禅 means “Zen, meditation”

ぜん · zen

Also: silent meditation

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

しずか, ゆずる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ゼン, セン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

An altar (礻) beside 単, single: one person alone before the sacred. 禅 is Zen, short for 禅那, the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit dhyana, meditation; temples in Kyoto and Kamakura offer 座禅, sitting in silence, to visitors.

Used in 座禅 (zazen, seated meditation), 禅寺 (zendera, Zen temple), and 禅宗 (zenshuu, Zen Buddhism)

More from Temple & Zen

• 刹 temple
• 宗 religion
• 戒 guard against
• 聖 holy
• 浄 pure
• 悟 realize
• 仰 look up
• 僧 monk
• 尼 nun

Learn 禅 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.