Fritz Wilhelm

I was born in West Germany where I received my basic education. I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree at the Sorbonne, my Master and Ph.D. degrees in Theoretical Physics at the

University of Karlsruhe, Germany. I have lived in Mexico and Guatemala for a year. In the summer of 1975, in Saanen, Switzerland, I met the Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti and the physicist David Bohm. In 1976 I accompanied him on his tour through India where I could see first hand many of the historical places of the Buddha's activities. Krishnamurti and I soon became friends, and in 1977 I accepted his invitation to come to the United States to help him in his activities at the Krishnamurti Center in Ojai, California.

In 1980, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I have worked as a physics

professor at Diablo Valley College since 1986. I have been able to combine my physics teaching with my work in philosophy and mythology, thus giving my audience a much richer experience in learning about reality.

In 1982 I published a book of poetry and art "Next Step" together with my wife Margrete Heising, an artist painter, who created the linoleum block prints “Love” on page iii and the painting “Spirits Through Time” on page V in my book Dancing With Maya.

In recent years I have been very busy also with wildlife photography To see more of her paintings and my photography please visit our website at: www.heisingart.com

After I had studied quantum field theory and obtained my doctorate in physics at the university of Karlsruhe in Germany, my thirst for scientific knowledge was temporarily satisfied but only to leave me with a much greater thirst for meaning. I did not know that at the time, but, guided by some good destiny, I took off to an exploratory journey to Mexico. I did not know what I was looking for, but, strangely enough, I carried a complete edition of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche in my backpack, and carried the whole twelve volumes in and out of the Copper Canyon in the Sierra Madre. I was fascinated by his beautiful and powerful, inspired language together with his sarcastic irreverence for any institutions of state, education, or religion. One idea, which captivated my imagination, was his profound trust in the "unknown and unknowable God." The other idea was contained in his appeal to every human being to "become who you are."

In a little apartment in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I stayed with a friend for more than six months, I painted those words on the wall. I saw that the relationship between "the seer" introduced by the Yaqui Indian and brujo (shaman, sorcerer, magician, wise-man, mystic) Don Juan3 was very close to Nietzsche's idea of the "Super-man and Super-woman" (Übermensch). I see this notion as a metaphor for "Man and woman who have gone beyond the conditioning of reality."

It was there in Oaxaca that Maya revealed herself to me.

Later, back in Germany, I delved into Indian, Tibetan, and German philosophy, and I rediscovered the German existential philosopher Karl Jaspers. In his philosophy there is one sentence which highlights his ingenious insight into the mind of true human beings of all times, namely that "there is no existence without transcendence." One does not truly live up to the human potential, one does not exist, unless one can see transcendence which gives meaning to reality.

It took me a while to find out that these statements were about the fundamental complementarity of all Being. They were made by Western philosophers but have also quite a tradition in Asian Indian philosophies where they culminated in some forms of Mahayana Buddhism, the so-called Vajrayana or Tantra Buddhism. It is in Tantra Buddhism that the ideas of complementarity have found their most profound and beautiful expressions. They include the complementarity between sensuality-spirituality, God-Man, God-Goddess, Matter-Spirit, Oneness- Nothingness, and so on.

The result of all this is the book Dancing With Maya. It is a tough but rewarding read in my opinion. I hope you enjoy at least some of it, and you find it helpful in your life.