Master Zhuang, 4th century BC:
Woodworker Qing carved a piece of wood and made a bell stand, and when it was finished, everyone who saw marveled, for it seemed to be the work of gods or spirits. When the marquis of Lu saw it, he asked, “What art/technique is it you have?” Qing replied, “I am only a craftsman how would I have any art? There is one thing, however. When I am going to make a bell stand, I never let it wear out my vital energy. I always fast in order to still my mind. When I have fasted for-three days, I no longer have any thought of congratulations or rewards, of titles or stipends. When I have fasted for five days, I no longer have any thought of praise or blame, of skill or clumsiness. And when I have fasted for seven days, I am so still that I forget I have four limbs and a form and body. By that time, the ruler and his court no longer exist for me. My skill is concentrated and all outside distractions fade away. After that, I go into the mountain forest and examine the Heavenly nature of the trees. If I find one of superlative form, and I can see a bell stand there, I put my hand to the job of carving; if not, I let it go. This way I am simply matching up “Heaven’ with ‘Heaven.’ That’s probably the reason that people wonder if the results were not made by spirits.
Zhuangzi
One more:
Yan Hui said, “I have nothing more to offer. May I ask the proper method?”
Zhuangzi
Confucius said, “You must fast! Let me tell you. Can any action be accomplished with ease if pursued by means of the mind’s intentions? If you think it is, bright Heaven will not befriend you.”
Yan Hui said, “My family is poor, and I have not drunk wine or eaten meat for several months. Doesn’t that constitute fasting?”
“That is the fasting one does before performing rites of sacrifice. It is not the fasting of the mind.”
“May I ask, what is the fasting of the mind?”
Confucius said, “Unify your will. Don’t listen with your ears, listen with your mind – don’t listen with your mind, listen with your qi. The ears are limited to listening; the mind is limited to sorting. But the qi, all empty it awaits things. The Dao gathers in emptiness – emptiness: that is the fasting of the mind.”