''Unsui'' ( ja, 雲水), or ''kōun ryūsui'' () in full, is a term specific to

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

which denotes a

postulant A postulant (from la, postulare, to ask) was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a Christian monastery or a religious order for the p ...

awaiting acceptance into a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

or a

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession A profession is a field of work that has ...

monk who has undertaken Zen training. Sometimes they will travel from monastery to monastery (

angya is a term used in Zen Buddhism in reference to the traditional pilgrimage a monk or nun makes from monastery to monastery, literally translated as "to go on foot."Baroni, 8-9 The term also applies to the modern practice in Japan of an unsui (nov ...

) on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to find the appropriate

Zen master Zen master is a somewhat vague English term that arose in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes used to refer to an individual who teaches Zen Buddhist meditation and practices, usually implying longtime study and subsequent authorizat ...

with which to study.Baroni, 365

Etymology

The term ''unsui'', which literally translates as "cloud, water" comes from a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

which reads, "To drift like clouds and flow like water."Snyder, 44-45

Helen J. Baroni Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, G ...

writes, "The term can be applied more broadly for any practitioner of Zen, since followers of Zen attempt to move freely through life, without the constraints and limitations of attachment, like free-floating clouds or flowing water." According to author

James Ishmael Ford James Ishmael Ford (Zeno Myoun, Roshi) is an American Zen Buddhist priest and a retired Unitarian Universalist minister. He was born in Oakland, California on July 17, 1948. He earned a BA in psychology from Sonoma State University, as well as ...

, "In Japan, one receives unsui ordination at the beginning of formal ordained practice, and this is often perceived as 'novice ordination.'"Ford, 55 According to the Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism,Dictionary of Buddhism, 316 the term ''unsui'' is also used for Therefore, the translation of itinerant monk found on several Japanese-English online dictionaries.

Jim Breen James William Breen (born 1947) is a Research Fellow at Monash University in Australia, where he was a professor in the area of IT and telecommunications before his retirement in 2003. He holds a BSc in mathematics, an MBA and a PhD in computati ...

WWWJDIC WWWJDIC is an online Japanese dictionary based on the electronic dictionaries compiled and collected by Australian academic Jim Breen. The main Japanese–English dictionary file (EDICT) contains over 180,000 entries, and the ENAMDICT dictionary ...

Jeffrey Friedl'
Jeffrey's Japanese<->English dictionary server
/ref>

Notes

References

* * * * Zen Japanese Buddhist titles {{zen-stub

Etymology

See also

Notes

References