Image by Gerd Altmann
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 contrary glorify, this evolution which is even very evident in the spiritual field. Ever more gurus and spiritual teachers often claim to propose the best way to nirvana, paradise, total detachment or infinite peace.
The "Ultimate" Path?
For many, many years I was a member of an extremely rigid spiritual path that claimed to be “the ultimate” in terms of revelation and truth, and it took me a very long time to loosen its hold. After years of wandering sort of aimlessly, I finally found my peace in simplifying my spiritual life to the utmost. (I would like to add that during my whole life I have made simple living a central point of my existence – I even wrote two books on the topic.)
I belong to no organization, spiritual path, religion, church, movement although I do have a favorite spiritual writer, American mystic Joel Goldsmith of the last century (about whom I will write a coming blog on silence.)
One Simple Thing
So, my spiritual practice has boiled down to one simple thing: expressing love in all situations, constantly. And of course here I am still in the kindergarten of loving, but I have at least started.
Every morning, I ponder the following text with a deep, deep yearning. This is the key for me: this deep yearning to become nothing but “a big ball of love” , to express nothing but unconditional, universal, joyful love:
Creator, bless my eyes that I may see with love.
Bless my mouth that I may speak with love.
Bless my ears that I may listen with love.
Bless my heart that I may give and receive love.
Bless my hands that all I touch feels loved and that all I do is done with love.
Bless my mind that I may think with love,
And bless my feet that my walk may be a prayer on Mother Earth.
-- Adapted and expanded from a text by Grace Alvarez Sesma
A Blessing for Simplicity
We live in a world of growing complexity in all fields. It is also a world where the consumer choices have gone far beyond any definition of what a reasonable choice would be. This represents a massive loss of time and energy for consumers and the world.
May I learn to prune my life of all its useless trappings and activities and simplify it down to its essentials, that I may have the time, energy and desire to hold on to what really matters: listening to You and serving my neighbor who also happens to be myself in disguise.
May I drop the hectic and impossible challenge of keeping up with the Joneses, the latest news, the latest book “I just must read,” and the latest fashion of this or that. May they just fall by their own weight, and may I stand in the simple elegance of one who has discovered the fundamental truth that the “Kingdom of God” is simply that place of sublime beauty inside us where there never entered a single unessential presence or thought, where reigns but the feeling of God happening within.
I bless my fellow humans that they may discover the healing peace of uncluttered lives, the healing simplicity of an existence guided by one single and only desire: to love more, to serve more faithfully and hence to rejoice more constantly.
©2022 by Pierre Pradervand. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission from the author's blog.
Book by this Author
365 Blessings to Heal Myself and the World: Really Living One’s Spirituality in Everyday Life
by Pierre Pradervand.
Can you imagine what it would feel like to never feel any resentment for any wrong done to you, gossip or lie disseminated about you? To respond with full awareness to all situations and people rather than react from your gut? What freedom that would entail! Well, this is just one of the gifts the practice of blessing from the heart, i.e. sending out focused love energy, will do for you. This book, from the bestselling author of The Gentle Art of Blessing, will help you learn to bless all situations and people as you go through the day and add overwhelming joy and presence to your existence.
For more info and/or to order this book, click here. Also available as a Kindle edition.
About The Author
Pierre Pradervand is the author of The Gentle Art of Blessing. He has worked, travelled and lived in over 40 countries on five continents, and has been leading workshops and teaching the art of blessing for many years, with remarkable responses and transformational results.
For over 20 years Pierre has been practising blessing and collecting testimonies of blessing as a tool for healing the heart, mind, body and soul.
Visit his website at https://gentleartofblessing.org
