Dōgen

Dōgen was born in Kyoto in 1200, into an aristocratic family, and lost both parents in childhood. He was ordained in the Tendai school on Mount Hiei, and later trained in Zen at Kenninji under Myōzen, a disciple of Eisai. In 1223 he travelled to China, where after a period of searching he studied under the Caodong master Rujing at Mount Tiantong, and there, by his account, experienced the “dropping off of body and mind”.

Returning to Japan in 1227, he taught near Kyoto, where he founded the monastery of Kōshōji, and in 1243 moved to the remote province of Echizen, where he founded the monastery later named Eiheiji, still one of the head temples of the Sōtō school. He died in 1253.

His major work, the Shōbōgenzō, “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”, is a collection of essays written in Japanese rather than the usual Chinese, and is famous for its difficulty and its daring readings of earlier texts. His other works include the Fukan zazengi, a short guide to seated meditation, and rules for monastic life. Little read outside his school for centuries, he has been studied since the twentieth century as one of Japan’s great philosophers.