Why Does Zen have such a name?

To answer this question we have to have a bit of a look through the history of that very special and interesting religion.

Zen, as you might already know, is a branch of Buddhism, which emerged in the East (Bodhidharma is believed to be a Chinese Zen (Chan) founder, 6 AD). He is also believed to be a South Indian monk who travelled to China and established his own teaching school there. Then, as legends and tradition tell us, a disciple of the Third Chinese Zen Patriarch moved to Vietnam in 580 (forming Thien school). Korea got to know Zen (under the name Seon) in the 9 AD. In Japan they knew Zen (which is, actually, Japanese pronunciation) many centuries before, but original Zen school (Rinzai, Soto) emerged in the 12^th century. You see now, that's clear: more countries – more names!

If we will remember, that Bodhidharma came from India, we will find such words as Jhana in Pali and Dhyana in Sanskrit, with the latter giving life to the contemporary Zen word. Dhyana meant “mediation”, “deep concentration”, which, adopted to medieval Chinese language (may be, it sounded something like [dzjen] ), gained a short form “chan” (from “channa” < style="font-style: italic;">Chan”, in Cantonese - Sim, in Shanghainese – Zeu.

As you see, the sounds look very equal. The most used today word “Zen” is a Japanese version of the same hieroglyph!

So, don't be confused when you see words like “Chan”, “Zen” or others. They name the one thing, but are only different readings of the same sign, which meant at some point in the history “meditation”.

I'm waiting for your opinions. What do you think of this word?

Next time we will look at something connected to Christianity. Or are there other suggestions? Will read them carefully. See you Monday!