This collection of stories operates on the principle that it is sometimes easier to show than it is to tell. These stories and meditations come from sources that extend back to the origins of Zen Buddhism and offer what amounts to a complete portrait of the essence of Zen. Alternately amusing, inspiring, and baffling, the stories hint at the totality Zen's beauty, poetry, and essential paradoxes. Students of Buddhism as well as the philosophically curious have used this book to understand Zen.