SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

3.The Origin and Development of ZenZen, like Buddhism itself, is a product of India. However,its antiquity is far greater than that of Buddhism. Its originis connected with the custom of Indian philosophers whosought an escape from the heat by dwelling in forests. Here theyspent their time in meditation and observance of religious ceremonies.This practice of sitting in a prescribed posture beneatha large tree to meditate was regarded as a pleasant religiousexercise. This ultimately developed into zazen, just-sittingmeditation or the serene reflection practice of Zen Buddhism.Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word chÕan,which in turn is a phonetic transcription of the Prakrit jhna,suffering the loss of its final vowel. The Sanskrit equivalent ofjhna is dhyna which means Òmeditation, thought, reflection,(especially) profound and abstract religious meditation.Ó TheUpanishads, which deal with Brahminic philosophy, may beconsidered a product of this type of meditation in forests. Thenumber of Upanishads is very great. The first occurrence of theword dhyna is in the Chandogya Upanishad which is one ofthe oldest of the Upanishads. In early Sanskrit translations into20