Dr. Edward Conze: In Pursuit of Perfect Wisdom
(By Tsem Rinpoche and Pastor Shin Tan)
Dr. Edward Conze is known as the foremost Western scholar of Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) literature, and the best way to introduce this great intellectual and his work is his insight into Wisdom (below), which is one of the Five Spiritual Faculties or indriya (Pali/Sanskrit). This set of five faculties is one of the seven sets of qualities conducive to Enlightenment, as praised by Lord Buddha.
Dr. Conze’s mother once described him as ‘a bundle of contradictions’. While he was known as an erudite scholar, he was unfortunately also infamous for his caustic, often outrageous temperament, which earned him an intriguing and contradictory reputation. Yet, Dr. Conze almost single-handedly made the Prajnaparamita Sutras, the fundamental scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, available to the English-speaking world.
In the 1940s and 50s, objective scholars were not supposed to become involved with the subjects they were studying. Thus, Dr. Edward Conze was an eccentric figure as he was a practising Buddhist who would end up inspiring a new group of practising Buddhist scholars in the West.
An excerpt from ‘Wind Bell’ that praised Dr. Conze’s scholarship and the vastness of his knowledge and expertise. Click on image to enlarge.
As mentioned in ‘Wind Bell’ in 1972, it would have been practically impossible to study Zen or Mahayana Buddhism in the West without Dr. Edward Conze’s work. He taught at the University of California from the fall of 1971 to the spring of 1972, and even the famous Soto Zen monk and teacher, Suzuki Roshi, who popularised Zen Buddhism in the United States, sent his older students at the Zen Center to study with Dr. Conze. It is said that Dr. Conze’s intelligence and learning touched on every subject — from society to culture, history, thought, psychology, recent events, and even the classroom situation in which he was teaching.
Early Life and Education
Born in London as the son of the German Vice-Consul, Dr. Conze was an aristocrat with German, French and Dutch ancestry. At the age of 13, he found a German translation of Lafcadio Hearn’s ‘Gleaning in Buddha-Fields’ in his father’s library, and in the section about Nirvana, each paragraph was prefaced by a quote from the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Dr. Conze felt that these truths were something that he had once known, but which had faded as he grew up. Yet, the text was not exactly what had been said originally as the book was a German translation of an English translation of a Japanese translation of a Chinese translation of the Sanskrit original.
Dr. Conze pursued his studies at various German universities. After completing his PhD at the University of Cologne in 1928, he went on to study comparative European and Indian Philosophy at the University of Bonn and the University of Hamburg. By the age of 24, he was fluent in 14 languages, including Sanskrit.
Through all this, Dr. Conze was still determined to gain access to the original text of ‘Gleaning in Buddha-Fields’. 40 years later, he published his edition of the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita (Diamond Cutter Sutra), which is considered to be the standard edition of this classical text till today.
A Modern Gnostic
While still in his 20s, Dr. Conze published ‘The Principle of Contradiction: On the Theory of Dialectical Materialism’, his most important philosophical work which set the stage for his later works as a Buddhist scholar and translator. This openly Marxist work was published at considerable risk to both printer and author in December 1932 in Hamburg, Germany. Almost all 500 copies of this text were destroyed during the Nazi book burning campaign in 1933.
In this very important work, Dr. Conze provided a detailed account of both the historical and the material conditions that supported the beginnings and continuation of theoretical knowledge, as well as how it was transmitted through the ages. He exemplified this through the principle of contradiction, stating that the meaning of this principle, a supposed necessary truth to everyone, would eventually be replaced by a radically different understanding in the future.
This analysis and critique of the principle of contradiction built upon the foundation of classical Marxist thought. Dr. Conze sought to disprove that there was an ultimate and fixed meaning to existence, using the principle of contradiction as an example. Furthermore, as his account included an analysis of the philosophy and ideas from Aristotle, Marx and the Buddha, his work was not only cross-cultural but also interdisciplinary.
“The Principle of Contradiction“, written by the German polymath Edward Conze in 1932, was all but lost to the world in the Nazi purges of 1933. Fortunately, a few copies survived. Heine is much to be praised for making it generally accessible again in English translation. The book is a fascinating window into the mind of Conze himself and German Marxist thought in this dark period. Conze’s book is notable for its Aristotelian and Marxist erudition, but also resonates with both Buddhist thought and developments in contemporary logic. Heine’s introduction beautifully locates the book in its historical and intellectual context. This is an impressive piece of scholarship all round.
~ Graham Priest, CUNY Graduate Center
Dr. Conze was the leader of the communist movement in Bonn, and one can catch a glimpse of this in his autobiography, ‘Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic‘, in which he wrote about organising communist street gangs in Hamburg. He went to England in 1933 and became a member of the Labour Party. Although unimpressed by the intellectuals he met in the Labour movement, his interactions with the Secretary of State for Education, Chair of the Labour Party and MP Ellen Wilkinson led to the publishing of ‘Why War?‘ and ‘Why Fascism?‘.
The Principle of Contradiction. Click on image to enlarge.
Journey to the Perfection of Wisdom
From 1933 to 1973, Dr. Edward Conze held various posts in academia in England, Germany and the United States. In 1937, he became disillusioned with politics despite having extensively lectured and authored books. His first marriage collapsed and, having become depressed, he began to undergo psychoanalysis. He ‘rediscovered’ Buddhism at this point of time through the writings of D.T. Suzuki, ‘Essays in Zen Buddhism‘. He later befriended D.T. Suzuki as they were colleagues at the London Buddhist Society.
Dr. Edward Conze with his wife Muriel (left); Dr. Conze with Buddhist scholar D.T. Suzuki outside the London Buddhist Society (right). Picture from Prajnaparamita and Related Systems by Lewis Lancaster.
Dr. Edward Conze lived on his own in a caravan in southern England during World War II and practised intensive meditation based on the instructions of an ancient Theravadan Buddhist commenter, Buddhaghosa, in the Visuddhimagga. He is said to have achieved some level of meditative experience and in his own words, “experienced a great elation of the spirit.”
He also studied with Max Walleser (1874-1954), an Indologist, Tibetologist and Sinologist who lectured at Heidelberg University. Inspired by his teacher’s work on the Prajnaparamita, ‘Prajnaparamita, Die vollkommenheit der erkenntnis, nach indischen, tibetischen und chinesischen quellen‘ (1914), Dr. Conze went on to translate over 30 texts on the Prajnaparamita Sutras including two of the most well-known of all Buddhist texts — the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra — mostly during his spare time as he continued to teach and lecture.
Dr. Edward Conze with the famous Buddhist scholar D.T. Suzuki and Christmas Humphreys, the founder of the London Buddhist Society.
Dr. Conze also authored ‘Buddhism: Its Essence and Development‘, published in 1951, which is now regarded as a classic. This was one of the first scholarly treatments of Tantric Buddhism, and it was a daring move to include Tantra as one of the authentic or legitimate developments of Buddhism at that time. The book helped set Dr. Conze as one of the foremost Western authorities on Buddhism. Following a series of articles, translations and books, ‘Buddhist Thought in India‘ was published in 1961, which Dr. Conze considered his greatest achievement.
Dr. Edward Conze passed away on September 24, 1979 in the Yeovil General Hospital in England.
Dr. Edward Conze visited Gold Mountain Monastery in San Francisco, California in the early 1970s.
Wisdom, One of the Five Spiritual Faculties
“Wisdom is based on concentration, because of the saying: ‘One who is concentrated knows, sees what really is.‘” Is concentration then an indispensable pre-condition of wisdom? The answer lies in distinguishing three stages of wisdom, according to whether it operates on the level of:
- Learning about what tradition has to say concerning the psychological and ontological categories which form the subject-matter of wisdom;
- Discursive reflection on the basic facts of life; and
- Meditational development
The third alone requires the aid of transic concentration, whereas without it there can be proficiency in the first two. And the wisdom which consists of learning and reflection should not be despised.
The main stream of Buddhist tradition has always greatly esteemed learning. Our attitude to the apple of knowledge differs from that of many Christians. On the whole, we regard it as rather more nourishing than baneful. The wisdom, which is the fifth and crowning virtue, is not the wisdom that can be found in the untutored child of nature, the corny sage of the backwoods, or the self-made philosopher of the suburbs. It can operate only after a great deal of traditional information has been absorbed, a great deal of sound learning acquired. The required skill in metaphysical and psychological analysis would be impossible without a good knowledge of the material on which this skill ought to be exercised. From this point of view learning is perhaps less to be regretted than its absence.
The second stage, after learning, is reflection, which is an operation of the intellect. Even the relative beginner can greatly increase his wisdom by discursive meditations on the basic facts of life. Finally, it is on the level of mental development (bhavana) that this meditational technique reaches its maturity, and then it does, indeed, require the aid of mindfulness and concentration.
“Wisdom” is, of course, only a very approximate equivalent of prajna. To the average person nowadays “wisdom” seems to denote a compound made up of such qualities as sagacity, prudence, a well-developed sense of values, serenity, and sovereignty over the world won by the understanding of the mode of its operation. The Buddhist conception of “wisdom” is not unlike this, but more precise. It is best clarified by first giving its connotations, and then its actual definition.
As for the connotations, we read in the Dhammasangani: “On that occasion the dominant of wisdom is wisdom, understanding, search, research, search for Dharma; discernment, discrimination, differentiation, erudition, expert skill, subtlety, clarity, reflection, investigation, amplitude, sagacity, a guide (to true welfare and to the marks as they truly are), insight, comprehension, a goad (which urges the mind to move back on the right track); wisdom, wisdom as virtue, wisdom as strength (because ignorance cannot dislodge it), the sword of wisdom (which cuts through the defilements), the lofty (and overtowering) height of wisdom, the light, lustre and splendour of wisdom, the treasure of wisdom, absence of delusion, search for dharmas, right view.” From mere cleverness wisdom is distinguished by its spiritual purpose, and we are told expressly that it is designed “to cut off the defilements.”
Now to the actual definition: “Wisdom penetrates into dharmas as they are in themselves. It disperses the darkness of delusion, which covers up the own-being of dharmas.”
What then does wisdom meditate about? Wisdom may be held to concern itself with three possible topics:
- True reality;
- The meaning of life;
- The conduct of life.
Buddhist tradition assumes that the second and third depend on the first. In its essence wisdom is the strength of mind which permits contact with the true reality, which is also called the realm of dharmas. Delusion, folly, confusion, ignorance and self-deception are the opposites of wisdom. It is because ignorance, and not sin, is the root evil that wisdom is regarded as the highest virtue. A holiness which is devoid of wisdom is not considered impossible, but it cannot be gained by the path of knowledge, to which alone these descriptions apply. The paths of faith, of love, of works, etc., have each their own several laws.
As the unfaltering penetration into the true nature of objects, wisdom is the capacity to meditate in certain ways about the dharmic constituents of the universe. The rules of that meditation have been laid down in the scriptures, particularly in the Abhidharma, and a superb description can be found in the latter part of Buddhaghosa’s Path of Purification. Mindfulness and concentration were, as we saw, based on the assumption of a duality in the mind — between its calm depth and its excited surface. Wisdom similarly assumes a duality between the surface and depth of all things. Objects are not what they appear to be. Their true reality, in which they stand out as dharmas, is opposed to their appearance to commonsense, and much strength of wisdom is required to go beyond the deceptive appearance and to penetrate to the reality of dharmas themselves.
Source: “The Way of Wisdom: The Five Spiritual Faculties”, by Edward Conze. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/conze/wheel065.html
Downloadable Books
The Scientific Method of Thinking: An Introduction to Dialectical Materialism
The texts above were sourced from legitimate book-hosting services offering these texts for free download. They are made available here for purely educational, non-commercial purposes.
More Books by Edward Conze
Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin, 1959)
Buddhist Meditation (Allen & Unwin, 1956)
A Short History of Buddhism (1958)
Buddhism: Its Essence and Development (Bruno Cassirer, 1951)
The Buddha’s Law Among the Birds (Oxford, 1956)
Further Buddhist Studies: Selected Essays (Cassirer, 1975)
Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom (Buddhist Society, 1955)
Spain To-day: Revolution and Counter Revolution (Martin Secker and Warburg, 1936)
Gilgit Manuscript of Asṭadasasahasrikaprajnaparamita (Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1962)
Audio Recordings
Below are audio recordings of selected talks and discussions by Dr. Edward Conze at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1972.
- Conze NR 1 - Conze
- Conze NR 2 - Conze
- Conze NR 3 - Conze
- Conze NR 4 - Conze
Videos
Two video recitations of ‘The Perfection of Wisdom in 700 Lines (Saptasatika)‘ as translated by Dr. Edward Conze.
Part 1
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ThePerfectionOfWisdom1.mp4
Part 2
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ThePerfectionOfWisdom2.mp4
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Conze
- http://www.cuke.com/people/conze-edward.htm
- http://www.conze.elbrecht.com/ https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739127124/The-Principle-of-Contradiction
- https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/conze/wheel065.html
- https://krainaksiazek.pl/ksiegarnia,m_products,au_000069535,Conze-Edward.html
- https://tricycle.org/magazine/perfection-wisdom/
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Dr. Edward Conze indeed was an important figure during that era for he had translated the most important texts i.e. Prajnaparamita literatures.
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Thank you very much Rinpoche and Pastor Shin for sharing this great write up about Dr. Edward Conze: In Pursuit of Perfect Wisdom and the inspiring video clips. ??
The Prajnaparamita Sutra is an essential text for Mahayana Buddhist, we are indebted to Edward Conze to have made it available to English readers.
I am impressed by many of these non-traditional lay Buddhists scholars like Dr Edward Conze,Suzuki Roshi and the like. They must have very strong imprints from their previous lives to have so much merits to meet the Dharma whereby they dwell so deep into the studies of the Dharma and even lead them to write or translate ancient scriptures which became platforms for future scholars to refer to and benefit from them. Through their passion and efforts, the Dharma grew and spread in different parts of the globe. They had quite amazing lives benefiting many till today !!
The same could be said for writers today who dedicate their lives to write, translate, transcribe etc for the Buddha Dharma. Their work too will benefit many now and in the future.
Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Shin . With folded hands.
Dr. Edward Conze is known as the foremost Western Scholar of Prajnaparamita , (perfection of Wisdom) literature, and the best way to introduce this great intellectual and his works is his insight into Wisdom – which is the five spiritual faculties. As said, “A wiseman is always never recognized in his own country, when Dr. Conze’s own mother once described him as “a bundle of contradictions.” As descibed, Dr. Conze was unfortunately noted for his “infamous caustic outrageous temperaments, which earned him intriguiningly and contradictorilly such bad reputation! This earned him as an eccentric figure of a practicing Buddhist who would end up inspiring a new group of practicing Buddhist scholars in the West. From the praises of an excerpt “Wind Bell” in 1972 particularly on Dr,Conze’s Scholarship and the vastness of his knowledge and expertise, it is said that “Dr, Conze’s intelligence and learning on every subject- from society to culture, history, thought, psychology, recent events and even the classroom situation in which he was teaching, it looks as though it would have been practically impossible to study Zen or Mahayana Buddhism in the West without Dr. Edward Conze’s Work! So as to cut things short, as said, “Wisdom penetrates into Dharma as they are in themselves, but it dispenses the darkness of Delusion, which covers up the own-being of Dharma. In essence, Wisdom is said to be the strength of Mind which permits contact with the true reality, which is also called the Realm of Dharma. Delusion, folly, confusion, ignorance and self-deception are said to be the opposites of Wisdom. Wisdom is regarded as the highest Virtue in the Buddhist Tradition, as Wisdom is based on concentration. As the saying goes, “From mere cleverness wisdom is distinguished by it spiritual purpose, and we are told expressly that it is designed “to cut off the defilements”. A great many thanks to Rinpoche for the teachings, and to Pastor Shin Tan, for the sharing of this enlightened article.
Dr. Edward Conze was an Anglo-German scholar probably best known for his pioneering translations of Buddhist texts.. He was one of the great Buddhist translators – a pioneer scholar who introduced key Buddhist texts to the Western world. Dr. Conze went on to translate over 30 texts on the Prajnaparamita Sutras. It seem he did mentioned that in a past life he had been a “noble Mongol lama” during the early days of the British explorations into Tibet. This could be the reasons his interest in Buddhism is so close to his heart. He was notorious for his quick temper and trenchant criticism. He has spent many years meditating on compassion, and that it had softened his outlook as he was notorious for his quick temper. His most important contribution to Buddhist studies is his translation and explication of the Prajnaparamita sutras, which have inspired succeeding generations of academics to continue to make the sutras available to a Western world. He spent the rest of his life in England and continue writing and translating .He was a great scholar which has inspired many . He did published a number of books which i hope to read it.
Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Shin Tan for sharing this inspiring post.