The other day as I sat in meditation I realized my left hand fingers themselves were hankering for some guitar strings on them.

They desired to feel the painful sting of the metal strings ricocheting through the nervous system of the body, calling on all the other parts to get in on the action.

Sometimes the body will crave a pain when there is the promise of pleasure involved.

Paradoxically, sometimes the body will crave pleasure when there is the promise of a pain involved.

It goes both ways because creation is weird like that.

So I thought to myself, “Why do my hands themselves want this experience? Why do my hands have a will of their own right now in this moment when I am trying to meditate?”

I caved quickly, abandoning the meditation, to see what would happen upon fulfillment. I picked up the guitar which was only a few feet away (which probably had something to do with my fingers being distracted as the fingers can sense. I realize that I should remove the instrument from the place I meditate as it is an influence) and I let the fingers play a minute. Then I put it down and continued meditating. Now fingers became quiet, even gracious for the relief and I forgot about them.

There was a tiny new connection made between me as the core-self (atma) and the psyche; a tiny new understanding that we are working together - not yet independent of each other - and that as the process of liberation is carried out, I won’t always be cruel toward the body’s simple desires.

I thought of Helen Keller and her hand communication and how her hands embodied her intelligence and remembered an article I wrote a few years ago on the very subject.

June 2014

Practice Report:

Thoughts in the Hands - Helen Keller

For some time I have been aware that the position of my hands can make a big difference in my meditation.

Many times I find that I separate my hands to cut off what seems to be their distracting association with each other.

I've been a little confused about why this happens, why does it even matter where my hands are, together, apart? Should that really be so important as to have influence on meditation?

Recently I may have found an answer about why my hands touching during meditation can be distracting. Putting two and two together came to me in the form of a seemingly sudden and random re-interest in Helen Keller and her hand language.

As Americans we all learned at least a little about the iconic Helen Keller. Born in 1880 she was completely normal and began speaking words at 10 months.

At 19 months she contracted something like meningitis at 19 months. The disease left her permanently blind and deaf.

After that she was a wild animal of a child and spoiled by her ill prepared yet doting parents. She used a few hand signs to communicate basic needs such as a sign for her mother or food, but for the most part she was out of control.

The parents used candy to stop tantrums. Anytime Helen had a fit or didn't get her way, they put a piece of candy in her mouth and all was well for the moment. During meal times she was allowed to eat freely off of everyone's plate...with her hands!

Her buddhi, or intelligence organ, was functional on a basic level but did not have the eyes or ears as physical equipment to work with in this dimension.

The family was suffering. When Helen was seven years old a young visually impaired teacher named Ann Sullivan was hired at the recommendation of Alexander Graham Bell.

The physical and psychological effort Ann Sullivan endured to accomplish even the smallest task with Helen - such as eating with a utensil - was absolutely super human.

By teaching her language, Ann taught Helen everything else. Without having unlocked the magic of language within her intellect and finding new pathways for routing its expression,

she knew she could never help Helen.

So it became all about the hands. Helen's hands became her eyes, her ears and her mouth.

Through literally millions of repetitions, Ann Sullivan moved language, from damaged sense organs in Helen's head, into her hands.

How is this possible? How can the vision/vocal sense orbs, which are unable to operate accurately through the physical equipment, be moved to the hands?

Or maybe put more accurately extended down into the hands? It seems the same way we do anything else, through repetition, practice and indomitable determination. As well as the most important tool Ann Sullivan used, intuition.

Again, the actual physical and psychological effort the young woman made was beyond extraordinary.

Could you do this?

Could you be a woman with little hope of ever marrying, ever having children, having grown up in an orphanage yourself, could you care enough about life that you would take on a task no one had ever taken on before? To recondition a child who would never see you or ever hear you?

Anyway, through my own study of myself and my meditation practice, I realize why I often can't keep my hands together or even touching at all while meditating. Sometimes, it's fine, but most of the time, I end up separating my hands because it really, really seems like they influence my thoughts, even 'making' me think.

Are there actual thoughts in our hands? I believe there are in mine. I feel them. Maybe there is a link between thoughts in the hands and things like musical instruments. My hands have always played instruments, guitar, piano, trumpet, drum, kartels, clapping, snapping, expressing.

I realize I have very expressive hands.

They like to associate with each other. They like to think.

Sometimes my left hand likes to take the challenge that it can do a thing that normally the right hand does and vice versa.

So my hands usually have to be separated like two ornery children who just can't stop paying attention to each other and creating dramas.

This morning during meditation, I noticed that I had to move my left hand from the right, as far away as comfortably possible.

This quickly changed my meditation and I was able to finally quiet my thoughts. This has happened to me time and time again but I am just now understanding that it's a real thing.

I hope you will take time to refresh your knowledge of Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan, two superhuman females who unlocked one of the greatest potentials of the human psyche.