dhyana

From Sanskrit ध्यान (dhyāna, literally “meditation”). Doublet of Zen and Chan.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdjɑːnə/

dhyana (countable and uncountable, plural dhyanas)

1. (Hinduism, Buddhism) A type of profound meditation.
   • 1844, Calcutta Review, page 123:

     Thus the Kaivalyopanisad accords equal importance to Sraddha (faith-regard), devotion (bhakti) and meditation (dhyana) for the attainment of the highest knowledge.

   • 1860, Robert Spence Hardy, Eastern monachism‎, page 262:

     The beginning must be made with pathawi-kasina, and then the dhyánas, &c., must be taken alternately, as from the first dhyána to the third, then to ákásánancháyatana, and so on to the end.

   • 1997, Meditation: The Buddhist Way of Tranquillity and Insight‎, page 86:

     Each of the three planes may be experienced through developing the dhyānas in meditation - so here we have yet another way of describing higher states of consciousness.

• Danahy