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SRAMANA (Sanskrit), SAMANA (Pali): Contemplative. Literally, a person who abandons the conventional obligations of social life in order to find a way of life more "in tune" (sama) with the ways of nature. See also Parivrajaka. Sramana is derived from "Srama" --- to exert, effort, labor or to perform austerity. It is mixed in with the meaning "Sama" --- equal, evenly distributed, to emancipate from Karma.One who performs acts of mortification or austerity is called "Sramana" (Sramati tapasyatiti Sramanah). According to the definition, a being is himself responsible for his own deeds. Salvation, therefore, can be achieved by anybody irrespective of caste, creed, color or culture. The Cycle of Rebirth to which every individual is subjected is viewed as the cause and substratum of misery. The goal of every person is to evolve a way to escape from the cycle of rebirth, namely by discounting ritual as a means of a emancipation and establishing from the misery of Samsara, through pious religious activities.
Sramana meant in the language of the Brahmans a man who performed hard penances, from sram, 'to work hard'. When it became adapted for use to apply to Buddhist ascetics, for example the infamous wandering ascetic [no, not the Wanderling] --- which was later to be defined in the time of the Zen schools by the Japanese as hsing-chiao (traveling on foot) --- by the name of Vaccha, a Parivrajaka, who questioned the Buddha on the Ten Indeterminate Questions, Avyaakata (catagory mistakes), the language had changed and sramana was pronounced samana. There is another Sanskrit root, sam, 'to quiet,' which in Pâli becomes likewise sam, and from this root sam, 'to quiet,' and not from sram, 'to tire,' thus through popular etymology of the day possibly becoming applied to Buddhists in meditation (i.e, 'to quiet').
The word Shaman, used internationally, has its origin in manchú-tangu and has reached the ethnologic vocabulary through Russian. The word originated from saman (xaman), derived from the verb scha-, "to know", so shaman means someone who knows, is wise, a sage. Further ethnologic investigations shows that the true origin for the word Shaman can be tracked from the Sanskrit initially, then through Chinese-Buddhist mediation to the manchú-tangu, indicating a much deeper but now overlooked connection between early Buddhism and Shamanism generally. In Pali it is schamana, in Sanskrit sramana translated to something like "buddhist monk, ascetic". The intermediate Chinese term is scha-men. (source)
The Buddhist adept has striking similarities with the archaic phenomenon of Shamanism. The coincidence of characteristics between these two religious practitioners has been studied by Mircea Eliade in his monograph, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy. In particular he points to the "identity in expression" between the superhuman experiences of the Buddhist yogin called Siddhis and the archaic symbolism of Flying found so frequently in Shamanism. (see)
PROMINENT BUDDHIST SHAMANS INCLUDE:
ZEN, THE BUDDHA, AND SHAMANISM
MIDEWIWIN: Secret Ojibwa Medicine Society
POWER OF THE SHAMAN: Where Does It Come From, How Does It Work?
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