A pertinent quote, I hope, from that magnificent book the old sage wrote, exactly 100 years ago. Probably one of the two or three enlightening works of the first half of the 20th century.
“The history of cultures is not a course of æons in which one runner after another has to traverse gaily and unsuspectingly the same death-track. A nameless way runs through their rise and fall: not a way of progress and development, but a spiral descent through the spiritual underworld, which can also be called an ascent to the innermost, finest, most complicated whirlpool, where there is no advance and no retreat, but only utterly new reversal -the break through. Shall we have to go this way to the end, to trial of the final darkness? Where there is danger, the rescuing force grows too.”
(Martin Buber, Ich und Du, 1923, p.62, tr. R.G. Smith)
Thanks, Adrian, for the beautiful Buber quote. It reminds me of a wonderful person I should some time write about. His name was Heinz Kappes (1893–1988). I am fortunate to have met him often during my visits to Germany. Whenever I think of him, I think of this verse from the Kena Upanishad:
“The name of That is “That Delight”; as That Delight one should follow after It. He who so knows That, towards him verily all existences yearn.”
Heinz was certainly one who so knew That.
There’s a German biography of his titled “Wir sind keine stummen Hunde” (We are not mute dogs: Christian and Socialist in the Weimar Republic). Following in his father footsteps, Heinz took over his first parish in 1923. Soon after he had begun his vicariate in Karlsruhe he incurred the first rebuke of the church leadership, right after his first sermon. He had compared the parable of the Good Samaritan with the work of contemporary trade unions!
A city councillor of the German Socialist Part, Heinz was eventually “relieved” of all duties by the mayor of Karlsruhe. And when, after the Nazi Party’ seizure of power, he refused to describe his being a religious socialist as an aberration, the 40-year-old pastor received the final professional ban from the church authorities.
In 1938 he emigrated to Palestine, where he taught German and became friends with Martin Buber and a member of Buber’s study circle. In a Jerusalem bookshop in 1944, he found a copy of Sri Aurobindo’s “The Divine Life" and purchased it for a significant portion of his monthly salary. He wrote to Sri Aurobindo about experiences he had while reading the book, and in the 1960s, during a stay in Pondicherry, he learned that his letter had been read out by Sri Aurobindo to a few disciples. “Here is this man in Jerusalem having those experiences,” he appears to have told them, “and you, being right here, complain about your lack of experiences!” That particular copy of "The Life Divine," by the way, having been lent by Heinz to a catholic priest, now rests in the library of the Vatican (probably in the poison cabinet)!
In 1948 Heinz returned to Karlsruhe, where he was rehabilitated by the church leadership, taught religion, translated all of Sri Aurobindo’s major works into German, and became something of a social institution, describing himself as a “Seelenheilpratiker.” This is a merger of “Seelenheil” (salvation of one’s soul) with “Heilpraktiker” (therapist). In countless one-on-one meetings with people seeking spiritual guidance, he put in living practice Buber’s “I and Thou.”
A pertinent quote, I hope, from that magnificent book the old sage wrote, exactly 100 years ago. Probably one of the two or three enlightening works of the first half of the 20th century.
“The history of cultures is not a course of æons in which one runner after another has to traverse gaily and unsuspectingly the same death-track. A nameless way runs through their rise and fall: not a way of progress and development, but a spiral descent through the spiritual underworld, which can also be called an ascent to the innermost, finest, most complicated whirlpool, where there is no advance and no retreat, but only utterly new reversal -the break through. Shall we have to go this way to the end, to trial of the final darkness? Where there is danger, the rescuing force grows too.”
(Martin Buber, Ich und Du, 1923, p.62, tr. R.G. Smith)
Thanks, Adrian, for the beautiful Buber quote. It reminds me of a wonderful person I should some time write about. His name was Heinz Kappes (1893–1988). I am fortunate to have met him often during my visits to Germany. Whenever I think of him, I think of this verse from the Kena Upanishad:
“The name of That is “That Delight”; as That Delight one should follow after It. He who so knows That, towards him verily all existences yearn.”
Heinz was certainly one who so knew That.
There’s a German biography of his titled “Wir sind keine stummen Hunde” (We are not mute dogs: Christian and Socialist in the Weimar Republic). Following in his father footsteps, Heinz took over his first parish in 1923. Soon after he had begun his vicariate in Karlsruhe he incurred the first rebuke of the church leadership, right after his first sermon. He had compared the parable of the Good Samaritan with the work of contemporary trade unions!
A city councillor of the German Socialist Part, Heinz was eventually “relieved” of all duties by the mayor of Karlsruhe. And when, after the Nazi Party’ seizure of power, he refused to describe his being a religious socialist as an aberration, the 40-year-old pastor received the final professional ban from the church authorities.
In 1938 he emigrated to Palestine, where he taught German and became friends with Martin Buber and a member of Buber’s study circle. In a Jerusalem bookshop in 1944, he found a copy of Sri Aurobindo’s “The Divine Life" and purchased it for a significant portion of his monthly salary. He wrote to Sri Aurobindo about experiences he had while reading the book, and in the 1960s, during a stay in Pondicherry, he learned that his letter had been read out by Sri Aurobindo to a few disciples. “Here is this man in Jerusalem having those experiences,” he appears to have told them, “and you, being right here, complain about your lack of experiences!” That particular copy of "The Life Divine," by the way, having been lent by Heinz to a catholic priest, now rests in the library of the Vatican (probably in the poison cabinet)!
In 1948 Heinz returned to Karlsruhe, where he was rehabilitated by the church leadership, taught religion, translated all of Sri Aurobindo’s major works into German, and became something of a social institution, describing himself as a “Seelenheilpratiker.” This is a merger of “Seelenheil” (salvation of one’s soul) with “Heilpraktiker” (therapist). In countless one-on-one meetings with people seeking spiritual guidance, he put in living practice Buber’s “I and Thou.”
What an incredible story! I share those feelings, in this obscure age we live in. Thank you for your infinite patience and guidance over the years.