Eihei Dōgen’s teaching stands firmly within the stream of traditional Buddhism while giving that tradition a distinctive, experiential inflection. He fully accepts foundational doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, dependent origination, impermanence, non‑self, and emptiness, yet presents them as something to be enacted rather than merely believed. Classical insights into suffering and its cessation are not treated as distant goals but as realities disclosed when “body–mind drop away,” a phrase that points to the release of self‑clinging. In this light, the Eightfold Path is not a ladder of stages but a single integrated way of being, in which right view, right conduct, and right concentration are all present in authentic practice. This interpretive move does not abandon traditional principles; it intensifies them by insisting that they must be lived moment by moment.

Central to this lived expression is zazen, especially in the form known as shikantaza, “just sitting.” Dōgen presents this seated meditation as “practice‑realization”: not a technique that eventually produces enlightenment, but the present activity of enlightenment itself. In shikantaza, the practitioner directly encounters impermanence, non‑self, and dependent origination, seeing how all phenomena arise interdependently and lack fixed essence. His reflections on “being‑time” (uji) articulate this interdependence in terms of the dynamic, ever‑unfolding nature of existence, without departing from the traditional insight that all things are empty of inherent existence. Through such practice, the Middle Way is embodied as a posture of non‑grasping presence, avoiding both indulgence and harsh asceticism.

Dōgen also incorporates and deepens traditional Mahāyāna themes such as Buddha‑nature and the bodhisattva ideal. He affirms that all beings possess Buddha‑nature, yet refuses to treat it as a static inner substance; it is realized and expressed through wholehearted practice rather than through mere conceptual understanding. The bodhisattva path appears not only in explicit teachings on compassion but also in the meticulous care he gives to everyday conduct, where even the handling of clothing or utensils becomes an occasion for selfless attention. In this way, ethical precepts and monastic discipline are not separate from meditation but are themselves the functioning of awakening, the concrete form of compassion for all beings.

Finally, Dōgen’s integration of scripture, lineage, and community shows his continuity with traditional Buddhism. He engages sutras and kōans as living expressions of the Buddha‑dharma, reading them through the lens of immediate practice rather than abstract doctrine. The Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—are honored not only in principle but in the careful shaping of monastic life, where detailed regulations adapt classical discipline to local conditions while preserving its spirit. Dharma transmission from teacher to student is maintained as the living thread that connects his community to Śākyamuni Buddha. In all of this, traditional principles are neither discarded nor merely repeated; they are embodied in a way of practice where enlightenment and daily life are no longer two.