Zen story: The Zen master who dabbled in palm reading, never ducked for cover.

I hope altered for the better, that is if a long life is really "better". "Better" is such a relative term too, I suppose. I also had a rub-in with palm-reading, around 40 years ago. I came home from work one night, and I found two boxes of shopping from the supermarket on my doorstep. They had been delivered to the wrong house. I saw a name on one, written on a docket, but there was nothing else to help me to determine the rightful recipient. I rang the supermarket. Their delivery man had gone home for the day, and they would not give me the lady's address, due to privacy concerns. They told me to hang onto the goods until the next morning. Contact them again then, and they will get the delivery guy to pick them up, and to redeliver them correctly then. (No good for me of course, as I was off to work then, in those days, the next morning early too.) Anyway, with phone directories still around in those days, I did a search going through areas around where I lived, for that name. I spotted the unusual sounding name, on the docket, right away. I telephoned the number. The old lady was frantic. She was still waiting for the delivery. She had had no dinner that night, as yet. It was already 8 pm, at night. I told her that I will drop the two boxes of groceries around to her house. So, I drove around, knocked on her door, and I carried the two boxes in for her, and I placed them on her kitchen table. She was so pleased. She told me that she was a professional palm reader, and she would read my palm for free, for me. I said, no, at first, but then I saw her eyes so disappointed, at my response, so I said, "why not", and I changed my mind. She gave me a twenty-minute reading, and one of the things that she told me was that I had two lines on the side of my hand, up near my little finger, which meant that I would marry twice. I was not even married once then...lol... But forty years later, I look back on my life, and indeed, I was married twice. Coincidence, perhaps a lucky guess, or are karma lines actually etched into the skin of our bodies, particularly in our hands too, and she was reading these, somehow?

@DocAndersen I have not found any path outwardly that allows me to do that continually either. I did find a couple, which dipped me into something for a brief experience, but I always had to come back up again for air, so to speak. My Dad said to me, that we can never find a permanent path outwardly in the world, because it only ever exists inwardly. The connection must be reached inwardly, but then to maintain it at all times is hard too. I think I have touched this connective contact at times, but I cannot maintain it constantly.

@innertalks it is an interesting world, there are those who are connected to more than we understand. I am in awe of that connection. i find no path personally where I can do that.

Yes, I am not sure really, but it made for an interesting twist to my story here. I tend to be a skeptic, but I remain open to the experience, because I like to try to connect to the readings too. I remember one psychic was telling me once about a past life of mine, or so she said she was seeing, where I was some type of an alchemist. She was describing the scene that she saw, of an old fashioned laboratory, with bottles, and jars, on shelves. Suddenly, I was seeing it too, in my mind's eye, like a dream. It sort of confirmed for me her reading, but then again, maybe she had somehow gotten me to "see" her projection too, or I was seeing the same thing that she was seeing, through the window that she had opened into some energy field of answers too. I have no real explanation for that experience, but I am glad that I had that, rather than just not having it, and so be still only speculating, without experiences. Most people just argue about stuff like that, without experiencing it for themselves. I have always dived in, and tried to see what pearls I can find in the deep waters of my mind.

@innertalks I would call that the art of hypnotism and nothing else.

@amitkokiladitya Have you ever been hypnotised?

Yes, they had their secret handshake, and secret foot position, when standing, plus their secret greetings too. They always asked if you were on the square, for example. Yes, if we develop a skill, sometimes it is better not to abandon it, as it was a step on our path for us. Yes, palm reading, foot reflexology, who knows for sure, but there are some real connections being made, I feel at times, not on the actual physical body, but on the etheric body existing, existing all around it.

@Shiva49 They are hard to prove, because they generally treat the whole body, not just pinpoint onto the specific illness. And they usually have to be tailored for each individually different body too, not like western medicine, which is generally, one size fits all.

@innertalks I agree just because we cannot connect with some issues do not mean they are fake. This applies, in a way, to alternate medical systems which allopathic doctors brush aside as not proven and unscientific, but they have existed even before modern systems and are still trusted by many - siva

Thanks, I must have put the lines together ok, then...lol...

Thanks, that is how I try to write, so I am glad you understand my writing style.

@innertalks You're welcome.