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 to the use of words and, in the history of the Western…
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 practice upon which, given our dramatic divisions in the world, our…
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 almost invariably encounter important trials (which are necessary to test us). Grit will…
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 daily, even moment-by-moment creation,…
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 I believe we live in a very friendly – even exceptionally loving –…
Our guest blogger for the month of June is Pope Francis, with a powerful message for humanity. We have reprinted it from the blog on http://gratefulness.org/blog/the-future-you-pope-francis-ted-talk/ EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the complete transcript (translated into English by Elena Montrasio) of Pope Francis’s recent TED Talk delivered directly from Vatican City. We offer our warm thanks to…
“To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes” (The Gentle Art of Blessing) There are many reasons to bless. We bless to help heal society. We bless to get out of the shell or cave of our little egos and open up to the world. We bless as a wonderful…
For this month, we are borrowing one of Fr. Richard Rohr’s daily meditations (from Friday, September 30, 2016) which have a large following among deep thinkers. We have very slightly abbreviated it. Richard Rohr. OFM is a globally recognized ecumenical thinker, teacher and author and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico…
Could it not be said that the first conscious realization in the area of personal development is the awareness that we create our own reality and even shape our bodies according to our expectations and thoughts – and this to a degree that is beyond imagination? In other words, all we see and hear, all…
I’d like to share with you a few small rituals that I practice and that may really enrich your day and place it on solid ground from the get-go. Some can be used when you awake, others are reminders during the day, and additional ones can be practiced at bedtime. Morning Before I get up,…
There is a beautiful and very inspiring website, peerservice.org which regularly sends deeply inspiring (and only inspiring) messages. You can subscribe to their newsletters from which I took the following message. It is a declaration that was recently made at Standing Rock, the place in North Dakota where Native American tribes and their supporters from the…
A comment from Pierre Pradervand: “MLK’s powerful words are truer than ever today, in a period where some leaders are attempting to divide rather than unite. They are still more powerful when we remember, to quote Mary Baker Eddy, that absolutely everything we see, hear, feel is a mode of consciousness and can have no…
I hold you gently in the quiet of my thought. The stillness tells me clearly that this crisis in your life, which most call a breakdown, is a listening time. As you told me when we visited a few weeks ago, the pace of your life had become utterly hectic. You’ve become a great success…
As I sit in front of Singing Silence, the little chalet of which I am a steward, I think back upon years that have overflowed in bountiful blessings. When the first snow of the autumn came I was the last one in this little hamlet, perched 7,000 feet in the Swiss Alps. My neighbor, Mr.…
What is called “centering prayer” is in fact a form of meditation or contemplation. It has become known to the public through the writings of people like Father Wayne Tysdale, the untiring promoter of what is called interreligious dialogue between the main religions, Cynthia Bourgeault, author of the most beautiful biography of Jesus I have…
During my African years, I once spent an evening on the banks of the Niger River in Segou, Mali. Everything breathed peace and an unhurried pace: the fishermen throwing their nets in the river, the women walking home and joking with one another other, the rhythmic, slow pace of the cows with their huge horns…
Only recently have we been discovering the extent to which we are all connected through a network which is infinitely more efficient and far-reaching that the entire world’s social media and all the Facebook pages all put together: namely, an infinite Mind. One of the fathers of alternative medicine in the USA, who is also…
Occasionally one meets in the course of one’s life people who leave a deep imprint on you. Last month I spoke about French spiritual teacher Alyna Rouelle. Today I would like to write about another such teacher I met on … death row Texas ! Roger W. Mc Gowen and I have been corresponding for almost…
From time to time we have encounters in our lives which will have a lasting impact on us for years, sometimes even for life. At the end of April I had such a contact which I know will influence the rest of my days. It was a one-day workshop in France with Alyna Rouelle, a…
Many years ago I was attending the board meeting of the largest grass roots peasant-farmer movement in Africa, in Ouhigouya (Burkina-Faso in the Sahel). The last day of the meeting I contracted dysentery and as at the time I was following a path of pure spiritual healing (no medicine) I worked on it spiritually. On…
More and more these days one hears from all sides very striking accounts of healings using amazing non-medical approaches. I was told the following story by a very dear Belgian friend, and I can vouch for its authenticity. Increasingly, in years to come, this type of totally unorthodox healings (according to the prevailing materialistic medical…
Too easily we forget that Jesus was not a Christian! Jesus was an itinerant Jewish rabbi whom some link to the Essenes, a Jewish splinter group with extremely demanding spiritual practices. His words were not recorded until 70 to 100 years after his death, with all the inevitable distortions this implies. Historians of the New…
Guest blogger : Jelaluddin Rumi The dissolving of the ego is probably the key challenge of the spiritual path. Until one has really faced this daunting task, one is playing dice, maybe having a nice time, but not doing anything really serious. All those who embark as serious students on the road to true reality…
(Our New Year’s blog needs to confer hope and expectation. I hope this one does!) This is a question that I am sure many of us have asked ourselves at one time or another. My dear friend Téo from Toulouse (France), with whom I have exciting spiritual exchanges, recently sent me a text which has…
It has been my privilege to travel widely through the five continents of the world in the course of a very active existence. I have met people from all walks of life, from prostitutes to presidents, saints and sinners. I have witnessed incredible poverty, amazing acts of daily heroism (especially from women). I have studied…
By Guest Blogger Madisyn Taylor, best-selling author, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the popular inspirational Website DailyOM – dailyom.com A recognized leader in self-help and New Thought spirituality, she has more than 15 years’ experience in personal development and alternative-healing methodologies. Every day is a blessing, and in each moment there are many things that we…
In a workshop I was privileged to run this summer in the superb setting of a chalet in the Swiss Alps, a woman participant, an MD, shared with us a rare experience with blessing which probably saved her life. She has shared her story in the testimonies section of this website. Some years ago, she…
At a recent workshop on meditation given by a former Buddhist monk in the magical setting of a chalet in the Swiss Alps where I run workshops every summer, I was asked how I blessed people in the public transport system, in the street and other public spaces. I am most grateful for this question…
Probably no other period in human history has experienced such a rapid and generalized collapse of convictions and beliefs as ours, and in practically all areas: from medicine to religion, from the sciences to spirituality, from nationalism to dietary prescriptions… you name it. In practically all sectors, everything is constantly put into question. This is…
From time to time we will invite guest blogs to this site. We start with Nicolya Christi, the respected author of some remarkable books on spirituality which have received extremely positive reviews by people like Barbara Marx Hubbard and the founder of the Club of Budapest, Erwin Laszlo, including Contemporary Spirituality for an Evolving World.…
In a world that sometimes seems to be coming apart when viewed from a purely outside, material viewpoint, one of the most comforting and hopeful signs in the growing sense of oneness that is experienced by millions and probably tens of millions if not more. This is accompanied by the appearance of more and more…
A few years ago, I went through a tsunami that swept absolutely everything from under my feet. Here I was, a respected trainer and writer, in a marriage seen by many as a model, in apparent perfect health (I had never used my health insurance since I contracted it decades ago) and with a very…
I have a very dear French friend, Meena, who went through one of the most powerful experiences of forgiveness I have ever come across. When she was still in her late teens, she fell head over heels in love with a man just a few years older than her. They got married and had two…
Because integrity is such an essential element of the spiritual quest – after all it is one of the many dimension of truth – I felt like sharing my reflections on the theme of being true to oneself – which is the essence of integrity as I understand it. Integrity is a quality of being.…
Marianne Williamson, one of the great figures of the American spiritual scene, has published a superb book of brief daily reflections, A YEAR OF MIRACLES. I would like to quote in its entirety one that I ponder practically every morning at the start of my day: Nothing about your material circumstances has the power to…
Armel Nibasumba was but a year old when he and his family fled from their home in Burundi before it was burnt down by a mob. Most of the world’s attention was focused on the 1994 mass killings in Rwanda of ethnic Tutsis by the majority Hutus, but the same tensions were also at play…
One of the most famous prisoners of opinion in the world today is China’s most well-known political dissident, Liu Xiaobo, who has already served nearly half his 11 year sentence. He holds no animosity towards his Communist jailors or the party that imprisoned him. At the time of his sentencing, he said: “I have no…
For generations, a nation of world servants has, little by little, been building up everywhere. In fact, it has existed as an embryo for far longer, but in the past 30-40 years it has been manifesting itself in a much more concrete manner. It is made up of this invisible yet ever more active network…
In a fascinating book which just appeared in French, ‘Meditation Saved Me’, the Tibetan monk Phakyab Rinpoche explains how he healed himself of a serious case of gangrene of the foot and tuberculosis of the bones through the power of meditation. His meditation included an important component of compassion for the world. The doctors in…
Many years ago, I was living in Senegal, W Africa. I lived on a beach between two shanty towns. I was on very friendly terms with the son of the imam of one of the two shanty towns, and one Sunday afternoon I decided I would go to the imam’s home and ask him how…
