Health is the most precious gain, and contentment the greatest wealth. A trustworthy person is the best kinsman, Nirvana the highest bliss. Dhammapada
			D h a r m a l o k a   is a Buddhist community that has existed in Croatia for a number of years. It follows the Sino-Japanese Mahayana Buddhist tradition, primarily Chinese Chan (Zen). The community is a member of the European Buddhist Union, an organization that brings together the majority of Buddhist Centers and associations in Europe. It is also a member or several Buddhist organizations, centers and temples in the East. Since 1991, the community has issued a quarterly journal of Buddhist studies. In 1992 it established the first Buddhist center in Croatia. The community has its branches in Slovenia and Germany.

The Spiritual Advisor of the community is Shih-fu Sheng-yen, who is considered to be one of the greatest living masters of Buddhism. Master Sheng-Yen was born near Shanghai in 1930, and left his home to become a monk at the age of thirteen.   During the period of Communist unrest, he fled to southern Taiwan where he continued his study and practice, and spent six years in solitary retreat.   When he was 28, he had his first deep meditative experience, subsequently confirmed by masters in both lineages of Chan Buddhism, Linji (Rinzai) and Tsaodong (Soto). Later he continued his formal study, earning a doctorate in Buddhist literature from Rissho University in Tokyo. He has received Dharma transmission in both major schools of Chan from maters Tung-chu and Ling-yuan, thus becoming second generation successor to Chan master Xu-yun, the greatest modern-day patriarch and reformer of Chan Buddhism.   Today he divides his time between New York, where he is the resident teacher at the Chan Meditation Center he founded, and Taipei, where he is the abbot of two monasteries. He published over 60 books and led over 140 seven-day retreats in the USA, Asia and Europe. In 2000 he was one of the keynote speakers in the UN Millennium Religious Summit.

The founder of the Buddhist community Dharmaloka and the Buddhist center is Dharma teacher Žarko Andričević. He encountered Buddhism in 1975 and has since dedicated himself to its study and practice. For a number of years, in addition to martial arts and yoga, he was teaching Buddhist doctrine and the methods of meditation complementary to these disciplines. In 1985 he started the first study and meditation group that in time grew into the first Buddhist community in Croatia, nowadays named Dharmaloka. Seeking for a new teacher in 1996, he met famous Chan master Shifu Sheng-Yen, attended his seven-day retreat and became one of his students. Seeing Chan as the very core of the Buddha Dharma and master Shen-Yen as the man whose teaching stems directly from the meditative experience, he has dedicated himself to the practice of Chan meditation attending regularly master's retreats. In June 2001, during a two-weeks retreat in USA, Žarko Andričević received Dharma transmission from master Sheng-Yen thus becoming one of four of his Dharma heirs in the West.