Ven. Nyanaponika Thera
A German scholar (b. 1901), Ven. Nyanaponika Thera ordained in Sri Lanka in 1936 after fleeing the Nazis. He was imprisoned by the British Empire as a possible spy for the duration of World War II, completing (from prison) German translations of the Suttanipata, Dhammasangani, and Satipaṭṭhāna.
After the war, he traveled to Burma where he helped the sixth council publish their edition of the Pāli Canon and learned vipassana meditation from Mahasi Sayadaw himself, later writing The Heart of Buddhist Meditation about the experience.
But Ven Nyanaponika Thera is most famous for co-founding the Buddhist Publication Society in 1958, where he published hundreds of works on Theravada Buddhism in English.
He died in Sri Lanka on October 19, 1994 on the last day of his 58th rains.
~ Adapted from his Wikipedia article
Selected Works (in chronological order)
Featured in the course, " Nibbāna: The Goal of Buddhist Practice"
Featured in the course, " Buddhist Ethics"
Just as the sun is valued not only for its own intrinsic radiance but also for its ability to illuminate the world, so the brilliance of the Buddha is determined not only by the clarity of his Teaching but by his ability to illuminate those who came to him for refuge
Edited:
Translations by Ven. Nyanaponika Thera:
such a monk gives up the here and the beyond,
just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin
This treatise explains the progress of insight, together with the corresponding stages of purification. It has been written in brief for the benefit of meditators who have obtained distinctive results in their practice, so that they may more easily understand their experience.