Jiří Holba
Abstract
In Czech lands, there has always been a relatively strong interest in Buddhism. People with totally different backgrounds contributed to the study or spread of it. In addition to academics and practising Buddhists, we find Czech mystics etc. In this paper I have tried to outline at least some of the most interesting moments of reflection on Buddhism and Buddhist studies in the Czech lands from the First World War until the “Velvet Revolution” in 1989.
Key words: Buddhism, Buddhism in Europe, Buddhism in the West, Religion in Europe, Buddhism in the Czech Republic.
1. Introduction: Buddhism and Europe
Before we get to the topic, it is good to remember that until the 13th century, Europe had no knowledge of Asian culture, let alone of Buddhism. The only exceptions come perhaps from Ancient Greece, for we have records of Greek travelers, historians and geographers that suggest that the first contacts between Buddhism and the West occurred sometimes in the 3rd century BCE. Megasthenes (c. 350-290 BCE), for instance, stayed as an ambassador of the Hellenistic king Seleucus Nicator at the court of the Indian King Candragupta (c. 340-298 BCE) in Pataliputra (today Patna). Megasthenes wrote Ta Indika, in which he reports on the culture, history and religion of ancient India. The work is not very elaborate, but ancient authors quoted some of its parts. In any case, Ta Indika formed for a long time the basis of Western knowledge about India.
It is only in the 13th century that European knowledge of India, China, Tibet and Mongolia gradually improved, due to the reports that were coming from travellers, traders and Jesuits and Franciscans missionary. Italian Jesuit Ippolito Desideri (1684-1733), who spent five years (1716-1721) in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, was probably the first European who seriously tried to understand Buddhism. He studied the teachings of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), a founder of Gelug school, in Sera monastery. But until the end of the 18th century, Europe still looked at Asia with disrespect and self-righteous rejection. For instance, Buddhism was disparagingly considered as heathen idolatry. As Stephen Batchelor says in his book The Awakening of the West, the interesting story of the encounter and relations between Buddhism and Western culture can be described in terms of five main attitudes: blind indifference, self-righteous rejection, rational knowledge, romantic fantasy and existential engagement (Batchelor 1994a, ix-x). These five attitudes, plus a leaning for mysticism, also apply to the Czech reception of Buddhism.
Buddhism really began in Europe around the middle of the 19th century when a large number of Buddhist texts were translated into European languages and studieuropeBuddhism in general started to appear. They were mostly basedropean lPali Canon of the Theravada school, anslatwas then regarded as a kind of pure and orBudnal ded of Buddhism. As a result of those studieu and translations, various Buddhist societies started to appear, the first one being formed in Germany in 1903.
One of the most influential Buddhists from that period was the German Anton Gueth (1878-1957), who was ordained as Nyanatiloka in Ceylon in 1904. His very important and influential book The Word of the Buddha, which is an outline of the teachings of the Buddha based on the Pali Canon, was translated into Czech in 1935.
Another important European Buddhist figure was the German NeoBuddhist Paul Dahlke (1865-1928), who claimed that of all religions, Buddhism had the best moral and would be the religion of the future. Dahlke had a major impact on the Buddhists in the Czech lands and attracted followers such as Dr. Leopold Procházka, about whom I will talk later. So-called NeoBuddhism, which was at the time the most widespread form of Buddhism in Germany, wanted to introduce Buddhism in Europe, or at least started with that mission. Among the German NeoBuddhists who had a big influence on the Czech was the pioneer George Grimm (1868-1945) who, under the influence of Schopenhauer, devoted himself to the study of Indology, especially of the Pali language, and spent 37 years of his life studying, practising and working at the propagation of Buddhism in Germany. He also founded the Old Buddhist Community in Bavaria in 1921.
2. The first introduction of Buddhism in the Czech lands
The very first introduction of Buddhist literary themes in the Czech lands goes back to as far as 1392 when the Czech translator, Evangelical preacher and reformer Tomas Stitny published a translation of the Latin novel Barlaam and Josaphat. That famous medieval novel, probably first written in Greek Language in Egypt around the 6th or 7th century, tells a story that originated in India before it spread to Europe through Central Asia. It was well known in European and Eastern literature. The novel is based on a legendary biography of Gautama Buddha and tells the story of how Josaphat (a name that derives from the Sanskrit word “bodhisattva”) converted to the Christian faith upon meeting the hermit Barlaam. It is worth to mention, that this story was rewritten and played at stage by Jesuit colleges in Bohemia and Moravia.
But the first publications to provide some extensive information on Buddhism appeared in the Czech lands toward the end of the 19th century. One was the first Czech encyclopaedia edited by Frantisek Rieger (1818-1903), one of the most prominent awakeners and political figures of the 19th century, the Educational Dictionary (1860-1874), where one can find entries on the Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Philosophy and also Lamaism. Evidence that Buddhism must have enjoyed some degree of popularity at the time can also be found in the writings of such famous 19th century Czech authors and poets as Jaroslav Vrchlicky (1853-1912) and Julius Zeyer (1841-1901), who develop some Buddhist themes for their works.
In 1904, the Czech philosopher Alois Lang published the first book on Buddhism as such, based on secondary sources. But Lang’s position on Buddhism was extremely critical and far from objective. And it was based, as I just said, strictly on secondary information and secondary sources, mostly on the works of German Indologist Hermann Oldenberg (1854-1920), one of the great contributors to the knowledge and popularisation of Buddhism in Europe. After Lang, very little new information on Buddhism came to the Czech Lands. Only in 1921 did the first serious academic study appear. It was titled Buddhism: The Buddha of Buddhism and Pali Canon, and written by Vincenc Lesny.
We know very little about the activities of the Czech Buddhists of that time, although we know of the existence of a Czechoslovak Buddhist Society, which was part of the famous Maha Bodhi Society founded by Anagirika Dharmapala in India in 1891.
3. Czech Indology and the origins of Buddhist studies
in the Czechoslovak republic
After the end of the First World War in 1918, the Czechoslovak Republic was born and the study of Buddhism improved a lot. But this was also due to the development of Czech Indology, which began in Prague in 1850 and included the study of Sanskrit as well as Pali, two of the major Buddhist languages. Among the main figures of Czech Indology from the first half of the 20th century we find Moriz Winternitz and Vincenc Lesny.
The Austrian Moriz Winternitz (1863-1937) was a professor of Indology at the German philosophical faculty in Prague. He wrote in German an excellent three-volume study, A History of Indian Literature (1927), which has been reprinted several times. As I heard from prof. Katsura at the 15th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies at Atlanta, this study was also completely translated into Japanese. The second volume of this book deals with Buddhist literature. It is very detailed and scholarly, and includes translations of primary sources. Winternitz also wrote two short but important studies: Der ältere Buddhismus: nach texten des Tipitaka (1929) and Mahayana-Buddhismus: nach Sanskrit- und Prakrittexten (1930).
The founder of modern Czech Indology, Vincenc Lesny (1882-1953), was the other key figure of Buddhist studies in the Czech lands after the First World War. Among his major works is a versified translation of the Pali collection Dhammapada (1947), one of the most important texts of the Pali Canon. Despite the slight influence of Christian terminology that shows in his translation, this was a very important work. But the most significant of Lesny’s works was the book that I already mentioned: Buddhism (1921). It deals very intimately with the oldest Buddhist teachings and their further development in South Asia. The second edition in 1948 was enlarged to include information on Mahayana Buddhism and so-called Lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism. This book was based on the latest and best works on Buddhism available at the time. Lesny worked with the original Pali texts. Lesny also wrote on the influence of Buddhism in the West and on Christianity. Unfortunately, the third edition of this major publication only appeared after the Velvet Revolution.
4. The first Czech Buddhists
The NeoBuddhist Dr. Leopold Prochazka (1879-1944) was also among the most important Czech propagators of the Buddha’s teachings in the first half of the 20th century. He wrote and published a large number of books that dealt in particular with the Buddha’s original teachings. For example: The book about reality according to the Buddha’s awakened teaching; The Buddha and his teaching; The Buddha and Christ: karma: Buddhist-Christian concept. Prochazka said that his books were partly based on personal experience, translations and compilations. He wanted to build the first Buddhist centre in Czechoslovakia and to become the first Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka. But unfortunately, he failed because he was arrested in 1944 by the German Gestapo for listening to foreign radio and died in the same year as a result of imprisonment.
What could not be achieved by Dr. Prochazka was achieved by another Czech, Martin Novosad (1908-1984). In 1938, Novosad came to Sri Lanka, where he became a Buddhist monk and was given the monk’s name Nyayasatta Thera. He translated the Satipatthana Sutta (Foundations of Mindfulness), published after his death by the Buddhist Publication Society in 1993. Nyayasatta Thera contributed to the Buddhist Encyclopaedia compiled in English by the Bauddha Mandalaya (the Buddhist Council of Sri Lanka). And he also translated the collections Therigatha (Verses of the Elder Nuns) and Theragatha (Verses of the Elder Monks) into Czech. But this translation is unfortunately still waiting to be published. Soon after the Velvet Revolution a translation of his Basic Tenets of Buddhism was published (1992, English edition, Colombo 1970).
5. Emanuel Radl’s criticism of Buddhism
Unsurprisingly, NeoBuddhism in the Czech lands also had very strong opponents. One of them was Emanuel Radl (1873-1942), a great Czech philosopher, biologist and Christian. Originally a Roman Catholic, he converted to the Protestant church during the Second World War. In 1922, Radl undertook a journey to China, India, Ceylon and Japan to develop a better knowledge of Eastern thinking. After his return, he wrote a book, West and East (1925), in which he sharply criticised Buddhism. He wrote that the Buddhist teaching about the non-existence of the self was a most extreme form of nihilism, that the Buddha didn’t know of any laws, that he professed the mortification of the will and reason, that he disdained philosophy, i.e. inquisitiveness and the love of thinking, etc. Fortunately, even though such critical opinions persisted, people’s interest in Buddhism kept growing.
6. Czech mystics and Buddhism
Some Czech mystics must also be given the recognition they deserve for having contributed to the spread of Buddhist ideas in the first and second half of the 20th century. One very important figure, from the 1930s until his death in 1961, was the famous photographer, painter and mystic Frantisek Drtikol (1883-1961), “the first Czech Buddhist Patriarch.” According to his syncretistic teaching, God is the Creator of the Universe and, like a life force, he resides in every human being. Human salvation lies in the identification with this power, in submission to God and his will. But even though his distinctive teaching was based on the Christian mystical tradition, Drtikol accepted rebirth and some Buddhist teachings, for instance Nagarjuna’s concept of the identity of samsara and nirvana and the Mahayana teaching on emptiness. He also practised Buddhist meditation, etc.
One of Drtikol’s main contributions to the spread of Buddhism was his translation of important Buddhist texts from German into Czech such as Walleser’s translations of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamikasastra: Die Mittlere Lehre of Nāgārjuna: nach Chinesischen Version übertragen (1911) and Prajñāpāramitā: Die Vollkommenheit der Erkenntnis: nach Indischen, Tibetischen und Chinesischen Quellen (1914). He also translated The Meaning of Buddhist Nirvana (1927) by Russian Theodore Stcherbatsky (1866-1942), a pioneering scholar of Buddhist Studies and The Problems of Buddhist Philosophy (1918) by Otto Ottonovich Rosenberg (1888-1919), a very talented student of Stcherbatsky. His translations circulated among people as typescripts in very limited numbers. Nonetheless, they influenced some important figures of the 20th century, for example the philosopher Egon Bondy, and the mystic Kvetoslav Minarik. Interestingly, Drtikol, while a mystic, strongly believed in Marxism and was a committed communist.
The other influential and important mystic to have been involved with Buddhism was Kvetoslav Minarik (1908-1974). He was devoted to the study and practise of Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism. Minarik wrote several books on his spiritual experiences that led to many ordinary people’s firsBudncounter with Buddhismtan Buhis books were banned during the occupation of al exzech lands by fascist Germany (1939-1945) as well as after 1948 by al ecommunist regime. He was also persecuted for his activities by the State Secret Police.
7. The Buddhism and Buddhist studies after the Second World War
The promising origins of Buddhist Studies after the First World War were unfortunately interrupted by the Second World War and soon after it for about another forty years by the communist totalitarian regime, which took the country by force in February 1948. The 1950s in Czechoslovakia were generally very grim. While it is true that the communist regime supported the study of Indology (as well as other Oriental studies) for ideological reasons, it was not the case of Buddhist Studies. The effect of that negative attitude is very visible, for example, in the Czech scientific libraries. For while the libraries were surprisingly well supplied with Buddhologist literature until the year 1948, after 1948 only the ideological works of Marxist-Leninist oriented Soviet authors were available. In the 1960s, the social climate was more and more open in Czechoslovakia and culminated in “Prague’s Spring” in 1968. But then came the occupation of Czechoslovakia by five armies of the Warsaw Pact in August 1968.
In 1968, however, two very important books were published which, until the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989, were the only officially published sources available for the academic study of Buddhism in the Czech lands. The authors of these two books have coincidentally the same name: Fiser. The first one was Zbynek Fiser (1930-2007), later known by his artist name Egon Bondy, who became a very important figure in the field of Buddhist philosophy. This Marxist Czech philosopher and poet wrote a very good monograph, The Buddha, which interported Gautama Buddha n by dialendycal materialist. Even though several sops to the regime’s Marxist-Leninist ideology occur throughout the book, n breferences to Lenin or quoverions from the Soviet philosophycal encyclopaedia, and despite the fact that some interporterions are heavily encumbered with Marxist ideas, this book remained an excellent source of iumbemation on the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha,by l put in their social context. Fiser tried to show that Buddhism had not been in any way an “opium for the people” or an “ideological spiidement of the govern, anclasses,” n bBuddhism was labelled in the Soviet Un,on. Because of itsiumility to go beyok rregional bouk aries and put current important issues to people in Europe, Asia and America, Fiser consideranclaat Buddhism is still very emch alive and paeves a challenge to our think, ar knothoughtlogical spBuddha’s teachings can paeviuromean, anto people’s indiviuual lives even though life is bound to stop, and tgical sy can give people ality to to lead an ethical life. On the other hand, Fiser believed that Buddhism could not be implanted in Europe, neither in the present nor in the future. For traditional Buddhism, like Christianity for that matter, is destined to a gradual disappearance, although it is possible that Marxist philosophy integrate some of its positive elements.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent period of normalisation, the ruling regime labelled Fiser a Trotskyist and enemy of socialism. (In the period of normalization, the Communist regime exercised strong repression. For instance, about 350,000 people were dismissed from their jobs because they disagreed with the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Censorship was established, many political organizations and interest groups were dissolved, young people could no longer go to school, many people left the country, etc.) Even though Fiser could not officially publish, he wrote a monumental six-volume Notes on the history of philosophy under his pseudonym Egon Bondy. In the first volume, Bondy wrote on Buddhist philosophy with great erudition. These Notes were officially banned and one could read them only in a samizdat. What was the samizdat? The word comes from Russian and literally means “self-released.” Prior to 1989, the communist regime had legally banned the activity of many authors and access to reproductive technology such as duplicating and copying machines was very strictly controlled. People therefore published so-called samizdat (inédit or secret) literature. This means that the religious, philosophical and literary texts or poetry collections of banned authors were copied on typewriters at most ten copies at a time, then illegally re-copied and disseminated. People involved in the issuance of samizdat were persecuted and some were even sent to prison for their activities. In his Notes, Bondy depicted with great erudition, for the first time in Czech language, the philosophical teachings of the most important Buddhist philosophers such as Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Vasubandhu and others. He described with great insight the basic features of the Buddhist philosophical schools, such as the Sarvastivada, Madhyamaka and Yogacara. His work deserves much credit because Czech libraries were not provided with the relevant Buddhist literature and obtaining books from the West was extremely difficult due to the so-called “Iron curtain.”
Ivo Fiser (1929-2004) was also one of the most prominent Czech Buddhologists. He was a student of Vincenc Lesny. In particular, his very short, but excellent study entitled “Philosophical concepts of oldest Buddhism,” published as an article in 1968 in the Philosophical Journal, is still one of the best books on Buddhist teaching. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Fiser emigrated to Denmark, where he taught at Copenhagen Universe taand worked on the monumental Critical Pali Dictionary and the Pali Tipitakam Concordance. After the Velvet Revolution, he regularly visited the Czech Republic and lectured at the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University. It was a great honour for me to have him as an examinator in the oral exam required to obtain my PhD.
Another important Czech Buddhologist is Karel Werner (born in 1925). He taught at Palacky University in Olomouc, but he was released from his position after the dissolution of the Oriental Department. He then worked as an officer, but because he published some articles abroad, he was investigated by the State Secret Police (STB). He then worked as a coal miner and tram driver. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Werner emigrated to Great Britain, where he taught at the University of Durham.
As I have said, people with totally different backgrounds contributed to the study or spread of Buddhism in the Czech Republic. In addition to academics and practising Buddhists, we find Czech mystics (for instance Minarik), a Marxist (Egon Bondy), as well as a communist and mystic (Drtikol). I would like to add to this interesting list of people the name of a well known Catholic priest, Tomas Halik (born in 1948). In the 1980s, as an ordained Catholic priest, he secretly practised Zen meditations in the former German Democratic Republic. These meditations were led by the famous priest Hugo Lassall (1898-1990), who had been a German Jesuit missionary in Japan.
8. Conclusion
In this paper I have tried to outline at least some of the most interesting moments of reflection on Buddhism in the Czech lands from the First World War until the “Velvet Revolution” in 1989. In our country, there has always been a relatively strong interest in Buddhism; an interest that still persists. The promising beginnings of Buddhist studies were unfortunately interrupted twice, first by the Second World War and subsequently by the communist regime. The Czech Buddhists of course had a difficult time in these very bad periods of Czech history. Fortunately, due to the democratic development that followed the Velvet Revolution, the situation in our country has very much improved, both for Buddhist studies and for the Czech Buddhists. There are now a large number of Buddhist groups of various denominations in the Czech Republic and Buddhist Studies is again developing in a good direction.