bowl231
08-13-2008, 07:17 PM
zen
n. A school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion and that is practiced mainly in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Also called Zen Buddhism.
[Japanese zen, from Chinese (Mandarin) chán, meditation, from Pali jhāna, from Sanskrit dhyānam, from dhyāti, he meditates.]
Word History: It is hard to believe that a word as Asian as Zen is ultimately an Indo-European word. Zen, which has been in English since 1727, is the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese chán, "quietude." Chán comes from Pali jhāna, from Sanskrit dhyānam, "meditation," from the Sanskrit root dhyā-, dhī-, "to see, observe." The Indo-European root behind the Sanskrit is *dheiə-, *dhyā-, "to see, look at." This root also shows up in Greek, where *dhyā- developed into sā-, as in Common Greek *sāma, "sign, distinguishing mark." This became sēma in Attic Greek, the source of English semantic.
n. A school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion and that is practiced mainly in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Also called Zen Buddhism.
[Japanese zen, from Chinese (Mandarin) chán, meditation, from Pali jhāna, from Sanskrit dhyānam, from dhyāti, he meditates.]
Word History: It is hard to believe that a word as Asian as Zen is ultimately an Indo-European word. Zen, which has been in English since 1727, is the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese chán, "quietude." Chán comes from Pali jhāna, from Sanskrit dhyānam, "meditation," from the Sanskrit root dhyā-, dhī-, "to see, observe." The Indo-European root behind the Sanskrit is *dheiə-, *dhyā-, "to see, look at." This root also shows up in Greek, where *dhyā- developed into sā-, as in Common Greek *sāma, "sign, distinguishing mark." This became sēma in Attic Greek, the source of English semantic.