Peter Dunoff ( ; bg, Петър Дънов ; July 11, 1864 – December 27, 1944), also known by his spiritual name Beinsa Douno ( bg, Беинса Дуно, links=no ), and often called the Master by his followers, was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n philosopher and spiritual teacher who developed a form of

Esoteric Christianity Esoteric Christianity is an approach to Christianity which features "secret traditions" that require an initiation to learn or understand.Guy G. Stroumsa (2005). Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism. Leiden: Br ...

known as the

Universal White Brotherhood The Universal White Brotherhood (UWB) is a religious movement founded in Bulgaria in 1897 by Peter Deunov. It was later established in France in 1937 by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, one of Deunov's followers. Their teachings are also known as "Du ...

. He is widely known in Bulgaria, where he was voted second by the public in the ''Great Bulgarians'' TV show on Bulgarian National Television (2006-2007).Bulgarian National Television - "The Great Bulgarians", http://welcome.bnt.bg/movies/velikitebg.php?id=12 , Accessed July 17, 2014 Dunoff is also featured in Pantev and Gavrilov's ''The 100 Most Influential Bulgarians in Our History'' (ranked in 37th place).Pantev, A.L. and Gavrilov, B.G., ''The 100 Most Influential Bulgarians in Our History'' (in Bulgarian “100-те най-влиятелни българи в нашата история”), Reporter, 1997, Bulgaria, 328 pp., , 9789548102247 According to Petrov, Peter Deunov is “the most published Bulgarian author to this day.”Petrov, N., "Drew's Global Heritage: History of International Students", ''Peter Dunoff: An Early Graduate from Bulgaria'', Drew Theological School, http://www.drew.edu/theological/2012/01/drews-global-heritage-history-of-international-students-at-drew-theological-school#bulgaria, Accessed 24 July 2014

Biography

Early life

Peter Dunoff was born in the village of Hadardja (now Nikolaevka in

Suvorovo Municipality Suvorovo Municipality ( bg, Община Суворово) is a municipality ('' obshtina'') in Varna Province, Northeastern Bulgaria, not far from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is named after its administrative centre – the town of Suvorovo ...

) near

Varna, Bulgaria Varna ( bg, Варна, ) is the third-largest city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in the Northern Bulgaria region. Situated strategically in the Gulf of Varna, the city has been a m ...

on July 11, 1864, the third child of Konstantin Dunoffsky and Dobra Atanasova Georgieva. His father was the first Bulgarian teacher in the region before becoming a Bulgarian Orthodox priest. He was one of the first to present the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

in Bulgarian, the language of the local people, rather than the traditional sacred language of Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian).Kraleva, M., ''The Master Peter Deunov: His Life and Teaching'', Kibea, 2001, Bulgaria; Dunoff attended secondary school in Varna and the American

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

School of Theology and Science in Svishtov, from which he graduated in 1886. He worked as a primary school teacher for a year before leaving for the United States, where he studied theology at

Drew Theological Seminary Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

Madison, New Jersey Madison is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 16,937. Located along the Morris & Essex Lines, it is noted for Madison's historic railroad station becoming on ...

, from 1888 to May 1892. After graduating from Drew, in the fall of 1892 he enrolled in the

Boston University School of Theology Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological sch ...

and obtained his degree in June 1893 with a thesis on "The Migration of the Germanic Tribes and Their Christianisation" (published in 2007Peter Dunoff, ''The Migration of the Teutonic Tribes and Their Conversion to Christianity: Boston University School of Theology Thesis, 1893'', St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2007, ). He was a regular student at the School of Medicine of

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

for a year, before returning to Bulgaria in 1895.

Return to Bulgaria

Upon his return to Bulgaria Dunoff was offered the position of a Methodist pastor in the city of

Yambol Yambol ( bg, Ямбол ) is a town in Southeastern Bulgaria and administrative centre of Yambol Province. It lies on both banks of the Tundzha river in the historical region of Thrace. It is occasionally spelled ''Jambol''. Yambol is the ad ...

. This offer was withdrawn after he stipulated he would only serve without remuneration. In 1896 he published ''Science and Education'', in which he analyzed the development of mankind into a new culture, which he thought was bound to take place during the forthcoming century. After the turn of the century, Dunoff began to travel throughout Bulgaria for several years, giving talks and undertaking phrenological research. He met with a wide circle of people. Among them were his first three disciples, who had belonged to different branches of Christianity – Todor Stoimenov (

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

), Dr. Mirkovich (

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

) and Penyu Kirov (

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

). After a long correspondence, all of them met in Varna during 19–23 July 1900. It is considered the first annual convention of what later became a spiritual community that lasted until the end of Dunoff's life. Dunoff eventually settled in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, the capital of Bulgaria, and began giving lectures. In 1914 he gave his first public lecture, ''Behold, the Man!'' (''Ecce Homo'' in Latin), published later in the series ''Power and Life''. Dunoff began to give regular Sunday lectures which were based on the elaboration and explanation of a

Biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...

passage.

In 1921 the community ''Izgrev'' (Sunrise) was established. A site at what were then the outskirts of Sofia, it was the gathering place in the mornings for Dunoff and his disciples. Many followers started building nearby and the place eventually became the center of a large spiritual community. Dunoff gave lectures in the newly constructed Lecture Hall. In 1922 he initiated two new streams of specialized lectures in addition to the Sunday lectures, and from 1930 began delivering “morning talks” on Sunday mornings before dawn. The themes of the different lecture streams were wide-ranging and encompassed, among others:

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and esoteric science. Overall, Dunoff gave approximately 3700 lectures in the three decades between 1914 and 1944. His thoughts were also recorded in talks, private conversations, and early letters.Kovachev, T., ''The Master Beinsa Douno: A catalog of the lectures, prayers, musical exercises, Paneurhythmy, gymnastic exercises (1896-1944)'' (in Bulgarian, “Учителя Беинса Дуно. Справочник на беседите и лекциите, молитвите, музикалните упражнения, Паневритмията, гимнастическите упражнения (1896–1944)”), 2004, Sofia, Bulgaria;

Paneurhythmy

In 1932, he developed Paneurhythmy exercises: a sequence of exercises performed to music, to achieve inner balance and harmonization. This practice promotes the processes of self-perfecting, expanding of the consciousness and attaining of virtues. The circle dance, is a conscious interchange between human beings and the forces of living nature. Each movement is the expression of a thought. The effect should be that the observer picks up from the movements, the thought or the idea they express. The rhythm in the movement of the physical body leads us to one in our spiritual life. Etymologically, "Pan-Eu-Rhythmy" is derived from three roots: *Pan - meaning Whole; Universal and Cosmic. *Eu - meaning True or Supreme; the essential and substantial in the world. *Rhythmy - meaning correctness in the movements and in every other external expression in life.

Late life

On March 22, 1939 he wrote a message to his disciples entitled "The Eternal Covenant of the Spirit." At the beginning of 1944, during the air bombardments over Sofia, he organized the evacuation to the village of

Marchaevo Marchaevo, or Marčaevo, ( bg, Мърчаево ) is a village located in the Vitosha municipality in the southern parts of the capital Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated i ...

(24 km southwest of Sofia) and settled in the home (now museum) of his pupil Temelko Gyorev. He returned to Izgrev on October 19, 1944. On December 20, 1944, he delivered the lecture "The Last Word" to the Common Occult Class and died on 27 December.''Beinsa Douno: Paneurhythmy - Music, Ideas, Movements (step by step description)'', Bialo Bratstvo Publishers, 2004, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Legacy

Several thousand of Dunoff's lectures were recorded by stenographers and are documented in the form of deciphered stenograms (some modified by editing and others left intact Christophorus, Answers on important topics, ''Topic 2: About the original Word of the Master Peter Dunoff (Beinsa Douno)'', http://www.beinsa-douno.net/important-topics.html#topic2_original_Word, Accessed July 17, 2014). These contain the essence of Dunoff's teaching. There are also a number of songs and prayers, among which ''The Good Prayer'' from 1900 is regarded as the most special.

References

External links

Society of the White Brotherhood, Bulgaria
(English version) Official website - biographical details, brief information about Dunoff's teaching, forums (Bulgarian only), and other resources.
The English Master Peter Dunoff (Beinsa Douno) Home Page
- English translations of lectures, prayers and other works by Dunoff from authentic sources, as well as discussions of various topics related to his life and teaching. *http://en-petardanov.com/forum/4-1914/ - Another site with English translations of lectures, prayers and other works by Dunoff
''Power and Life''
- in several languages, with translations of lectures sourced from around the Internet.
Paneurhythmy
- comprehensive site with background information and videos. {{DEFAULTSORT:Deunov, Peter Christian philosophers Esoteric Christianity Sermon writers 1864 births 1944 deaths Drew University alumni Boston University School of Theology alumni 20th-century Bulgarian philosophers Spiritual teachers Occult writers People from Varna Province Lecturers Bulgarian expatriates in the United States Bulgarian esotericists