"Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ" Part 3 of 3
A Three Sages Original: First English-Language Publication
Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ: Part 3 of 3
By Dr. Sc. Nat. ETH Otto G. Lienert
Introduction by Richard C. Cook, Editor, Three Sages
As readers of Three Sages are aware, for the past year we have been publishing selections of Bô Yin Râ’s spiritual writings, along with background and commentary. See additional selections of recent articles HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Bô Yin Râ was the spiritual name of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken (1876-1943), born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, educated as a landscape painter, by spiritual lineage a Luminary of Primordial Light (Leuchtenden des Urlichts), and, through his writings, the creator of perhaps the most important compendium of original spiritual writings in modern Western history. His master work is the 32-volume Hortus Conclusus (“The Enclosed Garden”), which he completed in 1936, having relocated from Germany to Lugano, Switzerland, in the early 1920s.
We now present, for the first time in English translation, an extraordinary account by a Swiss scholar, the late Dr. Otto G. Lienert, entitled Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ. The account is being published in three parts.
Additional resources on Bô Yin Râ:
Books to Light website for ordering books by Bô Yin Râ
Readings from “Above the Everyday” by Bô Yin Râ
Website of the German Bo Yin Ra Foundation
Website of Kober Press: The Books and Paintings of Bo Yin Ra, Berkeley, CA
Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ © 2026 by Books to Light – US. Translated and edited by Three Sages (montanarcc.substack.com) for first English-language publication in cooperation with Books to Light – US. Originally published in German by Kober Verlag AG Bern © 1994.
Part One of Journey of Worlds: Teaching and Life of Bô Yin Râ has been published previously and may be accessed and read HERE.
Part Two of Journey of Worlds: Teaching and Life of Bô Yin Râ has been published previously and may be accessed and read HERE.
CONTENTS
---PART ONE---
1. Introduction
2. The Work
2.1 The books
2.2 The paintings
2.3 The teaching
3. The All-Inclusive Cosmos
3.1 The Universe, the world of the external senses
3.1.1 The visible part of the Universe, “objective reality”
3.1.2 The invisible part of the Universe, the “occult” world
---PART TWO---
3.1.3 The body
3.1.4 The future of the Earth
3.2 The spiritual world, the higher creation of the Cosmos (the world from which we come and to which we return)
3.2.1 Past lives
3.2.2 Return
3.3 “Effective reality” – the realm of the soul
3.4 Bridges between the material and spiritual worlds
4. Conclusion
---PART THREE---
5. The Earthly Path of Bô Yin Râ
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Biography
5.3 Timeline
5.4 Memories
---Part Three---
5. The Earthly Path of Bô Yin Râ
5.1 Introduction
---Part Three---
Earthly destiny is only important for a helper from the world of the Spirit [“Luminary of Primordial Light”] insofar as it must allow him to fulfill his task, whereby his earthly human inclinations are by no means indifferent to whether it leads him through the highs and lows of earthly life. Even a “master” loses the knowledge of his origin and his alert consciousness in the spiritual worlds for many years when he is born on Earth and must be “awakened” again by his peers through hard training. The following short biography of Bô Yin Râ may be easier to understand from this point of view.
5.2 Biography
Joseph Anton Schneider was born on November 25, 1876, at two o’clock in the morning in Aschaffenburg, the son of Joseph Schneider from Bürgstadt near Miltenberg and Maria Anna, née Albert, from Hösbach. In 1897, the house where he was born was moved—a sensation at the time—due to the expansion of the main railway station and is now known as “Glattbacher Überfahrt No. 13.” [One-half mile north of the Schloss Johannisburg]
Joseph Anton, whose outstanding artistic talent was beyond that of his rural artisan ancestors, spent only the first four years of his life in Aschaffenburg. However, he retained fond memories of this culturally and historically rich city throughout his life. One of his most famous landscape paintings depicts a motif from his Franconian homeland, a forest valley in the Spessart.
In 1880, the family moved to nearby Frankfurt, where Joseph attended the Merian School until 1890 after completing elementary school. His inclination and talent drew him irresistibly to the visual arts, although he also temporarily considered studying Catholic theology. Despite his parents’ financial difficulties, which he helped alleviate by working hard in a factory, he was able to attend several semesters at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt between 1892 and 1895. After working as a stage painter at the local municipal theater, among other things, he completed his studies at the Städel Master Studio in 1899. During this time, he also met the amiable painter Hans Thoma, who gave him free lessons based on a mutual sympathy that arose from their shared penchant for sincerity and artistic clarity.
In the years that followed, Joseph’s desire for further education and to deepen his knowledge led him to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (General Painting School) in Vienna, the Munich Art Collections, and the Académie Julian in Paris. Repeated stays in Munich, Berlin, and Vienna, where artists such as Max Klinger and Adolf Loos—to name just two of the most important—entered his circle of friends, were interrupted by several shorter trips within Europe, including one to Sweden in the summer of 1908. The young painter signed his paintings early on with Schneider-Franken [i.e., from Franconia, the northernmost province of Bavaria] in order to distinguish himself from others with the same common surname. He was now known as Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken.
In contrast to the typical bohemian artist’s life so fondly depicted among artists in contemporary literature, he took his profession extremely seriously. Even the paintings from his years of training and travel testify to his great artistic strength and conscientiousness, even if they still reveal influences from Thoma, Boehle, and Klinger. In 1906, his extensive and diligent preparatory work began to bear fruit. In the spring, Berlin publishers released pen-and-ink drawings, and at the same time, the Leipzig Art Association exhibited original drawings and paintings by the young artist, who was constantly working on his craft.
The threatening clouds of the First World War began to gather as the painter, who had now found his own personal style of expression, was offered the opportunity to spend a year in Greece, which brought his intellectual and artistic powers to their final breakthrough. The landscapes created on the basis of the sketches he brought back with him are among the most perfect ever captured in form and color by the pictorial spirit of ancient Hellas. In 1915, Joseph Schneiderfranken exhibited a collection of his Greek-inspired paintings at Schulte in Berlin, which was reviewed by the highly respected art critic Fritz Stahl. The exhibition also aroused keen interest in Professor Theodor Wiegand, director of the antiquities department of the Berlin Museum, who later founded the Pergamon Museum.
However, Joseph Schneiderfranken had brought back something even more important from Greece. His experiences there were the crowning glory of a spiritual development that had been in the making since his childhood and long before his birth, and which now increasingly shaped and determined his life. For someone described by his friends and acquaintances as always sober, humorous, and matter-of-fact, lacking any inclination toward world-denying asceticism and secrecy, his now fully committed devotion to the spiritual work and the accompanying images can only be seen as an expression of a commitment entered into with clear consciousness. [While in Greece, he met with his spiritual mentor, also a “Luminary of Primordial Light,” who had first appeared to him at the age of seven.]
In 1916, the desperate efforts of warring Germany forced even this free-spirited artist, who was averse to all feelings of hatred, into uniform. Until the spring of 1917, he performed administrative duties in Königsberg, then, because of his knowledge of modern Greek, he was transferred to the Greek camp in Görlitz, Silesia, as an interpreter. The poor food he had to share with the internees—flour mixed with sawdust—was one of the causes of a gastrointestinal disorder that tormented him until the end of his life. After the war ended, his first wife, Irma Schönfeld, died, after twelve years of marriage, from diabetes, which was untreatable at the time. He then entered into a new relationship with the widow Helene Hoffmann, who brought two girls into the marriage. As chairman of the Oberlausitz Art Association, he took an active part in the cultural life of the city of Görlitz and co-founded the “Jakob Böhme Bund” in 1921, which other artists also joined. He later dedicated a separate chapter to the Silesian mystic Jakob Böhme in his book “Wegweiser” (Showing the Way).
His first spiritual writings appeared between 1913 and 1917 under the initials B.Y.R., which he later compiled and revised into the book “Das Buch der Königlichen Kunst” (The Book of the Royal Art). In 1919, [the famed] Kurt Wolff Verlag, also in Leipzig, published “Das Buch vom Lebendigen Gott” (The Book On the Living God), which laid the foundation for the spiritual teachings now published under the name Bô Yin Râ. Year after year, new volumes were added until the series was completed in 1936 with the thirty-second volume, “Hortus Conclusus” (The Enclosed Garden). Writings closely related to the teachings appeared between 1923 and 1939, the last one entitled “Über die Gottlosigkeit” (On Godlessness). Each volume formed a self-contained unit, taking into account the spiritual idiosyncrasies and moods of the various readers.
Surrounded by his happy family and working on his now clearly defined artistic and spiritual path, his life was now measured and calm. After a two-year stay in Horgen on Lake Zurich in Switzerland, he moved to the municipality of Massagno above Lugano in 1925, where he took up permanent residence and which he deeply loved. He devoted himself almost entirely and unconditionally to spiritual teaching, to which he now also put his great skill as a painter. (Between 1920 and 1922, he had already created a cycle of spiritual paintings in Görlitz, which are included in the book “Welten” (Worlds).
Wherever he lived, his house was filled with conversations with visitors from all over the world, the laughter of his children and close friends, but also with the hidden, palpable power of the man who worked in his studio in silence. People from all walks of life, scholars and the uneducated, scientists and artists – among them the art historian and writer Rudolf Schott – gathered at his home. Of the musicians he knew personally, such as Eugen d’Albert (1864–1932), Egon Wellesz (1885–1974), and Felix Weingartner (1863–1942), he was particularly close to the latter. In 1927, he found an ideal publisher and friend in Dr. Alfred Kober from Basel.
The luminous abundance of the Ticino autumn seems kindred to the benevolent sage who offered comfort, advice, and help to countless people in words, letters, and inner devotion, showing severity when necessary and repeatedly urging self-education. His last books resonate with a primeval resonance and depth that had hardly been heard in the German-speaking world since the days of Goethe.
The National Socialist regime that came to power in Germany in the 1930s (which also banned the distribution of his books) met with decisive rejection from the artist, who was devoted to all noble human endeavors and who recognized the dangers threatening his homeland at an early stage. Nevertheless, hoping for a turn for the better until the very end, as expressed in “Das Buch der Liebe” (The Book On Love), he was deeply shaken by the outbreak of World War II when the dark forces had gained the upper hand.
In 1938, he acquired the citizenship of Massagno for himself and his family, now entwined with the beautiful, then still almost untouched, landscape of Ceresio, its lively inhabitants, and the customs of Swiss democracy. With almost superhuman willpower, he fought against the pain and weakness caused by his physical suffering in the last years of his life. His condition allowed him to receive fewer and fewer guests. When he did, however, his cheerful impartiality and understanding kindness made visitors forget that they were in the presence of a seriously ill person. According to consistent reports from acquaintances, there was no discrepancy between his teachings and his life.
Remaining fully conscious and in complete control of his mental faculties until the end, he wrote and painted as long as he was physically able. In the winter of 1943, on February 14, his long-overtaxed earthly body finally gave up the ghost.
5.3 Timeline
Bô Yin Râ’s work did not arise from the “Zeitgeist” and therefore has little in common with contemporary literature and painting in terms of content. Nevertheless, he naturally had to use the language and painting techniques of his time and was exposed to the political and scientific events of the day. The following selection of external facts is quite arbitrary and is intended only to make the environment of his earthly experience more understandable, from which he was as unable to escape entirely as were any of his his contemporaries.
1876 Joseph Anton Schneider is born in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria.
Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India, Otto designs the first four-stroke engine, Bell invents a usable telephone, Edison invents the phonograph, Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” is published, and the Bayreuth Festival Theatre is built for Wagner’s operas.
1880 The Schneider family moves to Frankfurt.
Boer War in South Africa, the Duden dictionary is published.
1886–1890 Joseph Schneider attends the Merian School in Frankfurt.
In German East Africa, the natives rise up against the occupation, the Pope bans cremation, Benz and Daimler build the first automobiles, the first roll of film comes onto the market, May 1 becomes International Workers’ Day, the importance of vitamins is discovered, Klinger: “Das Urteil des Paris” (The Judgment of Paris), Nietzsche: “Beyond Good and Evil.”
1899 Joseph Anton Schneider completes his studies at the Städtel master studio in Frankfurt.
Rutherford distinguishes between alpha and beta radiation, Zeppelin builds an airship, artificial fertilizer production begins. Sibelius composes “Finlandia.”
1903 Marriage to Irma Schönfeld (born 1876) from Vienna.
Jazz emerges in New Orleans, first Tour de France, first powered flight by the Wright brothers.
1906 J. A. Schneiderfranken publishes pen-and-ink drawings and exhibits graphic works in Berlin and Leipzig.
End of the unsuccessful Russian workers’ and peasants’ uprising.
Inventions up to 1906: sound recording, motor flight, ultramicroscope, quartz lamp, electron tube, radio broadcasting. In 1905, Einstein published his “Special Theory of Relativity.”
1912 Bô Yin Râ stayed in Greece from September 1912 to August 1913.
Balkan Wars, Tibet becomes independent, sinking of the Titanic, Panama Canal completed, atomic model by N. Bohr, H. v. Hoffmannsthal: “Jedermann,” W. Kandinsky: “The Spiritual in Art.”
1913 The first publication with the initials B.Y.R.: “Light from Himavat” (later integrated into “The Book of the Royal Art”) appears.
1914 Outbreak of World War I.
1915 Mrs. Irma Schneiderfranken-Schönfeld dies of diabetes.
1917 J. A. Schneiderfranken serves as an interpreter in a Greek internment camp in Görlitz.
Russia becomes a workers’ and peasants’ republic, Lenin: “The State and Revolution.”
1918 Marriage to the widow Helene Hoffman (born 1887) from Görlitz, who brings the children Ria (born 1909) and Ilse (born 1912) into the marriage.
Germany and Austria become republics, O. Spengler: “The Decline of the West,” H. Mann: “The Subject.”
1919 Birth of daughter Devadatti. “The Book On the Living God” is published by Kurt Wolff Verlag in Leipzig. The Treaty of Versailles is signed, E. Rutherford observes atomic disintegration for the first time.
1923 Bô Yin Râ settles in Horgen near Zurich.
Inflation in Germany, Hitler’s attempted coup, B. Shaw: “Saint Joan.”
1925 Bô Yin Râ takes up permanent residence in Massagno, Canton Ticino, Switzerland (mid-May).
Hindenburg becomes German Reich President, Ch. Chaplin: “The Gold Rush,” W. Heisenberg: “Quantum Mechanics.”
1936 The last volume of the Textbook Hortus Conclusus is published.
Italy’s war of aggression in Abyssinia, Egypt becomes independent, Th. Mitchell: “Gone with the Wind,” C. G. Jung: “The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.”
1938 The J. A. Schneiderfranken family receives citizenship of the municipality of Massagno TI.
1939 Bö Yin Râ’s last book, “On Godlessness,” is published.
Outbreak of World War II, Germany and the USSR divide Poland, chain reaction of uranium 238 observed (O. Hahn).
1943 Joseph A. Schneiderfranken dies on the evening of February 14 in Massagno, Ticino.
Italy declares war on Germany, Tehran Conference, Saint Exupery: “Le petit prince,” H. Hesse: “The Glass Bead Game,” J. Huxley: “Evolution.”
1974 Mrs. Helene Schneiderfranken and her three daughters establish the Bô Yin Râ Foundation.
1978 Death of Mrs. Helene Schneiderfranken-Hoffmann.
1993 50th anniversary of the death of J. A. Schneiderfranken
Bô Yin Râ’s books enjoy steady sales today in German-speaking countries. Since the author’s death, translations of his work have continued and expanded into French, English, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech, Bulgarian, Finnish, and Russian.
5.4 Memories
Bô Yin Râ never turned visitors away if his other essential commitments allowed him to receive them. The descriptions of visitors selected here correspond well with reports from many other people.
“It was May 25, 1939, a bright, almost summery day. From Lake Como, where we were staying in a tiny lakeside cottage for a short time, we were allowed to come to Villa Gladiola in Lugano. ‘Afternoon for a cup of coffee’.
My heart began to pound even before we stopped our little car in front of the house, walked through the small iron gate, and followed the path that I knew only from looking through the fence. A maid dressed in black with a white apron opened the door, and we placed what we had brought with us in the entrance hall: a large hand-forged copper water jug filled with white roses. In the salon, the lady of the house welcomed us in her own quiet, loving way. When she saw that my eyes were fixed on a small oil painting, a coast and sea in semi-twilight, she explained that it was a sketch her husband had done in Greece.
Very soon we heard footsteps, the door opened, and Bô Yin Râ came in, carrying the jug with both hands. He greeted us, delighting and embarrassing us at the same time by praising the jug and showing his joy. He asked us to tell him how, on our journey, we had seen women in one of the small villages fetching water with such jugs at the well and how we had then bought this jug from the coppersmith, the last blacksmith still working in the village. The conversation turned right away to Tuscany, whose beauty had overwhelmed us and which Bô Yin Râ also called one of the most beautiful and harmonious landscapes, except for Greece. In the early morning hours, Tuscan workers often passed by Villa Gladiola, singing their songs, and he was always happy about that.
His cheerful, fatherly kindness dispelled any shyness we might have felt. The conversation flowed easily and naturally, based on a feeling of inner familiarity; we felt welcomed like children returning home after a long absence. At the same time, we were enveloped in a warmth comparable to that which one feels when approaching a huge, radiantly warm tiled stove after the cold of winter.”
From Imma Bodmershof: “Our Encounters with Bô Yin Râ,” recorded in June 1970.
“The steamboat approached the shore. A tall, dark-bearded man with two blonde daughters was standing at the landing stage: Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken with Annemarie and Ilse. He greeted us very warmly. Even now, 43 years later, I can still vividly remember the sparkle in his eyes. It was a loving, kind gaze that saw through everything. We climbed the mountain, engaged in lively conversation with the gentlemen, to the house surrounded by fir trees, where we were welcomed so warmly and kindly by his wife that my slight shyness immediately disappeared and I immediately felt at home in the warm atmosphere of love and kindness ...”
“One small incident still stands out in my mind. Before lunch, Bô Yin Râ, whom I revered, came into the room where I was talking to his wife and explained to her exactly which wine she should serve and how it should be tempered. We were then treated to the most delightful hospitality and cheerful conversation, which I unfortunately cannot remember in detail. Although I was happy and reassured to find myself in such a natural, human atmosphere, I was overwhelmed by too many emotions to be able to concentrate properly.
But, subsequently, I was allowed to attend many family dinners, which always ended with the lovely custom of the host extending both arms in a friendly gesture, whereupon the entire table joined hands and wished each other a blessed meal. There were always exciting, enjoyable conversations going on. The father of the family often said something in the Frankfurt dialect, read a short story in his dialect during dessert, or told stories from his youth. We also enjoyed talking about Hans Thoma, whom he and we knew and admired. We were particularly delighted when Bô Yin Râ once sang Marian songs to us at the table ...”
He invited Maags and us to join them on the train. We were only too happy to accept this invitation, and all four of us climbed into their compartment. A lively conversation immediately ensued. Unfortunately, it was too lively, because when someone looked at their watch, it turned out that the stopover time had been exceeded and the train should already have continued on to Germany, but the car we were in had stopped on the Swiss tracks. No one had told them that they should have changed trains. It was wonderful how graciously Mr. and Mrs. Schneiderfranken made the best of a bad situation, immediately deciding to spend the night in Basel and inviting us all to dine with them at the Zunfthaus zum Schlüssel. Maag immediately arranged for us to be served in a small private room, and we spent a delightful and enjoyable evening together.”
Memories of Mrs. Aenny Kober-Staehelin from the years 1923 to 1943.
“Although I was somewhat nervous before my visit, all my nervousness disappeared after just a few words... Bô Yin Râ spoke in a very kind, simple, and humane manner, and his words had such a liberating effect that I felt at home in the cozy atmosphere, as if I were with a benevolent father...”
Harald Blum, after a visit to Massagno in 1936.
“Bô Yin Râ was a cheerful and, moreover, the most natural and honest person I have ever met. I would say that he always omitted all embellishments, so that the pure form came to the fore, whether in his manner and conversation, which were often spiced with humor, or in his writing and pictures.”
R. Schott, “Symbolic Form and Reality in the Paintings of Bô Yin Râ,” 1957.
Despite his enormous workload, Bô Yin Râ always found time for his beloved family. His wife and three daughters fully understood his commitments, which required an unusual amount of time and concentration.
“Once, in late summer, we were returning from a hike in the evening when we saw a large rainbow over the fields, and Ria and I spontaneously asked, ‘Please, Daddy, paint us a rainbow!’ It didn’t take long before a picture with a rainbow over the hilly, partly wooded landscape was created.”
“From those difficult post-war years, I still remember his words, or at least the gist of them: ‘If I had to, I would paint railroad cars to feed my family.’”
“Once in Horgen, representatives of the Swiss wrestling association came and asked Dad to put up decorations for the big wrestling festival – they knew he was an artist. He immediately agreed and had lots of pine branches brought to him, and so a colorful decoration was created; of course, my parents were given places of honor and were delighted to get to know this national sport.”
“I was allowed to go to the cinema with Dad and Mom, where a film set in the circus world starring my mother’s favorite actress was showing. Quite unexpectedly, the director was advised to take a sick animal to the ‘famous animal psychologist Bô Yin Râ.’ Dad was royally amused by this scene.”
“I will also never forget the following comforting words when I had a stomach ache again, and he let me rest on his small balcony: ‘Go ahead and moan a little, it’s good for you.’”
“The worst punishment for us was when he stopped talking to Ria and me for a while; we then realized that our behavior had been thoughtless or unkind (e.g., toward our little sister). But how forgiving he was of our clumsiness! When my glasses broke—not for the first time!—his words were something like, ‘You’ve worn them out again.’”
Our childhood memories of our father can be summed up in a few words: the love with which he surrounded us three children; love and understanding – later, more and more, advice and guidance were added to this. But Dad never asked us, or even encouraged us, to read or look at one of his books. So it was left up to each of us to decide for ourselves whether we wanted to learn his teachings.”
From the notes and stories of his three daughters Ria, Ilse, and Devadatti.