This chapter of the Shôbôgenzô represents one of the earlier texts of the collection. It was composed in 1240, while Dôgen was living at Kôshôji, near Kyoto, and is preserved in the 75-chapter redaction of the Shôbôgenzô.

The title of the chapter comes from the famous verse that Dôgen quotes at the start of the work. This verse, sometimes referred to as "the precepts of the seven buddhas," probably represents one of the earliest and most often quoted sayings of the Buddha preserved in the Buddhist canon. It appears in the very earliest layers of Buddhist scriptures, such as the sutras of the Agama and the Dhammapada, and in the Vinaya, as well as in Mahayana scriptures, such as the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra and Nirvana Sutra. 

The verse was widely studied by Buddhists in China and Japan and was no less important in the Zen tradition.  It is quoted in the recorded sayings of numerous Chinese teachers and forms the opening lines of the Essentials for Monastics (Shukke taikô), written by Eisai (1141-1215) for his new Zen community at Kenninji.  This essay might very well have been the first textbook that Dôgen studied when he entered Kenninji in 1217. Elsewhere Dôgen also quotes this verse in Shôbôgenzô Book 24, "Painted Cakes" (Gabyô) and in his recorded sayings (Eihei kôroku, fasc. 6, jôdô 435).