Zen
...as a distinct school in China (as Cha'an) and spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and, in modern times, the rest of the world. The common English name derives from the school's name in Japanese, zen (禅).
History
Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism; it takes its name from the Sanskrit term, dhyāna, which means meditative concentration (zen is short for the rarely-used form zenna). According to traditional accounts, Chinese Zen was established in approximately 500 CE by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is said to have been the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen and the last Indian successor in a line begun by the Buddha's disciple Mahakaśyapa.
Zen in the various Asian languages
Chinese Name
Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chán
Mandarin Wade-Giles Ch'an
Cantonese Jyutping Sim
Shanghainese (Wu) Zeu [zø]
Traditional Chinese 禪
Simplified Chinese 禅
Japanese Name
Romaji Zen
Kanji 禅
Korean Name
Revised Romanization Seon
McCune-Reischauer Sŏn
Hangul 선
Hanja 禪
Pali Name
Romanization Jhāna
Devanāgarī झान
Sinhala ඣාන
Sanskrit Name
Romanization Dhyāna
Devanāgarī ध्यान
Vietnamese Name
Quốc ngữ Thiền
Hán tự 禅
An early Zen text, the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, describes Bodhidharma travelling by sea, circa 520, to the territory of the Liang Dynasty in southern China. There, in a famous exchange with Emperor Wu, he explained that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless for gaining enlightenment. This argument having met with imperial disapproval, Bodhidharma travelled north to Shaolin Temple near the Song Mountains, where he established himself as a teacher. Martial arts legend also states that...
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