Rev. Bill McDonald I have given much thought and time to contemplate that very question ever since I was a child facing death in the hospital at eight years of age. I had “died” in my hospital bed all alone and unmonitored by medical staff in an isolation ward. In those moments of “death”, I…
by guest Rabbi Rami Shapiro – July 07, 2019 Comment: I love what Rabbi Shapiro writes – it is a major step forward from the rigidified religious practices of the past (and for quite a few, still the present.) However, after having been most of my life as a member of traditional churches, it is my belief…
Tenzin Gyatso; The Fourteenth Dalai Lama The purpose of life I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affect this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire…
A dominant aspect of mystical experiences all round the world is that the mystics very often see the links of all things – not only between all humans, but between humans and nature, and sometimes they feel a total immersion with the Ground of Being that upholds the universe and every living being. And what…
For over 60 years I belonged to forms of organized religion. These still play a useful role for some individuals who need to have verbal formulations of truths and liturgical and cultural forms that reassure and comfort. However, we live in a world where increasingly everything is challenged and each one is called to define…
As our guest blog for this month, we are sharing a Spiritual Teaching and Practice from Paul Ferrini’s online course Journey from Fear to Love. Ferrini is the author of over 40 books on love, healing and forgiveness. His unique blend of spirituality and psychology goes beyond self-help and recovery into the heart of…
To listen is possibly the most beautiful gift we can offer anyone. In a way it is to tell that person: “You are important to me, you are interesting, I am glad you are here. I am here for you; I am touched by who you are and what you are saying.” To listen is…
Israeli government plans last year for a mass deportation of African asylum-seekers created a public outcry and remain on hold. But migrant families and their children live in a painful state of uncertainty. Yet in an impoverished neighborhood in Tel Aviv is a school dedicated to helping migrant children thrive educationally and emotionally, teaching students…
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…
Blessing, in the meaning used on this site and in books* I have written on the practice of blessing, often results in healing. A perusal of the section on healing testimonies shows that numerous healings or resolutions of “impossible” situations have occurred through this practice: including a severe depression; very difficult relationships; being freed from…
“The Infinite is the source of joy!” (Chandogya Upanishad 7.23) There is a mighty rushing river of deep Joy at the center of all life. Oh yes, there is also a roller-coaster ride of pleasure and pain at the surface of human experience. Yet transcending this is a Joy that is the very effervescence of…
“I bless children in foster care, that the challenges of their past weigh not unduly on their future. I bless the hosting families that they may welcome their foster child with gentleness, deep compassion and caring and an understanding of their special needs.” Pierre Pradervand, from https://pierrepradervand.com/365-blessings-to-heal-myself-and-the-world/ On any given day, there are nearly 437,500…
In her book The Healing Secrets of the Ages, Catherine Ponder writes: “Bless the world around you unselfishly with divine order. As you do so, you release the power of order into the atmosphere to do its perfect work. Look for, expect and give thanks for divine order, often. By doing so, you release…
Guest blogger: Andrew Harvey Andrew Harvey is one of the great spiritual teachers of today who has inspired thousands all round the world to turn their spirituality into the real power behind their lives rather than icing on the cake. For instance, it is all too easy to make (create, utter, send out) a nice blessing…
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…
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…
For years, Italian coffee giant illy has earned the reputation of a company that prioritizes people over profits. And while it sources its coffee from 25 countries around the globe, Columbia is the place where that philosophy is making a real difference. Ask Fernando, an ex-commander of the FARC paramilitary revolutionary movement that spent 50…
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 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…
On Tilos, where fewer than 500 people live (and they’re outnumbered by goats 45 to 1), locals have given shelter, jobs, and education to twelve families – and want them to stay. They are the forgotten people – more than 60,000 refugees who have been languishing in camps in Greece after their dreams of finding…
Posted by Neeti S W on Jul 10, 2017 We thought we would post this today, Global Oneness Day 2017, to illustrate how compassion for and acceptance of others can have a healing impact and remind ourselves that we are all ONE. Awakin gatherings started when three friends got together in 1996 to sit in…
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…
Author Unknown His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally is wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kind of esoteric and very, very bright. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church.…
Imagine you’re working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do? Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension. But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to…
If you believe that a smile is stronger than a weapon If you believe in the power of a helping hand If you believe that what unites people is more important than what divides If you believe that being different is an asset and not a danger If you look at the other with a…
Excerpted from an article by Nipun Mehta, July 7, 2015: http://www.dailygood.org/search.php?op=auth&name=Nipun%20Mehta I recently met a 97 year old Sufi saint named Dada Vaswani. He has a great many followers around the world, is highly respected by monks and nuns from various traditions, and radiates a profound sense of peace. I was deeply grateful to meet…
A story about love, compassion and devotion. “All the supply in this world is within you and it has to flow out FROM you. It cannot come TO you. If you want to demonstrate supply, you have got to begin with ‘What have I in the house.’ And then you have got to begin to…
By Will Allen Dromgoole* An old man going a lone highway, Came, at the evening cold and gray, To a chasm vast and deep and wide. Through which was flowing a sullen tide The old man crossed in the twilight dim, The sullen stream had no fear for him; But he turned when safe on…
Recently Les Voies de Soi asked Pierre to talk about his spiritual path. In this just released informal video conversation Pierre shares with us the role the practice of blessing has had in his life: ”demolishing” the ego, fostering unconditional love, compassion and forgiveness, eliminating all judgement, and creating a yearning for simplicity in all…
Pierre Pradervand The seashell called angel wing is delicate and exquisitely beautiful. One sometimes finds numbers of them on the shore when the tide recedes, their winsome loveliness resting gently on the sand. One wonders why they were not crushed to smithereens in the pounding of the huge waves that brought them in. Yet wave…
What do you do when a protester stands outside your place of worship preaching words of hatred and intolerance? If you attend the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, you give them a hug and free breakfast. The mosque was prepared for angry protesters and signs after a Facebook campaign tried to organize picketing at dozens of…
Divine Love is the highest power of the universe. It is here within us often hidden in the deepest recesses of our heart and in the universal energy matrix. It is the energy that provided the first impulse to all Life and that opens the heart to receive abundance in all its forms. Why is…
Sikhs are taking one of their traditions of religious hospitality to one of the most inhospitable places on Earth — five miles from the Syrian border in refugee camps for people fleeing that country’s civil war. The UK group, Langar Aid, an organization that provides food and water to people in need, has set up a…
Excerpted and translated from the book Mes Racines Sont Dans le Ciel by Father Pierre Ceyrac, Presse de la Renaissance, Paris, 2004 “I bless all the children on this planet who are facing health challenges in the assurance that the infinite Life, which is in all of us, forever envelopes them with Its active and unceasing…
I will continue to believe, even if everyone loses hope. I will continue to love, even if others distill hatred. I will continue to build, even if others destroy. I will continue to talk peace even in the midst of a war. I will continue to spread light, even in the midst of darkness. I…
One can never insist enough on the fact that blessing is one of the main tools we have at our disposal for healing the world. Wherever we are, whatever the situation, we can bless. Some people complain that they do not know what to do to heal the world. Well, if we just open our…
A blessing for one of the most terrible situations I can think of: children condemned to life imprisonment. The USA is the only country in the world to do this, and almost 3000 of them are condemned to this fate (figure for 2015), some as young as 13. Until 2005, some of them were even…
I believe it is impossible to live a happy life if one nourishes resentment for some harm done to oneself, or guilt or repressed anger for an error of omission or commission we caused. On the other hand, we become incapable of resentment when we have understood that everyone is at every moment at their…
More than 20,000 men, women, and children are estimated to have lost their lives in the past two decades, while trying to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life. So far in 2015, 1,826 migrants are thought to have died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Last year, at least 3,419 people died trying…
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…
