Speaking of hurricanes -- wind and weather come up frequently in the Zen koan literature. Possibly the best-known example is Case 29 of the Mumonkan, "Not the Wind, Not the Flag."
- Two monks were watching a flag waving in the wind. One said to the other, "The flag is moving."
- The other said, "The wind is moving."
- Huineng overheard this. He said, "Not the wind, not the flag. Your mind is moving."
(The Mumonkan, also called the "Gateless Gate," is a collection of koans compiled in the 13th century by a Chinese Chan master named Wumen, or Mumon in Japanese. Many of these little stories were already centuries old when Master Wumen collected them.)
This koan has been debated many times over the centuries. In 9th century China, the nun Miaoxin once heard a group of monks debating this koan. "How lamentable, you seventeen blind donkeys!" she said. "How many straw sandals have you wasted? The buddha dharma has not yet appeared even in your dreams!"
The monks asked her to explain. She said, "Step forward!" As they walked toward her, she said, "It's not the wind moving, it's not the flag moving, it's not the mind moving."
In his book The Gateless Barrier, the late Robert Aitken Roshi wrote that when he first heard the koan, he thought Huineng was telling the monks they were being too intellectual. What was moving was the thoughts in their heads. But that wasn't quite it.
Aitken said that some people interpret this koan to mean that there is no reality apart from our perceptions. But that's not quite it, either. He continued, "Hui-neng tossed something into the depths beneath such a view. ... 'It is your mind that moves' -- it is the mind of yourself that moves. You must see into the mind of that self. What is that mind?"
In his commentary on the koan, Master Wumen wrote, "It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is not the mind that moves. Where do you see the heart of the Patriarch?"
Of this, Zenkei Shibayama Roshi (1894-1974) said, "What a superb comment this is! He is demanding of us that we grasp Master Eno's [Huineng's] real intention."
Shibayama Roshi continued, "It is moving, yet there is no movement. It is standing still, yet there is no standstill. For all that, moving will do and standing still will do. This is the freedom of Zen, which transcends subject and object, movement and� nonmovement, and real peace is enjoyed only when one lives with this freedom."
It's not just the freedom "of Zen," but the freedom of the Buddha.
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