"We are fortunate to receive this important new translation by Kaz Tanahashi and Daido Loori of Zen Master Dogen's early selection of three hundred koans that formed a basis for his many later koan commentaries. Daido Loori's introduction discussing Dogen's approach counteracts prevalent stereotypes that base all koan practice on later eighteenth-century training systems. Daido Loori's brief remarks and verse comments after each case suggest helpful perspectives for practitioners."—Taigen Dan Leighton, co-translator and editor, Dogen's Extensive Record and Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community

"What Daido Roshi now does in a remarkable way is to breathe new life into the text by innovatively creating prose and verse comments. The Mana Shobogenzolives again, and for the lucky readers so does the thought of Dogen Zenji transmitted to the twenty-first century."—Steven Heine, co-editor of Dogen's Extensive Record

"This creative work, presented from the perspective of a Western Zen teacher, adds a significant contribution in helping to make Zen more global in its application as a spiritual path."—Shohaku Okumura, Dharma Successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi and founder of Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana

When the thirteenth century master Eihei Dogen, one of the most influential thinkers in Zen Buddhism and founder of the Japanese Soto school, returned to Japan after four years of study in China, the fruit of his pilgrimage was recorded in a collection of koans called the Chinese Shobogenzo,also known as Shinji or Mana Shobogenzo. This collection of three hundred main cases was first published in 1766 under the title Shobogenzo Sambyakusoku (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Three Hundred Cases), and was known to have provided the raw material for much of Dogen's better known Japanese-language Kana Shobogenzo.

Dogen's collection of koans may come as a surprise to students of Zen as Dogen and the Soto school are generally known for the practice of shikantaza, or "just sitting," rather than for koan practice. Nevertheless, a careful study of Dogen's work reveals that he did use koans extensively in his writing and teaching, not only in the Kana Shobogenzo, but most of his other works as well. Zen students and scholars will find The True Dharma Eye to be a source of deep insight into the mind of one of the world's greatest religious thinkers, as well as the practice of koan study itself.

Following the spirit of Dogen's pioneering efforts to carry the dharma across cultural divides, John Daido Loori Roshi, one of the West's most respected Zen teachers, has added his own verses and commentaries to each koan. The resulting volume presents readers with a uniquely contemporary perspective on Dogen's profound teachings and their relevance for twenty-first-century Western practitioners of Zen.