Page "Dōgen" Paragraph 30

While it was customary for Buddhist works to be written in Chinese, Dōgen often wrote in Japanese, conveying the essence of his thought in a style that was at once concise, compelling, and inspiring.

A master stylist, Dōgen is noted not only for his prose, but also for his poetry ( in Japanese waka style and various Chinese styles ).

Dōgen's use of language is unconventional by any measure.

According to Dōgen scholar Steven Heine: " Dogen's poetic and philosophical works are characterized by a continual effort to express the inexpressible by perfecting imperfectable speech through the creative use of wordplay, neologism, and lyricism, as well as the recasting of traditional expressions ".