His mother is said to have died when Dōgen was age 7.

In the face of this tension, Dōgen left the Tendai dominion of Kyōto in 1230, settling instead in an abandoned temple in what is today the city of Uji, south of Kyōto.

While the construction work was going on, Dōgen would live and teach at Yoshimine-dera Temple ( Kippō-ji, 吉峯寺 ), which is located close to Daibutsu-ji.

In referring to zazen, Dōgen is most often referring specifically to shikantaza, roughly translatable as " nothing but precisely sitting ", which is a kind of sitting meditation in which the meditator sits " in a state of brightly alert attention that is free of thoughts, directed to no object, and attached to no particular content ".

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

Another collection of his talks is the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki ( Gleanings from Master Dōgen ’ s Sayings ) in six volumes.

The earliest work by Dōgen is the Hōkojōki ( Memoirs of the Hōkyō Period ).

This one volume work is a collection of questions and answers between Dōgen and his Chinese teacher, Tiāntóng Rújìng ( 天童如淨 ; Japanese: Tendō Nyojō, 1162 – 1228 ).

Dōgen is remembered today as the co-patriarch of Sōtō Zen in Japan along with Keizan Jōkin.

* 1227: The Sōtō sect of Zen Buddhism is introduced to Japan by the monk Dōgen Zenji

Some people claim that according to Dōgen Zenji, shikantaza i. e. resting in a state of brightly alert attention that is free of thoughts, directed to no object, and attached to no particular content — is the highest or purest form of zazen, as it was practiced by all the buddhas of the past.

Therefore using Dōgen Zenji to support a quietist and an anti-intellectual idea of shikantaza is a controversial tactic that relies on selective quoting of Dōgen Zenji.

But if it is instead thought of in terms of the tradition carried out by Augustine and Kierkegaard, then Japan has a rich philosophical history, composed of the great thinkers Kūkai, Shinran, Dōgen, and others.

Dōgen is known to have refuted the statement " Painted rice cakes will not satisfy hunger ".

Dōgen, however, saw that there is no separation between metaphor and reality.

In distinguishing between ceremony and liturgy, Dōgen states, " In ceremony there are forms and there are sounds, there is understanding and there is believing.

Dōgen says, " Let go of the eye, and the whole body-and-mind are nothing but the eye ; let go of the ear, and the whole universe is nothing but the ear.

The term Shōbōgenzō has three main usages in Buddhism: ( 1 ) It can refer to the essence of the Buddha's realization and teaching, that is, to the Buddha Dharma itself, as viewed from the perspective of Mahayana Buddhism, ( 2 ) it is the title of a koan collection with commentaries by Dahui Zonggao, and ( 3 ) it is used in the title of two works by Dōgen Kigen.

Lectures that Dōgen gave to his monks at his monastery, Eihei-ji, were compiled under the title Eihei Kōroku, also known as Dōgen Oshō Kōroku ( The Extensive Record of Teacher Dōgen ’ s Sayings ) in ten volumes.

In Japan and the West, the term Shōbōgenzō is most commonly known as referring to the titles of two works composed by Japanese Zen master Dōgen Kigen in the mid-13th century.

As he found no answer to his question at Mount Hiei, and as he was disillusioned by the internal politics and need for social prominence for advancement, Dōgen left to seek an answer from other Buddhist masters.

This phrase would continue to have great importance to Dōgen throughout his life, and can be found scattered throughout his writings, as — for example — in a famous section of his " Genjōkōan " ( 現成公案 ):

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

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.

Perhaps more significantly for the Japanese brand of this sect, Dōgen among others advocated the reinterpretation that the " Cao " represents not Caoshan, but rather " Huineng of Caoxi temple " ; zh: 曹溪慧能 ).

A number of important manuscripts belong to the temple, including the National Treasure Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen, by temple founder Dōgen ( 1233 ); teachings he brought back from Song China ( 1227 ); and a record of a subsidy for the earlier Sanmon in the hand of Emperor Go-En ' yū ( 1372 ).

Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen, by Dōgen, founder of Eihei-ji ; 1233 ; National Treasures of Japan | National Treasure

A memorial service, a major source of revenue for Eihei-ji, has been held every fifty years since the 16th century on the anniversary of Dōgen Zenjis entering nirvana.

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

At one point, owing to this disenchantment, Dōgen even refused Dharma transmission from a teacher.

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

Dōgen had received Dharma transmission from Tiantong Rujing at Qìngdé Temple, where Hongzhi Zhengjue once was abbot.

Abe quotes Dōgen: " In the Buddha Dharma, practice and realization are identical.

* 1253 – September 22 – Dōgen Zenji, founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism in Japan and author of the Shōbōgenzō and other important works ( b. 1200 )

In 1223, Japanese Zen master Dōgen Kigen recorded on Shōbōgenzō that he saw monks in China clean their teeth with brushes made of horse-tail hairs attached to an ox-bone handle.

Eihei-ji also promoted the study of Dōgen's works, especuially the Shōbōgenzō, which changed the view of Dōgen in Soto's history.

In 1905, Eihei-ji held its first conference called Genzō e on Dōgen Zenjis Shōbōgenzō.

The different component texts — referred to as fascicles — of the Kana Shōbōgenzō were written between 1231 and 1253 — the year of Dōgen's death ( Dōgen, 2002, p. xi ).

* Translation with Norman Waddell: Dōgen, The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō ( SUNY 2002 ), from work published in The Eastern Buddhist ( Kyoto 1971-1976 ), as edited by D. T. Suzuki.

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

Some of the fascicles were recorded by Dōgen, while others were likely recorded by his disciples.

The Dōgen Zenji Zenshu contains all 95 Japanese fascicles, untranslated.