[1] He entered the Benedictine order at Münsterschwarzach Abbey in 1946,[2] and studied philosophy and theology from 1948.

From 1960, he was responsible for mission and development at the Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend youth association.

The same year, he began to work for Missio, an ecumenical missionary movement which sent him on trips to countries including Japan.

That year, he founded the Benediktushof, an inter-religious centre of meditation and awareness, where he lived and taught.

[2][4] In 2007, he established a foundation named West-Östliche Weisheit (West-East Wisdom), propagating the spirituality taught at the Benediktushof.