I actually had studied Zen off and on for many years, and read many texts. But, I wanted to read a book that I felt would give me some direction, a manual. So obviously the title caught my attention. D. T. Suzuki was very well known, honored and respected scholar and practitioner of the Zen way. But a quotation on the back of the book by Carl Jung cinched my decision to purchase, "Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism...We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closed to the Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved his task."This book is a must have for the library.