Withresolve and sincerity, one should aim to exceed the ancients in purity andsurpass the former worthies in attentiveness. The way to put that aspirationinto practice in one's own person is, for example, to take the same three coinsthat one's predecessors spent to make a soup of the crudest greens and use themto now to make a soup of the finest cream. This is difficult to do. Why isthat? Because present and past are completely different, like the distancebetween heaven and earth. How could we ever be able to equal their stature?Nevertheless, when we work attentively, therein lies the principle that makesit possible to surpass our predecessors.

From: Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk