Q0206

Dōgen

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.
Thinker Dōgen
School Sōtō Zen
Source Shōbōgenzō, Genjōkōan
Theme Practice
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Shōbōgenzō, Genjōkōan, within the tradition of Sōtō Zen. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of practice, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Dōgen's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Dōgen. (n.d.). To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0206

MLA: Dōgen. “To study the Buddha Way is to study….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0206.

Chicago: Dōgen. “To study the Buddha Way is to study….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0206.

Same thinker

More from Dōgen

  1. To carry the self forward and practice the myriad things is delusion; for the myriad things to come forth and practice the self is enlightenment.

All quotations by Dōgen

Same theme

More on practice

  1. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts.
  2. Study extensively, inquire carefully, think prudently, discriminate clearly, and practice earnestly.
  3. Knowledge is the directing idea of action; action is the effort of knowledge. Knowledge is the beginning of action; action is the completion of knowledge.
  4. Extend the innate good knowing.
  5. All under heaven is nothing but concrete things (qi). The Way is the Way of things; one cannot reverse this and call things merely vessels of an abstract Way.

Browse the practice theme