Even though Zen Master Dōgen urged his monks to "give up the world, give up your family, and give up your body and mind," he also had great praise for practicing laypersons throughout Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki.

In a chapter of the Kana Shōbōgenzō titled Raihai Tokuzui ("Prostrating Oneself to Attainment of the Marrow," that is, revering that which has arrived at the truth), Dōgen says, "There are disciples of the Buddha who, as laymen or laywomen, have a husband or a wife: even though they have a husband or a wife, they are disciples of the Buddha, and so there are no other beings equal to them in the human world or in the heaven above."

In Raihai Tokuzui, Dōgen insists that the true value of a being lies in whether or not it has arrived at the truth. It matters not whether the being is a man, a woman, a child, a devil, or an animal - if it has the truth, it should be revered wholeheartedly. In this attitude, we find Dōgen’s sincere reverence of the truth, and his view of men, women, and animals.

In ancient China, the term "householder" referred to men who had not left their families. Some of them lived with their wives while others were single, but in either case they were immensely busy with secular work. "Nevertheless," Dōgen wrote, "if one of them has clarified something, patch-robed monks gather to do prostrations and to ask for the benefit of his teaching, as to a master who had left home. We also should be like that, even toward a woman, even toward an animal."

The celibate, monastic practice that has characterized much of Buddhist practice for millennia was also usually, but not always, patriarchal as well. This has unfairly presented a barrier to practice for many women. In this text, Dōgen sets out demolish the barrier altogether.

"When a person practices the buddha-dharma and speaks the buddha-dharma," Dōgen wrote, "even if a girl of seven, she should be considered a guiding teacher and the benevolent parent of all living beings. We should serve and venerate her as we do the buddha-tathāgatas. This is just the time-honored form in Buddhism. Those who do not know about it, and who have not received its one-to-one transmission, are pitiful."

The text of Raihai Tokuzui is in two parts. The first part, delivered to his monks in the spring of 1240, deals with being willing to learn from any who give voice to the dharma, be they male or female, human or animal, living or dead, animate or inanimate. The second, given in the fall of the same year, specifically addresses various questions on learning from women. For unexplained reasons, the second part was not incorporated in early versions of the Shōbōgenzō, but was kept under lock and key in Eihei-ji, Dōgen’s temple. This may be due in part to the strong tone of this section ("pitiful"), which might be misunderstood as being improperly critical of the practices and attitudes of other monks and other Buddhist traditions.

When read in context, however, it is likely that Dōgen’s initial talk on gratitude towards those who teach the dharma, which includes female monks, garnered some negative reactions, and he seems determined in the second part to rid his monks of any and all negative, conventional, non-Buddhist cultural attitudes towards women, including those arising from some long-standing practices within Buddhist communities.

"Nowadays," he said, "extremely stupid people look at women with an incorrect prejudice of women as sexual objects. Disciples of the Buddha must not be like this. If whatever may be perceived as a sexual object is to be hated, do not all men deserve to be hated too? A man can be the object, a woman can be the object, what is neither man nor woman can be the object, and dreams and fantasies, flowers in space, can also be the object. A god can be the object, and a demon can be the object. It is impossible to count all the possible objects - they say that there are eighty-four thousand objects. Should we discard all of them? Should we not look at any of them?"

If we hate whatever might become the object of sexual desire, Dōgen is saying, then men and women will all hate each other, and we will never have any chance to attain realization. He also tells stories of women teachers of the past.

Nun Myōshin was a disciple of Kyōzan. On one occasion, Kyōzan was looking for a new Chief of the Business Office. He asked the retired officers and others, "Who is the right person?" They discussed it back and forth, and eventually Kyōzan said, "Disciple Myōshin from the Wai River, though a woman, has the spirit of a big stout fellow. She is certainly qualified to be Chief of the Business Office." All the monks agree. So at length Myōshin is assigned as Chief of the Business Office.

While she is posted at the business office, seventeen monks from the Shoku district form a group to visit teachers and seek the truth, and, intending to climb Mount Kyōzan, they lodge at dusk at the business office. In a nighttime talk, while resting, they discuss the story of the Hui-Neng and the wind and the flag. The words of each of the seventeen men are totally inadequate.

Meanwhile, listening from the other side of the wall, Myōshin says, "Those seventeen blind donkeys! How many straw sandals have they worn out in vain? They have never seen the buddha-dharma even in a dream."

A temple servant present at the time overhears Myōshin criticizing the monks and informs the seventeen monks themselves, but none of the seventeen monks resents her criticism. Ashamed of their own inability to express the truth, they at once prepare themselves in dignified form, burn incense, do prostrations, and request her teaching.

Myōshin says, "Come up here!" The seventeen monks approach her, and while they are still walking, she says, "This is not wind moving, this is not a flag moving, and this is not mind moving."

When she teaches them like this, the seventeen monks all experience reflection. They bow to thank her and have a ceremony to become her disciples. They then go straight back home to western Shoku.

In the end, they did not climb Mount Kyōzan.