The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō

The Heart of Doµgen’s Shoµboµgenzoµ provides exhaustively annotated translations of the difficult core essays of Shoµboµgenzoµ, the masterwork of Japanese Zen master Doµgen Kigen, the founder of Soµtoµ Zen. This book is centered around those essays that generations have regarded as containing the essence of Doµgen’s teaching. These translations, revised from those that first appeared in the 1970s, clarify and enrich the understanding of Doµgen’s religious thought and his basic ideas about Zen practice and doctrine. Doµgen’s uncommon intellectual gifts, combined with a profound religious attainment and an extraordinary ability to articulate it, make Shoµboµgenzoµ unique even in the vast literature the Zen school has produced over the centuries, securing it a special place in the history of world religious literature.