Zen
Of or related to Zen Buddhism.
Adjective
- Of or related to Zen Buddhism.
- Zen meditation
- Zen monk
- Zen master
- Alternative letter-case form of zen.
- "It sounds very Zen," I said. "A log cabin with no logs." - 2010, Martin Avery et al., Zen Forest:
- Part of him is still so much the newbie, amazed to find this place of sand and sun stuck onto the ass end of the greatest city in the world, but the rest of him has relaxed into acceptance already. He's Zen like that. -...
Origin
From Japanese 禅(ぜん) (zen), from Middle Chinese 禪 (MC dzyen), an abbreviation of 禪那 (MC dzyen na), from Sanskrit ध्यान (dhyāna, “a type of meditation”). Doublet of dhyana and Chan.
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Proper noun
- A school of Mahayana Buddhism characterized by sudden enlightenment achieved by indirect means and principally associated with China and Japan.
- For Orientals these mysterious formulae are clear and familiar truths, but for us they are completely bewildering... Dhyana Buddhism, which is known in Japan as "Zen"... is not speculation at all but immediate...
- Philosophical mysticism, the idea that truth is indefinable and can be apprehended only by nonrational means, has been with us since the beginning of history. It's the basis of Zen practice. - 1974, Robert Pirsig, Zen...
- While Christianity teaches that man was expelled from the Garden of Eden, Zen teaches that we are living in paradise right now, even amid all the shit that's going down. This world is the Pure Land. This world is...
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Noun
- Alternative letter-case form of zen: (religion) enlightenment and (informal) mindful action, instruction, or behavior considered similar to Zen.
- Hōyen... used to produce his own hand and ask his disciples, why it was called a hand? When we know the reason, there is satori and we have Zen. - 1934, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, page 102: