thezensite: The Shōbōgenzō

The Shōbōgenzō (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye) is the master work of the Japanese Sōtō Zen Master Eihei Dōgen (1200 - 1253). It consists of a series of lectures or talks given to his monks as recorded by his head monk, Ejo, who became his Dharma successor although Dōgen was involved in the editing and recording of some of the Shōbōgenzō. This is the first major Buddhist philosophical work composed in the Japanese language.

There were only two complete English translations of the Shōbōgenzō previous to this version: Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross's Master Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō in four volumes (available from Windbell Publications) and Shobogenzo, The Eye and Treasury of the True Law, by Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens. There are many translations of sections of the Shōbōgenzō. There are also many commentaries on Dōgen and his work. A search on this website will uncover articles on Dōgen and his teachings.



The Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross's Master Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō in four volumes is now available for download for free from thezensite: Dogen Teachings page



The Complete Shōbōgenzō is available here (this site) and here from Shasta Abbey, translated by Rev. Hubert Nearman.

WARNING: the complete text is 1144 pages in .pdf and 8, 675 Kb. Not recommended for dial-up modems. If you have difficulty downloading this from this website, try the Shasta Abbey link. Below are links to each of the 96 chapters and other parts of the book. All pages are in .pdf format.

Another translation is in progress and is available through Stanford University. This translation is part of the Soto Text Project. You can read about this project via the link. I've added links to the Stanford site of the translations that are complete. You will notice that some of the names of the chapters are different and the numbering is also different. However, I believe that for students of the Shōbōgenzō, it may be fruitful to compare different translations. Other chapters have been translated as well and I've added those available on the web in the third column. Note that most of these translations are off site and therefore the links may well die in time. Please let me know of any dead links. Thank you.