Category: Blog – English

Blog

A society with fragmented attention

We live in a society where our attention is solicited to an extent never experienced before in human history. There are few public places where our attention is not constantly challenged by all kinds of messages, whether they are advertising (generally) but also of another nature. And all these solicitations are accompanied by various sounds,…

The heart and soul of my spirituality

I was raised in a traditional Christian family and even studied two years of theology before understanding that it was ABSOLUTELY NOT my cup of tea, a spirituality entirely in the head, nothing in the heart. For ten years I wandered in a spiritual no man’s land, then in 1969 I received a two-year scholarship…

Help, I’m drowning… in information

There are two major factors which, combined, make present day living extremely challenging for anyone who attempts to stay informed on major issues of our times. The first one is the weakening of authority in so many areas of life. For thousands of years, people’s lives were run by a very few authorities, religion, the…

My thoughts create my reality.

“At every single moment of our lives, we choose our thoughts, hence our vision of reality. It is in that sense that one can say that we truly do create our reality. So what if the most productive and helpful way was in seeing all through the eyes of Love? I bless myself in the…

The practice of blessing

For the month of February, we are pleased to offer you a “guest blog” by Olivier Clerc, from his book J’arrête de me juger, Day 6, on the topic of blessing (I stop  judging myself, our translation as the book is not available in English). A link to his site is at the end of…

A growing sense of oneness

As we enter 2023, our world is in dire straits, to say the least. Tragic situations exist on every continent, from the war in Ukraine, to countries on the brink of famine in Africa, deadly floods in Asia and South America, fires, deforestation, Syrian and other refugee crises, catastrophic climate-related events … and the list…

Someone stole our attention. Oh, did they really?

We live in a world where our entire lives, almost everywhere, are totally invaded by advertising. It’s not yet in the underground caves explored by speleologists or on the sides of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa or Mount Everest (but who knows if it will not be there when I attempt to climb Mount Everest for…

The Amazing Power of Gratitude

Pierre Pradervand - Thanksgiving reflections

Reflections for Thanksgiving by Pierre Pradervand More and more, gratitude is being acknowledged as an amazing power for good and healing in many different areas of existence –from medicine and positive psychology to gardening and education. It is absolutely impossible, I repeat, impossible, to entertain a deep feeling of gratitude and the least trace of…

Healing

Our November guest blog is reprinted from Luc Bodin’s September newsletter, and we encourage you to visit his site at https://luc-bodin.fr/ Pierre’s note: Luc Bodin is one of those too rare thinkers who think outside the square box of the “system” that always tries to better lock us in mental sardine cans. What he says…

A rare example of compassion

Recently I was invited to participate in an event on compassion on internet. One of the Jewish participants, a certain rabbi Ariel, shared possibly the most moving story on compassion I have ever heard in my existence. His son was a participant on a study-abroad trip to visit the notorious Nazi concentration camps in Poland…

A place of rest from ever accelerating change

For eons we lived in a world where change was so slow that a snails’ pace would by comparison seem like a racing car from the famous Le Mans car race. Stability was the name of the game, be it in government or institutions (e.g., the Christian church). Then, with the advent of the industrial…

Simple, simple, simple …. and essential

It is a great platitude to say that the world is getting more and more complicated and complex. Take just the field of technology and internet. Many of our seniors are hopelessly lost with a system that is changing and evolving almost daily. The aim of this blog is not to denounce or on the…

What changes ahead?

The war in Ukraine is but one small sign of the numerous rumblings reminding us that huge changes are awaiting us all as this globe becomes – mentally – smaller and smaller. Many people with just a little foresight can see that these rumblings, unless attended to, will become major explosions. It is a major…

Loving Vladimir Putin

Recently, during my quiet time, I received what was clearly an order from “above”: “Love Putin!”. And since then, I spend a moment almost every day showering this man with love. For how can this important leader at the head of one of the most powerful countries in the world ever change with the wall of…

Who is really running the show?

In this period of growing world distress and challenges, it is good to remember that maybe Someone/Something else is pulling the strings. My dear friend Sandy Wilder of the Educare Unlearning Institute, who sends out daily the most profound and enlightening free messages anyone can receive (sign up at educare-unlearning-insights-sign-up), sent out recently this poem: …

Spiritual Power in World Affairs

“As God* becomes a reality and we become consciously one with It, It guides every step of our experience.  It supplies us.  It draws to us all that we need in the world–right friendships, right family relationships, right supply, right activity, right books, right associations – everything that is necessary to advance our cultural and…

Call to Action!

“Spiritual activism is a practice that brings together the otherworldly and inward-focused work of spirituality and the outwardly-focused work of activism (which focuses on the conditions of the material or physical world).” Wikipedia This essay is inspired by the latest message from the citizen movement AVAAZ*, certainly the most remarkable movement of its kind ever to have emerged. Avaaz has almost 70 million members worldwide,…

Listening to the Divine

Elsewhere on this site you will find a narrative of an amazing encounter in an airplane with the allness of infinite Love, and that has been the crowning experience of my existence. Many years ago, I prided myself on being an intellectual who wrote a 900 page dissertation with close to 1000 references for the…

Plenitude is ours – now!

Reading one of my very favorite spiritual thinkers, Joel Goldsmith, an American mystic of the last century who founded a teaching called The Infinite Way, totally and radically transformed my whole approach to prayer. I read his book The Art of Spiritual Healing four times and am currently reading The Altitude of Prayer where he…

The art of constant wonder

On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all. One of the greatest secrets of life is to know how to…

How authority wanes

Until Gutenberg invented the printing press, it was difficult to challenge authority, hence the stability of the systems in place for centuries, even millennia. The printing press allowed an increase in the circulation of ideas in all fields, which accelerated even more with the modern media: radio, telephone, television, etc. But with the invention of…

What can I do about global warming?

So many people feel totally overwhelmed by the problem, and this at all levels. The ordinary citizen sees himself as a tiny pawn without any significant influence on a chessboard with 7.9 billion players. The director of a large multinational company immediately sees the constraints of a system that would oblige him/her above all (supposedly)…

The most extraordinary spiritual affirmation of all time

At the end of one of the parables that Jesus left us, that of the Prodigal Son (Gospel of Luke), we find the most extraordinary spiritual affirmation that I have ever read in my entire life: “My child, you are always with me and all that I have is yours.” ALL that God is/has is…

Who is really pulling the strings?

by Pierre Pradervand More and more, I have the feeling that an extraordinary cosmic force is pulling the strings of my life. ALL the strings, down to the smallest details. Because either this simply unheard of “show” called the universe is directed by a force, a cosmic intelligence that is simply amazing, or I give…

What does our authority rest upon?

For thousands of years, ever since mankind started settling in cities, we evolved in rigid, patriarchal and extremely authoritarian structures – at least in the West. This started changing after the industrial revolution and the pace has been picking up since the end of the last war. Many authoritarian structures have become much weaker or…

What impact do my blessings/prayers/meditations really have?

Many people wonder if their blessings have any significant impact. So, I would like to relate the experience of Alyna Rouelle, a young French spiritual leader who, at the time I followed one of her workshops and had a personal coaching session with her, lived solely from light (prana).  When she was still young, she…

An unshakable trust under all circumstances

Depending on our own vision of the world, of the universe, of history, it is quite possible for us to go through this very troubled period with deep trust. If we believe in a world dependent on the hazards of fate, or simply run by fate, then we should seriously worry. On the other hand,…

A positive vision for 2021

In a world immersed in urgency, with alarm bells ringing left and right and dire predictions for our future, how dare I come up with a banner marked, “Yes, so many good things are happening”? Simply because how we look upon the world is a purely subjective vision emanating from our view of existence, our…

Deep trust in troubled times

“…may I trust Divine Love sufficiently to know that ultimately all is very, very well in the unfolding of the incredible divine Plan already written into the destiny of the universe for me and all.”365 Blessings to Heal Myself and the World To say the world is going through some challenges is the understatement of…

The Presence of the Divine

Recently I came across a brief text by Joel Goldsmith* which really shook me in my foundations! It also made me become aware of how we can use words to protect ourselves in many different ways. You might also wish to refer to the story on this site about my discussion on the nature of…

When contemplation and action meet

It is my deep conviction that any meaningful religious or spiritual approach must also really address the key issue of today – and that is a world that works for all. Disparities and inequalities in income and opportunities are become so huge, environmental degradation is advancing so rapidly, that unless we create a world that…

So, what could I myself do?

What a powerful message of hope that the Covid 19 lesson has brought even some of the most entrenched defenders of the System to start questioning its existence! After all, is it not incredible that a little beastie (virus) so minuscule that one needs a microscope to just see it has just brought the most…

The magic of appreciation

A few years ago, I discovered with wonder a new form of magic: expressing appreciation to others for something they had done. And modern life offers us a thousand different opportunities to manifest that magic. A small example: I live in a community that makes a special effort to decorate public places. Multicolored flowers are…

Am I a world citizen?

We live in an infinitely benevolent, ever loving, universe …. but a very, very strange humanly (dis)organized world! After all, a world where a tiny virus weighing a microgram can upset the world economy in a few weeks is either inhabited by a very, very clever virus…or then is really inhabited by an extremely strange group of people. So…

Guest Blog: John O’Donohue on blessing

The great Irish poet and writer remains a rare master of the English language. His use of words is unique. This month we quote from the introduction to that magical book of blessings of his, To Bless the Space Between Us. PP “It would be infinitely lonely to live in a world without blessings. The word blessing invokes…

The coronavirus: A Blessing in Disguise?

Pierre Pradervand If a small virus carried by a minuscule bat in the boondocks of China can send the whole world reeling, then apparently there is something in the system which urgently needs healing, and this includes the possibility of major surgery. Eliza Gilkyson wrote a prophetic song, which was performed by Joan Baez, called…

Self-Completeness

Guest blog ~  Joel S. Goldsmith Once more, Joel Goldsmith – one of a tiny handful of non-dual thinkers of Christian origin (but who very much formulated his own original and powerful vision of this teaching) – stresses that we are nothing of ourselves, any more than a wave could exist separate from the ocean…

Expressing appreciation

There are many activities in our societies that seem of little significance or “unimportant,” but that is such a superficial view of things. It bears repeating that the humblest activity performed with love certainly uplifts the human race more than a high prestige or “important” job performed out of self-interest. Love is the key indispensable ingredient of true progress and the most powerful healing agent on the…

The joy of service

For one who has discovered the deep, nourishing satisfaction of life lived in a spirit of service, finding opportunities of service becomes one of the joys of life. And there are so, so many such opportunities. For those who may be wondering what kind of service they may render because they have not yet made…