Dhyana and Chán

Another poster here made an OP about meditation and its roots, and I commented that meditation, from the Latin meditatio, means contemplation. OP then asked about the etymology and I went on a research mission and learned some things that I think are relevant and interesting to how dhyana has been traditionally translated in English.

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Zen = Chan = Dhyana.

I like to define dhyana within the context of Zen as "seeing your nature and being awake."

The four statements of zen are a fine and textually accurate definition of zen, so that seems nice and easy for a simple guy like me. Feel free to throw a better one at me.

In Chinese we have:

Dictionary definition of Chán 1:
禪 Chán: dhyana; deep meditation; contemplation

Dictionary definition of Chán 2:
to worship (nature)
to abdicate
to hand over
to inherit
succession to the throne (Alternate form of 嬗)

I like this. We have the common Sanskrit definition of dhyana, and something that is closer to offering or giving or handing over, and also worshiping nature. (Doesn't someone here have a source on sacrifice for this?)

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So here is what I am looking at this evening:

English:

Meditation is derived from Old French meditacioun, in turn from Latin meditatio from the verb meditari, meaning to think, contemplate, devise, ponder. Meditārī is the present active infinitive of meditor, which is the frequentative of medeor. Medeor comes from Proto-Italic *medēōr, from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, give advice, heal”).

So, there's some English to Latin to Proto-Indo-European to dig into, and that's cool enough.

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Sanskrit:

Dhyana is derived from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate, recollect, to call to mind, to think.

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Zen = seeing your nature and being awake.

I think the terms meditatio, chán, and dhyana have fallen into the Kali Yuga along with all the rest of the Ministries of Silly walks.

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Anyone have anything to add to these definitions and translation choices?

Submitted October 16, 2020 at 11:00AM by madewithsticks https://ift.tt/377J05f