The beautiful nonsense sayings in clothes of anti-reason, the koans, are for me the biggest attraction of Zen. However, my readings of texts about Zen philosophy have taught me that koans, being the most attractive part of this peculiar subject, is the less abundant. With the idea of making the most entertaining and instructive part of Zen wisdom accessible to readers like myself, I have collected all the dialogues, riddles and paradoxical phrases I've found in the many books that I've read about Zen and surrounding areas and I have written them down in a simply way, avoiding metaphysical adornments. The result, gentle reader, is this book that you have in your hands.