Glossary
Vocabulary
Glossary
Core terms across the Chan, Zen, Seon, and Thiền traditions — each linked to the schools that use it.
A
- Absolute and relative理事
Shitou's diagnostic pair — li (absolute/principle) and shi (relative/phenomena). The Qingyuan line studies how these interpenetrate; Dongshan's Five Ranks and Hongzhi's silent illumination are direct developments.
- Ango安居
'Peaceful dwelling.' The traditional 90-day intensive practice period, inherited from the Indian Buddhist rains retreat, during which monks remain at the monastery for sustained training. Most Western Sōtō centers hold one or two ango each year.
B
- Beginning Anew
A four-part reconciliation practice (flower watering, expressing regret, expressing hurt, asking for support) central to sangha life. The community dimension of individual mindfulness: clearing interpersonal sediment so that practice can continue.
- Bell of mindfulness
The recurring sound-anchor of Plum Village life. Phone rings, clocks, and temple bells are all treated as invitations to return to the breath; the practice trains attention through environmental cues rather than willpower.
- Biguan壁觀
'Wall-gazing' — the meditative posture attributed to Bodhidharma during his nine-year sit at Shaolin. Paradigmatic of the unmoving, non-seeking quality of Chan zazen.
- Bodhicitta菩提心
'Mind of awakening.' The aspiration — central to the Mahāyāna inheritance Chan received from India — to realize buddhahood for the sake of all beings. The motivational ground beneath every later Chan vow.
- Bodhisattva菩薩
An 'awakening being' who postpones final nirvāṇa to liberate all sentient beings. The Mahāyāna ideal carried into China by the Indian patriarchs and embodied in figures like Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) and Mañjuśrī.
- Buddha-nature佛性
'Foxing' (Jp. busshō) — the doctrine, drawn from the Tathāgatagarbha and Nirvāṇa sūtras, that all beings already possess the awakened nature of a buddha. The premise of every Chan claim that awakening is a recognition rather than an attainment.
C
- Chan–Pure Land synthesis禪淨雙修
'Practicing Chan and Pure Land together' — the dual discipline codified by Yongming Yanshou: seated meditation paired with nianfo recitation, treating them as two entry points into one awakened mind. The inheritance that later shaped Ōbaku Zen.
D
- Dhyāna禪
The Sanskrit word from which 'Chan' and 'Zen' directly descend — meditative absorption, the sustained collected attention in which the awakening transmitted through the patriarchs is realized.
- Don't-know mind
Seung Sahn's signature phrase — the non-conceptual openness before a kong-an resolves into an answer. Treated as identical to buddha-mind, and as the one thing every Kwan Um student is asked to keep.
- Dono jeomsu vs. dono donsu頓悟漸修／頓悟頓修
The central doctrinal debate of Korean Seon: 'sudden awakening, gradual cultivation' (Jinul's orthodoxy) versus 'sudden awakening, sudden cultivation' (Seongcheol's reform). Still actively contested.
- Dunwu頓悟
'Sudden awakening.' Huineng's and Shenhui's core claim against the Northern School: awakening is not a gradual accumulation but the recognition that mind is originally pure.
E
- Emptiness空
'Kōng' (Skt. śūnyatā, Jp. kū). The teaching, articulated by Nāgārjuna and inherited by Chan through the Prajñāpāramitā literature, that no thing has independent self-nature — everything arises in dependence on conditions. Not nihilism but the absence of fixity that makes liberation possible.
F
- Five Houses五家
Caodong, Linji, Yunmen, Fayan, and Guiyang — the five distinct teaching lineages that crystallized in late-Tang and early-Song Chan. Each has its own signature pedagogy; together they define the classical period.
- Five Ranks五位
Dongshan Liangjie's dialectical framework describing five modes of relationship between the absolute (zheng, 'upright') and the relative (pian, 'bent'). Used across later Chan and Zen as a diagnostic of where a practitioner is standing in their realization.
- Five Varieties of Zen五種禪
Yasutani's typology (drawn from Guifeng Zongmi): bompu (ordinary), gedō (outside-way), shōjō (small-vehicle), daijō (great-vehicle), and saijōjō (supreme-vehicle) Zen. Used to locate what Sanbō-Zen is actually teaching.
- Four Shouts四喝
Linji's typology of katsu: sometimes it cuts like a sword, sometimes it crouches like a lion, sometimes it probes like a pole, sometimes it does not function as a shout at all. The prototype for all later pedagogical use of shouts and blows.
- Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings
The ethical and contemplative commitments of the Order of Interbeing, founded in 1966 — openness, non-attachment to views, freedom of thought, awareness of suffering, simple and healthy living, and so on. Both vows and practice instructions.
- Fucha ryōri普茶料理
The vegetarian 'universal tea cuisine' Ōbaku monks developed, blending Ming Chinese monastic cooking with Japanese ingredients. A living part of the school's culture — still served to retreat guests at Manpuku-ji.
G
- Gasshō合掌
'Palms together.' The bow with hands joined at heart level — the basic gesture of greeting, gratitude, and reverence in Zen. Used to enter and leave the zendō, before and after eating, and to acknowledge teachers and fellow practitioners.
- Genjōkōan現成公案
‘The kōan of manifest reality’ — the title and subject of the opening fascicle of the Shōbōgenzō. The world as it appears is already the koan; to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be actualized by the ten-thousand things.
- Gong'an公案
'Public case' (Japanese kōan, Korean kongan) — a recorded encounter or saying taken up as a live point of meditation. The characteristic Chan pedagogical instrument from the late Tang onward.
- Great Doubt大疑
The intense, body-pervading questioning that the huatou is meant to produce. Later codified (especially by Hakuin) as one of the Three Essentials: great faith, great doubt, great determination.
H
- Hishiryō非思量
‘Non-thinking’ — the mental attitude of zazen as Dōgen defines it in Fukanzazengi. Neither thinking (shiryō) nor not-thinking (fushiryō), but the field in which both arise and pass. Often rendered ‘beyond thinking.’
- Hongzhou school洪州宗
The name of Mazu's own teaching community at Hongzhou — used in later Chan historiography as a synonym for the 'everyday mind' style that the Nanyue branch made dominant after the mid-Tang.
- Hossen法戦
'Dharma combat.' A formal public exchange in which a senior student is questioned by the assembly to test understanding — preserved as a ritual at Dharma transmission ceremonies and as the everyday register of much classical encounter dialogue.
- Host and Guest主賓
A paired contemplative image in Caodong texts: host = absolute / essence, guest = relative / phenomenon. Training is to hold neither exclusively but to see their reciprocal dance in every moment.
- Huanglong / Yangqi split黃龍／楊岐
The mid-Song division of the Linji school into two sub-branches founded by fellow students of Shishuang Chuyuan. Yangqi eventually absorbed Huanglong and became the sole surviving Linji lineage.
- Huatou話頭
'The head of a saying' — a single critical phrase (Mu, 'What is this?', 'Who drags this corpse?') taken up as the sole object of meditation. The defining Linji method as systematized by Dahui Zonggao.
- Hwadu話頭
The Korean pronunciation of huatou. The central meditative instrument of Korean Seon — a critical phrase taken up until it becomes an irreducible point of questioning.
I
- Ikka-myōju一顆明珠
‘One bright pearl.’ A Shōbōgenzō fascicle (and a line from Xuansha Shibei) used by Dōgen to teach that the whole universe is one luminous jewel — an image Sōtō practitioners use to point at non-dual realization.
- Imwotgo이뭣고
'What is this?' — the characteristic Korean hwadu, a pure-vernacular rendering that avoids classical-Chinese baggage. Jinul-derived and used across modern Seon halls.
- Inka shōmei印可証明
'Seal of approval.' Formal certification by a master that a student's realization is mature enough to teach independently. In Sōtō, often distinguished from shihō (basic Dharma transmission); in Rinzai, the capstone of a complete kōan curriculum.
- Interbeing相即
Thích Nhất Hạnh's English neologism for the Avataṃsaka / Huayan doctrine that nothing exists by itself — every phenomenon 'inter-is' with every other. The philosophical heart of Plum Village practice and ethics.
- Interpenetration of dharmas事事無礙
'Shi-shi wu-ai' — the Huayan doctrine of the mutual non-obstruction of all phenomena, made the contemplative horizon of Fayan practice. Every moment interpenetrates every other; realization is the non-conceptual seeing of this.
J
- Jianxing見性
'Seeing [one's] nature.' The second half of Bodhidharma's four-line motto and the explicit aim of Chan: a direct, non-conceptual apprehension that the awakened mind is one's own original face.
- Jiaowai biechuan教外別傳
'A special transmission outside the scriptures.' The signature self-description of Chan — not a rejection of sutras but a claim that the awakening they describe is transmitted mind-to-mind in encounter, not by text alone.
- Jukai受戒
'Receiving the precepts.' The ceremony in which a lay student formally takes refuge in the Three Treasures and accepts the sixteen Bodhisattva precepts, receiving a Dharma name and a rakusu sewn during preparation. The standard entry into formal Sōtō practice.
K
- Kanhua chan看話禪
'Observing-the-phrase Chan' — Dahui's name for the formalized huatou method. Deliberately contrasted with Hongzhi's silent-illumination style, though modern practice increasingly unites them.
- Kenshō見性
'Seeing [one's] nature' — the initial breakthrough experience toward which the first koan curriculum is aimed. Rinzai treats kenshō as necessary but not sufficient: it must be deepened through years of post-kenshō koan work.
- Kinhin経行
Walking meditation performed between rounds of zazen. In Sōtō, slow and synchronized — half a step per breath, hands in shashu — preserving the samādhi of sitting while restoring circulation to the legs.
- Kōan公案
Japanese reading of gōng'àn ('public case'). A recorded encounter or saying — Mu, the Sound of One Hand, the Original Face — that a student takes up under a roshi's direction as the live point of meditation. The signature pedagogy of Rinzai training.
- Kyolche結制
The three-month 'gathering the bonds' retreat held twice a year (summer and winter) in Korean Seon monasteries — the characteristic institutional form of Korean intensive practice.
L
- Liễu Quán line
The Vietnamese dharma line established by Liễu Quán (1670–1742), the first native Vietnamese to receive Lâm Tế transmission. Dominant in central and southern Vietnam; Thích Nhất Hạnh is its 8th-generation heir.
M
- Makyō魔境
'Demonic realm.' The visions, sensory distortions, and pseudo-mystical experiences that can arise in deep zazen. Sōtō teachers warn students not to credit them as awakening — makyō come and go; only the upright sitting that sees through them matters.
- Married clergy
The institutional feature that distinguishes the Taego Order from the celibate Jogye Order: permissible since Korean Buddhism reorganized after the Japanese colonial period, during which Japanese household-priest norms had spread.
- Miki koan curriculum
The streamlined koan sequence used in Sanbō-Zen, derived from Hakuin's Rinzai curriculum but reorganized by Harada Daiun and refined by Yasutani. Begins with Mu and moves through around 500 cases for full training.
- Ming-style liturgy
Ōbaku preserves Ming Chinese sutra-chanting melodies, instruments (especially the mokugyo wooden fish), and ritual forms largely unchanged since Ingen brought them in 1654. The school functions as a living museum of 17th-century Chinese Chan practice.
- Mondō問答
'Wèndá' (Jp. mondō). The recorded question-and-answer between master and student that became the dominant literary form of Chan from the Tang onward — and the raw material from which kōan collections were later assembled.
- Mozhao chan默照禪
'Silent illumination Chan' — Hongzhi Zhengjue's signature meditation: objectless sitting in which clarity and stillness are one undivided awareness. The doctrinal ancestor of Dōgen's shikantaza.
- Mu無
'No' / 'nothing' — Zhaozhou's answer to 'Does a dog have buddha-nature?' (Mumonkan case 1). The classic first kōan in the Rinzai curriculum and the gateway to the great doubt that Hakuin's Three Essentials are designed to ripen.
- Mushin無心
'No-mind.' The condition in which action arises without the interference of self-conscious deliberation — explored by Takuan Sōhō in the Fudōchi Shinmyōroku and adopted into the Japanese arts of swordsmanship, tea, and calligraphy as the practical fruit of Zen training.
N
- Nembutsu kōan念仏公案
The characteristic Ōbaku combination: recite the Buddha's name while holding the question 'Who is it that recites?' The Chan–Pure Land synthesis turned into a concrete meditative exercise.
- Niệm Phật念佛
'Buddha-recollection' — the Pure Land recitation of the Buddha's name (usually Amitābha). Integrated into Thiền practice rather than treated as a separate path, reflecting the tradition's inclusive character.
- Ninety-seven Circular Figures九十七圓相
Yangshan Huiji's collection of drawn circular forms used as non-verbal teaching devices — a sophisticated symbolic language that complemented the school's subtle encounter-dialogue style.
O
- One-word barrier一字關
Yunmen's signature pedagogy: a single word or phrase that is simultaneously an obstruction to conceptual answer and a direct pointing to the mind. The most compressed form of koan in the Chan tradition.
- Original face本來面目
'Běnlái miànmù' (Jp. honrai no menmoku). 'What was your original face before your parents were born?' — the question Huineng poses in the Platform Sūtra, used in Chan and Zen ever since as a direct pointer to the mind that precedes name and form.
P
- Prajñāpāramitā般若波羅蜜多
'Perfection of wisdom.' The corpus of Mahāyāna sūtras — Heart, Diamond, and the longer Prajñāpāramitā texts — that grounds Chan's teaching of emptiness. Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka is its philosophical articulation.
- Puqing普請
'Universal invitation' — the Chan monastic labor system codified by Baizhang Huaihai. 'A day without work, a day without eating': manual work in the fields and kitchens is treated as no less awakening than seated meditation.
R
- Rōhatsu臘八
The eight-day sesshin held in the first week of December commemorating the Buddha's awakening on the morning of December 8. The most demanding retreat of the Rinzai monastic year — minimal sleep, maximal sitting, and the conditions Hakuin called 'the great death.'
- Rōshi老師
'Old teacher.' The honorific for a fully recognized Zen master authorized to give sanzen and confirm kenshō. In Rinzai, traditionally reserved for those who have completed the kōan curriculum and received inka shōmei from their own teacher.
S
- Samādhi–Prajñā Society定慧結社
Jinul's reform community, founded in 1190 and relocated to Mount Jogye in 1200. The historical origin of the Jogye Order as a meditation-centered reform of medieval Korean Buddhism.
- Samu作務
'Work practice.' Mindful manual labor — sweeping, gardening, cleaning, kitchen work — treated as zazen in motion. The Japanese expression of Baizhang's puqing rule: an integral part of monastic and lay training, not a chore between practices.
- Sanzen / Dokusan参禅／独参
The one-on-one interview between student and rōshi in which koan understanding is tested. The pedagogical heart of Rinzai training; insight that cannot be shown in sanzen is treated as not yet real.
- Satori悟り
'Awakening.' The Japanese popular term for sudden insight into one's nature — overlapping with kenshō but often used for deeper or more comprehensive realization. D. T. Suzuki's writings made it the English-speaking world's first word for Zen experience.
- Seonbang禪房
The dedicated meditation hall within a Jogye training temple where kyolche retreats happen. Separated from public temple life; entry is reserved for monks and nuns formally committed to the three-month retreat.
- Sesshin接心
'Gathering the mind' — the multi-day intensive retreat that is the characteristic environment for Rinzai koan practice. Long zazen, repeated sanzen, minimal sleep, and the conditions under which great doubt ripens.
- Shikantaza只管打坐
‘Just sitting.’ Zazen practiced as the full expression of awakening itself — not a technique aimed at producing a future insight. The defining Sōtō meditation method, inherited from the Caodong master Tiantong Rujing.
- Shoshin初心
'Beginner's mind.' Shunryū Suzuki's iconic phrase: 'In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.' The receptive, unfixed quality the Sōtō tradition holds up as the proper attitude of zazen.
- Shouyi守一
'Guarding the one' — Hongren's distilled instruction: keep awareness gathered on the mind itself, without dispersal, without grasping, until its original nature is recognized.
- Shushō-ittō修証一等
‘Practice and realization are one.’ Dōgen’s central axiom: sitting zazen is not a means to some later enlightenment — it is the actualization of awakening in this very moment. The ground of shikantaza.
- Ssangsu雙修
'Dual cultivation' — Jinul's formula for combining meditation (samādhi) and wisdom (prajñā), against the tendency to treat them as alternatives. The distinctive Jogye synthesis of Seon practice with Huayan scholarship.
- Suchness真如
'Zhēnrú' (Skt. tathatā, Jp. shinnyo). Reality just as it is, prior to conceptual elaboration. The 'thus' of the Tathāgata — what shikantaza, kanhua, and silent illumination all point at, each in their own register.
T
- Taego–Shiwu lineage
The direct Linji transmission from Shiwu Qinggong (Stonehouse) in China to Taego Bou in 14th-century Korea. Treated by the Taego Order as the orthodox line of Korean Seon.
- Tam Giáo Đồng Nguyên三教同源
'The three teachings share one source' — the Vietnamese commitment to the compatibility of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. A characteristic backdrop for Thiền's willingness to integrate diverse practices.
- Teishō提唱
'Presentation of the teaching.' A formal Dharma talk given by a roshi, traditionally on a kōan or a fascicle of the Shōbōgenzō. Distinguished from a lecture: the teishō is treated as a live expression of the teaching, not exposition about it.
- Ten Gates
Seung Sahn's simplified koan curriculum — ten representative kong-ans that unfold the school's core insights. A student's path moves systematically through these gates in teacher interview.
- Tenzo典座
The head cook of a Zen monastery. Dōgen's Tenzo Kyōkun ('Instructions for the Cook') treats the role as one of the most senior in the community — the tenzo's care for ingredients and pots is itself the realization of the Way.
- The Sound of One Hand隻手音声
'Sekishu onjō' — the first koan Hakuin invented and the one that supplements or substitutes for Mu in many modern Rinzai curricula. 'You know the sound of two hands clapping; what is the sound of one hand?'
- This very mind is Buddha即心即佛
Mazu's signature teaching: ordinary mind, right now, with nothing added or subtracted, is buddha-mind. The philosophical heart of the Nanyue branch and of all later 'sudden' schools.
- Thoại đầu話頭
The Vietnamese pronunciation of the Chinese huatou — the single critical phrase used in Thiền meditation, particularly in the Lâm Tế line. 'Who drags this corpse around?' is a classical Vietnamese choice.
- Three Essentials三要
Hakuin's formula: great faith (daishinkon), great doubt (daigidan), great determination (daifunshi). All three must be present, or koan work goes slack. The engine of Rinzai practice.
- Three Statements of Yunmen雲門三句
'Covering heaven and earth' (the absolute), 'cutting off all streams' (the function that stops conceptual mind), 'following the waves and pursuing the currents' (responsive activity). A compact diagnostic of any Chan teaching.
- Three Tenets
'Not-knowing, bearing witness, taking action' — Bernie Glassman's distillation of Maezumi's teaching into a social-action practice. The working framework of the Zen Peacemaker Order and many White Plum lineage groups.
- Three Treasures三寶
'Sānbǎo' (Jp. sanbō). The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha — the three refuges every Chan practitioner takes formally at ordination and informally each day. Common ground with all Buddhist traditions.
- Tri tâm kiến tánh知心見性
'Know the mind, see the nature' — the core Trúc Lâm instruction as re-articulated by Thích Thanh Từ. Zazen is not for producing states but for letting the mind's own clear nature be recognized.
- Tri-lineage inheritance
The defining White Plum inheritance: each authorized teacher carries Maezumi's Sōtō shihō (via Baian Hakujun Kuroda), Rinzai inka (via Kōryū Osaka), and Sanbō-Zen inka (via Hakuun Yasutani). Most heirs transmit only the Sōtō and Harada-Yasutani koan streams.
- True Person of No Rank無位真人
Linji's famous pointing: 'On this lump of red flesh there is a true person of no rank, constantly going in and out of the faces of every one of you.' The invitation to recognize awakened mind as already operative in perception.
- Twenty-Eight Patriarchs二十八祖
The canonical genealogy from Mahākāśyapa to Bodhidharma, as recorded in the Jingde-era Transmission of the Lamp (1004) and earlier Chan texts. A sacred charter rather than strict history.
U
- Uji有時
‘Being-time.’ The Shōbōgenzō fascicle in which Dōgen argues that time and being are the same event — every being is a time, and every time is a being. The philosophical heart of Dōgen’s treatment of impermanence.
- Unification of three lineages
Trúc Lâm's founding act: Trần Nhân Tông absorbed the Vinītaruci, Vô Ngôn Thông, and Thảo Đường schools into a single Vietnamese Thiền. The only indigenous Zen tradition in East Asia.
W
- Walking meditation
'Kinh hành' in Vietnamese, kinhin in Japanese — at Plum Village, walking is a central and distinct practice, not a mere break between sittings. Each step is coordinated with breath and the recognition that arrival is here.
Y
- Yên Tử mountain practice
The retreat ideal embodied by Trần Nhân Tông on Mount Yên Tử after his abdication — disciplined sitting, forest simplicity, and the refusal of royal luxury. The school's paradigmatic setting.
- Yixin chuanxin以心傳心
'Transmitting mind with mind.' The characteristic description of how awakening passed between the Indian ancestors — not through scripture but through a direct, silent recognition between teacher and disciple.
- Yixing sanmei一行三昧
'Samādhi of one practice' — the meditative absorption taught by Daoxin and Hongren at East Mountain: unbroken recollection of a single contemplative object until it becomes the whole field of awareness.
- Yong Maeng Jong Jin용맹정진
'Fierce, courageous, sustained practice' — the school's intensive retreat form (typically 3 or 7 days), adapted from Korean kyolche for a lay Western sangha. Early-rising, long zazen, kong-an interviews, 108 prostrations.
Z
- Zazen座禅
'Seated meditation' — the foundational practice of Japanese Zen and the form in which shikantaza is carried out. Upright posture, half-lotus or Burmese seat, hands in the cosmic mudrā, breath unforced. Dōgen's Fukanzazengi is the canonical instruction.
- Zuochan坐禪
'Sitting Chan' — the foundational posture practice. Upright spine, regulated breath, eyes half-open; all Chan/Zen schools build their distinctive methods on top of zuochan rather than replacing it.
Ō
- Ōryōki応量器
'Just-enough vessel.' The set of nesting bowls and the formal silent meal eaten with them in Sōtō training. Every gesture is choreographed; the ritual is a complete practice in attention, gratitude, and the forms of the tradition.