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While doing this exercise we noticed that each person has characteristic hand gestures. Our hands wave about when we talk, almost by themselves. We noticed that our hands change over time. Look at your hands and imagine them as they were when you were a baby, then imagine them changing as you grew older, until they reach the present time and state. Then imagine them growing older, becoming lifeless when you die, then dissolving back into the earth.

Even when we are asleep our hands are caring for us, pulling up the blankets, holding the body next to us, turning off the alarm clock.

DEEPER LESSONS

We are being taken care of all the time. Some Zen teachers say that the way the body takes care of us, without our even being aware of it, is an example of the beautiful and continuous functioning of our Original Nature, the inherent goodness and wisdom of our being. Our hand pulls back from fire before we even register heat, our eyes blink before we are aware of a sharp sound, our hand reaches out to catch something before we know it is falling. The right and left hands work together, each one doing its half of a task. Drying dishes, one hand holds the dish and the other the towel. Cutting with a knife, one holds the vegetable while the other chops. They cooperate to wash each other.

There is a koan (a Zen teaching story) about the bodhisattva of compassion, who is called Kanzeon in Japanese, Kuan Yin in Chinese. She is often depicted with a thousand eyes, to see every person in need of comfort, and one thousand hands, each holding a different implement to aid them. Sometimes there is even an eye in the palm of each hand. The story is this:

One day the Zen monk Ungan asked Zen master Dogo, “How does the Bodhisattva Kanzeon use all those many hands and eyes?”

Dogo answered, “It is like a man in the middle of the night reaching behind his head for his pillow.”

One of my students is a luthier, and he had insight into this story. Working inside the body of a guitar on a spot he could not see, he realized that his hands have “eyes.” They can “see” the surface they are touching, in detail, and work on it, even in the dark. His inner eye and his hand were working together beautifully, just as a sleeping man “sees” his pillow and his hands naturally reach out to pull it under his head. In Zen we say this shows the way our innate wisdom and compassion work together when our mind is not in the way.

When we see clearly into the unity of all existence, we see that all things are working together, like the hands and eyes. As our hands would not hurt our eyes, our natural nature is not to hurt ourselves or each other.

Final Words: The two hands work together effortlessly to accomplish many wonderful things and they never harm each other. Could this become true for any two human beings?

5

When Eating Just Eat

The Exercise: This week, when you’re eating or drinking, don’t do anything else. Sit down and take the time to enjoy what you are taking in. Open all the senses as you eat or drink. Look at the colors, shapes, surface textures. Attend to the smells and flavors in your mouth. Listen to the sounds of eating and drinking.

REMINDING YOURSELF

Post a note on the table where you eat meals that says, “Just Eat.” Also post this note wherever you are likely to snack.

Also post notes on objects that tend to distract you while you eat. For example, on your computer or TV, post the word “Eating” with an X through it as a reminder not to eat while using it.

DISCOVERIES

This is not an easy task for most people. If you’re on the go, walking from one place to another and about to take a sip of tea or coffee, you’re going to need to stop, find a place to sit down, and savor it. If you’re working on the computer, you’re going to have to take both hands off the keyboard and turn your eyes away from the screen in order to savor a sip of coffee.

Eating has become part of our modern habit of perpetually multitasking. When we do this exercise, we discover anew how many other things