, written by Keizan

Keizan

-Biography:Keizan Jōkin 螢山紹瑾 , also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi, was the second of the great founders of the Sōtō Zen sect in Japan. While Dōgen Zenji, as founder of Japanese Sōtō, is known as , Keizan is often referred to as Taiso , or Greatest Patriarch...

 Jokin Zenji in 1300, is a kōan collection of 53 enlightenment

Enlightenment (spiritual)

Enlightenment in a secular context often means the "full comprehension of a situation", but in spiritual terms the word alludes to a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of the mind of God, profound spiritual...

 stories based on the traditional legendary accounts of the Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 transmission between successive masters and disciples in the Sōtō Zen

Soto

Sōtō Zen , or is, with Rinzai and Ōbaku, one of the three most populous sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.The Sōtō sect was first established as the Caodong sect during the Tang Dynasty in China by Dongshan Liangjie in the 9th century, which Dōgen Zenji then brought to Japan in the 13th century...

 Buddhist lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha

Buddhahood

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

 to Japanese Zen Master Ejō

Koun Ejo

Koun Ejō was initially a disciple of the short-lived Darumashū sect of Japanese Zen under Nōnin, but later studied and received dharma transmission under Dōgen and is considered his spiritual successor by the Sōtō school. His transmission is the final koan chronicled in the Denkoroku...

, a first generation Dharma

Dharma

Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

 heir to Dōgen

Dogen

Dōgen Zenji was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Kyōto, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there...

Kigen Zenji, who first brought the Sōtō Zen teaching from China to Japan. The format for each koan account is in four parts: (1) the presentation of the koan case that is the enlightenment encounter between master and disciple, (2) a brief biographical account on the life of the disciple including background notes on the initial meeting between the master and the disciple, (3) a commentary on the koan, and (4) a verse summarizing the point made by the master and understood by the disciple.