THE
GENTLE ART OF BLESSING
On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full
of unseen good
which your blessings
will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited
good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and
awaiting each and all.
On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and
play,
bless them. The peace
of your blessing will accompany them on their way
and the aura of its
gentle fragrance will be a light to their path.
On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their health, their
work, their joy, their relationships to God, themselves, and others.
Bless them in their
abundance, their finances...bless them in every
conceivable way, for
such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but
one day will spring forth as flowers of joy in the waste places of
your own
life.
As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers,
its nurses and street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priests
and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least aggression
or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them totally,
sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which protects
them from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow
that was aimed at you.
To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total, unrestricted good
for others and events from
the deepest wellspring in the innermost chamber of
your heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter
awe that which is always a gift from the Creator. He
who is
hallowed by your blessing is
set aside, consecrated, holy, whole.To
bless is yet to invoke divine
care upon, to think or speak gratefully
for, to confer happiness upon - although we ourselves are never the
bestower, but simply the
joyful witnesses of Life's abundance.
To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate
form of giving, because
those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden
ray of sun that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will
rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.
When something goes completely askew in your day, some unexpected
event knocks down your plans
and you too also, burst into blessing: for life is
teaching you a lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted, you
yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson you might balk against
were you not to bless it. Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts
of angels follow in their path.
To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden
to material eyes; it is to
activate that law of attraction which, from the furthest
reaches of the universe, will bring into your life exactly what you
need to experience and enjoy.
When you pass a prison, mentally bless its inmates in their
innocence and freedom, their
gentleness, pure essence and unconditional forgiveness;
for one can only be prisoner of one's self-image, and a free
man can walk unshackled in the courtyard of a jail, just as citizens
of countries where freedom reigns can be prisoners when fear lurks
in their thoughts.
When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present
wholeness, for even in their
suffering, this wholeness awaits in them to be discovered.
When your eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by life,
bless him in his vitality and joy: for the material senses present but
the inverted image of the ultimate splendor and perfection which only
the inner eye beholds.
It is impossible to bless and to judge at the same time. So hold constantly
as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to bless, for
truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall,
everywhere, behold
the very face of God.
--P. Pradervand
