Is the Wind Moving? Is the Banner Moving? Or Is Your Mind Moving?

The case mentioned by the Sixth Patriarch in the Altar Sutra, where it is said that it is not the wind moving nor the banner moving, but the mind of the benevolent one that moves. This case involves the movement of external phenomena like the wind and banner, as well as the movement of the conscious mind. Moreover, it goes beyond that to include the non-movement of the true mind, the eighth consciousness. Our deluded mind of the seventh consciousness clings and attaches to phenomenal appearances, enabling us to perceive the wind moving and the banner moving. As long as the sixth consciousness has seeing and sensory experiences, it is already moving. When the conscious mind moves, it perceives appearances, and upon perceiving appearances, it grasps them. When the six sense faculties contact the six sense objects, the eighth consciousness generates the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses, in turn, contact the six sense objects, giving rise to seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, thereby cognizing all matters.

Therefore, where there is knowing, there is consciousness. Where there is consciousness, it indicates that the mental faculty (manas) has clung to the six sense objects, and all seven conscious minds are in motion. If the mental faculty does not cling, it does not wish to contact sense objects, and the eighth consciousness will not generate consciousness to discriminate the six sense objects. The heavier the clinging and attachment of the mental faculty, the more the sixth consciousness discriminates, and the more unsettled the mind becomes. Amidst all this movement of consciousness, the true mind, the eighth consciousness, remains utterly unmoved, perpetually tranquil and serenely immobile. No matter how fiercely the wind blows or how wildly the banner flutters, the true mind neither perceives nor knows; it simply pays no heed, makes no discriminations, stirs no thoughts, abiding in profound stillness. Yet, in the midst of such vigorous movement of wind and banner, it is entirely possible to find the fundamentally unmoving true mind, the eighth consciousness—though this depends on the individual’s merit, virtue, meditative stability, and wisdom.

When the wind and banner move, the eighth consciousness remains unmoved—this is spoken for ordinary people who have not yet awakened to the truth. The eighth consciousness can also be said to move, for it never remains idle; it constantly projects seeds of consciousness and discriminates the body, faculties, and the material world. If the eighth consciousness ceased to function, there would be no arising of the inner phenomenal aspect, nor would there be any generation of conscious mind; the conscious mind would then be unaware of the movement of wind and banner. However, the movement of the eighth consciousness differs from that of the seven conscious minds: it never engages with or stirs thoughts within the phenomena of the three realms or the six sense objects. Hence, it is said that true suchness is unmoving, immovable suchness.