41 Facts About Dogen

Dogen remained there for four years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage.

Dogen eventually broke relations completely with the powerful Tendai School, and, after several years of likely friction between himself and the establishment, left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Soto school today.

Dogen is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work, the collection of 95 essays called the Shobogenzo, but Eihei Koroku, a collection of his talks, poetry, and commentaries, and Eihei Shingi, the first Zen monastic code written in Japan, among others.

Dogen was probably born into a noble family, though as an illegitimate child of Minamoto Michitomo, who served in the imperial court as a high-ranking asho.

At some later point, Dogen became a low-ranking monk on Mount Hiei, the headquarters of the Tendai school of Buddhism.

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Therefore, Dogen left to seek an answer from other Buddhist masters.

Dogen went to visit Koin, the Tendai abbot of Onjo-ji Temple, asking him this same question.

In 1217, two years after the death of contemporary Zen Buddhist Myoan Eisai, Dogen went to study at Kennin-ji Temple, under Eisai's successor, Myozen.

In China, Dogen first went to the leading Chan monasteries in Zhejiang province.

Under Rujing, Dogen realized liberation of body and mind upon hearing the master say, "Cast off body and mind".

In 1227, Dogen received Dharma transmission and inka from Rujing, and remarked on how he had finally settled his "life's quest of the great matter".

Dogen returned to Japan in 1227 or 1228, going back to stay at Kennin-ji, where he had trained previously.

In 1233, Dogen founded the Kannon-dori-in in Fukakusa as a small center of practice.

Dogen accepted because of the ongoing tension with the Tendai community, and the growing competition of the Rinzai-school.

Dogen's followers built a comprehensive center of practice there, calling it Daibutsu Temple.

Dogen criticized Dahui Zonggao, the most influential figure of Song Dynasty Chan.

Dogen spent the remainder of his life teaching and writing at Eihei-ji.

Dogen made the rather long journey east to provide the shogun with lay ordination, and then returned to Eihei-ji in 1248.

Dogen presented his robes to his main apprentice, Koun Ejo, making him the abbot of Eihei-ji.

At Hatano Yoshishige's invitation, Dogen left for Kyoto in search of a remedy for his illness.

Dogen fell gravely ill on his way back from China but had no medicines that could be of use.

Dogen then began leading the crew in recitation of chants to Kannon, during which, the Bodhisattva appeared before him, and several of the crew saw her as well.

Additionally, there is a 14th-century copy of a painting of the same Kannon, that was supposedly commissioned by Dogen, that includes a piece of calligraphy that is possibly an original in Dogen's own hand, recording his gratitude to Avalokiteshwara:.

Dogen was profoundly moved by the entire experience, and took it as an auspicious sign that the offerings of the ceremony had been accepted.

Dogen is recorded to have had multiple encounters with non-human beings.

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Dogen often stressed the critical importance of zazen, or sitting meditation as the central practice of Buddhism.

Dogen taught zazen to everyone, even for the laity, male or female and including all social classes.

Dogen called this zazen practice "without thinking" in which one is simply aware of things as they are, beyond thinking and not-thinking - the active effort not to think.

Correct mental attitude for zazen according to Dogen is one of effortless non-striving, this is because for Dogen, enlightenment is already always present.

Further, Dogen frequently distanced himself from more syncretic Buddhist practices at the time, including those of his contemporary Eisai.

Dogen rejected any view that saw Buddha-nature as a permanent, substantial inner self or ground.

Dogen's conception of Being-Time or Time-Being is an essential element of his metaphysics in the Shobogenzo.

Recently Rein Raud has argued that this view is not correct and that Dogen asserts that all existence is momentary, showing that such a reading would make quite a few of the rather cryptic passages in the Shobogenzo quite lucid.

Dogen was sometimes critical of the Rinzai school for their formulaic and intellectual koan practice as well as for their disregard for the sutras:.

Dogen was very critical of the Japanese Daruma school of Dainichi Nonin.

Dogen's masterpiece is the Shobogenzo, talks and writings collected together in ninety-five fascicles.

Dogen compiled a collection of 301 koans in Chinese without commentaries added.

Lectures that Dogen gave to his monks at his monastery, Eihei-ji, were compiled under the title Eihei Koroku, known as Dogen Osho Koroku in ten volumes.

Dogen was succeeded by Gien, who was first trained in the Daruma-school of Nonin.

Dogen's supporters designated him as the third abbot, rejecting the legitimacy of Gien.

Notable successor of Dogen was Keizan, founder of Soji-ji Temple and author of the Record of the Transmission of Light, which traces the succession of Zen masters from Siddhartha Gautama up to Keizan's own day.