Stories such as these - marvelous, strange, touching, but always with a profound spiritual lesson - have had a major role in Buddhism, especially in Zen, in the diffusion of traditional teachings. The transmission of traditional spiritual teachings is not only effected through the sacred scriptures, the doctrinal treatises of the great sages or the preaching of the priests. A very effective way of transmission and reaching a wide audience are the different stories - stories, apologues, anecdotes ... - carried out by charismatic characters that easily connect with the popular imagination, which assimilates the spiritual teaching that comes out of the story. Mahayana Buddhism, and in particular Zen, extensively used these didactic resources, reflecting a great ethnic and cultural diversity, mainly carried out by spiritual masters, hermits, monks and nuns. The whole of these stories, lovingly kept in the memory of the Buddhist community, is known as sûtras zen and offers ample material for reflection to the receptive reader.