The Temple of Eternal Peace

For countless students of the Sōtō Zen tradition, that presence belongs to one ancestor above all others: Dōgen Zenji, the monk who sailed to China with an unanswered question, returned with the whole of the Buddhadharma, and built a mountain temple so that every being who came after him could receive it freely. The Temple of Eternal Peace is a devotional account of that life, not a dry biography, not an academic survey, but a walking companion. It moves beside Dōgen through the fog of Hakata Bay, into the kitchens and dharma halls of Song-dynasty China, back across the water to a Japan that was not yet ready for what he carried. It sits with him through the founding of Eihei-ji , through the long seasons of writing the Shōbōgenzō , through the snow, the illness, and the final teaching left on the cushion for anyone willing to receive it.