Category: Spiritual texts

Spiritual texts

In this section we will regularly present texts from all horizons which we hope will help those who are on a spiritual path to progress and to broaden their perspective on what constitutes spirituality which many people tend to encompass in rather narrow limits.

We want all readers to feel welcome and included, and while in these texts we will use “God“ whenever an author chooses that term, we should like to point out that there are many, many different names and attributes for deity: divine or cosmic Love, Creator, Source, Infinite Mind, Allah, Buddha, Jehovah, Great Spirit, It, Universe, Principle, Father-Mother, etc. etc. So please choose what best resonates with you!

You are being called forth to shine

Shannon Peck

We live in a time of danger. There could never be enough soldiers or police on earth to keep everyone safe and secure. We are in a global crisis in many respects. Never before has the world been in greater need of Love Lights, like you, to shine and bring forth a new age of…

Satisfying One’s Soul

guyfinley.org

In this life, in any given moment, in one way or another (and more or less as you imagined), you will receive what you asked for… Do not doubt it. As a result, learn how to monitor your requests because nothing that was designed or created here below can satisfy your soul except the Creator…

The Importance Of Seeing The Good In All

Seeing the good in all

By Madisyn Taylor Our Comment: In a recent blog (https://gentleartofblessing.org/an-infinitely-friendly-universe/) Pierre wrote of his deep conviction (shared by many thinkers and mystics) that the universe is governed by a loving, benevolent intelligence.  Thus, all challenges we   personally face in this human existence are teaching tools that force us to progress on our spiritual path especially if…

Spiritual Mastery Prayer

Spiritual Mastery Prayer

by Paul Ferrini Father/Mother God: Help me to feel my oneness with you and my equality with my brothers and sisters. Help me to recognize my judgments and to look within for correction. Help me to give up shame and blame and to learn from my errors so that I do not repeat them. Help…

Unity and the Power of Love

Unity and the Power of Love

Excerpts from an article by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Unity holds the essential vision that we are one living, interconnected ecosystem—a living Earth that supports and nourishes all of its inhabitants. If we acknowledge and honor this simple reality, we can begin to participate in the vital work of healing our fractured and divisive world and embrace a…

A simpler life is a happier life.

A Simpler life

Excerpts from the writings of Yogananda Happiness is not dependent on external circumstances; rather, it is to be found in the simpler joys of life, and most of all in the ever-new bliss of deep meditation…. Be happy by clinging to the simple, true, and lasting soul-joys. They come by deep thinking, introspection, spiritual inspiration,…

The End of Knowing

The End of Knowing

(Fr Richard Rohr’s Meditation for Friday, October 12, 2018) Our note: if the word God does not resonate with you, change it to one of the many other names for deity – Cosmic Love, Great Spirit, Infinite, Divine, Allah, etc. etc. “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues,…

Divine Inspiration

Divine Inspiration

Whatever religion you were taught, however you were raised, whichever way you understood your teachers, you will grasp and understand this message. It not sufficient to believe this message, one also must live it. The essence of universal religion is peace and goodness encompassing love and kindness towards all creatures on earth. The time has…

The Prayer of Silence

The prayer of silence

Excerpts from The Dynamic Laws of Prayer, Caroline Ponder In the silence, when your conscious mind becomes quiet, then the subconscious phase of the mind, which is the seat of memory and feeling, is free to function, revealing fresh inspiration and new ideas … The silence is the workshop of God. The silence is the…

On giving thanks

On giving thanks

Enjoy these two short meditations by Eileen Caddy, co-founder of The Findhorn Community in Scotland, from Opening Doors Within Give thanks for everything you have, for everything you received, and for everything you are going to receive. In fact, never cease to give thanks for it is a positive attitude towards life, and the very…

For Life’s Abundance

Gratitude

Just in time for Thanksgiving, here is a blessing from Pierre’s new book https://pierrepradervand.com/365-blessings-to-heal-myself-and-the-world/ As my basic text on blessing states, blessing and gratitude are in a sense the two sides of  the  same  coin. When you bless a situation or a person, you are also saying thank you to the universe for a given…

Spiritual Development, a text by Rama Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi

Spiritual development does not happen in stages. You are a spiritual being here and now. Don’t lock yourself in notions of plans, levels, stages. Don’t cherish what are only false limitations. You are the Self – be that. To think that you have to discover your own Self is silly. What is there to find?…

Finding silence in the center of sound

Finding silence

Close your eyes and feel the whole universe filled with sound. Feel as if every sound is moving toward you and you are the center. This feeling that you are the center will give you a very deep peace. The whole universe becomes the circumference and you are the center, and everything is moving toward…

The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers

The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers

by an Unknown Confederate soldier I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was…

No Better Place to Meet Yourself

“In the whirl and swirl of our modern world, I bless myself in my ability to step aside, stop, and enjoy the greatest gift of all:  the infinite simplicity and riches of Your Presence…. “I bless my fellow humans that they may discover the healing peace of uncluttered lives, the healing simplicity of an existence…

A healing of depression

Healing of depression

Pierre Pradervand There are ways out of the trap of depression—ways that avoid the slippery road of becoming heavily dependent on drugs. I found such a way, and it taught me some of the most useful lessons I’ve learned in my life. In the 1980s, I started having extreme attacks of depression. They were accompanied by…

I don’t want to know… Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I don't want to know...

“May I follow at all times my highest sense of what is right, whatever the cost and however lonely the path, or however loud the mockery of the Pharisees. “May I express the integrity that always speaks truth to power, as the old Quaker saying goes, when silence might better serve our interests, and which…

The Ice Cream That Cannot Be Flavored

ICE CREAM

From Holy Rascals by Rabbi Rami Shapiro, with permission Walk into an ice cream shop and order a scoop of ice cream. The clerk will ask which flavor ice cream you prefer, but you don’t want a flavor, you want ice cream. The clerk is stymied. Of all the flavors on the menu, “ice cream”…

Listening Hearts (excerpt)

Listening Hearts

A message written or spoken and sent from the heart but received with the mind, will likely be not understood, or completely misinterpreted. They don’t speak the same language. We don’t need more talking heads on the planet right now. We each have a divinely renewable resource that needs to be accessed. It is called…

Excerpt from La Mort est un Nouveau Soleil (Death is a New Sun)

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (our translation) “To die is to move into a more beautiful home. It is simply to abandon one’s physical body just as the butterfly slips out of its cocoon.” These are the words that Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross often used at her patients’ bedsides. “Most people think of their living conditions as difficult, their…

The First Ripple of Love Has to Be Around Yourself

Ripples of love

“As I stand in front of a mirror, may I stand in awe of the amazing beauty that looks at me, the immense kindness, the caring, the goodness and so many other qualities that are simply awaiting  my acknowledgment.” PP from https://pierrepradervand.com/365-blessings-to-heal-myself-and-the-world “The healthy love of oneself is a great religious value. The person who…

Our spotless innocence – unchallenged and unalterable

Our spotless innocence

By Pierre Pradervand ~ “I bless myself sincerely and joyfully for being the utterly beautiful divine creature I am, at one with the Source of infinite Love. … I bless myself as Spirit’s manifestation of glorious liberty, total freedom and unlimited innocence – and this is true of all humanity.” From my new book, 365…

Skillful Service is Born of a Quiet Heart

Skillful Service is Born of a Quiet Heart

Jack Kornfield ~ Wise intention and skillful service need to be nourished by periods of quiet and prayer. Every great tradition includes some from of the Sabbath. In the West we inherited the blessing of the Christian and Jewish Sabbath. Muslims have Friday as their holy day, and likewise Hindus and Buddhists renew their vows…

A meditation on the Shepherd’s Psalm

A meditation on the Shepherd’s Psalm

A simple meditation to start your day There is a brief text which is one of the most universal, ecumenical texts in the world spiritual literature. Be you a Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, follower of shamanist practices, this text speaks to any open heart. The reason is that it is pure poetry, being composed…

Oath of Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

This is the text of an astonishing oath given to an audience of 9000 dignitaries of all races in 324 B.C.  It is just as relevant to our times!  “It is my wish, now that wars are coming to an end, that you should all be happy in peace. From now on, let all mortals…

World Problems Will Be Solved By A Change of Consciousness

from Our Spiritual Resources by Joel S. Goldsmith, slightly modified and abridged “With a new view of the world supporting a new consciousness, we could transcend the quagmire of the current crisis and set out on the path we were meant to follow a path of cooperation and harmony, leading to the flourishing of one…

A New Cosmology

A New Cosmology

“We’re reaching a fork in the road; two paths are diverging on planet Earth, and the one we choose will make all the difference for the life of the planet. Shall we continue our medieval religious practices in a medieval paradigm and mechanistic culture and undergo extinction? Or shall we wake up to this dynamic,…

A Candle is talking to you

A Candle is talking to you

You have lighted me, and you are looking at me, dreaming. Perhaps you are happy to have me. In any case, I am happy to be lit. If I don’t burn, I shall be like the others, left in a box where I have no purpose. My reason for being is fulfilled only when I…

A Poem on Identity

A Poem on Identity

by Doris Peel, an American poetess (Appeared in the Christian Science Monitor of Dec. 31, 1960) Daily I am His delight Daily He rejoices in His handiwork – All fresh, all bright All wrought from elemental light To be what He beholds as me. His song sung out in world this day ! His theme…

The loveliest dress

The loveliest dress

A story about compassion to share with children! She was the poorest little girl in the entire world. She owned nothing, not even a rag doll, not even pictures. She only had one single dress and when her mother washed it, she had to remain in bed while in dried. One evening, the mother was…

God’s Love and the Fruit Salad

God's Love and the Fruit Salad

Excerpts from Julian of Norwich One morning early, while making my fruit salad, the sentence “All is well, all is well, all is very, very well” continued playing through my mind.  I was suddenly reminded of a very beautiful booklet I read years ago, ENFOLDED IN LOVE – daily readings with Julian of Norwich. Despite…

We think we know so much …

We think we know so much …

We know how to reach the stars, but we don’t know how to respect the heavens and even less so the immensity of the cosmos. We know how to talk about love, but we have such difficulty loving while respecting the other and one’s self. We know how to bake bread, but we have trouble…

Commentary by Sri Aurobindo on the Bhagavad Gita

Commentary by Sri Aurobindo

Translation of a text which has been and continues to be one of my greatest sources of inspiration. PP To perform all acts without the personal egoism of the doer is the first sign of the divine worker. The second sign is the absence of desire since, where there is no personal egoism of the…

The world’s seven wonders

The world’s seven wonders

A professor told a group of students, “Make me a list of what you consider are the seven wonders of our current world.” Some thought of Everest, Venice, Mecca, the Versailles castle, the Kremlin, Easter Island, skyscrapers, the Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls, Arctic ice, the Amazon forest, space exploration. Despite a few disagreements, most students…

Aminata

Aminata

a story shared in the June 2016 newsletter of the Lotti Latrous Foundation, by Mrs. Latrous I was sitting with our head doctor N’Da next to my office following a long and hard day. Suddenly I saw a creature coming towards us across the courtyard. I realized after a few seconds that it was a…

The Lighthouse

Le Phare_Lighthouse

    When the lighthouse beams its light, it does not measure the intensity if the storm, nor judge it. Before shining its light, it does not say to itself: “I need to understand where my light goes and why.” All the lighthouse knows is that it was built to pierce the darkness and resist…

The Vision that Grounded my Life

Love is who you are

by Pierre Pradervand Many years ago, I was attending in Ouhigouya (Burkina-Faso in the Sahel) the board meeting of the largest grass roots peasant-farmer movement in Africa, of which I was a founding member. The last day of the meeting I contracted dysentery and as at the time I was following a path of pure…

The Purpose of Life

Paramahansa Yogananda or Paramhansa Yogananda (1893 –1952) was an Indian yogi and teacher who introduced millions of westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga . Excerpted from his writings on The Purpose of Life. Giving love to all, feeling the love of God, seeing His presence in everyone, and having but one desire…

I Am

As long as you believe that the God you seek is hidden up there in the sky, As long as you believe that your salvation is to be found in religions, sects, gurus or others, As long as you believe that you are too small to forgive yourself and that and only God can do…