''Eihei Kōroku'' (), also known by its English translation ''Dōgen's Extensive Record'', is a ten volume collection of works by the

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngshān L ...

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

monk Eihei Dōgen. The bulk of the text, accounting for volumes one through seven, are "Dharma hall discourses" (''jōdō''; 上堂), which are highly formalized

Dharma talks A Dharma talk (Sanskrit) or Dhamma talk (Pali) or Dharma sermon (''Japanese'': , ''Chinese'': ) is a public discourse on Buddhism by a Buddhist teacher. In Theravāda Buddhism, the study of Buddhist texts and listening to Dhamma talks by monks o ...

, given from 1236 to 1252. Volume eight consists of "informal meetings" (''shōsan''; 小參) that would have taken place in Dōgen's quarters with select groups of monks, as well as "Dharma words" (''hōgo''; 法語), which were letters containing practice instructions to specific students. Volume nine includes a collection of 90 traditional

kōan A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen. Etymology The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...

s with verse commentary by Dōgen, while volume 10 collects his

Chinese poetry Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernacular forms of the language, its poetry ...

. Unlike Dōgen's other major work the ''

Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...

'', which was written in vernacular

Late Middle Japanese was a stage of the Japanese language following Early Middle Japanese and preceding Early Modern Japanese. It was a period of transition in which the language shed many of its archaic features and became closer to its modern form. The period s ...

, the text of ''Eihei Kōroku'' is written in the Japanese version of

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

, known as

Kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. A ...

. While Dōgen is also better known for the essays that make up the ''Shōbōgenzō'', most of them were completed by 1244. After that date, nearly coinciding with his move from

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Eihei-ji 250px is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan (by number of temples in a single legal entity). Eihei-ji is located about east of Fukui in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. In En ...

, he wrote 405 of the 531 Dharma hall discourses that make up ''Eihei Kōroku'', indicating that he may have come to prefer the ''jōdō'' format over the ''jishu'' style used in the Shōbōgenzō essays.

Taigen Dan Leighton Taigen Dan Leighton (born 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Sōtō priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryū Suzuki and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancien ...

, a modern Zen priest and translator of the ''Eihei Kōroku'', believes that the Dharma hall discourses tell us more about Dōgen the individual than the Shōbōgenzō as they reveal his training methodology, humor, and even emotional states.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eihei Koroku Soto Zen Zen texts