[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

This question occurred to me, funnily enough, when reading biographical details of the 13th century Japanese zen "master" Dogen.

Dogen scorned all the various "sects" of the Dharma, all the various schools he found in his wanderings in China as he sought for answers to his questions (which might not be ours) For Dogen there could only be one Dharma. To be "practiced" not to attain anything, but simply for the sole sake of the Dharma itself.

Dogen sought his own time and place. Such is not exclusive, while the Dharma is. He found it for himself in zazen, secluded in a monastery, writing sermons and poems now being studied more and more by those who seek a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "does not stand upon words".