Eihei Dōgen’s influence on later Zen masters can be seen most clearly in the way his understanding of practice came to define the character of Sōtō Zen. His insistence on shikantaza, “just sitting,” as the complete expression of awakening, rather than a technique to attain some future enlightenment, became the standard form of meditation in his lineage. This vision of practice–enlightenment as inseparable shaped how later teachers understood the very purpose of zazen, distinguishing their approach from methods that treat meditation as a means to acquire satori. In this light, sitting itself is already the functioning of Buddha-nature, not a preparation for something else.

Dōgen’s writings also offered a distinctive way of reading and embodying the classical Chan tradition. In works such as the Shōbōgenzō and his recorded sayings, he reinterpreted old kōans and sayings as living expressions of the Dharma, rather than puzzles to be solved. This style encouraged later Sōtō masters to treat kōans as pointing directly to present-moment activity and everyday conduct, rather than as a separate, specialized curriculum. The same spirit informed his reflections on being and time, where each moment is seen as complete reality, a perspective that later teachers drew upon to articulate a non-dual, process-oriented understanding of existence.

Equally formative was Dōgen’s shaping of monastic life and the meaning of daily activity. Through texts such as the Eihei Shingi and his instructions to the cook, he presented detailed guidelines for sitting, eating, working, and living in community, all as full expressions of the Way. Subsequent Sōtō masters adopted these standards as normative, so that cooking, cleaning, and communal labor were no longer secondary to meditation but themselves the arena of realization. This integrated vision of body–mind practice, extending from the meditation hall to the kitchen and fields, gave later teachers a concrete model for training both monastics and lay practitioners.

Underlying these strands is Dōgen’s unwavering affirmation of Buddha-nature and the sacredness of ordinary life. His teaching that all beings are Buddha-nature, and that the world of birth and death is not apart from nirvāṇa, encouraged later Zen masters to soften rigid distinctions between sacred and secular, temple and marketplace. Over generations, study and commentary on his works became a hallmark of educated Sōtō teachers, who turned to his writings as a primary lens for understanding their own tradition. In this way, Dōgen did not merely found a school; he provided a living framework through which later masters could continually rediscover and actualize the heart of Zen.