Once, when I talked to a Japanese person, I mentioned "Innen," and she didn't know what I was talking about. In Tenrikyo, it is used synonymously with the word "karma," but I think in other circles (and in popular culture), the word is more an obscure Buddhist philosophical concept. I looked up a website that drafts calligraphy for a variety of "fate-related" concepts, and it has a nice description of each (and of course depictions of the characters). In-nen is interesting, because the character for "In" resembles that for "Koma"-ru (or, to have a problem). Komaru is a character with the symbol for a tree within a box, while "In" is depicted with the character for "Big" inside of a box.
Following is the discussion from the website (I posted the link: orientaloutpost).
Fate / Opportunity / Chance
(Buddhism)
Mandarin: yīn
Japanese: innen
Korean: 인연
This is the Buddhist concept of a chance meeting or an opportunity that presents itself by fate.Sometimes this is used to describe a cosmic chain of events or cause and effect.It also is used to describe predestined relationships between people - especially married couples.This word can also be translated as origin, karma, destiny, affinity, connection, and relation. This all depends on context - seen alone on a wall scroll, this will be read with a "fate / chance" meaning by a Chinese person, or Korean who can read Hanja.This is a rather uncommon word in Japanese, so I recommend it only if your audience is Chinese, Korean or Buddhist Japanese.This concept is known as nidana in the original Sanskrit. Also sometimes presented as hetupratyaya which I believe is Pali.
See Also... Buddhism Opportunity
Score: 100/100
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