Sudhana gathering herbs

It must be in the 90s that I heard an interesting Zen koan. It goes like this:

One day Manjushri asked Sudhana to pick medicinal herbs, telling him to bring back anything that wasn’t medicine. Sudhana searched all over but couldn’t find anything, so he came back and said, “There is nothing that isn’t medicine.” Manjushri said, “Then bring me something that is medicine.” Sudhana picked a blade of grass and handed it to Manjushri, who held it up and said, “This medicine can kill people and it can also bring people to life.”

~ The Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 commentary

For those who are not familiar with Mahayana Buddhism, let me provide some background. Manjushri is a bodhisattva in Mahayana literature who is famous for his wisdom. Sudhana is a young pilgrim who travels to study with celestial bodhisattvas and learned masters in his quest for enlightenment.

I was not quite sure of the meaning of this koan. I just thought it was a beautiful story. Now, I understand that it is another illustration of the Buddhist notion of emptiness.

This story goes well together with this teaching in the Diamond Sutra: “If someone says, ‘The Tathagata (Buddha) teaches the Dharma,” that is slandering the Buddha. This means the person does not understand what I am talking about. Sriputra, the one teaching the Dharma has no…