A fresh commentary on Dogen’s most famous teaching that offers a concise guide to awakening Buddha mind for the contemporary Zen practitioner.

In the words of Eihei Dōgen, the thirteenth-century Buddhist monk who introduced the Sōtō school of Zen to Japan, “To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.” Centuries later, these enigmatic words from his seminal Genjōkōan (“Actualizing the Fundamental Point”) are still studied in Zen communities the world over.

But what did Dōgen really mean when he encouraged studying the self to forget the self? In this innovative new commentary, respected Zen teacher Shinshu Roberts takes readers on a journey to understand Japan’s great Buddhist philosopher. In contrast to prevailing Western commentaries, Robert's applies her deep familiarity with Dōgen’s work to illuminate the text as a cohesive whole—a unified story in which Dōgen teaches how to develop one’s eye of practice.

In addition to a full translation of Dōgen’s Genjōkōan, this volume includes the commentary Okikigaki-sho (“Notes of What Was Heard and Extracted”) written by two of Dōgen’s direct students—the first time an English translation of this highly influential work has appeared in print.