Essential Books for the Dogen Student

Essential Books for the student of Zen Master Dogen
(From the September edition of The Flatbed Sutra Newsletter)

By far, the best two books available in English on Dogen and his teachings

-Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist, by Hee-Jin Kim
-Dogen: On Meditation and Thinking, by Hee-Jin Kim

Two complete translations of Shobogenzo essential for all Dogen students

-Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo (Complete translation in four volumes), by Gudo Nishijima & Mike (Chodo) Cross
-Shobogenzo (Complete translation), by Rev. Hubert Nearman

Essential works with selected translations of Shobogenzo

-Flowers of Emptiness: Selections From Dogen’s Shobogenzo, by Hee-Jin Kim
-The Heart of Dogen’s Shobogenzo, by Norman Waddell and Masao Abe
-Rational Zen, by Thomas Cleary
-Minding Mind, by Thomas Cleary
-Shobogenzo, by Thomas Cleary
-Moon In A Dewdrop, by Kazuaki Tanahashi
-Enlightenment Unfolds, by Kazuaki Tanahashi
-How To Raise An Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, by Francis H. Cook
-Sounds of Valley Streams: Enlightenment in Dogen’s Zen, by Francis H. Cook
-Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation, by Carl Bielefeldt
-Flowers Fall: A Commentary on Zen Master Dogen’s Genjokoan, by Hakuun Yasutani

Essential translations of some of Dogen’s works other than Shobogenzo

-The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Three Hundred Koans, by Kazuaki Tanahashi (includes Dogen’s preface)
-Shobogenzo Shinji (Dogen’s Koan Collection), by Gudo Nishijima (does not include Dogen’s preface)
-Dogen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku, by Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura
-Dogen’s Formative Years in China: An Historical Study and Annotated Translation of the ‘Hokyo-ki’ by James Kodera
-Record of Things Heard: The Shobogenzo Zuimonki, by Thomas Cleary
-The Zen Poetry of Dogen, by Steven Heine

Two Classic Zen Records related to Dogen’s Zen

-Cultivating the Empty Field: A Translation of the Record of Honzhi, by Taigen Dan Leighton (An influence on Dogen)
-Transmission of Light, by Thomas Cleary (Influenced by Dogen)

Essential scholarly studies on Dogen

-Dogen and the Koan Tradition, by Steven Heine
-Impermanence Is Buddha Nature: Dogen’s Understanding of Temporality, by Joan Stambaugh
-Did Dogen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It, by Steven Heine
-A Study of Dogen: His Philosophy and Religion, Masao Abe

Essential scholarly studies related to Dogen

-Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism, by Jacqueline I. Stone
-Soto Zen In Medieval Japan, by William Bodiford
-How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute Over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, by Morten Schlutter
-The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan, by Duncan Ryuken Williams

Other notable works related to Dogen

-Zen Classics, by Steven Heine and Dale Wright
-Zen Ritual, by Steven Heine and Dale Wright
-The Zen Canon, by Steven Heine and Dale Wright
-Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?, by Steven Heine
-Rude Awakenings: Zen, the Kyoto School, & the Question of Nationalism, by James W. Heisig and John C. Maraldo

Peace,
Ted