Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japanese by the 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk and founder Dōgen of the Japanese Sōtō Zen school.

In the legends of the Zen tradition, the Shōbōgenzō has been handed down from teacher to student going all the way back to the Buddha.

Buddha transmitted the Shōbōgenzō to his disciple Mahākāśyapa thus beginning the Zen lineage that Bodhidharma brought to China.

Dongshan (807-869) was a founder of the Caodong school of China, Sōtō Zen in Japanese.

The poem attributed to him called “Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi” is still memorized and chanted by Sōtō Zen practitioners

The teaching of Susness has been intimately communicated by buddhas and ancestors.

Now you have it, so keep it well.
Filling a silver bowl with snow,
hiding a heron in the moonlight
Taken as similar they’re not the same;
when you mix them, you know where they are.