Two monks were arguing about
the temple flag waving in the wind.
One said, "The flag moves."
The other said, "The wind moves."
They argued back and forth but could not agree.
Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch, said: "Gentlemen! It is not the flag that
moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves."
The two monks were struck with awe.
(Koan)
First reaction
How can the mind move?
Exploration
What was the purpose of the monks debate?
What difference did it make?
Were they seeking to prove something?
Was it a matter of perspective or of physics?
Hui-neng negated their debate by bringing them in touch with
reality, yet he did so without referring to something external.
His revelation was not a slap, it was still mind-related, just as their
speculations were.
Hui-neng's comment differed because he was not interested in the subject of
the thoughts but in the existence of the thoughts themselves.
He was not joining their debate by raising a counter-argument, he simply
drew their attention to where the movement was really taking place.
Hui-neng pointed to the source.
Possible meaning
We experience reality in our minds.
Our senses receive data automatically and that information is processed by
the brain.
We make sense of what we see by using our mind.
Reality is not experienced directly, it is filtered by our minds.
Although we may think of things as happening outside ourselves, we are
really experiencing the world via our minds.
The presence of the mind colours how we perceive reality. We do not see what
is. We see what our mind understands.
Page created 19 May 2005