In response to an editorial I derived from my posting about William James, a correspondent quotes some Zen:

We use [kong-ans (Korean) or koans (Japanese)] to teach how it ispossible to function correctly in everyday life. Sometimes old ZenMasters' answers to a question are not correct, but they used thesituation to teach correct function, correct life to others. Forexample, two monks were fighting over whether a flag was moving or thewind was moving. Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch, who was passing by,said, "It's your mind that's moving." Again, this is not correct, buthe used "your mind is moving" to teach correct life.

If I tried that sort of thing, the two monks would stop, look at me, look at each other, roll their eyes in harmony, and walk off together laughing. (See, I do know how to teach correct functioning in everyday life... but since I get quite enough eye-rolling from my children already, thank you, I try to stick to correct answers.)