Eihei Dogen
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The teaching of the Japanese Soto school of Buddhism is based on an understanding of the Buddha's teaching that the monk Eihei Dogen brought to Japan from China in the thirteenth century. He is still regarded as an important Japanese philosopher, Buddhist monk, and teacher, and as the founder of the Japanese Soto school of Buddhism.
Dogen was born in Kyoto in 1200 into a politically important family. His father, Michichika Koga, was a minister in the government of the time, and his mother was the daughter of one of the most powerful men of her day, Fujiwara Motofusa. Both parents died during Dogen's early childhood: his father in 1202 and his mother in 1207.
At the age of twelve, Dogen left the home of his brother, where he had been brought up after his parents' deaths, and despite the opposition of the rest of his family entered the famous Enryaku-ji monastery of the Japanese Tendai Buddhist school. Some biographies say that Dogen was a child prodigy who learned very quickly, and so soon became familiar with the Buddhist philosophy and theory taught at Enryaku-ji. As he was by nature highly rational and practical, he had many questions that none of the monks present could answer satisfactorily and without dogma. In the end, he decided to leave the monastery and seek a true teacher elsewhere.
His search led him in 1214 to Master Koin at Onjo-ji monastery. He did not stay there long either, as he still found no satisfactory answers to his questions. In 1217, Dogen moved to Kennin-ji monastery in Kyoto, where he studied briefly under Master Eisai, the founder of the Rinzai Buddhist school. Master Eisai died soon after Dogen arrived at Kennin-ji, and Dogen continued his studies with Eisai's student Myozen. Unfortunately, alongside the teaching that Eisai had imported from China, doctrines of the Tendai Buddhist school continued to be taught at Kennin-ji, and so even after nine years of study Dogen did not feel that he had come closer to the core of Buddhist teaching. He therefore decided that, if he was to discover the heart of Zen, he must travel to its cradle: China.
In 1223, Dogen set out with Myozen on a hazardous journey. At first there was great disappointment: they passed through many Chinese monasteries and visited many teachers, but all were chiefly concerned with their own comfort, wealth, and religious position. Only when he was almost on his return journey to Japan did he learn of a famous teacher named Tendo Nyojo, who taught at Keitoku-ji monastery on Mount Tendo. When they met, Dogen intuitively felt that Tendo Nyojo was the right teacher, and he remained to study under him.
In 1226, his “body and mind dropped off.” In 1228, Dogen returned to Japan and settled again at Kennin-ji monastery. In the same year, he wrote the famous Fukan-zazengi (Universal Instructions for Zazen Practice). In 1231, his collection Shobogenzo began with the chapter Bendowa. In 1233, he moved with a small group of his closest students to the small, abandoned Kannon Dori Koshohorin-ji monastery, and in 1244 he founded his own monastery, Eihei-ji.
In 1252, Master Dogen fell ill and went to Kyoto for treatment, but died of his illness there on 29 September 1253.
The principal work of Eihei Dogen, and a jewel among Buddhist writings ever brought into the world, is the collection Shobogenzo. Shobogenzo is an extensive collection of records and transcripts of Dogen's formal and informal talks and lectures after his return from China to Japan, where he began teaching Buddhism. The first chapter, Bendowa (A Talk about Pursuing the Truth), was written in 1231. The final, ninety-fifth chapter, Hachi-Dainingaku (Eight Truths of the Buddha), was recorded shortly before Dogen's death in 1253.
If you want to understand Buddhist theory precisely, studying Shobogenzo is the best path, because Dogen had an exceptional ability for rational understanding and explanation. In its individual chapters, the book touches on every fundamental pillar of Buddhist philosophy and theory, explaining them in a distinctive and very rational way. It shows Buddhism not as mystical or blindly dogmatic, but as strictly rational and real. It shows us that the most fundamental meaning of Buddhism cannot be found in theories, but only in living here and now, which can be realized through the practice of zazen. For Dogen, Buddhism and zazen are one and the same. The practice of zazen is Buddhism, and Buddhism is simply the practice of zazen.
The word “Shobogenzo” means “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye,” and this title figuratively expresses Dogen's belief in the comprehensiveness of his teaching. When reading Shobogenzo, you can read it from front to back, back to front, from the middle, or wherever you wish. Shobogenzo is not a conventional book that you open at the beginning and read to the end. It is like a great mosaic. Each chapter, although at first glance it is about something different, describes one and the same thing. It takes a particular point of view, but always describes the same thing. Put very briefly, the whole of Shobogenzo describes zazen: the state of mind and body, their unity, which zazen allows us to realize. It seeks to show us the core, the essence of our lives, using various methods and comparisons.
The truth is that it is a very difficult book to read. One reason is that it was written in the thirteenth century in a cultural and linguistic environment so different from our own, and it uses many phrases and quotations from Chinese Buddhism that are unfamiliar to and hard to understand for people today. Another reason is that Shobogenzo contains a unique logical structure that Nishijima Roshi calls the “Four Philosophies” (see also the chapter “Four Views of the World” in the book Introduction to Buddhism and Zazen Practice). The book is therefore full of apparent contradictions. Its sole aim, however, is to take us “beyond words” and show us the reality of the present moment.
The book has 95 chapters in total, although the number of chapters differs between editions. There are several editions of Shobogenzo; the 95-chapter so-called Kozen edition, published by the monk Hangyo Kozen around 1690, is the most complete collection. The English translation by Nishijima & Cross, to which Mike Luetchford made a significant contribution, is also based on this edition. Our group also draws on this English translation in its study.
Master Dogen's Shobogenzo in the Nishijima & Cross translation is now available in full online at shobogenzo.net