Aka "The Buddha," Siddhartha Gautama was a historical person whose heroic life story has passed into the mythology and legend of all schools of Buddhism.He was a prince in the Sakya clan in what is present-day Nepal.

At 30, he gave up his kingdom to search for the answers to the riddles of human suffering and death. After achieving enlightenment, he was called Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakyas) Buddha (the enlightened one).

For the next 50 years he established a monastic sangha (community) and taught monks and lay people the way to tread the "middle path," a path that avoids the pitfalls of extreme religious ascetiscm and selfish materialism.

After his death, his disciples would make the first of many divisions: splitting the community into the Theravadin and the Mahayana schools.

Bodhidharma was a Mahayana Buddhist monk from southern India who travelled to China to spread the Dharma. His students founded the Ch'an school of Buddhism which would eventually incorporate elements of Chinese culture, including Daoism and Confucianism.

"Ch'an" is a Chinese transliteration of the sanskrit word "Dhyana" which means meditative concentration. The Japanese transliterated the Chinese word "Ch'an" into "Zen." In the broadest terms, the Zen school places its focus firmly on the practice of sitting meditation (zazen).

After losing his mother and father at a young age, Dogen became a Buddhist monk. His teacher, Myozen, had been to China to study with Ch'an masters, but Zen was still very new to Japan. Myozen and Dogen travelled to China to study together. Myozen died during the trip. Dogen became the student of the Ch'an master Nyojozenji. After Nyojozenji's death, Dogen returned to Japan and eventually founded the Soto Zen school of Buddhism. His many written teachings were neglected after his death and nearly lost. His most famous treatises are now readily available to American students in English translations. Check out the list at Amazon.