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, with ever more gurus and spiritual teachers often claiming to propose the best way to nirvana, paradise, total detachment or infinite peace.
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.)
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 (that you will find elsewhere on this site too) 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)
Pierre Pradervand,
June 2022
https://gentleartofblessing.org/simple-simple-simple-and-essential/
