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

The koan spoken by the Sixth Patriarch in the Platform Sutra is about "neither the wind nor the banner moving, but the benevolent one's mind moving." This koan involves the movement of the external phenomena, the wind and the banner, and also involves the movement of the conscious mind. Moreover, it goes beyond that, involving the non-movement of the true mind, the eighth consciousness. Our deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses have grasping; when they attach to the appearances of objects, they can perceive the wind moving and the banner moving. As long as the sixth consciousness has seeing and feeling, it is moving. When the conscious mind moves, it perceives appearances; perceiving appearances, it grasps them. When the six sense faculties contact the six dusts, the eighth consciousness produces the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses then contact the six dusts, resulting in seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, and thus all things are known.

Therefore, where there is knowing, there is consciousness; where there is consciousness, it indicates that the mental faculty (manas) has grasped the six dusts, and all seven conscious minds are moving. If the mental faculty does not grasp, it does not wish to contact the dusts, and the eighth consciousness will not produce consciousnesses to perceive the six dusts. The heavier the grasping and attachment of the mental faculty, the more the six consciousnesses discriminate, and the less pure and tranquil the mind becomes. Yet, amidst all this movement of consciousness, the true mind, the eighth consciousness, remains utterly unmoving, constantly tranquil, still and unmoving. No matter how violently the wind blows, no matter how wildly the banner flaps, the true mind neither perceives nor knows, paying no heed whatsoever, not discriminating, not stirring thoughts, supremely serene. However, during that great movement of wind and banner, it is entirely possible to find the fundamentally unmoving true mind, the eighth consciousness; that depends on the individual's merit, virtue, concentration, and wisdom.

When the wind and banner move, the eighth consciousness remains unmoving; this is said for ordinary people who have not yet attained enlightenment. It can also be said that the eighth consciousness moves, because the eighth consciousness has never been idle; it is always projecting the seeds of consciousness, perceiving the body, the sense faculties, and the material world. If the eighth consciousness did not function, the internal manifestations would not arise at all, nor would the conscious mind arise, and the conscious mind would not know that the wind and banner were moving. However, the movement of the eighth consciousness differs from the movement of the minds of the seven consciousnesses; it never stirs thoughts within the phenomena of the three realms and the objects of the six dusts. This is why it is said that true suchness is unmoving, unmoving and unchanging.