The wind and the flag
- Told in
- Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (the autobiographical section (Zongbao edition))The Gateless Gate (case 29)
- People
- Huineng (the sixth ancestor)
- Place
- Faxing monastery, Guangzhou
- Used as
- KoanFounding story
- Standing
- Traditional: told by the tradition, not independently attested
After years in hiding, Huineng came to Faxing monastery in Guangzhou, where the master Yinzong was lecturing on the Nirvana Sutra. A flag was moving in the wind. One monk said the wind was moving. Another said the flag was moving. They went back and forth.
Huineng stepped forward and said: it is not the wind moving, and not the flag moving; it is your minds that are moving. The assembly was startled. Yinzong asked who he was, learned he was Hongren’s heir, and had his head shaved there.
Retold for this site from Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, the autobiographical section (Zongbao edition).
In the text
時有風吹幡動。一僧曰風動。一僧曰幡動。議論不已。惠能進曰。不是風動。不是幡動。仁者心動。
At that time the wind was blowing and the flag moved. One monk said: the wind moves. Another said: the flag moves. They argued without end. Huineng came forward and said: it is not the wind that moves, not the flag that moves; it is your minds, gentlemen, that move.
What the tradition does with it
- mind and world
- the founding of the southern school
Sources
- Zongbao 宗寶 (ed.), Platform Sutra, Zongbao edition 六祖大師法寶壇經 (1291), Taishō T.2008
- Wumen Huikai 無門慧開; compiled by Zongshao 宗紹, Wumen guan 無門關 (Gateless Gate) (1228), Taishō T.2005
Checked against sources 2026-11-04 by pipeline/claude-opus-5-5@03c4b3e. Report an error.