DOUGEN (Soto Zen)
The founder of Soto Zen. Dougen (1200 – 1253) is the the founder of Soto Zen. He went to Sung Dynasty to learn advanced Zen and brought it to Japan. He is the founder of pure Zen in Japan. What’s Zen? In Europe and America, talking of Zen, it’s regarded as single system, but actually, Zen have two systems. One is Rinzai Zen, Another is Soto Zen. Eisai [founder of Rinzai Zen] – Myozen [pupil of Eisai] – Dogen [pupil of Myozen, founder of Soto Zen] Roughly speaking, idea itself is the same, the way of practice is different. The hallmark of Soto Zen is “sit singlemindedly (Zazen)” without?thinking....
