It is a strange thing, that every child is born with a closed hand, and everybody dies with an open hand. It has never been heard of that anybody has died with a closed hand, because to close the hand you need energy. The open hand needs no energy, no tension. A closed hand will get tired. The dying man cannot afford the energy to close his fist.
Physiologically it has different meanings. The child is not yet capable, not strong enough to open his hands. Physiologically they are not actually fists, it is because the child simply cannot open his hands. That is the physiological explanation, that he cannot open his hands yet. He needs a little strength, then he can open his hands. And the dying man – his whole body becomes relaxed. Death is the ultimate relaxant. For the whole of his life he was tense; now life is leaving the body. The body was not tense, it was the life in it – the intelligence, the mind – that was making it tense. Now, the fist is a tense state of the hands. When life leaves the body, even if you are making a fist, it is bound to happen that your fist will open up, because now there is no more energy to keep the fist closed. The child had no energy to open it up, the old man has no more energy to keep it closed. It needs strength to keep it closed – that is a physiological explanation.
However, it is beautiful to go deeper into the question of why every child is born with closed hands. It signifies that every child is born with great hopes and expectations and desires. Those closed hands are showing that he has to make something of himself – to be successful, rich, politically powerful. It is an unconscious, very deep-rooted expression of his being. He comes into the world with great secrets; soon he will start getting frustrated. No success succeeds. In fact, every success ends up in failure, in a deep frustration, because what you wanted is not found. The old man dying has nothing to hold on to. No desire, no expectation…he moves into death just like a beggar. Hence children are not bored. They may cry, they may weep, they may laugh, they may smile, but you cannot find bored babies. They have not yet felt that life is not what it is supposed to be. They have not experienced life as made of the same stuff as dreams. It needs a little growth, a little experience. And the more intelligent a child is, the sooner he becomes bored. The stupid ones take a little longer, obviously, because to see the meaninglessness of life you need a very sharp intelligence.
Meditation makes you an open hand. Mind is very secretive; mind goes on keeping your desires, your angers, your frustrations, your miseries, all secret – a closed fist. Meditation is an opening of the fist. And then the whole universe is in your hands.❤️
Drawing (heart in hand)
First post; general thought on opening up
