The book is not true in a strictly historical sense: for example, Bodhidharma is probably a mythical figure, the Sixth Patriarch was probably not Huineng, and someone else probably wrote the "Platform Sutra". Instead "Denkōroku" may be read as true in the sense that great novels like "Moby-Dick" or "The Great Gatsby" are true. Keizan included fantastical or magical details from the lives of some ancestors, especially those in India, which audiences in times past may have appreciated but which today might be met with skepticism.