# It wasn't the flag or the wind — your mouths were moving

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Joke
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-flag-wind-mouths-moving
- Themes: conflict, speech, humour, Zen, Theravada
- Life situations: arguments, political noise, family conflict

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Two monks argue whether the flag or the wind is moving; a Zen master says their minds are moving. Unsatisfied, they ask a Theravada forest ajahn, who says they are all wrong: it was their mouths moving. Brahm claims he invented the punchline and later saw it circulating online.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

the conflict of the two monks who were watching the flag latter and one monk said look at that the flag is fluttering and the other one said no the wind is moving not the flag and they had an argument this is I'm going to use this as a metaphor later on and they couldn't solve the argument was the wound wind moving or the flag moving so they went to see the Zen Monk and the sand monk said you were both wrong it wasn't the flag moving it wasn't the wind moving your minds were moving and they weren't satisfied with that either so the three of them the two monks and the Zen master went to go and see the theravada forest adjun and he said you are all wrong it wasn't the flag movie it wasn't the wind moving it wasn't your mind's moving the problem was your mouths were moving and that is that the important part that's actually a little bit of a joke and I was actually saw that in a list of jokes not because your mind moves because your mouth moves that's where the conflict starts from

## Teaching point

Conflict often starts from talking too much, not from the thing argued about.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Two monks argued whether the flag or the wind was moving; a Zen master said their minds were. A forest monk said they were all wrong: their mouths were moving. Ajahn Brahm dreams of a national day of silence. Speech has consequences. Speak less, listen more, and many quarrels never begin.

## Source

- [Real Life | Ajahn Brahm | 3 Jun 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzgG2HBzVDk) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 3:30 to 4:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzgG2HBzVDk&t=210s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Arguing | by Ajahn Brahm | 17 April 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bSZL8edEiQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 41:18 to 41:48: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bSZL8edEiQ&t=2478s
- [A Buddhist Perspective on Monogamy | by Ajahn Brahm | 29 May 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb6vCzllyw4) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 7:17 to 8:26: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb6vCzllyw4&t=437s