Japanese '禅' from Chinese 'chan' from Sanskrit 'dhyana' (meditation) — losing syllables at each border crossing.
A school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing meditation and direct insight into one's own nature; informally, a state of calm attentiveness and focus.
From Japanese 'zen' (禅, meditation), shortened from 'zenna' (禅那), from Middle Chinese 'dzyen' (禪, chán in modern Mandarin), from Sanskrit 'dhyāna' (ध्यान, meditation, absorption, contemplation), from the root 'dhyai' (ध्यै, to think, to contemplate), from PIE *dʰeih₁- (to see, to look at). The word traveled from India to China to Japan, losing syllables at each stop: 'dhyāna' → 'chán' → 'zen.' The same Sanskrit root also produced
The word 'zen' is the result of a game of phonetic telephone across three languages. Sanskrit 'dhyāna' (five syllables' worth of sound) was borrowed into Chinese as 'chán-nà' and then shortened to 'chán.' Japanese borrowed 'chán' as 'zen.' Each language shaved the word down further — from a Sanskrit philosophical term to a single punchy syllable that, in English
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