Lama Anagarika Govinda

Anagarika Govinda (born Ernst Lothar Hoffmann, 17 May 1898 – 14 January 1985) was the founder of the order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala and an expositor of Tibetan Buddhism, Abhidharma, and Buddhist meditation as well as other aspects of Buddhism. He was also a painter and poet. Ernst Lothar Hoffmann was born in Waldheim, Germany, the son of a German father and a Bolivian mother. His father was quite well-to-do and owned a cigar factory. His mother died when he was three years old. While enrolled in the German army during World War I, he caught tuberculosis in Italy and was discharged. 

He recovered at a sanatorium and then studied philosophy, psychology, and archaeology at Freiburg University. He did not finish his studies but went to live in a German art colony on Capri in Italy as a painter and poet. He studied at the Universities of Naples and Cagliari and made archeological research journeys in North Africa. He lived on Capri from 1920 until 1928. During his time in Italy, Hoffman became familiar with the work of German life-philosopher Ludwig Klages, whose biocentric metaphysics greatly fascinated him and influenced his approach to and understanding of Buddhism.

Already at the age of 16, he started to study philosophy, and by way of Schopenhauer, he encountered Buddhism. After having made a comparative study of the major religions, he became a convinced Buddhist at the age of 18. He joined the Bund für buddhistisches Leben (Association for Buddhist Living). On Capri, he practiced meditation with an American Buddhist friend. For health reasons, Govinda finally settled in the San Francisco Bay area, where he and his wife were taken care of by Alan Watts and Suzuki Roshi's San Francisco Zen Centre. In San Francisco, he established a branch of his order called "Home of Dhyan." 

In 1980 he visited India for the last time and gave up his house in Almora. He remained mentally agile despite suffering from several strokes from 1975 onwards. During an evening discussion on 14.1.1985, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck that traveled downwards. He lay down on his right side and died laughing. His ashes were placed in the Nirvana-Stupa, which was erected in 1997 on the premises of Samten Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling.

Govinda wrote several books on a wide variety of Buddhist topics. His most well-known books are The Way of the White Clouds and Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, which were translated into many languages. Some of his works, such as Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, were written in German and were subsequently translated into English. His articles were published in many Buddhist journals, such as the Maha Bodhi and the German journal Der Kreis published by his Buddhist Order Arya Maitreya Mandala. Govinda considered The Inner Structure of the I Ching, the Book of Transformation, as his most important book.