oshobob  The Living Workshop                                
                                              Osho meets China
Osho traces the word "ch'an"
For dhyan, Zen, there exists no equivalent in the English
language, because meditation itself means thinking – to
meditate upon. Some object is there. Remember, dhyan is
the original word. Dhyan traveled to China with
Bodhidharma and in the Chinese language it became
ch’an. And then from China it traveled to
Japan and in Japanese it became first
zan,and then Zen; but the original root is
dhyan – ch’an, zan, Zen. In English there
is no word equivalent to it. Meditation
also means thinking, a consistent
thinking. Contemplation means thinking
too. It may be thinking about God, but it is thinking, and
dhyan, or Zen, is a no-thinking state. It is action without
thought...

                                                                   --Osho
                                                   A Bird on the Wing, ch. 9