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Zen is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism which strongly emphasizes the practice of meditation. It emerged as a distinct school in China (as Cha'an) and spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and, in modern times, the rest of the world. The common English name derives from the school's name in Japanese, zen (禅).

History
Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism; it takes its name from the Sanskrit term, dhyāna, which means meditative concentration (zen is short for the rarely-used form zenna). According to traditional accounts, Chinese Zen was established in approximately 500 CE by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is said to have been the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen and the last Indian successor in a line begun by the Buddha's disciple Mahakaśyapa.

Zen in the various Asian languages
Chinese Name
Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chán
Mandarin Wade-Giles Ch'an
Cantonese Jyutping Sim
Shanghainese (Wu) Zeu [zø]
Traditional Chinese......

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