天童寺裡，有一位八十多歲駝著背的老禪師，在大太陽下曬香菇。從日本來中國參學的道元禪師看到以後，忍不住問說：「長老！您年紀這麼老了，為什麼還要勞苦地做這種吃力的事呢？老人家不要這麼辛苦，可以找人為您代勞呀！」 老禪師毫不猶豫地說：「別人並不是我！」
道元：「話是不錯！可是要工作也不必挑這種大太陽的時候呀！」老禪師：「大太陽天不曬香菇，難道要等陰天或雨天再來曬嗎？」
禪者的生活，無論什麼都不假手他人，也不等到明天。「別人不是我」、「現在不做，要待何時？」這是現代人應該深思的問題。

A Chan master of Tiantong Temple, who was over eighty and hunchbacked, was drying mushrooms under a hot sun. This sight provoked Japanese Zen Master Eihei Dogen to say, “Old master, why do you exhaust yourself with such toil? Don’t push yourself so hard. Let me find someone to do it.”
Without hesitating, the old master said, “Other people are not me.”
“But why do you pick the hottest time of day?” Eihei Dogen countered.
The old master said, “If I don’t dry mushrooms on a sunny day, would a cloudy or rainy day be better?”
No Chan practitioner lets another do his work, or waits another day. “Other people are not me” and “if I don’t do it now, then when?” are ancient principles that we can live by today.

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