Ernest Reinhold Rost

Lieutenant-colonel Ernest Reinhold Rost (22 August 1872 – 23 June 1930) O.B.E. was an English physician and Buddhist writer.

Biography

Rost was born at Ealing on 22 August 1872. He was the son of Reinhold Rost. He was educated at Highgate School and at St. Mary's. He took the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1895 and joined the Indian Medical Service (IMS) as surgeon lieutenant on 29 January 1896. In 1904, Rost cultivated the bacillus leprae. He advocated the use of leprolin to treat leprosy patients. The serum was a liquid substance obtained by dissolving leprosy germs in a bouillon made from beef juice and distilled pumice stone.

Buddhism

Rost converted to Buddhism during his medical service in Burma. He was Honorary Secretary of the Society. The first meeting was held on 15 March 1903.

In November 1907, Rost and others founded the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland with Thomas William Rhys Davids as president. It was the first Buddhist society in England and was active until 1926. The society published an early periodical, The Buddhist Review which reflected a scholarly approach to Buddhism.

Rost was an early British writer to discuss meditation. In 1911 in an article for The Buddhist Review, he argued that use of the word is "opposed to its use in ordinary English, where it merely means abstract thinking". During the early 20th century there was confusion about meditation from westerners and Rost was asked by people during his lectures to give practical lessons in meditation as they were under the impression that "the trances could be attained by some device which they thought could be taught like a conjuring trick." Rost dispelled such notions and suggested that contemplation and morality are far more important.

Selected publications

The Nature of Consciousness (1930) The Spread and Influence of Buddhism in Asia (1930)