This is a strange book to review or to call spiritual, exactly. More, it is a curated set of four brief volumes which together offer anecdotes, koan, and other "wisdoms" from the history of Zen figures. 

Curators Reps and Nyogen Senzaki say that some stories from the book are purportedly true, others perhaps apocryphal. But what difference does this make? The role of such tellings is not their investigation but in accepting them as devices to re-frame our thinking. To enlighten, even while most describe the very acts of teaching earlier students of Zen.

Western readers might well be cautioned, however, that because of its assorted short pieces, one might be tempted to read this quickly: it is too too easy to do so. In fact, the opposite is the course any master might recommend. Each koan, for instance, if accepted for what it is, may well take days, weeks, or far longer to uncover. More, over time, a revisit to that space may be required.

Here is one story as example from the book:

Abrupt, cantankerous, objectionable, cute, slapstick, absurd, or meditative, these short works risk distracting contemporary readers in their style, disguising not "deep and secret messages" but deceiving us into believing they are mere amusements, ourselves obscuring their paths to openings in our thinking (or absence of thinking). 

Reps says very little about method or motivation to the collection, however, content enough to offer them with little to no comment or preface. For this reason, I recommend reading about the philosophy or approach to Zen through another text, something perhaps by Kodo Sawaki or Shunryu Suzuki, then later move to Dogen. As they are, however, Reps offers a quick and approachable demonstration of the philosophy, and for that this one stays on my shelf.