Question : WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR HANDS? I FIND MYSELF MORE EMOTIONALLY MOVED BY WATCHING THEM, THAN BY LISTENING TO THE WORDS YOU SPEAK.
Osho : It is natural, because when I am speaking I am speaking to your heads. Emotion cannot be involved, emotion cannot be there. I am talking to your reason to persuade it. And what am I doing with my hands? When I am talking to your heads I am continuously playing with your hearts also. I have to work on two layers.
For your head to be convinced that the time has come to drop itself, to commit suicide, that the time has come for committing a suicide of reason – I go on talking. But that alone won’t be enough. Because if suddenly your head is cut, and the heart has not started functioning, you will be in a very very deep confusion.
With my hands I go on working with your heart – that’s why in India we have called gestures, MUDRAS; when a Buddha makes a gesture it is meaningful, significant. Hands are very very deep sources of energy. By the movements of the hands patterns of energy are made, invisible energy; but if you can feel, you can feel; and you will feel that something is going on continuously in the heart.
It is just like – have you seen a potter making an earthen pot? He works with both the hands, one inside the pot, another outside. From the inside he goes on supporting, from the outside he goes on giving the shape. And the wheel is moving. By my talking I go on destroying your head. By my hands I go on supporting your heart, encouraging it to function more, encouraging it to beat naturally.
It is natural if you feel that way. But don’t pay much attention to my hands because if you pay too much attention to my hands then you will be related to my hands with your head. You just forget about my hands – let them work! Because the heart functions in darkness. The functioning and the changing of the heart is indirect.
It is just like the roots of the trees; hidden underneath the earth in deep darkness they function. If you bring them to light they start dying. So don’t pay much attention to my hands, because if you pay too much attention to my hands IT IS HEAD which is paying attention to the hands. Then you miss the point. You may enjoy it, you may feel a certain emotion arising in you, but the real thing has been missed.
You pay attention to my words! You be 60 completely absorbed with my words that my hands and your heart are left alone, you are not in between – otherwise you can create trouble, you can become a barrier. And I am working on the third layer also – which you cannot see at all.
The movements of the hands can be seen – look! Words I use – you can understand the meaning of them. Hands I use – you can only see the movement, not the meaning. Words for the head, hands for the heart – and then there is my being continuously overwhelming you. You cannot even see the movement of it. My being – just like a cloud surrounding you. But don’t pay attention to my hands. Let them be indirect.