Warm hands & a cool head

It is not uncommon to come across a post like this: “I feel like I have too many thoughts running through my head. It makes me feel like my body can’t keep up with my thought process. I’m too exhausted. I get depressed when I can’t get something done properly. I don’t feel like I’m productive enough. I get sick with cold a lot and have trouble getting on a good sleep schedule.” There were many “likes” on this post and some “ditto” signs too. The check-ups at the doctor show that this person is healthy. Then what is wrong These are the symptoms of being alienated from the body.

Working with touch screens, voicemails or other “hands-free” devices, we are losing touch with our body; we use the body minimally. The whole bio energy is saturated in the head. Not using the hands enough is affecting the brain and the whole organism for that matter. Basically hands are intimately connected to the brain: the left hand to the right part of the brain and the right hand to the left part of the brain. Brain and thumbs grow together, and change to accommodate each other, discovering tools and language together. Little do we realise that hands are integral part of human intelligence. But in modern lifestyle, the head has taken full control of our life, disconnecting us with the rest of the body. It means a part has become autonomous, dictatorial and therefore the whole system has gone berserk.

It is the importance of hands in human well-being that has made the neurologist Frank R. Wilson to write a book on this subject: The Hand. He contends that the hand is, among other things, a complex symbol, representing both the creative and the prosaic of human being. This blending of the spiritual and the mundane is what makes the hand unique, as it in turn makes humans unique among animals.

Not using the hands and the body enough has generated illnesses that cannot be cured by medicine. Osho says, in the first place the hands should be warm and the head should be cool. But when there is too much of thinking, the head will be warm and the hands will be cool. That is unhealthy. You are moving towards madness. A time will come when the head will start functioning on its own, unconnected with the whole body. But Osho offers a quick-fix to this problem.

“Whenever you feel that there is too much thinking, and you cannot stop it, rub both your hands fast, make them hot by rubbing, add your imagination that they are becoming warmer, and suddenly you will feel the head has stopped, the energy is moving in the hands.”

Sufi and Zen monks work with their hands, which makes them very strong and healthy people. They dig, till soil, are involved in shoemaking, carpentry, or anything whatsoever but with their hands.

The hand and the head are two polarities, and if your energy is moving through the hands, the head by and by subsides.

Actually the mind should become like a no-mind: not filled with thoughts, dreams and ideas. Completely empty! Then you can have your coveted peace and well-being.

Amrit Sadhana is editor Osho Times International. She facilitates meditation workshops based on Osho insights around the country and abroad.