Glossary
In the Zendo
- Ino:
- service and chant leader
- Doan:
- timekeeper and bell ringer
- Jisha:
- Sensei’s assistant
- Zazen:
- seated meditation
- Kinhin:
- walking meditation; can be fast or slow
- Rakusu:
- a garment worn around the neck of Zen Buddhists who have received the precepts. It is made of strips of cloth, sewn together into a rice field like pattern by the student themselves during their period of preparation for their Jukai ceremony
- Jukai:
- the ceremony in which a student formally receives the precepts
- Precepts:
- a condensed form of Buddhist ethical practice
- Kesu:
- the large bell rung by the Doan
- Inkin:
- Small, hand held bell
- Samu:
- working meditation
- Gasho:
- a ritual gesture formed by placing the hands – palms together, in the ‘prayer’ gesture, and is the most fundamental and also most frequently used of all the in-zou (mudras) in Buddhist practice.
- Teisho:
- a talk given by a Zen teacher
- Zafu:
- cushion used for zazen or sitting meditation.
- Zabutan:
- mat used in meditation
In general use in Zen Buddhism
- Avalokiteshvara:
- One of the principal Bodhisattvas in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition; personifies boundless compassion
- Buddha:
- Shakyamuni. The Illumined One. The main title of the founder of Buddhism after his Enlightenment
- Blue Cliff Record:
- This collection of 100 koans with appreciatory verses and commentaries is a key text in the Rinzai school. It was studied by Dogen Zenji, who carried a handwritten copy back to Japan from China
- Bodhisattva:
- One moved by compassionate zeal to aid fellow beings, hence willing to postpone his or her own entrance into Nirvana to this end
- Dogen Zenji:
- Founder of the Japanese Soto school of Zen, he established Eiheiji, the principal Soto training monastery of Japan. He is the author of the Shobogenzo
- Dokusan:
- the personal interview between the Roshi and student
- Dukkha:
- Suffering, stress, pain, misery, sorrow, unhappiness, dissatisfaction with the way things are, a central factor in the human condition, one of the “three marks” of existence
- Eightfold Path:
- The path that leads to liberation, consisting of right understanding, right aim, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration
- Emptiness:
- (Sunyata) The actual way in which all things exist, the absence of the apparent inherent existence of things
- Enlightenment:
- Complete elimination of all negative aspects of the mind and perfection of all positive qualities
- Gassho:
- To join the palms (in reverence or respect)
- Gatha:
- Verses; poem composed of them
- Heart Sutra:
- A distillation of the vast Prajnaparamita literature, it is chanted daily in Zen monasteries
- Kanzeon:
- (Japanese) Avalokitesvara; The One Who Perceives the Sounds of the World; incarnation of mercy and compassion
- Koan:
- a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen practice to provoke the “great doubt”, and test a student’s progress in Zen practice
- Law of Causal Condition:
- The fundamental doctrine of Buddhism that all phenomena in the universe are produced by causation. Since all phenomena result from the complicated causes and effects, all existing things in the universe are inter-dependent, i.e., no self nature or existence on its own. Moreover, all phenomena and things are impermanent (changing constantly). It was to this law that Shakyamuni was awakened when he attained enlightenment
- Karma:
- The results of actions, which produce effects that may be either good or bad. It is derived from the Law of Causal Condition (Law of Cause and Effect)
- Mu:
- Case One of the Wu Men Kuan, often the first koan of the Zen student
- Roshi:
- A Zen master
- Satori:
- state of consciousness in Zen Buddhism beyond the plane of discrimination and differentiation
- Sutra:
- a major category of Buddhist scripture
- Ten Oxherding Pictures:
- traditional images that depict the stages of Zen practice
- The Three Jewels:
- the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Buddhists take refuge in them thus acknowledging themselves to be Buddhists
- Tokudo:
- Ordination ceremony in becoming a monk
- Zazen:
- Seated meditation; dhyana; Zen meditation.
- Zazenkai:
- extended Zazen meeting
- Zen:
- Buddhist school or sect favouring meditation and intuition rather than scripture as a means to enlightenment, which passed from China to Japan in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
- Zendo:
- meditation hall; space in a monastery in which zazen is practised; it is often set aside exclusively for this purpose