesbaden.
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