Zen Buddha

Zen = Cha’n= Jhana = Dhyan

Buddha mainly used Pali as that was the language of common conversation at that time.
In Pali, dhyana is jhana.

Chinese did not have an equivalent word so they took the word jhana and started pronouncing it in their own way – it became ch’an.
When it reached Japan, the pronunciation changed again as per Japanese tongue and it became Zen; but it is the same word, dhyana.
In India, many people including Patanjali ( 4th Century BC, considered by many as Buddha’s contemporary ) use the word dhyan to mean ‘awareness’ . It’s a state of BEING and not DOING.

English language does not have an equivalent word so it used a very poor substitute ‘ meditation’, something that indicates an activity of contemplation. Sometimes “meditation” is also used to describe something between concentration and contemplation. But slowly the meaning of English word meditation is changing!

1 thought on “Zen = Cha’n= Jhana = Dhyan”

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