The 2500-year-old teachings of the Buddha Dharma penetrated Europe during the nineteenth century. These teachings came to the Lands of the Czech Crown in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and subsequently Czechoslovakia, mainly due to the Theosophical Society as Neobuddhism, which had an esoteric character. In 1891, Gustav Meyrink, a world-famous writer of Austrian origin, became the first practitioner. In addition, original Buddhism in the Czech Republic became an object of academic study. Other influences were attributed to personalities such as Helena Petrovna (...) Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, Karl Eugen Neumann, Hermann Oldenberg, Anton Gueth-Nyanatiloka, Lama Anagarik Govinda, as well as organizations such as the Maha Bodhi Society. The first translation of Buddhist text into Czech dates back to 1392. In addition to academic studies primarily based on Theravada, practical Buddhism had foundations in Hermeticism, Yoga, and esoteric Vajrayana. Vajrayana has long been considered a part of the so-called Neobuddhism, but there are indications that some of the first Czechoslovak Buddhists officially converted to it. The first Czech and Slovak Buddhists came from both the study and the practice of these religious foundations. (shrink)

Buddhism, now a 2,500-year-old religion, very quickly became associated with the study of texts, of which it contained a considerable number. During the development of Buddhism on the territory of Czechoslovakia, since the days of Austria-Hungary, there have been attempts to find, translate, or write a fundamental book of Buddhism, which would help one to orient oneself in the vast and varied material of Buddhist texts. However, none of the books achieved this significance. In 1914–1915, 1917, and 1925, Dharma – (...) Buddhist Catechism by Henry S. Olcott was published in three different editions with an introduction by O. Pertold. The book was very popular then but did not reach world fame. The situation changed after 1935 when Nyanatiloka’s The Word of the Buddha was published in Dvůr Králové nad Labem. After the Velvet Revolution, it was published several times by Mirko Frýba (Áyakusala Thera) in his translations (1993 with commentary by Květoslav Minařík, 1998, 2006, 2010, and 2013, it is republished with a commentary by Květoslav Minařík with a modified translation from 1935). The book was used by František Drtikol (known as the Patriarch of Czech or Czechoslovak Buddhism) and his disciples and future Buddhists (like Frýba) from 1936 to the present. Thanks to frequent copying and distribution during and after the period of communist unfreedom, as well as its connection to the Czechoslovak Buddhist tradition, this book became, at least for the linguistic region of Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Slovakia, the “fundamental book of Buddhism.” One of the primary sources for this article was the oral tradition handed down by Czech masters. (shrink)