During my academic philosophy study I had specialized on bachelor and master level in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. I recognized in his philosophy several mystical elements and decided to deepen these out in my master thesis 'A Heideggerian Mysticism' [in Dutch 'Een Heideggeriaanse mystiek']. During my research I found out that Heidegger had much interest in the mysticism of Meister Eckhart von Hochheim and also that Heidegger's philosophy shows much resemblance with von Hochheim's mysticism. This inspired me to after the finishing of my academic philosophy study to get acquainted with von Hochheim's mysticism. This I did through contemporary German translations by Josef Quint of von Hochheim's German sermons and treatises, by the first in German named as 'Deutsche Predigten und Traktate'. I arrived at this German version because I had not been able to find Dutch translations. Besides that I wanted to read the texts as original as possible, and also I wanted to enlarge my German language skills.
The aforementioned elements were also the reasons for me to start in 2012 with the translation of the German sermons of von Hochheim. I wanted to dig into his mysticism, I wanted to enlarge my German language skills and I also presumed that no Dutch translations were yet available. I named this series 'Duitse preken' [in English 'German Sermons'] because I initially wanted to limit myself to the translating of the Germen sermons, considering that the treatises at any time could still be translated in a separate series. The first mentioned translation series however never got finished. On the one side because I found out that there were already Dutch translations available and on the other side because my attention had shifted to other teachings. This series is at this moment not published anymore.
Later, in 2013, I took up the plan to start under the series name 'Het gospel van Sri Ramakrishna' with Dutch translations of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, which regarded an English translation by Swami Nikhilananda of the original which was written in Bengali by Mahendranath Gupta. The presumption that no Dutch translations thereof were available yet was again one of the reasons. Another reason was that I have been much inspired in my life by Sri Ramakrishna through this English translation, and with the undertaking of these translations I aimed to kindle my devotional heart a little. When later I found out that there was criticism on the somewhat free English translation by Swami Nikhilananda and that also more literal English translations were available I started to doubt my own Dutch translations. And also here it applied that my attention shifted to other teachings. When after ten years still less than a quarter of 'Het gospel van Sri Ramakrishna' was translated I put dodwn the project and took it out of publication,