Overview
Dōgen (1200–1253) was the Japanese founder of the Sōtō school of Zen after studying in Song China under Rujing. Returning to Japan, he established monastic communities culminating at Eiheiji. Shōbōgenzō (“Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”) gathers vernacular philosophical sermons on practice-enlightenment. Handbook dates: 1200–1253. He insisted on zazen as the authentic Buddha-dharma.
Main ideas
Practice and enlightenment are not sequential; zazen itself is enacted Buddha-nature. Being-time (uji) teaches that each moment is a complete temporal existence, not a point on a line. Language both traps and reveals; paradoxical fascicles work through dualisms of here/there, self/other. Dropping off body-mind names liberation within disciplined form. Ethics of monastic regulations embody awakening in cooking, walking, and sitting. He criticizes merely intellectual or antinomian Zen.
Major works
- Shōbōgenzō
- Eihei Kōroku
- Fukanzazengi
- Gakudō yōjinshū
Legacy
Dōgen anchors Sōtō Zen liturgy and modern global Zen philosophy. Heideggerians and phenomenologists mine being-time fascicles. He is central to any serious account of Japanese Buddhist thought.