The past is already past.
Don’t try to regain it.
The present does not stay.
Don’t try to touch it.

From moment to moment.
The future has not come;
Don’t think about it
Beforehand.

Whatever comes to the eye,
Leave it be.
There are no commandments
To be kept;
There’s no filth to be cleansed.

With empty mind really
Penetrated, the dharmas
Have no life.

When you can be like this,
You’ve completed
The ultimate attainment.

Layman P’ang (740-808)

My daily activities are not unusual, I'm just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing... Supernatural power and marvelous activity -
Drawing water and carrying firewood.

Layman P’ang (740-808)

A man who had been traveling a long way approaches the
gate to a small village. Sitting outside the gate is an
old, wrinkled woman.The man asks the woman "What kind of
people will I find here in this village?"

The woman answers "What kind of people did you find in
the last village you were in?" The man said, "They were
terrible people. Greedy, obnoxious, hateful, rude,
Thieves all of them. It was awful." "You will find the same
sort of people here then" she answered. And the man hung his
head, turned around and walked away.

Later that day another man who had also been traveling a
long way approaches the same gate to the same village
and sees the same old woman sitting outside the
gate. He asks, "What kind of people will I find in this
village?"

The woman in turns asks, "What kind of people did you
find in the last village you lived?" He said "They were
wonderful people! Kind, generous, thoughtful, helpful, loving
people. I hated having to leave."
The woman looked at the man and answered

"Then you will find the same sort of people here."
And the man happily walked through the gate into the
village.