The Hands of Concerns is a personal transformation tool that gets you guidance from a person who knows you best – You. The left hand chart shows the Things of Concern, the different aspects of our life we must care for. The right hand chart represents People of concern, all those who we must care for. The tool, a chart, is mapped on our hands so that we can remember it easily. We also do not need to carry any external tool or even the chart itself after a few days of using this chart.

Things of Concern

Refer your left hand corresponding to the left hand in chart above showing the Things of concern – things we must care for. Here,

1. Little finger (weak finger) represents our health.
2. Ring finger (with costly ring) represents wealth and all resources including time, food, clothing and shelter.
3. Middle finger (vulgarity) represents and reminds us of love and respect (opposite of vulgarity).
4. Index finger (pointing to destiny) represents success in different aspects of life.
5. Thumb (up/down position – doubt) represents peace of mind (opposite of doubt, fear and worry).

The three phalanges of each finger on this hand represent, from top to bottom, – when we are with ourselves, with family and with others respectively. Do not worry, this will be explained while we learn how to use this chart.

All Things of the Concerns are important and interdependent. If we don’t have good health, we won’t have wealth, love and respect, success, peace of mind. If we don’t have peace of mind, we won’t have good health, wealth, love and respect and success. If we lose love and respect, we won’t have good health, wealth, success and peace of mind.

People of concern

Now refer your right hand corresponding to the right hand chart. Here each finger represents different people in our life we must be concerned for :

1. Little finger (weak finger) represents ourselves.
2. Ring finger (relationship) represents our family and relatives.
3. Middle finger (again attaching a better meaning to the finger now – love) represents all people in our life whom we know and love – colleagues, neighbors, friends and community.
4. Index finger (pointing to everyone) represents all human beings anywhere on earth.
5. Thumb represents all living beings, whether visible or invisible, on earth or anywhere in universe.

The three phalanges of each finger on this hand represent, from top to bottom are read as – irrespective of Age, Sex, and Status respectively. This will also be explained while we learn how to use this chart.

While the concerns in Things of Concerns are interdependent, the people in People of Concern have increasing priority. When we care for ourselves, we can care for your family. When we care for ourselves and our family, we start to care for others we know and love. When we care for ourselves, our family, others we know, we can start caring for all human beings. When we care for ourselves, our family, others we know and all human beings, we can start caring for all other beings. All beings, cats, dogs, birds, etc need health, wealth (all resources good food, water, etc), love and respect (and not driven away from every place they go), success (to build nest, have courtship, rear offspring) and peace of mind (away for noise pollution and fear of human beings).

Circles of Concerns

People of Concerns also form “Circles of Concerns“, if we draw concentric circle starting from little finger. The circles of concerns keep on expanding as we start caring for more and more people, starting from ourselves, then including our family and so on and finally including everyone we can imagine. All the great people in history have a very large ‘Circle of Concern’. Buddha had the largest circle of concern in history as his teachings were for all beings – humans, hell beings or Devas. People having smallest circle of concern are usually selfish and put themselves before others. But here by following the Hand of Concern (Left hand) even though we start by caring for ourselves, we are not being selfish. We are actually making ourselves better in every way but not at the cost of others. We cannot expect to help others if we cannot help ourselves. Thus, the People of Concern is also a Circle of Concerns and you can choose how big you want your Circle of Concern to be.

Using the Hands of Concern chart

This is a quick method, which can be practiced anytime, anywhere. Close your eyes, visualize and repeat mentally:

• May ‘I’, irrespective of my age, sex and status, have good health, wealth and all resources (including time, food, clothing, shelter and timely help), love and respect, success and peace of mind for myself, my family and when I am with others.
• May ‘my family and relatives’, irrespective of their age, sex and status, have good health, wealth and all resources, love and respect, success and peace of mind for themselves, their family and for others.
• May ‘all whom I know and love’, irrespective of their age, sex and status, have good health, wealth and all resources, love and respect, success and peace of mind for themselves, their family and for others.
• May ‘all human beings’, irrespective of their age, sex and status, have good health, wealth and all resources, love and respect, success and peace of mind for themselves, their family and for others.
• May ‘all beings on earth, in water or air, visible or invisible and anywhere in Universe’, irrespective of their age, sex and status, have good health, wealth and all resources, love and respect, success and peace of mind for themselves, their family and for others.

Each time you practice you get new insights about yourself, like what you need to do to improve your health, wealth and success. Again the second chart pushes you further to think about well-being of more and more people and living beings.

Many success books suggest, what the mind can imagine, it can create. So, you can also remove the word ‘May’ from the statements and make it more affirmative. For eg. ‘Irrespective of my age, sex and status, I am having good health for myself for my family and for helping others.‘

Conclusion

If we visualize this chart daily it can bring tremendous change in our life and outlook. The many benefits of the chart includes :

1. Practicing it often will help you find your life goal, if you are struggling to find it.
2. If self-help books have not helped you, this gives an insight and guidance that is unique to you.
3. It develops in us the four Brahma Viharas (heavenly states of mind) – Metta (unconditional love towards everyone), Karuna (compassion for the less gifted), Mudita (Sympathetic joy towards those well gifted than us) and Upekka (Equanimity – treating everyone equal). These Brahma Viharas do not exist naturally in us and need to be cultivated. Also these emotions cannot be compared with any other states of mind we know of, as they are all selfless and not directed to just a few people. Metta meditation is regular practice among Buddhists. Metta, infinite love for all beings, is also one of the more pronounced characteristic of the future Buddha – Maitreya
4. It spans all religion, status and geography, thereby bringing peace in the world.
5. Giving equal status to all ages and gender helps us understand our children, elders and other gender better and help in improving quality of life.
6. It undoes everything that we have learnt through our imperfect society, religion and language and brings an insight that is unique to each of us and that we can share among us for a BETTER WORLD.

Sabbe Satta Sukhi Hontu. May all beings be happy and well.