A Zen Story For Overthinking

Here we will experience a classic Zen story as a form of meditation. I encourage you to experience the story more so like a joke than an intellectual analysis. When a joke lands, you laugh spontaneously, not with the mind, but with the body. When a Zen story lands, you feel awakening spontaneously in the body. Let's see what happens. And feel free to comment here with any thoughts or questions.

Transcript

Welcome.

In this session,

I'll tell you an old Zen story.

And I encourage you to experience the story like a joke.

Jokes are intended to land and then make you laugh spontaneously.

And these old Zen stories are intended to land and make you feel awakening spontaneously.

So I'll tell you the story maybe a few times.

But for now,

Let's just settle in.

You might take a few deep breaths.

Maybe allowing the eyes to close and allowing the eyes to rest.

This area that is constantly doing so much work,

Here's permission for the eyes to just rest.

And maybe extending this permission out to the rest of your body and your entire being.

It's okay to just rest for right now.

Just being the open space of present moment awareness.

Ready to receive the story.

And now,

Here it is.

Two Zen monks were looking at a flag moving in the wind.

And one of them said,

The flag is moving.

And the other one said,

No,

The wind is moving.

And then their teacher came by and they asked him,

Does the flag move or the wind move?

And the teacher responded,

Neither.

Mind moves.

So you can just breathe in and breathe out the energy of this story.

Not trying to figure it out,

But just feeling it.

Does the wind move or the flag move?

Neither.

Mind moves.

What does the teacher mean with this response?

Well just like the experience of a joke,

As soon as you start to investigate it and analyze it,

It becomes less funny.

You might be able to figure out why it's funny,

But it's less funny.

Here I think what the teacher is doing is redirecting the question.

The question lived in the space of conceptual analysis of this versus that of a dualistic subject-object-me-flag-wind distinction.

And Zen offers a present moment awareness that cuts through this duality.

It cuts into the way in which everything is obviously one.

All distinctions drop.

All tension drops.

All holding on releases.

And in that space,

Everything simply is.

Does the flag move or the wind move?

Mind moves.

And what moves the mind?

Good question.

Okay,

And you might take a few more deep breaths if that feels good.

As deep as you like.

And if your eyes were closed,

You can gradually allow them to reopen on their own time whenever they want to.

And I'll just mention,

If you'd like to investigate Zen more deeply,

I have an entire 111-day course on Zen.

It's called The Zen Path,

And you can find it on my profile if you're interested.

So thank you for your time,

Your attention,

Your presence.

And maybe I'll see you next time.

Does the flag move or the wind move?

Mind moves.

Reviews

Thank you 🙏

Awakening… thank you teacher 🌠

Perfect - thank you ✨

So pure. Thank you Charles

Thank you as always Charles. I have listened to many teachers on this wonderful site, but your sessions resonate with me the most.

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I love Zen stories. 🙏

Excellent story, thank you Charles. I recommend to everyone to listen to the Zen Path course, a lot of interesting wisdom to grow up personally 🙏

Great story for seeing oneness. Thank you, Charles.

I am half way through the Zen course you mention here. In fact I’ve just heard this zen story yesterday. It was good to hear it again. Thank you Charles for this course. It is truly a gift.

Thanks for opening some doors on Zen, Charles. I’m in the middle of your course, too. This path used to seem so forbidding to me, but I’m realizing it demands using the mind in a new way—or, I guess, at the root, not using the mind at all. What a wonderful discovery.

Thank you for this. I hope it stays in the back of my mind, growing from the seed into a flower of understanding.

Very thought-provoking and enlightening. Thank you 🙏

Thank you for sharing again this Zen story, I’ve been thinking about this since you spoke about it in one of your 111 sessions…. The flag moves in harmony with the wind? Yup still trying to figure out how the mind moves?

Thanks 🙏 for sharing ❤️

Beautiful and enlightening. Thank you Charles. 🙏

Thank you ☺️💚
I shall ponder...

Interesting 🙏🌷