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The Hand of Love - The Heart Not Yet Open
The three-year-old child’s finger compared with the seventy-seven-year-old hand of the teacher, through the French poem:
Voici ma main, elle a cinq doigts—Here is my hand, it has five fingers—consisting of five lines, each corresponding to:
- the thumb (gros pouce)
- the index finger (l’index qui montre le chemin—the finger that shows the way)
- the middle finger (majeur, the big brother)
- the ring finger (annulaire, the one that wears a ring)
- the little finger (minuscule auriculaire, the little one that walks alongside)
The hand is the continuation of our parents; the child is the parent, and the parent continues to live in the child. If we are angry with our mother, we are angry with ourselves; if we are angry with our child, we are angry with our mother. By practicing mindfulness with our hands and our hearts, we can recognize the presence of our ancestors and the Buddha in every cell, and from there, love and heal each other in the present moment.
Practice inviting the bell and walking meditation to maintain mindfulness:
- Before inviting the bell, breathe in—calm; breathe out—smile (three times)
- Tap the bell (half-sound) → wait for everyone to stop talking, stop their activities
- Invite the bell fully, repeat three breaths → make three prostrations
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Walking meditation with the gatha:
- I have arrived, I am home (two steps)
- I have arrived, I am home—arriving and being at home in the present moment
- Walk solidly like a green mountain, freely like a white cloud
Each breath and each step brings us into the Pure Land in the present moment—a place of happiness, love, and freedom, right here and right now.
