IMMORTAL GESTURES

There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light.

I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon.

A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship.

Our gestures do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations.

Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem how we are much larger than we seem.

Join award-winning philosopher Damon Young author of The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science-fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.

DAMON YOUNG is a prize-winning philosopher and writer. His thirteen books include The Art of Reading, How to Think About Exercise, Philosophy in the Garden and Distraction and are published internationally. He has also written poetry and short fiction. Young is University of Melbourne Associate and a founding member of The School of Life in Melbourne. A prominent public intellectual, he has written for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian, ABC and BBC, and is a frequent radio guest. @damonayoung