Our teachings are based on the works of Zen Master Dogen, the 13th century monk and philosopher who established the practice of Zazen in Japan. The record of his life's teachings, the Shobogenzo, is available in English in 4 volumes from Windbell Publications, the publishing arm of Dogen Sangha.

When we read the Shobogenzo today, we are usually struck by its great breadth and complexity. It delves into the most profound problems of Buddhist philosophy and considers those problems from seemingly contradictory standpoints.

This breadth and complexity tend, at first, to obscure the fact that, at its core, Master Dogen's thought is very simple and practical. He teaches us that the ultimate meaning of Buddhism is to be found, not in theory, but in the practice of Zazen. According to Master Dogen, Buddhism and Zazen are one and the same thing; to practice Zazen is Buddhism itself. Buddhism is simply to practice Zazen.

Transcripts of the Shobogenzo workshops are now available. These are commentaries on the chapters of the Shobogenzo. They are in Adobe Acrobat format and you can download these and print them as they become available. Click here to go to the transcript download page

Introductions to all chapters of the Shobogenzo are available for browsing on the Windbell site.

To buy Shobogenzo books 1 and 4 click on the relevant link on the right of this page

Books 1 and 2 of the German translation of the Shobogenzo are available over the Internet from Verner Kristkeitz Verlag. You can order the books from overseas from the publisher's site at http://www.kristkeitz.de or http://www.shobogenzo.de .