1. [n]  doctrine that enlightenment can be attained through direct intuitive insight
2. [n]  school of Mahayana Buddhism asserting that enlightenment can come through meditation and intuition rather than faith; China and Japan

ZEN is a 3 letter word that starts with Z.

1. [Kehoe, B., "Zen and the Art of the Internet", February 1992.]

   [jargon file]

2. To figure out something by meditation or by a sudden flash of enlightenment. Originally applied to bugs, but occasionally applied to problems of life in general. "How'd you figure out the buffer allocation problem?" "Oh, I zenned it."

   Contrast grok, which connotes a time-extended version of zenning a system. Compare hack mode. See also guru.