Karlfried Graf Dürckheim | |
|---|---|
 Prabhupada on a morning walk with Baron von Dürckheim in Frankfurt, 1974 | |
| Born | (1896-10-24)24 October 1896 |
| Died | 28 December 1988(1988-12-28) (aged 92) |
| Education | University of Kiel,Ph.D. inPsychology |
| Occupation(s) | Diplomat,psychotherapist |
| Known for | "Initiation Therapy" |
| Political party | NSDAP, 1933–1945 |
| Spouse(s) | Enja von Hattingberg (1888–1939); Maria Hippius (1909–2003) |
| Awards | Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918;War Merit Cross 1st Class with swords;Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany |
| Website | The Dürckheim Center |
| Part of a series on |
| Western Buddhism |
|---|
 Statue of theBuddha in theJapanese Tea Garden,San Francisco |
|
|
Karl Friedrich Alfred Heinrich Ferdinand Maria Graf[1] Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin (24 October 1896 – 28 December 1988) was a Germandiplomat,psychotherapist andZen master. A veteran ofWorld War I, he was introduced toZen early in life. After obtaining a doctorate in psychology, he became a supporter of theNazi Party. FollowingWorld War II he was imprisoned in Japan which transformed him spiritually. Upon returning to Germany he became a leading proponent ofWestern esotericism, synthesizing teachings fromChristian mysticism,depth psychology.[2]
Dürckheim was born inMunich, the son of Friedrich Georg Michael Maria Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin and Sophie Evalina Ottilie Charlotte von Kusserow.[3] His maternal grandfather was the Prussian diplomat and politicianHeinrich von Kusserow.
A descendant of oldBavarian nobility whose parents' fortune was lost during bad economic times, he grew up atSteingaden and at theBassenheim Castle nearKoblenz.
In 1914 he volunteered for theRoyal Bavarian Infantry Lifeguards Regiment and was given a commission.[4] He served on the front lines for 46 months and fought in France, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy and Romania. He saw action at theBattle of Verdun, theBattle of Caporetto, theBattle of the Somme, and theLys Offensive. By his own account he never fired a shot and was never wounded, "though bullets went through my shirt and coat."[5] Dürckheim considered his war experience fundamental: "I discovered...that it was in facing death that we step forward toward true life. That experience was later a part of my teaching: by accepting death, we discover and receive life which is beyond life and death."[6]
In recognition of his military service, Dürckheim was awarded theHonour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 and theWar Merit Cross First Class with swords.
In 1919, as a 23-year-old officer on his return after the war, he refused to fight in defense of theBavarian Socialist Republic, but instead joined theFreikorps underFranz Ritter von Epp (under whom he had served duringWorld War I) and became involved in anti-Bolshevik activities, for which he was briefly imprisoned. Afterward, he worked as a journalist for several smallanti-communist publications. He also rejected his inheritance of the family estate at Steingaden, to which he had aright as eldest son.[7]
He met his first wife, Enja von Hattingberg (1888–1939), who introduced him to theTao Te Ching ofLao-Tzu:[8]
"My future wife, Madame von Hattingberg, was sitting on the table, and next to her was a book...I can still see it now. I opened this book and read out loud the eleventh verse of the Tao-Te-Ching of Lao Tzu. Suddenly it happened! I was listening and lightning went through me. The veil was torn asunder, I was awake! I had just experienced 'It'. Everything existed and nothing existed. Another Reality had broken through this world. I myself existed and did not exist...I had experienced that which is spoken of in all centuries: individuals, in whatever stage of their lives, have had an experience which struck them with the force of lightning and linked them once and for all to the circuits of True Life."
Meister Eckhart became very important for him. "I recognize in Eckhart my master, the master. But we can only approach him if we eliminate the conceptualconsciousness."[8]
Dürckheim received his doctorate in Psychology from theUniversity of Kiel in 1923 and taught at the Institute of Psychology there for another year,[8] then went to work withFelix Krueger andHans Freyer at theUniversity of Leipzig[9] where he received hishabilitation on 17 February 1930. In 1931 he became a professor at theMedical Academy of Breslau. From 1930 to 1932 Dürckheim also taught at theBauhaus in Dessau in the field ofGestalt psychology.[10] During the 1930s he was close friends withKarl Haushofer,Else Lasker-Schüler,Paul Klee,Romano Guardini andRainer Maria Rilke.
On 11 November 1933 Dürckheim signed thecommitment of the professors at German universities and colleges toAdolf Hitler and theNazi state.[11]
In 1933 Dürckheim joined theSturmabteilung. In 1934 he spent 6 months inSouth Africa on behalf of theReich Minister of Education to contact Germans living there and to urge them not to abandon Nazism.[7] During his visit he met secretly with theAfrikaner Broederbond to urge them to follow Nazi ideals, includinganti-Semitism.[12] By 1935 he had become chief assistant toJoachim von Ribbentrop, head of theBüro Ribbentrop and laterNazi Germany'sMinister for Foreign Affairs. In that year Dürckheim brokered a meeting betweenLord Beaverbrook and Hitler.[13] In October 1936, Dürckheim accompanied newly appointed Ambassador Ribbentrop to England, where he was assigned "to find out what the English think of the new Germany." He was introduced toKing Edward VIII andWinston Churchill.[14] Dürckheim was at this time a fervent supporter ofNazism, writing in the Journal of the Nazi Teachers Association:[15]
"The basic gift of the Nazi revolution is for all occupations and levels across the experience of our common nature, a common destiny, the common hope of the common leader....which is the living foundation of all movements and aspirations."[16]
Then it was discovered that he was ofJewish descent.
Under Germany's 1935Nuremberg Laws, he was considered aMischling (mixed-blood) of the second degree[Note 1] and had therefore become "politically embarrassing". Ribbentrop decided to create a special mission for him to become anenvoy for the foreign ministry and write a research paper titled "exploring the intellectual foundations ofJapanese education."[19]
In June 1938 he was sent toJapan, residing there until 1947.[5] Soon after arriving in Japan he met the Buddhist scholarDaisetsu Teitaro Suzuki who influenced his thinking profoundly.[20] Professor Fumio Hashimoto, who was sent to Dürckheim as a translator, wrote: "Dürckheim was surrounded byShinto and Buddhist scholars, as well as military and thinkers of the right, each of which tried to convince him of their importance." These included such leading figures as theAbbotHakuun Yasutani and theImperial Japanese Army GeneralSadao Araki.[21] He became a student ofKyūdō (traditional Japanese archery) under the masterAwa Kenzô (1880-1939), who had also taughtEugen Herrigel.[22] He wrote in 1941: "Archery is a great exercise that provides a profound silent concentration. In Zen the body is not considered an obstacle to spiritual life, as it is too often regarded in the West. On the contrary, [in Zen] the body is considered instrumental to spiritual advancement."
Under Ribbentrop's guidance, he coordinated the dissemination ofNazi propaganda in Japan, likening German military ideals to Japanesebushido and encouraging the idea that Japan and Germany would share the world.[23] The “ZenSamurai Bushido debate” had evolved in pre-war Germany over the relationship between Nazi ideals and those of thetraditional Japanese warrior culture. On 15 July 1939 Dürckheim published an article in the third issue of the journalBerlin - Rome - Tokio in which he refers to theJapanese state cult, the glorified “Samurai spirit” and its relationship withNazi ideology andantisemitism in Japan. He wrote:
“Who travels today through Japan experiences at every step the friendship with Nazi Germany andFascist Italy to the Japanese people, especially those forces that affect the future more than political power. It is the spirit which connects Japan with us, that spirit which…is related to Japan’s iron will to win the war… In farm houses and businesses hang signs with the words: Everyone must behave as if they were on the field of battle.”[24]
By 1944, Dürckheim had become a well-known author and lecturer in Japan onZen meditation,archery, andmetaphysics, and was awarded theWar Merit Cross, Second Class on Hitler's birthday, 20 April 1944. The impending surrender of Germany did not prevent him from reasserting his values. "The immeasurable suffering of Germany will bring the German people to a higher level and help give birth to a better, less materialistic nation," he wrote to a friend in the last days of the war.[17]
After the war,Tokyo was occupied by the Americans. Dürckheim went into hiding inKaruizawa and was arrested on 30 October 1945 bySpecial AgentRobie Macauley of theUS Counter-Intelligence Corps after being identified as the chief of Nazi propaganda in Japan.[25][26][27][28] He was imprisoned for 16 months inSugamo Prison:
"In spite of everything, it was a very fertile period for me. During the first weeks, I had a dream almost every night, some of which anticipated my future work. In my cell I was surrounded by a profound silence. I could work on myself and that is when I began to write a novel. My neighbors simply waited for each day to pass. That time of captivity was precious to me because I could exercisezazen meditation and remain in immobility for hours."[29]
Dürckheim interpreted his imprisonment as aninitiation event that was preparing him for aspiritual rebirth. Influenced partly by the work ofJulius Evola, the "conversion experience" later became an essential element of Dürckheim's psychotherapy: "There is real change whenever the individual experiences thesupernatural, which alters themeaning of life 180 degrees and moves the axis from the middle of the natural human existence to a supernatural center."[5]
The criteria of an initiation conversion are 1) the conscious confrontation with a near-death experience during one's lifetime; 2) the "overcoming of humanity"; and 3) the transition from theeveryday mode of being to another, which Evola callstranscendental realism (the transition from the everyday mode of being to anotherspiritual plane).[30]
Dürckheim wasrepatriated to Germany in 1947 and began a period oftraining analysis withLeonhard Seif.[7] At this time he began to develop his "Initiation Therapy", in which he merged several psychological directions. There is a strong influence fromdepth psychology, in particular theanalytical psychology ofCarl Gustav Jung and thepsychodrama ofJacob Levy Moreno. Dürckheim employs similar elements of art (modelling clay, ink drawings) and drama (role-playing) in his form of therapy.[31]
Along with his second wife, psychologistMaria Theresia Hippius (1909-2003), Dürckheim founded theExistential Psychology Training and Conference Center in the early 1950s, located in theBlack Forest village ofTodtmoos-Rutte. His books were based on his conferences.
"What I am doing is not the transmission ofZen Buddhism; on the contrary, that which I seek after is something universally human which comes from our origins and happens to be more emphasized in eastern practices than in the western."[8]
In 1958 Dürckheim met Episcopalian priestAlan Watts, who described him as "...a true nobleman--unselfconsciously and by a long tradition perfect in speech and courtesy--Keyserling's ideal of thegrand seigneur."[32]
Dürckheim is identified byAlbert Stunkard as the person who suggested that Stunkard should visitD. T. Suzuki inKita-Kamakura, not far from the Sugamo prison.[33] Stunkard later became Suzuki's psychiatrist.[34]
In 1972 Dürckheim received the Humboldt plaque from the Humboldt Society of Science, Art and Culture,[35] and in 1977 he was awarded theOfficer's Merit Cross, 1st Class.
Dürckheim died inTodtmoos on 28 December 1988 at the age of 92.
Dürckheim did not practice psychotherapy in the traditional sense, rather, he tried to teach his clients a process by which they could move towards spiritual self-understanding. He viewed the therapist as a spiritual guide: "A therapy which does not take into account thespirituality of man is doomed to failure...The therapist is not the one who heals, that is, who intervenes with his own skills; he is a therapist in the original meaning of the word: a companion on the way."[8]
Dürckheim readily acknowledged that he was influenced by other psychologists in the development of his theory of the self:
Dürckheim's "Initiation Therapy" deals with the encounter between the profane, mundane, "little" self (theego) and the true Self:[36]
An integral concept in this self-understanding is referred to as "The Wheel ofMetamorphosis." Dürckheim viewed transformation not as the sudden achievement ofenlightenment,[citation needed] but rather as a continuous and cyclical evolution, akin to the motion of a wheel. He posited three stages and five steps in each cycle:[8]
For Dürckheim,meditation exercises are the key to spiritual change:
"The man, who, being really on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers him refuge and comfort and encourages his old self to survive. Rather, he will seek out someone who will faithfully and inexorably help him to risk himself, so that he may endure the suffering and pass courageously through it. Only to the extent that man exposes himself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within him. In this lies the dignity of daring."
– fromThe Way of Transformation, 1988.
"Perseverance can bring a state of ‘self-lessness’ in which you are released from the division of subject and object, which ordinarily dominates consciousness. In that state you can finally experience the perfect enjoyment of the unity inherent in it. You may even taste the joys of an experience which determines all further experience: ‘It is not I who am breathing, it breathes and I merely have a share as a union of body and soul.'"
- fromThe Japanese Cult of Tranquility, 1960.
"A great deal of my present work is in helping people who underwent great spiritual crisis during the war. We know, of course, that sometimes, in extreme circumstances, people have a naturalsatori or spiritual awakening when it appears that all is finished for them–and they accept it. This happened often in the war, and when those who lived through it tried to tell the tale to their friends it was shrugged off as some kind ofhallucination, a brief fit of insanity in a desperate situation. When these people come to me, as they often do, I have the happy opportunity of showing them that, for once in their lives, they were truly sane."
- quoted in Alan Watts,In My Own Way: An Autobiography 1915–1965, 1973, p. 321.[39]
