Activity of the Buddhist Community „Zen Circle” in 1978–1980 in the Context of Political and Administrative Conditions of the Polish People’s Republic

The article attempts to present the beginnings of the first Buddhist community in Poland, the „Zen Circle”, which crystallized and legalized its activity in the conditions of a state with an undemocratic political system. In the chronological aspect, it is a continuation of the content contained in the article entitled The Realization of the Buddha-dharma in the Construction of Socialist Society. On the Beginnings of the Path to the Legalization of the First Buddhist Community in the People’s Republic of Poland, focusing on the period when the painter Andrzej Urbanowicz (1938–2011) was the leader of the community. This text presents and analyzes the further efforts of Buddhists who, under the leadership of Andrzej Janusz Korbel (1946–2015), developed effective forms of religious and popularizing activity, and led to the registration of the community (1980), despite police and administrative repressions that began almost a decade earlier. In the second part of the article, I pre- sent some possible reasons for the decision taken by the Office for Religious Affairs to enter the „Zen Buddhist Community in Poland – Religious Association” into the register of associations. The lack of preserved documentation containing the formal argumentation of this decision prompts us to formule hypotheses that will be discussed in more detail in the doctoral dissertation being prepared.

The article attempts to present the beginnings of the first Buddhist community in Poland, the „Zen Circle”, which crystallized and legalized its activity in the conditions of a state with an undemocratic political system. In the chronological aspect, it is a continuation of the content contained in the article entitled The Realization of the Buddha-dharma in the Construction of Socialist Society. On the Beginnings of the Path to the Legalization of the First Buddhist Community in the People’s Republic of Poland, focusing on the period when the painter Andrzej Urbanowicz (1938–2011) was the leader of the community. This text presents and analyzes the further efforts of Buddhists who, under the leadership of Andrzej Janusz Korbel (1946–2015), developed effective forms of religious and popularizing activity, and led to the registration of the community (1980), despite police and administrative repressions that began almost a decade earlier. In the second part of the article, I pre- sent some possible reasons for the decision taken by the Office for Religious Affairs to enter the „Zen Buddhist Community in Poland – Religious Association” into the register of associations. The lack of preserved documentation containing the formal argumentation of this decision prompts us to formule hypotheses that will be discussed in more detail in the doctoral dissertation being prepared.