Shih-t ' ou Hsi-ch ' ien's poem " The Harmony of Difference and Sameness " Sandokai is an important early expression of Zen Buddhism and is chanted in Sōtō temples to this day.

* 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 )

* January 19 – Dogen Zenji, founder of Sōtō Zen ( d. 1253 )

* Dogen Zenji establishes the Eiheiji temple in Japan, thus founding the Sōtō sect of Zen Buddhism.

He founded the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under Rujing, a master of the Chinese Caodong lineage.

Then, in 1225, he decided to visit a master named Rújìng ( 如淨 ; J. Nyōjo ), the thirteenth patriarch of the Cáodòng ( J. Sōtō ) lineage of Zen Buddhism, at Mount Tiāntóng ( 天童山 Tiāntóngshān ; J. Tendōzan ) in Níngbō.

This temple remains one of the two head temples of Sōtō Zen in Japan today, the other being Sōji-ji.

The concept of oneness of practice-enlightenment is considered so fundamental to Dōgen's variety of Zen — and, consequently, to the Sōtō school as a whole — that it formed the basis for the work Shushō-gi ( 修證儀 ), which was compiled in 1890 by Takiya Takushū ( 滝谷卓洲 ) of Eihei-ji and Azegami Baisen ( 畔上楳仙 ) of Sōji-ji as an introductory and prescriptive abstract of Dōgen's massive work, the Shōbōgenzō (" Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma ").

European Sōtō Zen groups affiliated with the International Zen Association prefer to use " dōjō " instead of zendo to describe their meditation halls as did their founding master, Taisen Deshimaru.

Two schools of Zen were established, Rinzai and Sōtō ; a third, Ōbaku, formed in 1661.

In 2000, Martin was ordained as a Zen priest in the Sōtō tradition, through the Detroit Street Zen Center in Los Angeles.

Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism ( the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku ).

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

Sōtō Zen is now also popular in the West, and in 1996 priests of the Sōtō Zen tradition formed the Soto Zen Buddhist Association based in North America.

Statistics published by the Sōtō school state that 80 percent of Sōtō laymen visit their temple only for reasons having to do with funerals and death, while only 17 percent visit for spiritual reasons and a mere 3 percent visit a Zen priest at a time of personal trouble or crisis.

Suzuki studied at Komazawa University, the Sōtō Zen university in Tokyo.

Therefore, it is often said that Eiheiji is a head temple only in the sense that it is " head of all Sōtō dharma lineages.

The founders of Jōdo-shū, Sōtō Zen, and Nichiren Buddhism all spent time at the monastery.

Tozan, one of the founders of Sōtō Zen in China, had a teaching known as the Five Ranks of the Real and the Ideal, which points out the necessity of not getting caught in the duality between Absolute and Relative / Samsara and Nirvana, and describes the stages of further transcendence into fully realizing the Absolute in all activities.

Another poem of Tung-shan Liang-chieh on these and related themes, " The Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness ", is also chanted in Sōtō temples daily.

Sōtō tends towards a gradual approach, preferring to let the experiences happen on their own.

Suzuki ), who was the son of a Sōtō priest, was sent to San Francisco in the late 1950s on a three-year temporary assignment to care for an established Japanese congregation at the Sōtō temple, Soko-ji.

He combined the Rinzai use of koans and the Sōtō emphasis on shikantaza in his teachings, influenced by his years studying under Hakuun Yasutani in the Harada-Yasutani school.

Maezumi was born on February 24, 1931 to Yoshiko Kuroda-Maezumi and Baian Hakujun Kuroda, a prominent Sōtō Zen priest, in his father's temple in Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.

With about 14, 000 temples, Sōtō is one of the largest Japanese Buddhist organizations.

The larger majority of North American Sōtō priests joined together in 1996 to form the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

While institutionally independent of the Japanese Sōtōshū, the Sōtō Zen Buddhist Association works closely with what most members see as their parent organization.

With about one hundred fully transmitted priests, the Sōtō Zen Buddhist Association now represents about 80 % of Western Sōtō teachers.

* Order of the Prairie Wind An independent order of ordained Sōtō Zen Buddhist priests founded by Rev.

* The Norwegian Sōtō Zen Buddhist Order.

* Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery Official homepage of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist Abbey near Mount Shasta, CA.

* Sōtō Zen Buddhist Association

Shunryu Suzuki ( 鈴木 俊隆 Suzuki Shunryū, dharma name Shōgaku Shunryū 祥岳俊隆, often called Suzuki Roshi ) ( born May 18, 1904, Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan ; died December 4, 1971 in San Francisco, CA, USA ) was a Sōtō Zen monk and teacher who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States, and is renowned for founding the first Buddhist monastery outside Asia ( Tassajara Zen Mountain Center ).

He is believed to have received the Buddhist name from the Rinzai Zen priest Dairin Sōtō ( 1480 – 1568 ) of Nanshūji temple in Sakai.

( 1758 – 1831 ) was a quiet and eccentric Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit.

Japanese Buddhist funerals, which make up the vast majority of Japanese funerals today, are generally performed in what was historically the Sōtō Zen style, although today the Sōtō funerary rites have come to define the standard funeral format by most of the other Japanese Buddhist schools.

is a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple located in the Takanawa neighborhood of Minato-ku, near Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, Japan.

After Eiheiji Katagiri enrolled at Komazawa University — the renowned Sōtō institution in Tokyo, Japan — majoring in Buddhist studies.

was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist teacher, who founded the Association Zen Internationale.

is a Buddhist temple that belongs to the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism.

The White Wind Zen Community ( WWZC ) is a Sōtō Zen Buddhist association based at the Zen Centre of Ottawa ( Honzan Dainen-ji ) in Ottawa, Ontario, with branch centres in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and Harrow, England.