Let Your Fingers Do the Talking

How a random reading can make a big difference

For those of you old enough to remember, this title is a variation on an ad campaign for the telephone directories (Let Your Fingers Do the Walking). Those doorstops took up- at least in larger cities- not only vast amounts of space but also vast numbers of trees. I used to use mine to stand on to reach light fixtures.

The yellow pages finally saw the forest for the trees (sorry). They stopped using up precious resources to produce those enormous tomes that many of us grew up with. Good riddance, and welcome to the 21st Century.

I’m going somewhere with this finger thing.

In the summer of 1985 I heard an excellent speaker whose words would give me my life purpose (Move People’s Lives), and another phrase, Do what you’re doing while you’re doing it. That’s kinda Zen, if you will, but a rather pointed statement about our times. Up until the other day I didn’t remember the other piece, which I have been doing religiously since he advised it.

Hence the title of this article.

He said that if he was short on inspiration, or he was curious about what the Universe (or God or Gulliver or whomever) had to say to him that day, he would pick up a book or paper and either stick his finger in the middle of the pages or point at something with his eyes closed so that he had no control over the outcome.

Whatever he pointed at was the message of the day.

Sometimes it was funny. Or cryptic. Or indecipherable. Sometimes the meaning would come much later. The point is that instead of reading in a progressive, linear fashion (In the beginning…..) we have a lively conversation with wisdom.

A lot of folks who have religious texts do that. I sure do. I have a lot of them. Even after all my stuff got packed away, I went to my local Goodwill and scored three volumes: Hindi, Buddhist and Muslim. Pretty interesting (most of them say the same thing, in different ways, but you can’t say that to most folks).

The practice is simple. It’s also not off-handed. I pick up a book that I’d like to have speak to me, ask for a little guidance. Then I slide my right index finger into the body of book at some random page and start reading.

Never been disappointed.

This morning, I chose The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation by the great Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

Timely, to my mind. Here’s what I read:

Chapter Eight, page 41, Realizing Well-Being, Second paragraph:

Please ask yourself, “ What nourishes joy in me? What nourishes joy in others? Do I nourish joy in my self and others enough?” These are questions about the Third Noble Truth. The cessation of suffering — well-being — is available if you know how to enjoy the precious jewels you already have. You have eyes that can see, lungs that can breathe, legs that can walk, and lips that can smile. When you are suffering, look deeply at your situation and find the conditions for happiness that are already there, already available.

Here’s my takeaway from my finger-walk this morning:

You and I choose how to be, minute by minute. We choose how to see, feel and react. As fellow writers, we choose how to treat each other on this forum.

Are we nourishing joy? Hope? Supporting each other? Am I nourishing joy and hope in myself? Am I a Light? Or am I actively working to dim others because of my own fear or sadness?

Try finger walking for wisdom. It might surprise you. Lots of folks do this for good reason. Random isn’t random at all. We are always and forever in constant conversation with Forces that we don’t understand. We just need to learn to listen. To hear.

I love this practice. I’ve lived it since 1985. I trust that the Universe will tell me precisely what I need to hear and how I need to hear it. It works for me. Just an idea. It might work for you.

Whatever gives you hope, joy, happiness, and the strength to support each other.

Let’s be the light.