A former German Marxist wrote sentences of poignant beauty about the Buddhist tradition and the importance of deep wisdom
Edward Conze (1904-1979) ranks among the much loved commentators/translators in the Buddhist tradition. Although born in London, Conze came from a German family with their home in Langenberg, Germany. In the 1930s, he wrote The Principle of Contradiction, a Marxist inspired text on dialetical materialism. A fierce critic of Fascism, he found himself harassed for his views. In 1933, the Nazis burnt his books in Berlin among thousands of other books, as they were deemed “unGerman.” …