天眼

Chinese

day; sky; heaven eye
simp. and trad.
(天眼)		 天 眼

Etymology

Calque of Sanskrit दिव्यचक्षुस् (divyacakṣus) or Pali dibbacakkhu.

Pronunciation

Noun

天眼

  1. (Buddhism) divine eye

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (天眼):
  • Japanese: 天 (てん)眼 (げん) (tengen); 天 (てん)眼 (がん) (tengan)
  • Korean: 천안 (天眼, cheonan)

Japanese

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
天 眼
てん
Grade: 1		 げん
Grade: 5
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 天眼 (MC tʰen ŋˠɛnX).

Pronunciation

Noun

天眼 (hiragana てんげん, rōmaji tengen)

  1. (esoteric Buddhism) heavenly sight by heavenly beings
  2. (esoteric Buddhism) short for 天眼通 (tengentsū): knowledge of others' karma: one of the six kinds of abhijñā or “direct knowledge”
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
天 眼
てん
Grade: 1		 がん
Grade: 5
on’yomi

The literal eye sense and sight sense are likely a coinage within Japanese based on Middle Chinese-derived elements 天 (ten, “heaven, heavenly”, also used in reference to the emperor) + 眼 (gan, “eye”).

The Buddhist sense is likely a sound shift from tengen above,[2] adopting the kan'on reading of gan for the 眼 character.

Pronunciation

Noun

天眼 (hiragana てんがん, rōmaji tengan)

  1. the eye of the emperor or imperial prince
  2. (in compounds) sight of something not usually visible to the naked eye
  3. (esoteric Buddhism) see the tengen reading above for additional senses
Derived terms

References

  1. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
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