The Permanence of Joy

“Joy to the World” Major religious festivals like Christmas, Eid-el-Fitr for Muslims, Hanukkah for Jews, Diwali or Krishna Jyanti for Hindus and many others are simply the historically created cultural expressions pointing to a few eternal truths common to many major...

Even Atheists Bless

Note from Pierre: This site has always stressed not only the interdenominational, but also the inter-religious dimension of blessing. Today, for our November blog, we wish to show that even atheists can practice it. So many of our misunderstandings in life are related...

Widening the reach of our compassion

There is such a need in the world today of the most tender and immense compassion and deeper, more unselfed caring and giving, and blessing is one simple and efficient way of doing it. It is also an amazing tool for learning instantaneous, unconditional forgiveness, a...

A Sufi story on consecration

related by Pierre Pradervand Succeeding in a spiritual quest demands at least four basic qualities: a strong motivation, total sincerity, a lucid and firm intention and, as in most other endeavors in life, great (and sometimes immense) perseverance, as the seeker will...

The Practice of Blessing

This month’s guest blog is from a reader of The Gentle Art of Blessing who shares how the practice of blessing helps him on the spiritual path. It is so well said, and also stresses that each one “invents” her or his own way of blessing, i.e., that blessing is a...

A Truly Friendly Universe

It has been said that Albert Einstein once asked the question: “Is the universe friendly?” Although this quote may well be erroneously attributed to him, the question is possibly the most fundamental one any thinking person can ask. Personally, not only do...