During the Kamakura period, Shinkan studied Tendai six years and then studied Zen for seven years; then he went to China and contemplated Zen for thirteen years more.
When he returned to Japan, many desired to interview him and asked obscure questions. But when Shinkan received visitors, which was infrequently, he seldom answered their questions.
One day, a fifty-year-old student of enlightenment said to Shinkan: “I have studied the Tendai school of thought since I was a little boy, but one thing in it I cannot understand. Tendai claims that even the grass and trees will become enlightened. To me this seems very strange.”
“Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become enlightened?” asked Shinkan. “The question is how you yourself can become so. Did you ever consider that?”
“I never thought of it in that way,” marvelled the old man.
“Then go home and think it over,” finished Shinkan.
Source: http://www.101zenstories.org
Shinkan (1275-1341) was a Ji sect priest from the end of the Kamakura period to the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan). The Kamakura period is known for the emergence of the samurai, the warrior caste, and for the establishment of feudalism in Japan.
Image: A postage stamp issued by China in 1988. Courtesy https://www.buddhiststamp.com/