Beinsa Douno

From Anthroposophy

Peter Deunov (1864-1944) is an incarnation of an important spiritual Individuality and was a spiritual teacher of esoteric Christianity. As a spiritual teacher he used the name Beinsa Douno and not his native name Peter Deunov.

He gave thousands of lectures and talks, prayers, exercises, occult formulas, mantras and songs. He lectured a.o. on the second coming (of Christ in the etheric) and the Sixth epoch.

He lived and worked mainly in Bulgaria, and his teachings show a connection with the Slavic people and culture in light of the next Sixth cultural age

  • Note, as Rudolf Steiner explained, the term Bulgars goes back to the fifth and sixth century AD and describes human beings who were most strongly touched by the opposition of the good and evil cosmic spiritual powers (see 1924-07-11-GA237 on Manicheism). From this area of current Bulgaria, the stream of Bogomilism (10th century AD) spread and laid at the basis of the Cathar movement in Northern Italy and Southern France.

Beinsa Douno, as world teacher for humanity who announced the Second Coming of Christ in 1898, is regarded as a member of the White Lodge. His Individuality is subject of speculation and debate, see the 'Discussion area' below), but there is a considerable probability that Beinsa Douno was the 20th century incarnation of the Bodhisattva that incarnates every century and will become the next future Maitreya Buddha in about 3000 years in the sixth cultural age (see Bodhisattva#Commentary)

Some facts of his life include (see full biography link under 'Further reading' below:

  • During the period 1888-1895 he studied medicine and theology in the United States (Boston University), completing his theological studies in 1893 with a thesis on 'The Migration of the Germanic Tribes and their Christianization'. This period exposed him to contacts with theosophical and rosecrucian circles in the US.
  • In 1897, aged 33, he started his work as spiritual teacher under the name Beinsa Douno. He had a first group of disciples, started public lecturing and formed an association for raising the religious spirit of the Bulgarian spirit, later called 'the chain' and 'Universal White Brotherhood'. Beinsa Douno would lead the organization's annual meetings in the period 1900 to 1944.
  • His first publicly recorded lecture was in 1914, aged 50. In total he gave thousands of lectures (figures of approx. 3700 and 4000 are given) in the 30 years period up to 1944, teaching by stories like old prophets. Between 1930 and 1944 he held the so called 'Sunday Morning Lectures'.
  • In 1929 the first summer camp was organized at Seven Rila Lakes. From 1932 (or 1934) and onwards, he taught Paneurythmy in these Rila mountains south of Sofia, Bulgaria. See also the topic page Eurythmy.
  • His 'Last Word' was held on 20 Dec 1944. He passed away on 27 Dec 1944, aged 80.

Aspects

announcements

teachings

  • good prayer (1900) - see below
  • teaching based on five virtues of Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice, and Virtue: "Love the absolute way of Truth and Life. Put the Good as a foundation of your home, Justice as a measure, Love as an adornment, Wisdom as a fence and Truth as a Luminary. Then and only then shall thou know Me and I will manifest myself to you."
  • Testament of the Colour Rays of Light (1912): method of spiritual work with the seven primary colors, symbol of the seven divine spirits and seven stars. Each weekday certain texts are read that relate to the corresponding rainbow color. The text composed entirely of selected excerpts from the Bible arranged to characterize the Christian virtues.
  • categories of 'talks' or lectures (info from beinsadouno-plovdiv.org)
    • Talks at Gatherings (1906-1944), oa Rila Talks (1929-1944)
    • Sunday talks (1914-1944) on interpretation of Bible texts
    • Thursday talks (1917-1932) delivered to wives, mothers, teachers and tutors – all women who could influence society positively
    • General esoteric class (1922-1944, on Wednesdays, 31 series in 22 years)
    • Youth esoteric class (1922-1944, on Fridays)
    • Morning talks (1930-1944, Sunday after sunrise
    • Special talks – held on special occasions
    • 'The Testament of Love' (1944-03-19 to 1944-12-20) published in three volumes
  • Compilation and publishing of the teachings
    • core group: Metodi Konstantinov, Boyan Boev; Boris Nikolov and Maria Todorova
    • stenographers (3): Elena Andreeva (1899-1990): after 1944 she continued to work for almost 10 years and transcribed the rough shorthand notes, compiled in 1954 but unpublished by then); Savka Keremedchieva, Pasha Teodorova
  • Beinsa Douno is characterized by teachings for the people, whereas Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science or anthroposophy represents more of a 'knowledge' stream. One could call Beinsa Douno the 'Teacher of the Good', of Love and purity. There are links with Manicheism, the Bulgars, the Slavic people and the next sixth cultural age that will provide the seeds for the Sixth epoch).

Students

  • Boyan Boev (1883-1963)
    • one of the Master's closest disciples (certainly from 1912), highly educated man who spoke BG, FR, DE, RU, good at short-hand writing and recorded many talks; later editing the notes and sending them as topic-based letters with a conversation with the Master
  • Boris Nikolov (1900 – 1991) - chairman after Beinsa Douno's death in 1944; started the process of printing and preserving lecture notes that had remained in shorthand until then. A printing centre was set up and aboyr 50 books with lectures and talks were published between 1944 and 1949
  • Metodi Konstantinov (1902-1979) - philosopher, lawyer and writer
  • Vlad Pashov (1902- 1974) - co-founder of first printing house, participated in writing and publishing activities
  • Mikhail Dimitrov Ivanov (also known as Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov) (1900-1986), met Beinsa Douno in 1917, started movement in France in 1947, travelled to India in 1959.
  • Dimitar Griva (1914 – 1994), composer, ao orchestrated paneurhythmy for symphonic orchestra on Master's request
  • more information, see online here

Inspirational quotes

The quotes below are illustrating Beinsa Douno as the 'Teacher of the Good' (Rudolf Steiner, re Bodhisattva#Synthesis)

Source: exact source unknown, probably from the Rila talks (about the importance of purity in the physical as well as the psychic and spiritual life)

purity is the first and necessary condition for the proper development of Man

Source: exact source not specified

Love the absolute way of Truth and Life.

Put the Good as a foundation of your home, Justice as a measure, Love as an adornment, Wisdom as a fence and Truth as a Luminary.

Then and only then shall thou know Me and I will manifest myself to you.

Illustrations

FMC00.409 shows Beinsa Douno at later age, on the right the most well known picture

FMC00.409.jpg

FMC00.409A shows Beinsa Douno amidst plain people, teaching through stories

FMC00.409A.jpg

FMC00.409B shows Beinsa Douno at younger age (left and center)

FMC00.409B.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

1897-03-19

On 19 March 1897, Beinsa Douno received an inspiration by the spiritual world. From the archives of Boyan Boev (Vol 1, Sofia, 1999, p 339):

“Then I received a mission from Heaven, then it was told to me that I am a teacher for the whole humanity. The mission assigned to me is connected with the new path of the Slavs and with the coming of the sixth race"

1898

In 1898 he gave a prophetic angelic message known as 'A Call to My People' that announced the Second Coming of Christ in a New Age, in which the Slavic nations will step forward as the carriers of a new culture of love and brotherhood.

Quote below taken from; Metodi Konstantinov, Boyan Boev, Maria Todorova and Boris Nikolov, Uchitelya, Sofia, 2005, pp 394-396.

(see PDF 'A call to my people' (1898), with commentary by Harrie Salman (2014))

.. Christ is coming now to visit human minds and hearts. ... remember that Christ is a manifestation of the Love of God. And He will come as an inner Light in the minds and hearts of the people. This Light will attract everybody around Christ as a great Center.

The opening of the human minds and hearts and the reception of Christ from within – this will be ‘the Second Coming of Christ’ on Earth.

He will preach above all the great science of Love and the methods how to apply it. ...Prepare to meet Christ! Prepare, so that everybody in one’s time can meet Christ. Put on your new clothes. For some Christ will come even today, for others – tomorrow, still for others – in years. You will see Him when you are prepared. Receive Christ in your hearts as a friend, and in your mind – as Teacher. Christ is now working. ...

If you are in harmony with Christ, your consciousness will wake up, you will see Him. Christ is coming to the world with His Intelligence and Love. Christ is already coming to the Earth to bring Divine Love for all the people. He will teach people self-sacrifice and Love. He brings Love, Wisdom, Knowledge, Freedom! The Light of Christ penetrates everywhere.

1940

taken from Akordirane na choveshkata dusha, Vol 1, p 43 (see PDF 'A call to my people' (1898), with commentary by Harrie Salman (2014))

We are at the beginning of the Second Coming.

1944

from The Wellspring of Good, a compilation of his words from 1944 (pp 137, 161 and 276-277.)

Humankind is presently passing through a new phase of its development. A new form of Love is coming.

We ask, ‘When will God come and reveal His Love to us?’

This day is coming. For some this day has come already.”

Good Prayer

The Good Prayer given by Beinsa Douno on 1900-11-27 to his disciple with the words

.. guard this prayer like the apple of your eye, for it comes from the Divine Spirit.

It consists of nine petitions, like the Sermon on the Mount, links to the Lord's Prayer (seven petitions). Multiple translation to English exist.

Lord, our God, our kind Heavenly Father, who has bestowed upon us life and health to rejoice in You, we pray to You, send us Your Spirit to guard and protect us from every evil and deceitful thought.

Teach us to do Your Will, to sanctify Your Name and to glorify You always.

Consecrate our spirit, enlighten our hearts and our mind, that we may keep Your commandments and precepts.

Inspire in us with Your Presence, Your pure thoughts, and guide us to serve You with joy.

Our life, which we dedicate to You for the good of our brothers and neighbours, bless You Lord.

Help us and support us to grow in every knowledge and wisdom, to learn from Your Word and to abide in Your Truth.

Lead us in everything we think and do in Your Name, to be for the victorious-success of Your Kingdom on Earth.

Feed our souls with Your Heavenly bread, and strengthen us with Your Power, that we may succeed in our life.

As You give us all Your blessings, so add unto us Your Love, to be our eternal law.

For to You belongs the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever and ever. Amen.

Discussion

Note 1 - Speculation about Individuality of Beinsa Douno

  • Filipov, Pavlov and Kelev (see references below) make a case for their identification of Beinsa Douno as the incarnation of the Bodhisattva that will become the next Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha. See also the lectures by Rudolf Steiner on Jeshu Ben Pandira in 1911-11-GA130.
  • Powell and Salman (see references below) make a case for their identification of Beinsa Douno as an incarnation of Master Jesus
  • furthermore see the text accompanying Schema FMC00.432A on the topic page Colchis Mysteries for another interesting coincidence, noticing also what is described in Two streams of development#1909-11-14-GA117 2 in context of Paneurythmy. One may intuitively sense a correlation with the Individuality of Skythianos.

.

Note 2 - Challenges with authenticity of source materials, translations and quotes

When studying the teachings of Beinsa Douno one is confronted with a problem of authenticity and the truth. This is similar with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner - see Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA).

Over decades and generations, a very large group of people with varied perspectives and working styles processes the original notes from the Master, editing them and translating them for publishing. This makes it very easy for influences to sneak in and affect and bias the authentic contents, either consciously or unconsciously. Also errors may occur due to the lack of rigour of some, just plain human mistakes, and the superposition of different versions and consecutive handling of a text.

In the case of Rudolf Steiner, he took care that the contents of his teachings would remain administered by Marie Steiner, who had to fight court cases to remain in charge of editing and publishing. Even then the same problems as above remain. Editors have to make choices between various shorthand and transcribed notes, and later the text gets polished for readability, also changing nuances in expression of/and meaning.

This Note captures feedback received by the site from various sources (not named). There is no further judgement involved, but it is a matter of conscientiousness to report these warnings to the reader.

1/ Certain groups of people appear to publish books that add and contain dubious spin versus the original source texts. This is said of various books by Astrala publishing.

2/ Many quotes can be found about Beinsa Douno by others, but the problem is that none of these statements can/could be traced or backed up with specific source statements and/or factual evidence. Caution for unqualified statements is appropriate as many claims abound, such as:

  • Rudolf Steiner said in a conversation with Boyan Boev, who would become one of the closest disciples of Beinsa Douno, in Munich in 1910, would have said

    The Slavonic people are destined to have a great mission. They, and particularly Bulgaria, will contribute a good deal to the elevation of humankind. Return to Bulgaria, there is a powerful spiritual movement in Bulgaria, headed by a great spiritual Initiate.

    another version of this quote is

    I have nothing to teach you, go back to Bulgaria, the universal teacher is already working there

  • Paramahansa Yogananda, would have said, when asked while visiting Greece about his intentions with regard to establishing an ashram in Bulgaria:

    This is how far I can go, the Spirit of the Truth is active there.

  • Albert Einstein would have said

    All the world renders homage to me and I render homage to the Master Peter Deunov from Bulgaria.

  • Krishnamurti would have said (at a World Theosophic Congress in the Netherlands) that the World Master was in Bulgaria
  • Onisaburo Deguchi, leader of the Oomoto (Japanese spiritual movement), would have said, ‘I am a wise man, the Master is in Bulgaria.’
  • that Peter Dounov would have worked through Rudolf Steiner in the period 1910-13

.

Again, no specific sources are given or can be traced. An example of a site with such quotes is: paneurythmy.com/beinsa-douno/

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Boyan Boev (1883-1963)
    • The Bogomil Mission in Relation to the Slavonic Mission (1937)
    • The Master on Breathing (1942, research paper)
    • The Master on Education (1943)
  • Savka Keremedchieva (1901-1945)
    • Sacred Words of the Master (1924 and 1938)
    • The New Sacred Words (transcribed from her notes in shorthand by Boris Nikolov and published as second and third volume of "Sacred Words of the Master")
  • magazine: "Grain of Wheat"published by the White Brotherhood Society - initiative of Georgi Tomalevski (1897-1988)
  • Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov:
    • 'Life with the Master Peter Deunov: Autobiographical Reflections 2'
    • Hommage au Maitre Peter Deunov

Books about Beinsa Douno

in English

  • David Lorimer: 'Prophet for our times' (1991, 2015)
  • The Master in Varna. A documentary chronicle (1999)
  • Milka Kraleva: 'The Master Peter Deunov: His Life and Teaching Hardcover (2001)
  • Filip Filipov, Preslav Pavlov, and Dimiter Kalev: The Bodhisattva in the 20th Century: Seeking the Word of the Bodhisattva Maitreya (2007)
  • Eva Kovacheva: 'Die Weiße Bruderschaft des Peter Danov (2010)
  • Vlad Pashov: The Extraordinary Life of the Master Beinsa Douno (2012)
  • Peter Deunov - Prophet of the new age: 'A call to my people' (1898) (with commentary by Harrie Salman) (2014)
  • Robert Powell and Harri Salman: Prophecy of Beinsa Douno
  • Maria Mitovska and Harry Carr: 'The Teacher - Volume I: The dawning epoch' (2015)
  • Aída Kurteff: Peter Deunov: 'El Maestro de Izgrev' (2020 in ES)
  • Harrie Salman: 'Rudolf Steiner and Peter Deunov' (2023)

Books by Beinsa Douno

as Peter Deunov
  • Migration of Teutonic Tribes and Their Conversion to Christianity (1893, Ph. D thesis at Boston University)
  • Science and Education (1896)
as Beinsa Douno
  • The Testament of the Colored Rays of Light (1912), in DE as 'Das Testament der farbigen Strahlen des Lichts' (2010)
words of Beinsa Douno (transcribed lectures)
  • The New Humanity and the High Ideal (1969)
  • The Wellspring of Good (1992)
  • Sacred Words of the Master. A Call to the Disciple (1994)
  • The Way of the Disciple (1996)
  • The Great Mother (1998)
  • According of the Human Soul (2002)
  • The Mindful Heart (2003)
  • Conversations at the Seven Rila Lakes (2003)
  • Paneurhythmy: Supreme Cosmic Rhythm (2004)
  • He Is Coming (2004)
  • The Master Speaks (2006)
  • 'The Second Coming' (2012) - by Svilen Chorbadjiev (editor)
  • The Sunday Lectures (Vol 1 to 5) (2024) - by Demitri Emanuel (editor) :

see also:

in German
  • Der Meister spricht. Das Wort der hohen universalen Bruderschaft (1970 and 2000)
  • Das Wort des Meisters Beinsa Douno (1982)
  • Damit sie das Leben haben (1994)
  • Kraft und Leben (1997)
  • Die drei Säulen des Lebens (2002)
  • Allumfassende Liebe (2002)
  • Das hohe Ideal (2003)
  • Die Paneurhythmie (2007)
  • Die Herrlichkeit des Lebens (2007)

Movies

Websites

For English speakers it can be challenging to find one's way around to sites in bulgarian and russian. Below follow a few references:

Furthermore also see other websites:

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