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僧問趙州：「初生孩子，還具六識也無？」趙州云：「急水上打毬子。」僧復問投子：「急水上打毬子，意旨如何？」子云：「念念不停流。」

A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a newborn child have the six senses working, or not?"
Zhaozhou said, "A ball thrown on rushing water."
The monk went to Touzi and asked, "A ball thrown on rushing water — what does it mean?"
Touzi said, "Moment after moment, never resting, flowing on."

Verse 頌

六識無功伸一問，
作家曾共辨來端。
茫茫急水打毬子，
落處不停誰解看。

The six senses idle, yet he raises the question.
Masters have sat and traced it to the source.
Boundless, the rushing water; a ball goes skipping over.
Where it lands it does not stop. Who knows how to watch?

Pointer

Buddhist psychology counts six consciousnesses, the usual five senses plus the thinking mind. The monk's trick question: a newborn has eyes, ears, and a brain, but is not yet carving the world into me-and-that or like-and-dislike, so is the equipment really switched on? Zhaozhou refuses the yes or no and throws an image instead, a ball skipping across fast water, never gripping, never landing, never pausing, all motion with nothing sticking. Touzi, asked to unpack the same picture, simply keeps it in motion: moment after moment, never resting, flowing on. That ceaseless not-sticking is the answer, and it is also why both masters refuse to convert it into a statement, since the instant you freeze the ball into a definition you have dropped it. The newborn here is not really about babies; it is the mind before it starts gripping. Can you watch yours move without grabbing?