Verses of Layman Pang
Pang Yun is a celebrated Realised One in Chan (Zen) who lived an ordinary life in China (740 – 808).
Well-versed in the Buddha Way
I go the Non-Way,
without abandoning
my ordinary person’s affairs.
The conditioned and name-and-form –
all are flowers in the sky.
Nameless and formless,
I leave birth-and-death.
The past is already past –
don’t try to regain it!
The present doesn’t stay –
don’t try to touch it from moment to moment!
The future has not yet come –
don’t think about it beforehand!
When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise –
just an ordinary fellow
who has completed his work.
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.
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