Dogen was born in 1200, in Uji, close to Kyoto. His father belonged to the Minamoto clan and was descended from emperor Murakami (947-967). During this epoch Japan was going through a time of problems. The country had recently become subject to two powers, that of the emperor and his court installed in Kyoto, and that of the shogun, a kind of supreme general who has military power, based in Kamamura. In this feudal society the big families struggle for power. The most illustrious of these were the Fujiwara and the Minamoto. His mother was the daughter of Fujiwara Motofusa, another important figure in the imperial court.

Dogen lived at this time in the comfort afforded by such an influential, aristocratic family of good standing. However his father died when he was two years old and his mother died when he was eight.  The young Dogen received an education appropriate to his standing in this world of sorrow and impermanence. Just before she died, his mother recommended to him that he should become a monk in order to help save all beings. 

Quickly the child, confronted by such phenomena, realised the need to search for the truth further than in the world of appearances. Orphaned, Dogen was taken care of by one of his uncles, Minamoto Michitomo, an illustrious poet who helped him discover poetry, which would subsume his future work. During his thirteenth year, he climbed Mount Hiei, near Kyoto, to the monastery of the centre of buddhist studies and enrolled in the school Tendai.

His first teacher was Koen, one of the leaders of the monastery. But at this time the Tendai school was entering into a phase of decadence, placing too much importance on ceremony, mixing esoteric doctrine with exotic, developing formalism in monastic life. Moreover, soldier monks appeared on top of Mount Hiei, and the monastery seemed to be turning into a military fort. Dogen concentrated day and night on his practice, but was distracted and could not realise his aspirations. During these short years spent at the monastery, Dogen experienced great doubt. His central question was: “In buddhist teaching, all beings already posess buddha nature. If this is so, ¿Why do we have to adopt special practices to reach the state of Buddah?” Nobody could answer this question to the satisfaction of Dogen.

At this time he decided to abandon Mount Hiei, as did other monks like Honen (1133-1212) and Eisai (1141-1215), founders of the Jodo and Rinzai schools, who became famous in the buddhist renewal in the japanese Middle Ages. Dogen then met master Eisai, recently returned from China, who taught Rinzai Zen: En el templo de Kennin-ji he became disciple of Myozen, the succesor to Eisai. Even though the school did not completely satisfy him , Dogen was able to practice deeply and he developed his interest for Zen practice. Erudite, and having a deep understanding of numerous buddhist texts, his demanding nature drove to search relentlessy for new teachers. He decided to go to China, to visit the source of Zen buddhism.

He left Japan on the 22nd. of February 1223, accompanied by  Myozen and two other monks. On his arrival, Dogen decided to stay on the boat for a while to prepare for his journey. An old monk came on board to buy japanese mushrooms. This monk, older than seventy, was tenzo (cook) in a temple in the mountain near to Shanghai. His face reflected a great depth and Dogen felt intrigued by him.  He invited him to stay the night on the boat, hoping to speak with him. The monk replied that he had to return to the temple that afternoon because he had to cook. “In a great monastery like yours, Dogen said, “there must be other monks who can prepare the food?” “I’m old” replied the tenzo. “It is the practice of my old age. How can I leave to others that which I must do myself?” “Venerable monk”, said Dogen, “why must an old man like you do this exhausting work instead of reading the sutras?” The monk burst into laughter and said: “Young friend from overseas, you seem to know little of the meaning of the practice and teaching of buddhism!” The old monk invited him to visit the temple of his master, and he waved goodbye.

Dogen was deeply impressed by this meeting and one day, in 1225,  he went to the temple at Nyojo, considered at the time to be more important than Keitoku-Ji on Mount Tendo, in Minshu. During one conversation he asked the tenzo: “What is the use of writing? How should we read the sutras? ” “1-2-3-4-5”, replied the old monk. Dogen asked again: “How should we study the Way, true buddhism?” –  “Nowhere is the Way not true.” Dogen continued: “What should we do to study the sutras, true buddhism?” “1-2-3-4-5”, answered the tenzo. For Dogen this old monk incarnated true buddhism, uniting all the knowledge that he had been able to accumulate and enabling him to understand the importance of work, bodily work and all the acts of life.

Master Nyojo was a demanding and rigourous person. One day, during the course of a sesshin, Dogen had a great shock. While seated in zazen his neighbour fell asleep on his zafu. Nyojo exclaimed in a loud voice: “Shin jin datsu raku (reject body and mind)!”  and hit the monk hard with his sandal, causing him to fall from his seat.  On hearing these words Dogen had an internal revolution. After zazen Dogen went to the room of his master and said to him: “Shin jin datsu raku, I have abandoned body and mind”. Nyojo answered him with: “Datsu raku shin jin, abandon again body and mind”.

Dogen remained another two years close to Nyojo, until he decided to return to Japan. His master confirmed that it was time for him to teach on his return ” the teaching of buddhism helping others to awaken to the universal truth”. In 1227 Dogen returned to Japan, taking only with him zazen, shikantaza, just as his master had shown him. On his return to Japan, they asked him: “What did you discover?” Dogen replied: “I came back with empty hands”. In his book Eihei Koroku, he wrote later: “Having studied only with my master Nyojo and plainly understanding that the eyes are horizontal and the nose vertical, I return home with empty hands… Starting tomorrow, in the morning, the sun will rise in the East; disturbed by night, the moon goes down in the West. The clouds disappear and the mountains manifest their reality, rain shall stop falling and the Four Mountains (birth, old age, sickness and death) will become level.”

Dogen first based himself at Kennin-ji, the temple of Myozen, his first master with whom he had gone to China and who died during the journey. It was in this temple that he wrote his first collection: Fukanzazengi, universal rules for the practice of zazen. It is the core of his teaching: just sitting down in an exact posture without seeking anything, letting thoughts pass like clouds in the sky.

Later Dogen left the temple at  Kennin-ji to establish himself in three temples successively, all situated in the region of Kyoto: Annyoin, a small hermitage in 1230, later Kannon Dorin in 1233 and finally Kosho-ji where, with the help of donations, he constructed the first truly independent zen monastery of Japan in 1236. In Kosho-ji he started editing the first chapters of his monumental work: Shobogenzo, “The Treasure of the Eye of the True Law”, ninety five chapters containing the essence of his philosophical and religious vision.

Between 1233 and 1243 many disciples gathered around him and followed his teaching, particularly Ejo (in 1234) who would become his succesor. His fame continued to grow. He drove people on to practice assiduously, just as he had been taught by his master Nyojo in China. Dogen’s success, this breath of fresh air he brought to a calcified buddhism attracted hostility from the clerical hierarchy. So much so that in 1243, monks from Mount Hiei tried to burn down his temple at Kosho-ji. As a result, Dogen decided to leave behind the agitation of the cities and the confusion they can create in the spirit. Thanks to the support of a lay disciple, lord of the province of Echizen in the north east of the country,  (nowadays the prefecture of Fukui), on the coast, he constructed a new temple, which he baptised, “temple of eternal peace”, Eihei-ji, where Ejo would later become abbott, after his death.

There, in the calm of the vast mountain, he continued to teach zen to his disciples and continued work on the Shobogenzo. Far away from the world, he only left this place once, during the winter of 1247-1248 to visit the shogun in Kamakura, at the invitation of general Hojo Tokiyori. Tokiyori was fascinated by Dogen and wanted him to stay close by. He would build Dogen a great monastery. Dogen rejected his proposal, preferring solitude. He continued practicing zazen until 1252, at the age of just fifty two years, he fell gravely ill. He went to Kyoto to receive care, without succes. He passed away on the 28th. of august 1253 in the temple of Takatsuji.