''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), an ...
which denotes a
postulant 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 whic ...
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 with no prior experience.
Religion Buddhism
...
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 (novi ...
) 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 authoriz ...
with which to study.
[Baroni, 365]
Etymology
The term ''unsui'', which literally translates as "cloud, water" comes from a
Chinese 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 meaning ...
which reads, "To drift like clouds and flow like water."
[Snyder, 44-45] Helen J. Baroni 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, "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's WWWJDIC]Jeffrey Friedl
Jeffrey may refer to:
* Jeffrey (name), including a list of people with the name
* ''Jeffrey'' (1995 film), a 1995 film by Paul Rudnick, based on Rudnick's play of the same name
* ''Jeffrey'' (2016 film), a 2016 Dominican Republic documentary film
...
'
Jeffrey's Japanese<->English dictionary server
/ref>
See also
*Bhikkhu
A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics (" nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...
* Bhikkhuni
*Buddhism in Japan
Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...
*Samanera
A sāmaṇera (Pali); sa, श्रामणेर (), is a novice male monastic in a Buddhist context. A female novice is a ''śrāmaṇerī'' or ''śrāmaṇerikā'' ( Sanskrit; Pāli: ''sāmaṇerī'').
Etymology
The ''sāmaṇera'' is ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
Zen
Japanese Buddhist titles
{{zen-stub