In death, there is nothing but death. Dogen

a

CA PREVENTER FOODS

 The line you’re referring to is associated with Dōgen, the 13th-century founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

A fuller version is often translated as:

“When it is time to die, just die.
When it is time to live, just live.
Do not avoid them, and do not desire them.”

Another closely related rendering from Dōgen’s writings is:

“Life is an expression of the whole of life. Death is an expression of the whole of death.”

The phrase “In death, there is nothing but death” points to a Zen idea: when death is present, meet it directly rather than layering it with fear, speculation, or resistance. It is not necessarily saying death is annihilation or meaningless; rather, it emphasizes experiencing reality as it is, without adding conceptual stories.

In Dōgen’s view, life and death are not opposites to escape from but conditions to be fully inhabited. He wrote in Shōbōgenzō (Shoji, often translated “Birth and Death”):

“If you search for Buddha outside birth and death, it is like pointing a cart north while trying to go south.”

So “nothing but death” can be read as: when death comes, there is no separate stance outside it—only this moment, fully what it is.

Are you asking about the meaning of the quote, or did it strike you in a particular way?