TERMS STARTING WITH
blessing ::: 1. Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon. 2. A ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection, grace, etc.
blessing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bless ::: v. t. --> The act of one who blesses.
A declaration of divine favor, or an invocation imploring divine favor on some or something; a benediction; a wish of happiness pronounces.
Blessing of the New Moon: In the Jewish rituals, an outdoor benediction service on the appearance of the new moon, which marks the beginning of a new month of the Hebrew calendar.
Blessings ::: "My blessings are very dangerous. They cannot be for this one or for that one or against this person or against that thing. It is for... or, well, I will put it in a mystic way: It is for the Will of the Lord to be done, with full force and power. So it is not necessary that there should always be a success. There might be a failure also, if such is the Will of the Lord. And the Will is for the progress, I mean the inner progress. So whatever will happen will be for the best."
Ref: CWM Vol. 13, Page: 60-61
TERMS ANYWHERE
Abhisheka ::: In Tibetan Buddhism, this is a tantric empowerment and form of esoteric transmission that confers the blessings of a lineage to an adherent. A practical example: to work successful magic within the mandala of a specific deity, abhisheka is often very close to a necessity.
adhisthAna. (P. adhitthAna; T. byin gyis brlabs pa; C. jiachi; J. kaji; K. kaji 加持). In Sanskrit, lit. "determination" or "decisive resolution" and commonly translated as "empowerment." Literally, the term has the connotation of "taking a stand," viz., the means by which the buddhas reveal enlightenment to the world, as well as the adept's reliance on the buddhas' empowerment through specific ritual practices. In the former sense, adhisthAna can refer to the magical power of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, in which contexts it is often translated as "blessing" or "empowerment." As the LAnKAVATARASuTRA notes, it is thanks to the buddhas' empowerment issuing from their own original vows (PRAnIDHANA) that BODHISATTVAS are able to undertake assiduous cultivation over three infinite eons (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) so that they may in turn become buddhas. The buddhas' empowerment sustains the bodhisattvas in their unremitting practice by both helping them to maintain tranquillity of mind throughout the infinity of time they are in training and, ultimately, once the bodhisattvas achieve the tenth and final stage (BHuMI) of their training, the cloud of dharma (DHARMAMEGHA), the buddhas appear from all the ten directions to anoint the bodhisattvas as buddhas in their own right (see ABHIsEKA). ¶ In mainstream Buddhist materials, adhisthAna refers to the first of a buddha's six or ten psychic powers (ṚDDHI), the ability to project mind-made bodies (MANOMAYAKAYA) of himself, viz., to replicate himself ad infinitum. In PAli materials, adhitthAna is also used to refer to the "determination" to extend the duration of meditative absorption (P. JHANA; S. DHYANA) and the derivative psychic powers (P. iddhi; S. ṚDDHI).
Airyema-ishyo (Avestan) Airyemā-ishyō. The much-desired brotherhood, or Yasna 54: “May brotherhood of man, for which we yearn, come down amongst us and rejoice the hearts of men and maidens of Zarathustra’s faith. Bringing fulfillment unto Vohu Man; when souls of men receive their precious mead, I pray too Asha in His Grace to grant these blessings for which human souls do long, which Mazda hath meant for all.” “This verse, though actually not included in the Gathas, follows immediately after the Fifth Gatha. Both the language and the metre are exactly the same, as those of the Fifth Gatha. . . . This verse is recited during the Zoroastrian marriage service as part of ‘the blessing’ ” (Taraporewala, The Religion of Zarathushtra 148).
Alayhis-salat was-salaam ::: "Upon Him be blessing and peace"
Al-Ghafur ::: The One who’s Mercy should never be doubted or given up on. The One who enables necessary cleansing and triggers the name Rahim to bestow blessings.
Altair 8800 "computer" An {Intel 8080}-based machine made by {MITS}. The Altair was the first popular {microcomputer} kit. It appeared on the cover of the January 1975 "Popular Electronics" magazine with an article (probably) by Leslie Solomon. Leslie Solomon was an editor at Popular Electronics who had a knack for spotting kits that would interest people and make them buy the magazine. The Altair 8800 was one such. The MITS guys took the prototype Altair to New York to show Solomon, but couldn't get it to work after the flight. Nonetheless, he liked it, and it appeared on the cover as "The first minicomputer in a kit." Solomon's blessing was important enough that some MITS competitors named their product the "SOL" to gain his favour. Some wags suggested {SOL} was actually an abbreviation for the condition in which kit purchasers would find themselves. {Bill Gates} and Paul Allen saw the article on the Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics. They realised that the Altair, which was programmed via its binary front panel needed a {high level language}. Legend has it that they called MITS with the claim that they had a {BASIC} {interpreter} for the Altair. When MITS asked them to demo it in Albuquerque, they wrote one on the plane. On arrival, they entered the machine code via the front panel and demonstrated and sold their "product." Thus was born "Altair BASIC." The original Altair BASIC ran in less than 4K of RAM because a "loaded" Altair had 4K memory. Since there was no {operating system} on the Altair, Altair BASIC included what we now think of as {BIOS}. It was distributed on {paper tape} that could be read on a {Teletype}. Later versions supported the 8K Altair and the 16K {diskette}-based Altair (demonstrating that, even in the 1970s, {Microsoft} was committed to {software bloat}). Altair BASIC was ported to the {Motorola 6800} for the Altair 680 machine, and to other 8080-based microcomputers produced by MITS' competitors. {PC-History.org Altair 8800 page (http://pc-history.org/altair_8800.htm)}. [Forrest M. Mimms, article in "Computers and Electronics", (formerly "Popular Electronics"), Jan 1985(?)]. [Was there ever an "Altair 9000" microcomputer?] (2002-06-17)
Altair 8800 ::: (computer) An Intel 8080-based machine made by MITS. The Altair was the first popular microcomputer kit.It appeared on the cover of the January 1975 Popular Electronics magazine with an article (probably) by Leslie Solomon. Leslie Solomon was an editor at Popular the flight. Nonetheless, he liked it, and it appeared on the cover as The first minicomputer in a kit.Solomon's blessing was important enough that some MITS competitors named their product the SOL to gain his favour. Some wags suggested SOL was actually an abbreviation for the condition in which kit purchasers would find themselves.Bill Gates and Paul Allen saw the article on the Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics. They realized that the Altair, which was programmed via its binary entered the machine code via the front panel and demonstrated and sold their product. Thus was born Altair BASIC.The original Altair BASIC ran in less than 4K of RAM because a loaded Altair had 4K memory. Since there was no operating system on the Altair, Altair BASIC the Altair 680 machine, and to other 8080-based microcomputers produced by MITS' competitors. .[Forrest M. Mimms, article in Computers and Electronics, (formerly Popular Electronics), Jan 1985(?)].[Was there ever an Altair 9000 microcomputer?](2002-06-17)
Amen ::: (Heb. acronym. El Melech Ne'eman) Traditional response to prayers or blessings. It literally stands for "God the true king".
Amidah (The &
Ancestor worship: A religious system based on the belief that the spirits of the dead linger about their earthly habitations, have powers of protecting and blessing those responsible for their care, and of avenging their neglect. The doctrine and practice is observed and followed in various parts of the world, notably in China and Japan.
anisong. In Thai, "blessings" (from the PAli AnisaMsa [S. ANUsAMSA], "blessing" or "merit"), referring to a type of text in the northern Thai tradition that explains the benefits of certain merit-making rituals. The anisong may have been written specifically to encourage participation in Buddhist rituals and festivals.
anugraha&
anusaMsa. [alt. AnusaMsa; AnusaMsA, etc.] (P. AnisaMsa; T. phan yon; C. gongde/liyi; J. kudoku/riyaku; K. kongdok/iik 功德/利益). In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, "blessing," "benefit," "reward," or "advantage" that accrues from leading a virtuous life or performing various types of virtuous actions. In the PAli MAHAPARINIBBANASUTTANTA, for example, while preaching on the benefits of moral rectitude to a gathering of lay disciples in the city of PAtaligAma (see PAtALIPUTRA), the Buddha enumerates five such blessings that a morally upright person can expect to acquire in this lifetime: first, great wealth (bhogakkhandha); second, a good reputation (kittisadda); third, self-confidence (visArada); fourth, a peaceful death (asammulho kAlaM karoti); and fifth, after he dies, a happy rebirth (saggaM lokaM upapajjati). In contrast, a morally dissolute person can expect in this lifetime: first, poverty due to sloth; second, a bad reputation; third, shame in the presence of others; fourth, an anxious death; and fifth, after he dies, an unhappy rebirth. In the so-called graduated discourse (P. ANUPUBBIKATHA), the Buddha also teaches the blessings of renunciation (nekkhamme AnisaMsa) as a prerequisite to understanding the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS. Different lists of five, ten, or eighteen such blessings appear in Sanskrit sources. The PRAJNAPARAMITA literature has long passages praising the merit gained from writing out in book form, reading, memorizing, and generally worshipping the prajNApAramitA as compared, in particular, to worshiping a STuPA containing the relics of a TATHAGATA, and the commentarial literature lists the benefits (anusaMsa) of the BODHISATTVA's path of vision (DARsANAMARGA) when compared with the earlier understanding of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS.
AriyapariyesanAsutta. (C. Luomo jing; J. Ramakyo; K. Rama kyong 羅摩經). In PAli, "Discourse on the Noble Quest"; the twenty-sixth sutta (SuTRA) in the MAJJHIMANIKAYA, also known as the PAsarAsisutta (a separate SARVASTIVADA recension appears as the 204th SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMAGAMA); preached by the Buddha to an assembly of monks at the hemitage of the brAhmana Rammaka in the town of sRAVASTĪ. The Buddha explains the difference between noble and ignoble quests and recounts his own life as an example of striving to distinguish between the two. Beginning with his renunciation of the householder's life, he tells of his training under two meditation masters, his rejection of this training in favor of austerities, and ultimately his rejection of austerities in order to discover for himself his own path to enlightenment. The Buddha also relates how he was initially hesitant to teach what he had discovered, but was convinced to do so by the god BRAHMA SAHAMPATI, and how he then converted the "group of five" ascetics (PANCAVARGIKA) who had been his companions while he practiced austerities. There is an understated tone of the narrative, devoid of the detail so familiar from the biographies. There is no mention of the opulence of his youth, no mention of his wife, no mention of the chariot rides, no description of the departure from the palace in the dead of night, no mention of MARA. Instead, the Buddha states, "Later, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessing of youth, in the prime of life, though my mother and father wished otherwise and wept with tearful faces, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and went forth from the home life into homelessness." Although the accounts of his study with other meditation masters assume a sophisticated system of states of concentration, the description of the enlightenment itself is both simple and sober, portrayed as the outcome of long reflection rather than as an ecstatic moment of revelation.
ashirvad &
As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu ::: “Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings”
babel ::: “The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other’s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle
babel ::: "The reference is to the mythological story of the construction of the Tower of Babel, which appears to be an attempt to explain the diversity of human languages. According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and tower ‘with its top in the heavens". God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another. The tower was never completed and the people were dispersed over the face of the earth.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica) Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works Sri Aurobindo: "The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other"s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle
baraka. ::: a blessing from God in the form of spiritual wisdom or divine presence; spiritual power believed to be possessed by certain persons, objects and tombs
baraka ::: blessing; grace
blessing ::: 1. Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon. 2. A ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection, grace, etc.
blessing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bless ::: v. t. --> The act of one who blesses.
A declaration of divine favor, or an invocation imploring divine favor on some or something; a benediction; a wish of happiness pronounces.
benediction, blessing, mercy; prayer; praise (esp. of Mohammad); thanksgiving; congratulation; salutation. (in some texts as darood or darud)
benediction ::: n. --> The act of blessing.
A blessing; an expression of blessing, prayer, or kind wishes in favor of any person or thing; a solemn or affectionate invocation of happiness.
The short prayer which closes public worship; as, to give the benediction.
The form of instituting an abbot, answering to the consecration of a bishop.
benison ::: n. --> Blessing; beatitude; benediction.
Berachah [&
Berekeel (“my blessing is God”)—an angel of
bhadra. ::: blessing; happy; well
Birkat Kohanim [also spelled Cohanim] (&
blessed ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Bless ::: a. --> Hallowed; consecrated; worthy of blessing or adoration; heavenly; holy.
Enjoying happiness or bliss; favored with blessings; happy; highly favored.
blesser ::: n. --> One who blesses; one who bestows or invokes a blessing.
Blessing of the New Moon: In the Jewish rituals, an outdoor benediction service on the appearance of the new moon, which marks the beginning of a new month of the Hebrew calendar.
Blessings ::: "My blessings are very dangerous. They cannot be for this one or for that one or against this person or against that thing. It is for... or, well, I will put it in a mystic way: It is for the Will of the Lord to be done, with full force and power. So it is not necessary that there should always be a success. There might be a failure also, if such is the Will of the Lord. And the Will is for the progress, I mean the inner progress. So whatever will happen will be for the best."
Ref: CWM Vol. 13, Page: 60-61
bless ::: v. t. --> To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate
To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one&
boon ::: 1. A blessing; something to be thankful for. 2. A timely blessing or benefit received in response to a request or prayer. boons.
Brachia ::: (Heb. blessing). In Judaism, an offering of gratitude that praises God for a benefit conferred or a great event experienced. (See also shemonah esreh).
Consecration ::: The process of anointing and blessing something in order to activate it and unleash its purpose on the world. Typically when consecrating a talisman, one already has the physical materia in place and has patterned the talisman with the appropriate intent. The final act is to consecrate the talisman thus finalizing its purpose and activating the intent toward accomplishing a specific goal. This is an act of ritualistic magic.
Crocodile [from Greek champsai, Egyptian emsehiu] In Egypt deified under the name of Sebak (or Sebeq). The principal seat of this worship was the city Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe) where great numbers of mummified beasts have been exhumed. When the canals became dry, the crocodiles would wander about the fields and make such havoc that they were naturally associated with the powers of destruction and evil, the principal malefactor of the pantheon being Set or Typhon. The ancient Egyptians did not regard Set or Typhon, and the crocodile which represented him, as the enemy, the destroyer. In fact, in the earlier dynasties Typhon was one of the most powerful and venerated of the divinities, giving blessings, life, and inspiration to the people, and in especial perhaps to the Royal House or rulers of Egypt. The reason lay in the fact that the earlier mythology showed Typhon or Set mystically as the shadow of Osiris, the god of light and wisdom — Typhon or Set being the alter ego or more material aspect of Osiris himself. “The Crocodile is the Egyptian dragon. It was the dual symbol of Heaven and Earth, of Sun and Moon, and was made sacred, in consequence of its amphibious nature, to Osiris and Isis” (SD 1:409). The crocodile was also named as one of the signs of the zodiac, the regency of which was connected with a group of lofty beings, whose “abode is in Capricornus” (SD 1:219).
Curse: Any act or word designed to produce harm or injury by supernatural powers; an invocation of supernatural powers to wreak harm or injury upon a person, place or object. A qualified person can destroy the effect of a curse, by a blessing or a counter-curse.
darshan. ::: "sight of" or "seeing"; to see or be seen by a Guru or holy being as well as the blessing received by seeing such a one
dasabhumi. (T. sa bcu; C. shidi; J. juji; K. sipchi 十地). In Sanskrit, lit., "ten grounds," "ten stages"; the ten highest reaches of the bodhisattva path (MARGA) leading to buddhahood. The most systematic and methodical presentation of the ten BHuMIs appears in the DAsABHuMIKASuTRA ("Ten Bhumis Sutra"), where each of the ten stages is correlated with seminal doctrines of mainstream Buddhism-such as the four means of conversion (SAMGRAHAVASTU) on the first four bhumis, the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVARY ARYASATYANI) on the fifth bhumi, and the chain of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA) on the sixth bhumi, etc.-as well as with mastery of one of a list of ten perfections (PARAMITA) completed in the course of training as a bodhisattva. The list of the ten bhumis of the Dasabhumikasutra, which becomes standard in most MahAyAna traditions, is as follows: (1) PRAMUDITA (joyful) corresponds to the path of vision (DARsANAMARGA) and the bodhisattva's first direct realization of emptiness (suNYATA). The bodhisattva masters on this bhumi the perfection of giving (DANAPARAMITA), learning to give away those things most precious to him, including his wealth, his wife and family, and even his body (see DEHADANA); (2) VIMALA (immaculate, stainless) marks the inception of the path of cultivation (BHAVANAMARGA), where the bodhisattva develops all the superlative traits of character incumbent on a buddha through mastering the perfection of morality (sĪLAPARAMITA); (3) PRABHAKARĪ (luminous, splendrous), where the bodhisattva masters all the various types of meditative experiences, such as DHYANA, SAMAPATTI, and the BRAHMAVIHARA; despite the emphasis on meditation in this bhumi, it comes to be identified instead with the perfection of patience (KsANTIPARAMITA), ostensibly because the bodhisattva is willing to endure any and all suffering in order to master his practices; (4) ARCIsMATĪ (radiance, effulgence), where the flaming radiance of the thirty-seven factors pertaining to enlightenment (BODHIPAKsIKADHARMA) becomes so intense that it incinerates obstructions (AVARAnA) and afflictions (KLEsA), giving the bodhisattva inexhaustible energy in his quest for enlightenment and thus mastering the perfection of vigor or energy (VĪRYAPARAMITA); (5) SUDURJAYA (invincibility, hard-to-conquer), where the bodhisattva comprehends the various permutations of truth (SATYA), including the four noble truths, the two truths (SATYADVAYA) of provisional (NEYARTHA) and absolute (NĪTARTHA), and masters the perfection of meditative absorption (DHYANAPARAMITA); (6) ABHIMUKHĪ (immediacy, face-to-face), where, as the name implies, the bodhisattva stands at the intersection between SAMSARA and NIRVAnA, turning away from the compounded dharmas of saMsAra and turning to face the profound wisdom of the buddhas, thus placing him "face-to-face" with both the compounded (SAMSKṚTA) and uncompounded (ASAMSKṚTA) realms; this bhumi is correlated with mastery of the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA); (7) DuRAnGAMA (far-reaching, transcendent), which marks the bodhisattva's freedom from the four perverted views (VIPARYASA) and his mastery of the perfection of expedients (UPAYAPARAMITA), which he uses to help infinite numbers of sentient beings; (8) ACALA (immovable, steadfast), which is marked by the bodhisattva's acquiescence or receptivity to the nonproduction of dharmas (ANUTPATTIKADHARMAKsANTI); because he is now able to project transformation bodies (NIRMAnAKAYA) anywhere in the universe to help sentient beings, this bhumi is correlated with mastery of the perfection of aspiration or resolve (PRAnIDHANAPARAMITA); (9) SADHUMATĪ (eminence, auspicious intellect), where the bodhisattva acquires the four analytical knowledges (PRATISAMVID), removing any remaining delusions regarding the use of the supernatural knowledges or powers (ABHIJNA), and giving the bodhisattva complete autonomy in manipulating all dharmas through the perfection of power (BALAPARAMITA); and (10) DHARMAMEGHA (cloud of dharma), the final bhumi, where the bodhisattva becomes autonomous in interacting with all material and mental factors, and gains all-pervasive knowledge that is like a cloud producing a rain of dharma that nurtures the entire world; this stage is also described as being pervaded by meditative absorption (DHYANA) and mastery of the use of codes (DHARAnĪ), just as the sky is filled by clouds; here the bodhisattva achieves the perfection of knowledge (JNANAPARAMITA). As the bodhisattva ascends through the ten bhumis, he acquires extraordinary powers, which CANDRAKĪRTI describes in the eleventh chapter of his MADHYAMAKAVATARA. On the first bhumi, the bodhisattva can, in a single instant (1) see one hundred buddhas, (2) be blessed by one hundred buddhas and understand their blessings, (3) live for one hundred eons, (4) see the past and future in those one hundred eons, (5) enter into and rise from one hundred SAMADHIs, (6) vibrate one hundred worlds, (7) illuminate one hundred worlds, (8) bring one hundred beings to spiritual maturity using emanations, (9) go to one hundred BUDDHAKsETRA, (10), open one hundred doors of the doctrine (DHARMAPARYAYA), (11) display one hundred versions of his body, and (12) surround each of those bodies with one hundred bodhisattvas. The number one hundred increases exponentially as the bodhisattva proceeds; on the second bhumi it becomes one thousand, on the third one hundred thousand, and so on; on the tenth, it is a number equal to the particles of an inexpressible number of buddhaksetra. As the bodhisattva moves from stage to stage, he is reborn as the king of greater and greater realms, ascending through the Buddhist cosmos. Thus, on the first bhumi he is born as king of JAMBUDVĪPA, on the second of the four continents, on the third as the king of TRAYATRIMsA, and so on, such that on the tenth he is born as the lord of AKANIstHA. ¶ According to the rather more elaborate account in chapter eleven of the CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimAtratAsiddhi), each of the ten bhumis is correlated with the attainment of one of the ten types of suchness (TATHATA); these are accomplished by discarding one of the ten kinds of obstructions (Avarana) by mastering one of the ten perfections (pAramitA). The suchnesses achieved on each of the ten bhumis are, respectively: (1) universal suchness (sarvatragatathatA; C. bianxing zhenru), (2) supreme suchness (paramatathatA; C. zuisheng zhenru), (3) ubiquitous, or "supreme outflow" suchness (paramanisyandatathatA; C. shengliu zhenru), (4) unappropriated suchness (aparigrahatathatA; C. wusheshou zhenru), (5) undifferentiated suchness (abhinnajAtīyatathatA; C. wubie zhenru), (6) the suchness that is devoid of maculations and contaminants (asaMklistAvyavadAtatathatA; C. wuranjing zhenru), (7) the suchness of the undifferentiated dharma (abhinnatathatA; C. fawubie zhenru), (8) the suchness that neither increases nor decreases (anupacayApacayatathatA; C. buzengjian), (9) the suchness that serves as the support of the mastery of wisdom (jNAnavasitAsaMnisrayatathatA; C. zhizizai suoyi zhenru), and (10) the suchness that serves as the support for mastery over actions (kriyAdivasitAsaMnisrayatathatA; C. yezizai dengsuoyi). These ten suchnessses are obtained by discarding, respectively: (1) the obstruction of the common illusions of the unenlightened (pṛthagjanatvAvarana; C. yishengxing zhang), (2) the obstruction of the deluded (mithyApratipattyAvarana; C. xiexing zhang), (3) the obstruction of dullness (dhandhatvAvarana; C. andun zhang), (4) the obstruction of the manifestation of subtle afflictions (suksmaklesasamudAcArAvarana; C. xihuo xianxing zhang), (5) the obstruction of the lesser HĪNAYANA ideal of parinirvAna (hīnayAnaparinirvAnAvarana; C. xiasheng niepan zhang), (6) the obstruction of the manifestation of coarse characteristics (sthulanimittasamudAcArAvarana; C. cuxiang xianxing zhang), (7) the obstruction of the manifestation of subtle characteristics (suksmanimittasamudAcArAvarana; C. xixiang xianxing zhang), (8) the obstruction of the continuance of activity even in the immaterial realm that is free from characteristics (nirnimittAbhisaMskArAvarana; C. wuxiang jiaxing zhang), (9) the obstruction of not desiring to act on behalf of others' salvation (parahitacaryAkAmanAvarana; C. buyuxing zhang), and (10) the obstruction of not yet acquiring mastery over all things (fa weizizai zhang). These ten obstructions are overcome by practicing, respectively: (1) the perfection of giving (dAnapAramitA), (2) the perfection of morality (sīlapAramitA), (3) the perfection of forbearance (ksAntipAramitA), (4) the perfection of energetic effort (vīryapAramitA), (5) the perfection of meditation (dhyAnapAramitA), (6) the perfection of wisdom (prajNApAramitA), (7) the perfection of expedient means (upAyapAramitA), (8) the perfection of the vow (to attain enlightenment) (pranidhAnapAramitA), (9) the perfection of power (balapAramitA), and (10) the perfection of knowledge (jNAnapAramitA). ¶ The eighth, ninth, and tenth bhumis are sometimes called "pure bhumis," because, according to some commentators, upon reaching the eighth bhumi, the bodhisattva has abandoned all of the afflictive obstructions (KLEsAVARAnA) and is thus liberated from any further rebirth. It appears that there were originally only seven bhumis, as is found in the BODHISATTVABHuMI, where the seven bhumis overlap with an elaborate system of thirteen abidings or stations (vihAra), some of the names of which (such as pramuditA) appear also in the standard bhumi schema of the Dasabhumikasutra. Similarly, though a listing of ten bhumis appears in the MAHAVASTU, a text associated with the LOKOTTARAVADA subsect of the MAHASAMGHIKA school, only seven are actually discussed there, and the names given to the stages are completely different from those found in the later Dasabhumikasutra; the stages there are also a retrospective account of how past buddhas have achieved enlightenment, rather than a prescription for future practice. ¶ The dasabhumi schema is sometimes correlated with other systems of classifying the bodhisattva path. In the five levels of the YogAcAra school's outline of the bodhisattva path (PANCAMARGA; C. wuwei), the first bhumi (pramuditA) is presumed to be equivalent to the level of proficiency (*prativedhAvasthA; C. tongdawei), the third of the five levels; while the second bhumi onward corresponds to the level of cultivation (C. xiuxiwei), the fourth of the five levels. The first bhumi is also correlated with the path of vision (DARsANAMARGA), while the second and higher bhumis correlate with the path of cultivation (BHAVANAMARGA). In terms of the doctrine of the five acquiescences (C. ren; S. ksAnti) listed in the RENWANG JING, the first through the third bhumis are equivalent to the second acquiescence, the acquiescence of belief (C. xinren; J. shinnin; K. sinin); the fourth through the sixth stages to the third, the acquiescence of obedience (C. shunren; J. junnin; K. sunin); the seventh through the ninth stages to the fourth, the acquiescence to the nonproduction of dharmas (anutpattikadharmaksAnti; C. wushengren; J. mushonin; K. musaengin); the tenth stage to the fifth and final acquiescence, to extinction (jimieren; J. jakumetsunin; K. chongmyorin). FAZANG's HUAYANJING TANXUAN JI ("Notes Plumbing the Profundities of the AVATAMSAKASuTRA") classifies the ten bhumis in terms of practice by correlating the first bhumi to the practice of faith (sRADDHA), the second bhumi to the practice of morality (sĪLA), the third bhumi to the practice of concentration (SAMADHI), and the fourth bhumi and higher to the practice of wisdom (PRAJNA). In the same text, Fazang also classifies the bhumis in terms of vehicle (YANA) by correlating the first through third bhumis with the vehicle of humans and gods (rentiansheng), the fourth through the seventh stage to the three vehicles (TRIYANA), and the eighth through tenth bhumis to the one vehicle (EKAYANA). ¶ Besides the list of the dasabhumi outlined in the Dasabhumikasutra, the MAHAPRAJNAPARAMITASuTRA and the DAZHIDU LUN (*MahAprajNApAramitAsAstra) list a set of ten bhumis, called the "bhumis in common" (gongdi), which are shared between all the three vehicles of sRAVAKAs, PRATYEKABUDDHAs, and bodhisattvas. These are the bhumis of: (1) dry wisdom (suklavidarsanAbhumi; C. ganhuidi), which corresponds to the level of three worthies (sanxianwei, viz., ten abidings, ten practices, ten transferences) in the srAvaka vehicle and the initial arousal of the thought of enlightenment (prathamacittotpAda) in the bodhisattva vehicle; (2) lineage (gotrabhumi; C. xingdi, zhongxingdi), which corresponds to the stage of the "aids to penetration" (NIRVEDHABHAGĪYA) in the srAvaka vehicle, and the final stage of the ten transferences in the fifty-two bodhisattva stages; (3) eight acquiescences (astamakabhumi; C. barendi), the causal incipiency of stream-enterer (SROTAAPANNA) in the case of the srAvaka vehicle and the acquiescence to the nonproduction of dharmas (anutpattikadharmaksAnti) in the bodhisattva path (usually corresponding to the first or the seventh through ninth bhumis of the bodhisattva path); (4) vision (darsanabhumi; C. jiandi), corresponding to the fruition or fulfillment (PHALA) level of the stream-enterer in the srAvaka vehicle and the stage of nonretrogression (AVAIVARTIKA), in the bodhisattva path (usually corresponding to the completion of the first or the eighth bhumi); (5) diminishment (tanubhumi; C. baodi), corresponding to the fulfillment level (phala) of stream-enterer or the causal incipiency of the once-returner (sakṛdAgAmin) in the srAvaka vehicle, or to the stage following nonretrogression before the attainment of buddhahood in the bodhisattva path; (6) freedom from desire (vītarAgabhumi; C. liyudi), equivalent to the fulfillment level of the nonreturner in the srAvaka vehicle, or to the stage where a bodhisattva attains the five supernatural powers (ABHIJNA); (7) complete discrimination (kṛtAvibhumi), equivalent to the fulfillment level of the ARHAT in the srAvaka vehicle, or to the stage of buddhahood (buddhabhumi) in the bodhisattva path (buddhabhumi) here refers not to the fruition of buddhahood but merely to the state in which a bodhisattva has the ability to exhibit the eighteen qualities distinctive to the buddhas (AVEnIKA[BUDDHA]DHARMA); (8) pratyekabuddha (pratyekabuddhabhumi); (9) bodhisattva (bodhisattvabhumi), the whole bodhisattva career prior to the fruition of buddhahood; (10) buddhahood (buddhabhumi), the stage of the fruition of buddhahood, when the buddha is completely equipped with all the buddhadharmas, such as omniscience (SARVAKARAJNATĀ). As is obvious in this schema, despite being called the bhumis "common" to all three vehicles, the shared stages continue only up to the seventh stage; the eighth through tenth stages are exclusive to the bodhisattva vehicle. This anomaly suggests that the last three bhumis of the bodhisattvayāna were added to an earlier srāvakayāna seven-bhumi scheme. ¶ The presentation of the bhumis in the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ commentarial tradition following the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA uses the names found in the Dasabhumikasutra for the bhumis and understands them all as bodhisattva levels; it introduces the names of the ten bhumis found in the Dazhidu lun as levels that bodhisattvas have to pass beyond (S. atikrama) on the tenth bodhisattva level, which it calls the buddhabhumi. This tenth bodhisattva level is not the level of an actual buddha, but the level on which a bodhisattva has to transcend attachment (abhinivesa) to not only the levels reached by the four sets of noble persons (ĀRYAPUDGALA) but to the bodhisattvabhumis as well. See also BHuMI.
dashi. (J. daiji; K. taesa 大事). In Chinese, the "great enterprise" or "great matter"; often seen also as the "one great matter" (C. yidashi). The Chinese term dashi appears in KUMĀRAJĪVA's translation of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") regarding the reason why the buddhas appear in the world, but has no precise relation there to a specific Sanskrit term; possible equivalencies might be mahākṛtya, "the great action," or mahānusaMsa, "the great blessing." According to the MAHĀYĀNA tradition, the Buddha taught most of his teachings as provisional, transitional, and adaptive instructions that catered to the special contingencies of the spiritually less advanced. However, the Buddha's ultimate concern is the revelation of an ultimate and overriding message, the "great enterprise." Different Mahāyāna scriptures and schools interpret this ultimate message differently and often purport uniquely to convey that message. For example, according to the Saddharmapundarīkasutra and the TIANTAI ZONG, the "great enterprise" is the revelation of the one vehicle (EKAYĀNA), through which all individuals without exception are able to enter the Mahāyāna path and realize the knowledge and vision of perfect buddhahood. According to the MAHĀPARINIRVĀnASuTRA, it is the eternal, absolute characteristics of the buddha-nature (FOXING; BUDDHADHĀTU). According to the SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA and the PURE LAND schools, it is the revelation of the paradisiacal pure land of SUKHĀVATĪ and the "original vows" of AMITĀBHA Buddha. And, finally, in the CHAN ZONG, the "great enterprise" refers to the general process of awakening to one's own original nature and becoming a buddha (JIANXING CHENGFO).
In relation to the account of Creation, and the Ten Commandments given at Sinai, which are seen to correspond to the two general principles ofhishtalshelut (the &
The text of Birkat Kohanim is often regarded as the &
du'ā' ::: prayer, request, plea; supplication (to God); an invocation of good, a blessing, benediction; wish; congratulation, salutation. (in some texts as do'a)
Esoteric Transmission ::: A concept in certain religions and spiritual traditions that emphasizes a relationship between a teacher and a student (or a group and its members) in order to preserve certain systems of magic and specific spiritual practices. Over time and over the course of many minds working the system, power is built up through a lineage and the rituals and practices themselves become vital to being able to work within the current being taught. This is a complex idea but, as an example, is found in Tibetan Buddhism when one wants to work with a Tantric deity, they first must receive abhisheka from a lama. Even in Christianity there are lineages that confer the power to bestow appellations and blessings of the Church to others. The idea is that these are more than symbolic gestures; being a part of the lineage and being empowered within that lineage is necessary in many cases to work magic or utilize the practices taught effectively or at all.
Fazal (Fazl) (A) Blessing, prosperity
felicity ::: n. --> The state of being happy; blessedness; blissfulness; enjoyment of good.
That which promotes happiness; a successful or gratifying event; prosperity; blessing.
A pleasing faculty or accomplishment; as, felicity in painting portraits, or in writing or talking.
from which the prophets of all ages have drunk. They did not only drink water, they received from it what had been put into it, and then they charged it with what they had to give to it. Even now, pilgrims go there and receive that water as a blessing.
Fu lu shou: In Chinese philosophy, the Three Plenties—blessing or happiness, official emolument and the honor which it brings, and longevity. They are also called the Three Stars, as each of them is believed to be dependent on a star-god. They are represented either by the three corresponding Chinese ideographic characters, or by a bat (fu) symbolizing happiness, a deer (lu) symbolizing honor, and a peach (shou) symbolizing longevity, or by a smiling figure, with or without children surrounding him, to represent happiness, an official to represent honor, and an old man to represent longevity. These representations are used as charms, as objects of worship, or simply as felicitations.
Gurukripa: Preceptor's grace or blessings.
“ha brachah dabarah” (“speak the blessing”). As
Hamingja (Icelandic) Also fylgja. Luck, lot, or fortune in the Norse Edda; a human being’s guardian angel, the spiritual soul who guides his destiny. She is descended from the norns, who are the hamingjas of the world. To bestow one’s hamingja on another is to give a blessing. When a human being dies, his hamingja departs, withdrawn to its own divine realm.
hosanna ::: n. --> A Hebrew exclamation of praise to the Lord, or an invocation of blessings.
Hŭngdoksa. (興德寺). In Korean, "Flourishing Virtue Monastery"; the head monastery of the school of SoN (Meditation) during the Choson dynasty, located in Sodaemun-ku in the capital of Seoul. The monastery was constructed in 1401 at the command of the abdicated first king of Choson, Taejo (r. 1392-1398), to the east of the king's old residence; it was intended to serve as a source of blessings for his kingdom, his ancestors, his people, and his royal lineage. This monastery became the chief head monastery (tohoeso) in 1424, when the seven schools of Choson-dynasty Buddhism were amalgamated into the two schools of KYO (doctrine) and SoN (meditation). To the sides of the main shrine hall were two halls, one for Son meditation, the other for doctrinal lectures. The monastery was destroyed during the reign of King Yonsan (r. 1494-1506) and never reconstructed.
imbolc ::: Imbolc One of the eight traditional Wiccan Sabbats, Imbolc is sometimes referred to as the Festival of Brigid. Held on 2nd February, it celebrates the growing strength of the God, still in His childlike form, and also the return of the 'Maiden' aspect of the Goddess. It is also a time for blessing agricultural implements such as the plough, as well as livestock. See also Sabbats.
inheritance ::: n. --> The act or state of inheriting; as, the inheritance of an estate; the inheritance of mental or physical qualities.
That which is or may be inherited; that which is derived by an heir from an ancestor or other person; a heritage; a possession which passes by descent.
A permanent or valuable possession or blessing, esp. one received by gift or without purchase; a benefaction.
Possession; ownership; acquisition.
In the antithesis between Zeus (here not the supreme Olympian lord) and Prometheus, is the antagonism between the Hebrew Lord God and the serpent. The so-called disobedience of these fallen angels is an act of spiritual chivalry, in which the divine prerogative of free will is exercised in the spirit of compassion, an old order is superseded, and a new chapter in evolution is begun. In both stories the deity invokes a curse upon the fallen angel and his new humanity; and this curse is fulfilled in the suffering caused by the conflict between the two natures in man thus awakened. Prometheus, who may also be taken as representing humanity, is fastened to a rock representing karmic destiny, while the vultures of new-born knowledge and self-consciousness gnaw at his inner being. But the curse ends in a blessing, and Hercules or Dionysos delivers the Chrestos or immanent Christ, enlightens and raises the neophyte.
invoke ::: v. t. --> To call on for aid or protection; to invite earnestly or solemnly; to summon; to address in prayer; to solicit or demand by invocation; to implore; as, to invoke the Supreme Being, or to invoke His and blessing.
jātismara. (P. jātissara; T. tshe rabs dran pa; C. suming; J. shukumyo; K. sungmyong 宿命). In Sanskrit, "memory of previous births," is synonymous with "recollection of past lives" (PuRVANIVĀSĀNUSMṚTI); a supernatural power often mentioned in the early Buddhist scriptures as accessible to religious virtuosi. This talent is listed as the first of three knowledges (TRIVIDYĀ), the fourth of five or six supranormal powers (ABHIJNĀ), and the eight of the ten powers (BALA) of a TATHĀGATA. In the context of the supranormal powers, this ability to remember one's past lives is considered to be a mundane (LAUKIKA) achievement that is gained through still more profound refinement of the fourth stage of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). In other contexts, however, this power is accessible only to those who are ARHATs, buddhas, or otherwise in no further need of training (AsAIKsA). In later MAHĀYĀNA materials, however, bodhisattvas sometimes give even unenlightened ordinary beings (PṚTHAGJANA) this insight into their past lives as a way of inspiring them in their religious practice. In other Mahāyāna texts, such as the SUVARnAPRABHĀSOTTAMASuTRA ("Golden Light Sutra"), this talent is a by-product not of meditation but of specific types of ritual activity, a "blessing" (ANUsAMSA) that accrues, for example, from formulaic exaltations of the qualities of the buddhas, recitation of lists of their names, repetitions of mnemonic codes (DHĀRAnĪ), or copying of scriptures. The ability to remember one's past lives is said to extend back to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of one's previous births. On the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha remembered all of his previous births.
Jianfusi. (建福寺). In Chinese, "Establishing Blessings Monastery"; located in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Jin dynasty (217-420 CE) and reputed to be the first Buddhist convent in China. Originally a residence of the Jin dynasty's minister of public works, he is said to have donated his residence out of respect toward Kang Minggan and Huizhan, two of the earliest Buddhist nuns appearing in Chinese records. According to the BIQIUNI ZHUAN ("Lives of the Nuns"), Kang Minggan was also responsible for naming the convent. "Blessings" in the convent's name refers first to the fact that she considered the establishment of the convent to be a blessing for all Buddhist practitioners in China, both monastic and lay; secondly, the convent itself was a physical symbol of the act of bestowing blessings. Several nuns whose biographies are contained in the "Lives of the Nuns" resided there, including Fasheng (368-439 CE) of the Liu-Song dynasty (420-479 CE) who became a nun at age seventy. Another Liu-Song resident, Dao Qiong, was said to have displayed such exemplary skill in practice that an empress personally solicited her advice in religious matters. Dao Qiong later commissioned an image of a reclining buddha to be enshrined in the convent. Zhisheng (427-492 CE) of the Southern Qi dynasty (479-502 CE) also is said to have inspired royalty, the Qi heir-apparent Wenhui (458-493 CE), who often summoned her to the imperial palace to seek her guidance on religious matters.
Kedushah [&
kripa. ::: Grace; blessing; compassion
Kripa: Mercy; grace; blessing.
MAHALAKSHMI ::: Goddess of the supreme love and delight ; her gifts are the spirits grace and the charm and beauty of the Ananda and protection and every divine and human blessing.
Majjhimanikāya. (S. MADHYAMĀGAMA). In Pāli, "Collection of Middle [Length] Discourses"; the second of the five divisions of the Pāli SUTTAPItAKA, the others being the DĪGHANIKĀYA, SAMYUTTANIKĀYA, AnGUTTARANIKĀYA, and KHUDDAKANIKĀYA. The Majjhimanikāya contains 152 suttas (S. SuTRA) divided into three major parts, with fifty suttas in each of the first two parts and fifty-two in the third. Each one of these parts is further subdivided into five sections (vagga). The suttas are not arranged in any particular order, although suttas with broadly related themes (e.g., the six sense faculties, or INDRIYA), similar styles (e.g., suttas that contain a shorter, and often verse, summary of doctrine followed by longer expositions) or target audiences (e.g., discourses to householders, monks, religious wanderers, or brāhmanas) are sometimes grouped together in the same section. The enlightenment cycle of Gotama (S. GAUTAMA) Buddha finds some of its earliest expressions in several suttas in this nikāya. For example, the ARIYAPARIYESANĀSUTTA does not include the famous story of the prince's chariot rides but says instead, "Later, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessing of youth, in the prime of life, though my mother and father wished otherwise and wept with tearful faces, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and went forth from the home life into homelessness." There is sometimes overlap between nikāyas; for example, the SATIPAttHĀNASUTTA of the Majjhimanikāya appears as the first section of the Mahāsatipatthānasutta of the Dīghanikāya. Not all of the suttas are spoken by the Buddha; for example, ĀNANDA delivers the Gopakamoggallānasutta after the Buddha's passage into PARINIRVĀnA. The Sanskrit counterpart of the Majjhimanikāya is the MADHYAMĀGAMA, which is the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school's recension of this collection. In the Chinese translation, ninety-eight of the Madhyamāgama's 222 sutras correspond to suttas found in the Majjhimanikāya, eighty appear in the Anguttaranikāya, twelve to the Dīghanikāya, and eleven to the SaMyuttanikāya.
male, resembling the male who provides blessings
mandala. (T. dkyil 'khor; C. mantuluo; J. mandara; K. mandara 曼荼羅). In Sanskrit, lit. "circle"; a polysemous term, best known for its usage in tantric Buddhism as a type of "circular diagram." Employed widely throughout South, East, and Central Asia, mandala are highly flexible in form, function, and meaning. The core concept of mandala originates from the Sanskrit meaning "circle," where a boundary is demarcated and increasing significance is accorded to areas closer to the center; the Tibetan translation (dkyil 'khor) "center periphery" emphasizes this general scheme. In certain contexts, mandalas can have the broad sense of referring to circular objects ("mandala of the moon") or a complete collection of constituent parts ("mandala of the universe"). This latter denotation is found in Tibetan Buddhism, where a symbolic representation of the universe is offered to buddhas and bodhisattvas as a means of accumulating merit, especially as a preliminary practice (SNGON 'GRO). Mandalas may have begun as a simple circle drawn on the ground as part of a ritual ceremony, especially for consecration, initiation, or protection. In its developed forms, a mandala is viewed as the residential palace for a primary deity-located at the center-surrounded by an assembly of attendant deities. This portrayal may be considered either a symbolic representation or the actual residence; it may be mentally imagined or physically constructed. The latter constitutes a significant and highly developed contribution to the sacred arts of many Asian cultures. Mandalas are often depicted two dimensionally by a pattern of basic geometric shapes and are most commonly depicted in paint or colored powders. These are thought of almost as architectural floor plans, schematic representations viewed from above of elaborate three-dimensional structures, mapping an ideal cosmos where every element has a symbolic meaning dependent upon the ritual context. Mandalas are occasionally fashioned in three dimensions from bronze or wood, with statues of deities situated in the appropriate locations. When used in a private setting, such as in the Buddhist visualization meditation of deity yoga (DEVATĀYOGA), the practitioner imagines the entire universe as purified and transformed into the transcendent mandala-often identifying himself or herself with the form of the main deity at the center. In other practices, the mandala is visualized within the body, populated by deities at specific locations. In public rituals, including tantric initiations and consecration ceremonies, a central mandala can be used as a common basis for the participation of many individuals, who are said to enter the mandala. The mandala is also understood as a special locus of divine power, worthy of ritual worship and which may confer "blessings" upon devotees. Religious monuments (BOROBUDUR in Java), institutions (BSAM YAS monastery in Tibet), and even geographical locations (WUTAISHAN in China) are often understood as mandalas. Mandalas have also entered the popular vocabulary of the West. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung developed theories of cognition incorporating mandalas as an analytical model. The fourteenth DALAI LAMA has used the KĀLACAKRA mandala as a means of spreading a message of peace throughout the world. See also KONGoKAI; TAIZoKAI.
mangala. (T. bkra shis; C. jixiang; J. kichijo; K. kilsang 吉祥). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "auspiciousness," but having a wide range of connotations, including luck, good fortune, happiness, prosperity, welfare, good omen, and blessing. The term is also used to describe any number of social virtues, considered auspicious because they produce benefits in both this and future lifetimes. According to the Pāli MAnGALASUTTA, for example, these virtues include not associating with fools, but associating instead with the wise; caring for parents, supporting wife and children, and following a salutary occupation; generosity, morality, helping relatives, and performing actions that are blameless; refraining from evil; abstaining from intoxicants; respect, humility, contentment, gratitude, learning the teachings (P. dhamma; S. DHARMA); obedience, ascetic practice, and so forth.
Manpukuji. (萬福寺). In Japanese, "Myriad Blessings Monastery"; located in Uji, outside Kyoto, Japan. Currently, Manpukuji is the headquarters (honzan) of the oBAKUSHu of the ZEN tradition. The monastery was founded by the émigré CHAN (Zen) master YINYUAN LONGXI with the support of the shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna (1639-1680). Construction began in 1661 and the dharma hall was completed the next year with the help of the grand counselor Sakai Tadakatsu (1587-1662). In 1664, Yinyuan left his head disciple MU'AN XINGTAO in charge and retired to his hermitage at Manpukuji. Mu'an thus became the second abbot of Manpukuji and oversaw the construction of the buddha hall, the bell tower, the patriarchs' hall, and so forth. For several generations, émigré Chinese monks dominated the abbacy of Manpukuji. The construction of Manpukuji was modeled after Yinyuan's old monastery of Wanfusi (which is pronounced Manpukuji in Japanese) in Fuzhou (present-day Fujian province). The major icons were also prepared by émigré Chinese artists and, along with the famous portrait of Yinyuan, are now considered important cultural artifacts. Mu'an's disciple Tetsugen Doko (1630-1682) led a project to carve a complete set of xylographs of the Ming dynasty edition of the Buddhist canon, which is now housed at Manpukuji; this edition, commonly called the obaku canon, is one of the few complete xylographic canons still extant in East Asia (cf. the second carving of the Korean Buddhist canon, KORYo TAEJANGGYoNG).
Māratika. (T. 'Chi ba mthar byed). A cave in eastern Nepal near the town of Rumjitar, called Haileshi in Nepali, believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be the site where PADMASAMBHAVA and his consort MANDĀRAVĀ undertook the practice of longevity for three months. According to traditional accounts, in a vision the couple received initiation and blessings directly from the buddha AMITĀYUS, and Padmasambhava attained the state of a VIDYĀDHARA with the power to control the duration of his life.
• MEDICINE. ::: Medical Science has been more a curse to rnankind than u blessing. It has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases ; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body ; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety and distasteful witch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdom.
mercy ::: n. --> Forbearance to inflict harm under circumstances of provocation, when one has the power to inflict it; compassionate treatment of an offender or adversary; clemency.
Compassionate treatment of the unfortunate and helpless; sometimes, favor, beneficence.
Disposition to exercise compassion or favor; pity; compassion; willingness to spare or to help.
A blessing regarded as a manifestation of compassion or
monolatrism ::: The philosophy that holds that there are many gods, with a worshiper of any God receiving his or her blessing.
Motzi ::: The blessing recited before eating bread.
Mystery cult; mystery religion: This term is commonly employed to mean any religion or cult to which initiates are admitted by secret rites, the meaning of which cannot be divulged to the public; the possession of this esoteric knowledge is believed to insure special blessings for the devoted initiate both in earthly life and after physical death. The term is frequently used for the mysteries (q.v.) of classical Greece and Egypt although it is not very appropriate in this application, since these cults did not demand exclusive allegiance of the adherents and did not preclude their acceptance and observance of other gods and ritual practices.
ni'ma ::: favor; blessing; grace; kindness; benefit; comfort; pleasure; delight
Norito: Japanese prayers recited by Shinto priests in religious ceremonies, and high state officials in state ceremonies. These stately, dignified prayers, standardized in form, give thanks to Shinto deities, invoke their blessings, and are believed to have magical effect.
Omtatsat: A designation of Brahman; used as a benediction, a solemn invocation of the divine blessing.
Pandora (Greek) All-gifted; in Greek mythology, after Prometheus enlightened man by bringing him the celestial fire, the enraged Zeus revenges himself by seducing man, for which purpose he has Hephaestos create a woman, Pandora, endowed with gifts from the great gods. She is brought to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus (“after-thought,” the brother of “fore-thought”), bringing with her a locked box containing all human ills, which she opens from curiosity, and the ills spread over the earth. Hesiod calls her the first woman, sent as a punishment to man for his theft of the divine fire. It evidently means that as soon as he quits his passive irresponsible state and acquires active will and intellect, man subjects himself to temptations from the lower world. Pandora is an earthly aspect of all-bounteous nature; a later interpretation of the story of the box makes it the container of blessings, which however fly away when it is opened, leaving behind only hope.
pandora ::: n. --> A beautiful woman (all-gifted), whom Jupiter caused Vulcan to make out of clay in order to punish the human race, because Prometheus had stolen the fire from heaven. Jupiter gave Pandora a box containing all human ills, which, when the box was opened, escaped and spread over the earth. Hope alone remained in the box. Another version makes the box contain all the blessings of the gods, which were lost to men when Pandora opened it.
A genus of marine bivalves, in which one valve is flat,
paritta. [alt. parittā] (BHS. parītta, T. yongs su skyob pa; C. minghu/minghu jing; J. myogo/myogokyo; K. myongho/myongho kyong 明護/明護經). In Pāli, "protection" (classical S. paritrāna); referring to both the practice of reciting a short passage from a SuTRA in order to draw on the text's apotropaic powers, as well as to the passages themselves. The use of paritta are said to have been sanctioned by the Buddha: after a monk had died of a snake bite, the Buddha recited a text (the Khandhaparitta, or "Protection of the Aggregates") for the monks to repeat as protection, which states that loving-kindness (P. mettā; S. MAITRĪ) and the infinite power of the Buddha, DHARMA, and SAMGHA would guard the monks from the finite power of snakes, scorpions, and other dangerous creatures. There were many specific instances that subsequently led the Buddha to deliver different paritta verses, including protection from evil spirits, the assurance of good fortune, exorcism, curing serious illness, and even safe childbirth. The power of these verses often is thought to derive from an asseveration of truth (S. SATYAVACANA; P. saccavacana, saccakiriyā), as in the famous paritta associated with AnGULIMĀLA, who offered this statement to help ease a woman's labor pains: "Since I was born of āryan birth, O sister, I am not aware of having intentionally deprived any living being of its life. By this asseveration of truth, may you be well and may your unborn child be well." (There is intentional irony in this statement, since Angulimāla was well known to have been a murderous highwayman before he became a monk; his "āryan birth" here refers to his ordination into the SAMGHA.) ¶ Collections of paritta are particularly common in Southeast Asian Buddhism, and the texts included in these collections are among the most widely known of Buddhist scriptures among the laity. One of the most popular such Pāli anthologies is the Catubhanavara ("The Text of the Four Recitals"), which contains twenty-nine (or in some recensions twenty-four) Pāli suttas whose protective powers are thought to be particularly efficacious. (This text is widely used in Sri Lanka, where it is known as the Pirit Potha.) Scriptures commonly presumed to have apotropaic powers in Pāli Buddhism include the METTĀSUTTA ("Discourse on Loving-Kindness"), the MAnGALASUTTA ("Discourse on the Auspicious"), the RATANASUTTA ("Discourse on the Precious"), and the ĀTĀNĀTIYASUTTA ("Discourse on the Ātānātiya Protective Spell"). The recitation of these texts accompanies all sorts of Buddhist ceremonies, from weddings to funerals to house blessings. In Southeast Asia, the monks performing a parittarecitation ritual are sometimes connected to the congregation with a ritual string, through which blessings and protection are transferred to the participants. See also RAKsĀ.
Pindola-Bhāradvāja. (T. Bha ra dhwa dza Bsod snyoms len; C. Bintoulu Poluoduo zunzhe; J. Binzuruharada sonja; K. Pinduro Pallat'a chonja 賓頭盧頗羅墮尊者). Sanskrit and Pāli proper name of a prominent monk-disciple of the Buddha, born as the son of a brāhmana priest in the service of King Udāyana of Kausāmbī. He was a successful teacher of the Vedas, first encountering the Buddha when his travels took him to RĀJAGṚHA. Gluttonous by nature, he was impressed by all the offerings the Buddha's disciples received and so resolved to enter the order. For this reason, he carried with him an exceptionally large alms bowl (PĀTRA) made from a gourd. After he was finally able to conquer his avarice, he became an ARHAT and uttered his "lion's roar" (SIMHANĀDA) in the presence of the Buddha, for which reason he was declared the foremost lion's roarer (siMhanādin) among the Buddha's disciples. In a famous story found in several recensions of the VINAYA, the Buddha rebuked Pindola for performing the following miracle before a crowd. A rich merchant had placed a valuable sandalwood alms bowl (pātra) atop a pole and challenged any mendicant to retrieve it with a magical display. Encouraged by MAHĀMAUDGALYĀYANA, Pindola entered the contest and used his magical powers to rise into the air and retrieve the bowl. The Buddha rebuked Pindola for his crass exhibitionism, and ordered that the bowl be ground into sandalwood powder (presumably for incense). The incident was the occasion for the Buddha to pass the "rule of defeat" (PĀRĀJIKA), forbidding monks from displaying supernatural powers before the laity. Sanskrit sources state that the Buddha rebuked Pindola for his misdeed and ordered him not to live in JAMBUDVĪPA, but to move to aparagodānīya (see GODĀNĪYA) to proselytize (where he is said to reside with a thousand disciples). The Buddha also forbade him from entering PARINIRVĀnA so that he would remain in the world after the Buddha's demise and continue to serve as a field of blessings (PUnYAKsETRA) for sentient beings; for this reason, Pindola is also known in Chinese as the "World-Dwelling Arhat" (Zhushi Luohan). This is the reason why some traditions still today invoke his name for protection and why he is traditionally listed as the first of the sixteen ARHAT elders (sOdAsASTHAVIRA), who are charged by the Buddha with protecting his dispensation until the advent of the next buddha, MAITREYA. According to the DIVYĀVADĀNA, Pindola was given the principal seat at the third Buddhist council (SAMGĪTI) called by Emperor AsOKA (see COUNCIL, THIRD); at that point, he was already several hundred years old, with long white hair and eyebrows that he had to hold back in order to see. In China, DAO'AN of the Eastern Jin dynasty once had a dream of a white-haired foreign monk, with long, flowing eyebrows. Later, Master Dao'an's disciple LUSHAN HUIYUAN read the SARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA and realized that the monk whom his teacher had dreamed about was Pindola. From that point on, Dao'an offered Pindola food every day, and, for this reason, a picture or image of Pindola is often enshrined in monastic dining halls in China. This is also why Pindola was given another nickname in Chinese, the "Long-Browed Monk" (Changmei Seng). In CHANYUE GUANXIU's standard Chinese depiction of the sixteen arhats, Pindola-Bharadvāja is portrayed as squatting on a rock, holding a staff in his left hand, leaning on a rock with his right, with a text placed on his knees. In Tibetan iconography Pindola holds a pātra; other East Asian images depict him holding a text and either a chowrie (C. FUZI; S. VĀLAVYAJANA) or a pātra.
prana pratishtha. ::: when an image of a deity is consecrated for worship, a connection is established with the particular aspect of the Divine which it represents and its image therefore becomes a live focus for the transmission of divine power and blessing
prasada (Prasad) ::: 1. an illumined ease and clarity. ::: 2. [food offered to a deity or to a spiritual teacher; this same food distributed to devotees as a blessing].
Priestly Blessing :::The three verses blessing Israel (Numbers 6:24-26) recited daily by the Priests in the Temple as part of the morning liturgy.
quote :::In spiritual terms, kauthar refers to the abundance of good, or abundant blessings, that Allah has promised to those who pray sincerely and devote their lives selflessly to the good of humanity. Esoterically, this is the Divine wine. Also, the name of Chapter 108 of the Qur'an. In the hadith, al-kauthar is variously likened, to a river, a lake, or a fountain, while also saying that these attributes are just a portion of the great goodness of al-kauthar. One of the sayings of Muhammad (hadith), as narrated by Sahl bin Sad, says: I heard the Prophet saying, "I am your predecessor at al-kauthar, and whoever will come to it, will drink from it, and whoever will drink from it, will never become thirsty after that."
Sacrament ::: Especially in classical Christianity, a formal religious rite (e.g., baptism, Eucharist) regarded as sacred for its perfect ability to convey divine blessing; in some traditions (especially Protestant), it is regarded as not effective in itself but as a sign or symbol of spiritual reality or truth.
sādhana. (T. sgrub thabs; C. chengjiu fa; J. jojuho; K. songch'wi pop 成就法). In Sanskrit, "method" or "technique," used especially in reference to a tantric ritual designed to receive attainments (SIDDHI) from a deity. Tantric sādhanas generally take one of two forms. In the first, the deity (which may be a buddha, BODHISATTVA, or another deity) is requested to appear before the meditator and is then worshipped in the expectation of receiving blessings. In the other type of tantric sādhana, the meditator imagines himself or herself to be the deity at this very moment, that is, to have the exalted body, speech, and mind of an enlightened being. Tantric sādhanas tend to follow a fairly set sequence, whether they are simple or detailed. More elaborate sādhanas may include the recitation of a lineage of GURUs; the creation of a protection wheel guarded by wrathful deities to subjugate enemies; the creation of a body MAndALA, in which a pantheon of deities take residence at various parts of the meditator's body, etc. Although there are a great many variations of content and sequence, in many sādhanas, the meditator is instructed to imagine light radiating from the body, thus beckoning buddhas and bodhisattvas from throughout the universe. Visualizing these deities arrayed in the space, the meditator then performs a series of standard preliminary practices called the sevenfold service (SAPTĀnGAVIDHI), a standard component of sādhanas. The seven elements are (1) obeisance, (2) offering (often concluding with a gift of the entire physical universe with all its marvels), (3) confession of misdeeds, (4) admiration of the virtuous deeds of others, (5) entreaty to the buddhas not to pass into NIRVĀnA, (6) supplication of the buddhas and bodhisattvas to teach the dharma, and (7) dedication of the merit of performing the preceding toward the enlightenment of all beings. The meditator then goes for refuge to the three jewels (RATNATRAYA), creates the aspiration for enlightenment (BODHICITTA; BODHICITTOTPĀDA), the promise to achieve buddhahood in order to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering, and dedicates the merit from the foregoing and subsequent practices toward that end. The meditator next cultivates the four "boundless" attitudes (APRAMĀnA) of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnĀ), empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKsĀ), before meditating on emptiness (suNYATĀ) and reciting the purificatory mantra, oM svabhāvasuddhāḥ sarvadharmāḥ svabhāvasuddho 'haM ("OM, naturally pure are all phenomena, naturally pure am I"), understanding that emptiness is the primordial nature of everything, the unmoving world and the beings who move upon it. Out of this emptiness, the meditator next creates the mandala. The next step in the sādhana is for the meditator to animate the residents of the mandala by causing the actual buddhas and bodhisattvas, referred to as "wisdom beings" (JNĀNASATTVA), to descend and merge with their imagined doubles, the "pledge beings" (SAMAYASATTVA). Light radiates from the meditator's heart, drawing the wisdom beings to the mandala where, through offerings and the recitation of mantra, they are prompted to enter the residents of the mandala. With the preliminary visualization now complete, the stage is set for the central meditation of the sādhana, which varies depending upon the purpose of the sādhana. Generally, offerings and prayers are made to a sequence of deities and boons are requested from them, each time accompanied with the recitation of appropriate MANTRA. At the end of the session, the meditator makes mental offerings to the assembly before inviting them to leave, at which point the entire visualization, the palace and its residents, dissolve into emptiness. The sādhana ends with a dedication of the merit accrued to the welfare of all beings.
salawat ::: invocation of peace and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salaam ::: "May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him," spoken or written after Muhammad's name
Sgam po pa'i chos bzhi. (Gampope choshi). In Tibetan, "the four dharmas of Sgam po pa," a series of brief instructions encompassing the entirety of the Buddhist path composed by the BKA' BRGYUD founder SGAM PO PA BSOD NAMS RIN CHEN. The instructions are often recited in the form of a prayer: Grant your blessings that my mind may turn toward the dharma. / Grant your blessings that the dharma may follow the path. / Grant your blessings that the path may clarify confusion. / Grant your blessings that confusion may arise as wisdom.
Sheva Brochos(t) ::: Seven blessings recited at a wedding.
sojae toryang. (消災道場). In Korean, "calamities-solving ritual"; one of the four most important annual rituals performed at court during the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), second only to the YoNDŬNGHOE (lantern ritual). The sojae toryang is a representative of the esoteric Buddhist rituals that became popular in Korea during the Koryo dynasty. The first record of the ritual's performance dates from 1046, the last from 1399, a short time after the demise of the dynasty. This ritual to prevent natural calamities probably derives originally not from Buddhist cosmology but from the theory of heavenly retribution that was foundational in traditional East Asian thought. Koryo's ritual system, modeled after that of Tang China, presumed that cosmological influences dominated human life and activities. Since droughts, floods, and epidemics were considered "calamities from Heaven" (Ch'onjae), and indicated Heaven's dissatisfaction with the quality of terrestrial governance, the sojae toryang sought to draw on various religious and astral powers in order to ward off these threats and to enhance the longevity of its royal sponsors. Koryo kings lavished riches on the monasteries whose monks performed these rituals, particularly when Koryo was threatened by foreign invasion or occupation. This concern explains why the majority of the recorded performances of the sojae toryang occurred during the reigns of kings Kojong (1231-1259), Wonjong (1259-1274), and Ch'ungnyol (1274-1308), who all ruled during the period of Mongol domination in Korea. During King Wonjong's thirteen-year reign, for example, the sojae toryang was performed twenty-three times, or about three times every two years. Historical sources provide little information on how the ritual was actually performed, but its conduct can be inferred from esoteric Buddhist sources. These sources require the monks to establish a purified ritual venue, install a buddha image there, and then make offerings of incense, flowers, and lanterns; once the site is prepared, they are then to recite various codes or spells (DHĀRAnĪ) in order to invoke the power of the BODHISATTVAs, the seven stars of the Big Dipper (see BEIDOU QIXING), the gods of the zodiacal mansions and the constellations, the sun and moon, etc., to overcome calamities and transform disasters into blessings. In the case of the Koryo dynasty, the ritual was always held at court, and the king himself was both participant and presider at the ritual, indicating the close association between court and the religion during this period in Korean history.
Special Blessing ::: Rebbes are often asked to give blessings, and the wording of this blessing may have been unusually lengthy or different in some other way from the usual or familiar wording.
Sri Aurobindo: “The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other’s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle. Babel-builders’.
Star-angels the regents or cosmic spirits of the stars: “Every planet according to the esoteric doctrine is in its composition a Septenary like man, in its principles. That is to say, the visible planet is the physical body of the sidereal being, the Atma or Spirit of which is the Angel, or Rishi, or Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call it” (BCW 10:31). This was the basis for the worship of star-angels by all antiquity, a worship which in modified form was taken over by primitive Christianity and still exists in the Roman Catholic Church, although the esoteric meaning was lost. The seven star-angels — Michael (like unto God), Gabriel (the strength of God), Raphael (divine virtue), Uriel (God’s light and fire), Scaltiel (the speech of God), Jehudiel (the praise of God), and Barachiel (the blessing of God) — referred to the rectors of the seven sacred planets. “It is through their ‘divine attributes,’ which have led to the formation of the names, that these archangels may be identified by an easy esoteric method of transmutation with the Chaldean great gods and even with the Seven Manus and the Seven Rishis of India” (BCW 10:19).
Svaha (Sanskrit) Svāhā [from su good, excellent, virtuous + the verbal root ah to speak, say] One of the daughters of Daksha and consort of Agni; also an exclamation used in making oblations to the gods, meaning Hail! May a blessing rest on! or So be it!
Synagog, Synagogue [from synagoge an assembly; translation of Hebrew khenesheth, Aramaic khenash a congregation] Originally a gathering of Jews for worship or religious instruction, but later applied to the building in which the gatherings were held. As a characteristic Jewish institution, the synagog rose to prominence after the reforms instituted by Ezra, for the gatherings were the means whereby the populace received instruction, especially in the reading of the law on every Sabbath. The rites on Sabbath morning as outlined in the Mishnah consisted of readings from the Old Testament (particularly from Deuteronomy and Numbers), followed by prayer, then the lessons from the law and the prophets, a sermon thereon, and finally the blessing.
The real person is the reimbodying ego, who carves its own destiny as and how it chooses, and its imbodiments correspond. It might readily happen that for the purposes of discipline and improvement of soul, a reimbodying ego might deliberately choose a body in which it would have to face, meet, and overcome a great many of what the world calls misfortunes. It is not always therefore in the best interests of a learning and evolving soul to be born “with a silver spoon in its mouth,” because with such surroundings as wealth and social position might bring, a weak soul could easily receive tendencies downwards because lacking the stern discipline urging it upwards and awakening the transcendent powers of the spirit within. Luxury, ease, power, and wealth are by no means always unmixed blessings, but quite frequently become positive misfortunes to weak souls.
The shield or protection of Ullr has a special meaning as he is the god of a “cold” (unformed) world: one of the most highly spiritual of the globes in our sun’s realm. The lay called Grimnismal promises that “the blessing of Ull and all the gods is his who first touches the fire” of this supernal sphere. The mansion of Ullr is named Ydalar — the primal dells of rain and storms, and the root and sacred source of earth’s existence.
Tylwyth Teg (Welsh) The fair family; the Welsh fairies, also known as Bendith y Mamman (mothers’ blessings).
ultimately ::: adv. --> As a final consequence; at last; in the end; as, afflictions often tend to correct immoral habits, and ultimately prove blessings.
unbless ::: v. t. --> To deprive of blessings; to make wretched.
unimproved ::: a. --> Not improved; not made better or wiser; not advanced in knowledge, manners, or excellence.
Not used; not employed; especially, not used or employed for a valuable purpose; as, unimproved opportunities; unimproved blessings.
Not tilled, cultivated, or built upon; yielding no revenue; as, unimproved land or soil.
Vajrayoginī. (T. Rdo rje rnal 'byor ma). The most important of the dĀKInĪ in the VAJRAYĀNA, associated especially with the "mother tantras" (MĀTṚTANTRA) of the ANUTTARAYOGA class. She is also the most important of the female YI DAM. Her visualization is central to many tantric SĀDHANAs, especially in the practice of GURUYOGA, in which the meditator imagines himself or herself in the form of Vajrayoginī in order to receive the blessings of the GURU. She is also visualized in GCOD and GTUM MO practice. Her worship seems to originate with the CAKRASAMVARATANTRA and is popular in all sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayoginī plays a special role in the "six yogas of NĀROPA" (NĀ RO CHOS DRUG), where she is known as Nā ro mkha' spyod ma (Kachoma). She is closely associated with VAJRAVĀRĀHĪ, the consort of CAKRASAMVARA. In her most common form, she stands in the ĀLĪdHA posture, holding a KAtVĀnGA and a skull cup.
varabhaya ::: [boon (vara) and freedom from fear (abhaya) : a gesture of blessing and reassurance given by a deity].
welfare ::: n. --> Well-doing or well-being in any respect; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; exemption from any evil or calamity; prosperity; happiness.
West The forces of the four cardinal points have each a distinct occult property, and are ruled over by the four regents. Blavatsky states that there is occult philosophy in the early Christian doctrine, echoes of which still linger in both the Orthodox Greek and the Roman Catholic Churches, that public calamities are due to invisible messengers from the north and west, and particularly from the west, the conjunction of the two points being combined in the northwest (SD 1:123). Most good, on the other hand, flows forth from the north and east. The Egyptian goddess Hathor is spoken of as the infernal Isis, the goddess preeminently of the west or nether world. East and west are not localities but directions, and when used in reference to localities the meaning is purely relative. Good and evil, too, are relative terms as experienced by human beings, for such messengers and influences are in all cases strictly karmic agents; and often what people in their blindness and weakness think a calamity or misfortune may indeed be a blessing in disguise. See also CARDINAL POINTS
When he procures blessings for the world, he is
yi dam. In Tibetan, a term often translated as "meditational deity" or "tutelary deity." In the practice of Buddhist tantra, it is the enlightened being, whether male or female, peaceful or wrathful, who serves as the focus of one's SĀDHANA practice. One is also to visualize one's tantric teacher (VAJRĀCĀRYA) as this deity. The term is of uncertain origin and does not seem to be a direct translation of a Sanskrit term, although istadevatā is sometimes identified with the term. The etymology that is often given sees the term as an abbreviation of yid kyi dam tshig, meaning "commitment of the mind." Traditionally, the yi dam is selected by throwing a flower onto a MAndALA, with the deity upon whom the flower lands becoming the "chosen deity." However, when one receives a tantric initiation, the central deity of that tantra typically becomes the yi dam, with daily practices of offering and meditation often required. Through the propitiation of the deity and recitation of MANTRA, it is said that the deity will bestow accomplishments (SIDDHI). In the practice of DEVATĀYOGA, one meditates upon oneself as that deity in order to achieve buddhahood in the form of that deity. The yi dam is considered one of the three roots (rtsa gsum) of tantric practice, together with the GURU and the dĀKINĪ: the guru is considered to be the source of blessings; the yi dam, the source of accomplishments; and the dākinī, the source of activities. These three roots are considered the inner refuge, with the Buddha, DHARMA, and SAMGHA being the outer refuge, and the channels (NĀdĪ), winds (PRĀnA), and drops (BINDU) being the secret refuge.
KEYS (10k)
13 The Mother
2 Georg C Lichtenberg
1 The Mother?
1 The Mother
1 Socrates
1 Saint Ambrose of Milan
1 Revelation 5:12
1 Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 Origen
1 Guru Rinpoche
1 Sri Ramakrishna
1 Abraham Lincoln
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
51 The Mother
48 Anonymous
21 Paulo Coelho
11 William Shakespeare
11 Mehmet Murat ildan
10 Thomas Paine
10 Jane Austen
9 Joel Osteen
9 Charles Spurgeon
9 Charles Haddon Spurgeon
9 Amit Ray
8 Rumi
8 Mokokoma Mokhonoana
8 Andrew Murray
7 Socrates
6 Thomas Jefferson
6 T D Jakes
6 Rhonda Byrne
6 Ralph Waldo Emerson
6 Plato
1:Nov 2 "Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing." ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
2:Never undertake anything unless you have the heart to ask Heaven's blessing on your undertaking. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #KEYS
3:What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears...as easily as we open and shut our eyes. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
4:Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing." ~ Revelation 5:12, #KEYS
5:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #KEYS
6:Bare your forehead, waiting for the first blessing of light, and sing with the bird of the morning in glad faith. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, Fruit Gathering, #KEYS
7:Once the seed of faith takes root, it cannot be blown away, even by the strongest wind. Now that's a blessing.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5],#KEYS
8:To me, life is a gift, and it's a blessing to just be alive. And each person should learn what a gift it is to be alive no matter how tough things get." ~ Tony Bennett, #KEYS
9:To attain to God with the mind is a great blessing, but to comprehend Him is impossible ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 1, lect. 5)., #KEYS
10:If the Lord wills for you a hardship, do not protest. Take it as a blessing and indeed it will become so.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Difficulties of Surrender,#KEYS
11:As Augustine says, to attain to God with the mind is a great blessing, but to comprehend Him is impossible ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 1, lect. 5)., #KEYS
12:A psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, a hymn in praise of God, the assembly's homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the Church, a confession of faith in song. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
13:Always remember God. Each and every event, everywhere, is by His Will alone and is for our own good. Each thing in our lives is always only Blessing, even though it may not appear so, at the time. ~ Sri Yogi Ramsuratkumar, #KEYS
14:Succeed in not fearing the lion, and the lion will fear YOU. Say to suffering, 'I will that you shall become a pleasure,' and it will prove to be such-- and even more than a pleasure, it will be a blessing.
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
15:A mind which remains calm in the midst of the vicissitudes of life, delivered from preoccupations, liberated from passion, dwelling in serenity-that is a great blessing. ~ Mahamangala Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
16:Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #KEYS
17:Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
18:Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy…. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing. ~ Saint Ambrose On the Death of Satyrus, #KEYS
19:But in fact the one which is really beautiful and delicate, flawless and endowed with every blessing, is the beloved object, while the one which loves is by contrast of an entirely different character, such as I have just described. ~ Plato, Symposium, 204c, #KEYS
20:Prophet 'Isa (Jesus - peace and blessing be upon him), said: "He who acts on the knowledge that he possesses, Allaah will bestow him with knowledge that he does not possess." ~ Abu Nu'aym (r) al-Hilyatul Awliya, vol 10, p 15, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
21:No words can express what is of Christ: "Glorify the Lord as much as you ever can, for he will yet far exceed, and his magnificence is wonderful. Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can, for he is above all praise" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Sir. 43:30)(Commentary on Hebrews 5, lect. 2)., #KEYS
22:13. The Magic Flight:If the hero in his triumph wins the blessing of the goddess or the god and is then explicitly commissioned to return to the world with some elixir for the restoration of society, the final stage of his adventure is supported by all the powers of his supernatural patron. On the other hand, if the trophy has been attained against the opposition of its guardian, or if the hero's wish to return to the world has been resented by the gods or demons, then the last stage of the mythological round becomes a lively, often comical, pursuit. This flight may be complicated by marvels of magical obstruction and evasion. ~ Joseph Campbell, #KEYS
23:I have got three letters from you, but as I was busy with many things I couldn't answer them-today I am answering all the three together. It was known that it wouldn't be possible for you to come for darshan this time, it can't be easy to come twice within this short time. Don't be sorry, remain calm and remember the Mother, gather faith and strength within. You are a child of the Divine Mother, be tranquil, calm and full of force. There is no special procedure. To take the name of the Mother, to remember her within, to pray to her, all this may be described as calling the Mother. As it comes from within you, you have to call her accordingly. You can do also this - shutting your eyes you can imagine that the Mother is in front of you or you can sketch a picture of her in your mind and offer her your pranam, that obeissance will reach her. When you've time, you can meditate on her with the thinking attitude that she is with you, she's sitting in front of you. Doing these things people at last get to see her. Accept my blessings, I send the Mother's blessings also at the same time. From time to time Jyotirmoyee will take blessing flowers during pranam and send them to you. ~ The Mother, Nirodbaran Memorable contacts with the Mother, #KEYS
24:GURU YOGA
Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master.
What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
The Practice
After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind.
After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa.
There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep, [T3],#KEYS
25:The Supreme Discovery
IF WE want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a landmark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life.
Each individual should build up this mental synthesis according to his own tendencies and affinities and aspirations. But if we want it to be truly living and luminous, it must be centred on the idea that is the intellectual representation symbolising That which is at the centre of our being, That which is our life and our light.
This idea, expressed in sublime words, has been taught in various forms by all the great Instructors in all lands and all ages.
The Self of each one and the great universal Self are one. Since all that is exists from all eternity in its essence and principle, why make a distinction between the being and its origin, between ourselves and what we place at the beginning?
The ancient traditions rightly said:
"Our origin and ourselves, our God and ourselves are one."
And this oneness should not be understood merely as a more or less close and intimate relationship of union, but as a true identity.
Thus, when a man who seeks the Divine attempts to reascend by degrees towards the inaccessible, he forgets that all his knowledge and all his intuition cannot take him one step forward in this infinite; neither does he know that what he wants to attain, what he believes to be so far from him, is within him.
For how could he know anything of the origin until he becomes conscious of this origin in himself?
It is by understanding himself, by learning to know himself, that he can make the supreme discovery and cry out in wonder like the patriarch in the Bible, "The house of God is here and I knew it not."
That is why we must express that sublime thought, creatrix of the material worlds, and make known to all the word that fills the heavens and the earth, "I am in all things and all beings."When all shall know this, the promised day of great transfigurations will be at hand. When in each atom of Matter men shall recognise the indwelling thought of God, when in each living creature they shall perceive some hint of a gesture of God, when each man can see God in his brother, then dawn will break, dispelling the darkness, the falsehood, the ignorance, the error and suffering that weigh upon all Nature. For, "all Nature suffers and laments as she awaits the revelation of the Sons of God."
This indeed is the central thought epitomising all others, the thought which should be ever present to our remembrance as the sun that illumines all life.
That is why I remind you of it today. For if we follow our path bearing this thought in our hearts like the rarest jewel, the most precious treasure, if we allow it to do its work of illumination and transfiguration within us, we shall know that it lives in the centre of all beings and all things, and in it we shall feel the marvellous oneness of the universe.
Then we shall understand the vanity and childishness of our meagre satisfactions, our foolish quarrels, our petty passions, our blind indignations. We shall see the dissolution of our little faults, the crumbling of the last entrenchments of our limited personality and our obtuse egoism. We shall feel ourselves being swept along by this sublime current of true spirituality which will deliver us from our narrow limits and bounds.
The individual Self and the universal Self are one; in every world, in every being, in every thing, in every atom is the Divine Presence, and man's mission is to manifest it.
In order to do that, he must become conscious of this Divine Presence within him. Some individuals must undergo a real apprenticeship in order to achieve this: their egoistic being is too all-absorbing, too rigid, too conservative, and their struggles against it are long and painful. Others, on the contrary, who are more impersonal, more plastic, more spiritualised, come easily into contact with the inexhaustible divine source of their being.But let us not forget that they too should devote themselves daily, constantly, to a methodical effort of adaptation and transformation, so that nothing within them may ever again obscure the radiance of that pure light.
But how greatly the standpoint changes once we attain this deeper consciousness! How understanding widens, how compassion grows!
On this a sage has said:
"I would like each one of us to come to the point where he perceives the inner God who dwells even in the vilest of human beings; instead of condemning him we would say, 'Arise, O resplendent Being, thou who art ever pure, who knowest neither birth nor death; arise, Almighty One, and manifest thy nature.'"
Let us live by this beautiful utterance and we shall see everything around us transformed as if by miracle.
This is the attitude of true, conscious and discerning love, the love which knows how to see behind appearances, understand in spite of words, and which, amid all obstacles, is in constant communion with the depths.
What value have our impulses and our desires, our anguish and our violence, our sufferings and our struggles, all these inner vicissitudes unduly dramatised by our unruly imagination - what value do they have before this great, this sublime and divine love bending over us from the innermost depths of our being, bearing with our weaknesses, rectifying our errors, healing our wounds, bathing our whole being with its regenerating streams?
For the inner Godhead never imposes herself, she neither demands nor threatens; she offers and gives herself, conceals and forgets herself in the heart of all beings and things; she never accuses, she neither judges nor curses nor condemns, but works unceasingly to perfect without constraint, to mend without reproach, to encourage without impatience, to enrich each one with all the wealth he can receive; she is the mother whose love bears fruit and nourishes, guards and protects, counsels and consoles; because she understands everything, she can endure everything, excuse and pardon everything, hope and prepare for everything; bearing everything within herself, she owns nothing that does not belong to all, and because she reigns over all, she is the servant of all; that is why all, great and small, who want to be kings with her and gods in her, become, like her, not despots but servitors among their brethren.
How beautiful is this humble role of servant, the role of all who have been revealers and heralds of the God who is within all, of the Divine Love that animates all things....
And until we can follow their example and become true servants even as they, let us allow ourselves to be penetrated and transformed by this Divine Love; let us offer Him, without reserve, this marvellous instrument, our physical organism. He shall make it yield its utmost on every plane of activity.
To achieve this total self-consecration, all means are good, all methods have their value. The one thing needful is to persevere in our will to attain this goal. For then everything we study, every action we perform, every human being we meet, all come to bring us an indication, a help, a light to guide us on the path.
Before I close, I shall add a few pages for those who have already made apparently fruitless efforts, for those who have encountered the pitfalls on the way and seen the measure of their weakness, for those who are in danger of losing their self-confidence and courage. These pages, intended to rekindle hope in the hearts of those who suffer, were written by a spiritual worker at a time when ordeals of every kind were sweeping down on him like purifying flames.
You who are weary, downcast and bruised, you who fall, who think perhaps that you are defeated, hear the voice of a friend. He knows your sorrows, he has shared them, he has suffered like you from the ills of the earth; like you he has crossed many deserts under the burden of the day, he has known thirst and hunger, solitude and abandonment, and the cruellest of all wants, the destitution of the heart. Alas! he has known too the hours of doubt, the errors, the faults, the failings, every weakness.
But he tells you: Courage! Hearken to the lesson that the rising sun brings to the earth with its first rays each morning. It is a lesson of hope, a message of solace.
You who weep, who suffer and tremble, who dare not expect an end to your ills, an issue to your pangs, behold: there is no night without dawn and the day is about to break when darkness is thickest; there is no mist that the sun does not dispel, no cloud that it does not gild, no tear that it will not dry one day, no storm that is not followed by its shining triumphant bow; there is no snow that it does not melt, nor winter that it does not change into radiant spring.
And for you too, there is no affliction which does not bring its measure of glory, no distress which cannot be transformed into joy, nor defeat into victory, nor downfall into higher ascension, nor solitude into radiating centre of life, nor discord into harmony - sometimes it is a misunderstanding between two minds that compels two hearts to open to mutual communion; lastly, there is no infinite weakness that cannot be changed into strength. And it is even in supreme weakness that almightiness chooses to reveal itself!
Listen, my little child, you who today feel so broken, so fallen perhaps, who have nothing left, nothing to cover your misery and foster your pride: never before have you been so great! How close to the summits is he who awakens in the depths, for the deeper the abyss, the more the heights reveal themselves!
Do you not know this, that the most sublime forces of the vasts seek to array themselves in the most opaque veils of Matter? Oh, the sublime nuptials of sovereign love with the obscurest plasticities, of the shadow's yearning with the most royal light!
If ordeal or fault has cast you down, if you have sunk into the nether depths of suffering, do not grieve - for there indeed the divine love and the supreme blessing can reach you! Because you have passed through the crucible of purifying sorrows, the glorious ascents are yours.
You are in the wilderness: then listen to the voices of the silence. The clamour of flattering words and outer applause has gladdened your ears, but the voices of the silence will gladden your soul and awaken within you the echo of the depths, the chant of divine harmonies!
You are walking in the depths of night: then gather the priceless treasures of the night. In bright sunshine, the ways of intelligence are lit, but in the white luminosities of the night lie the hidden paths of perfection, the secret of spiritual riches.
You are being stripped of everything: that is the way towards plenitude. When you have nothing left, everything will be given to you. Because for those who are sincere and true, from the worst always comes the best.
Every grain that is sown in the earth produces a thousand. Every wing-beat of sorrow can be a soaring towards glory.
And when the adversary pursues man relentlessly, everything he does to destroy him only makes him greater.
Hear the story of the worlds, look: the great enemy seems to triumph. He casts the beings of light into the night, and the night is filled with stars. He rages against the cosmic working, he assails the integrity of the empire of the sphere, shatters its harmony, divides and subdivides it, scatters its dust to the four winds of infinity, and lo! the dust is changed into a golden seed, fertilising the infinite and peopling it with worlds which now gravitate around their eternal centre in the larger orbit of space - so that even division creates a richer and deeper unity, and by multiplying the surfaces of the material universe, enlarges the empire that it set out to destroy.
Beautiful indeed was the song of the primordial sphere cradled in the bosom of immensity, but how much more beautiful and triumphant is the symphony of the constellations, the music of the spheres, the immense choir that fills the heavens with an eternal hymn of victory!
Hear again: no state was ever more precarious than that of man when he was separated on earth from his divine origin. Above him stretched the hostile borders of the usurper, and at his horizon's gates watched jailers armed with flaming swords. Then, since he could climb no more to the source of life, the source arose within him; since he could no more receive the light from above, the light shone forth at the very centre of his being; since he could commune no more with the transcendent love, that love offered itself in a holocaust and chose each terrestrial being, each human self as its dwelling-place and sanctuary.
That is how, in this despised and desolate but fruitful and blessed Matter, each atom contains a divine thought, each being carries within him the Divine Inhabitant. And if no being in all the universe is as frail as man, neither is any as divine as he!
In truth, in truth, in humiliation lies the cradle of glory! 28 April 1912 ~ The Mother, Words Of Long Ago, The Supreme Discovery,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:An injury may prove a blessing. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 2:Be a blessing to someone else. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 3:Labour is the source of every blessing. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 4:Humor is mankind's greatest blessing. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 5:He had a face like a blessing. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 6:We are all born to be a blessing. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 7:Life has no blessing like a prudent friend. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 8:A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 9:I'm blessed to be a blessing to someone else. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 10:Anything is a blessing which makes us pray. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 11:When you feel down, go be a blessing to somebody else. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 12:The blessing of life as a wholecan never be found in work. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 13:When a blessing is invoked, a window opens in eternal time. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 14:Troubles are a blessing that force you to change, to believe. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 15:It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 16:Life is effort. So says the body. Life is blessing. So says the soul. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 17:Precisely where I feel my poverty is where I discover God's blessing. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 18:God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessing into old attitudes. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 19:We in America should be grateful to God for the blessing he has given us. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 20:A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 21:... the wise man knows that every experience is to be viewed as a blessing. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 22:When you are praising or blessing you are on the highest frequency of love. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 23:To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 24:Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you're comfortable with. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 25:Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 26:When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 27:Keep memories of insult on a short leash, and memories of blessing on a long one. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 28:The absolute nothingness of death is a blessing. Something to look forward to. ~ quentin-crisp, @wisdomtrove 29:A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. ~ alexander-hamilton, @wisdomtrove 30:If you can be a blessing to somebody else, you're sowing a seed for God to help you. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 31:A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal and strengthen. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 32:Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 33:To touch God a little with our mind is a great blessing, to grasp him is impossible. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 34:If you inspire one person each day, you’re day hasn't been a waste. It’s been a blessing. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 35:Mistakes are about getting the blessing in the lesson and the lesson in the blessing. ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 36:When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 37:One of the best ways to walk in love is to be a blessing to other people or simply to help them. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 38:There’s no disaster that can’t become a blessing, and no blessing that can’t become a disaster. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 39:Indeed, it is as important to learn how to receive a blessing as it is to be willing to give one. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 40:When we focus on or disappointments , we stop God from ringing fresh new blessing into our lives. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 41:Reason is a permanent blessing of God to the soul. Without it there can be no large religion. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 42:Let me leap out of the frying-pan into the fire; or, out of God's blessing into the warm sun. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 43:God can use a sensitive Christian to be a rich blessing in the life of one who knows pain and sorrow. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 44:How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them! ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 45:It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 46:Nothing that man can present to God by way of sacrifice can ever purchase the blessing of forgiveness. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 47:Let the GRATEFUL HEART sweep through the day that it may recognize in every hour some sweet blessing. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 48:God often hides His blessing in trouble or trial, which makes it all the sweeter when it comes our way. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 49:[On her father:] ... in losing him I lost my greatest blessing and comfort, for he was always that to me. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 50:Every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake His mercy waits upon us. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 51:Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces! ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 52:In prosperity God is heard, and that is a blessing; but in adversity God is seen, and that is a greater blessing. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 53:God's little Blond Blessing we have long deemed you, and hope his so-called Will will not compel him to revoke you. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 54:Q: Is destiny the same as grace? M: Absolutely. Accept life as it comes and you will find it a blessing. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 55:The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 56:Forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. Forgiveness indeed heals memories . . . ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 57:With every adversity comes a blessing because a shock acts as a reminder to oneself that we must not get stale in routine. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 58:The degree of blessing enjoyed by any man will correspond exactly with the completeness of God's victory over him. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 59:When people are blessed, they discover that their lives matter, that there is something in them worthy of blessing. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 60:I am above being injured by fortune, though she steals away much, more will remain with me. The blessing I now enjoy transcend fear. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 61:This truth I firmly hold, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding; my life has been a gift, a blessing to the world. ~ anthony-de-mello, @wisdomtrove 62:The power of music, whether joyous or cathartic must steal on one unawares, come spontaneously as a blessing or a grace& 63:Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 64:My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 65:My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 66:I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our eyes. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 67:The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 68:It is God's will to bless us, but not necessarily on our terms. Sometimes what we think would be a wonderful blessing would not bless us at all. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 69:A man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 70:Faith is not the price that buys God's blessing, it is the hand that receives His blessing. The price was paid for us by Jesus Christ on the cross ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 71:The most important thing I've come to believe in is that people with mental handicaps have a unique mission to bring God's blessing to the World. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 72:All that appears in your life is a blessing, presenting you with a greater opportunity to define who you are, and to know yourself as that. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 73:There are people in your path just so you can be a blessing to them. Anytime you do good for others, you are sowing a seed for God to be good to you. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 74:A constitutional amendment for congressional term limits could never achieve the blessing of Congress; it could be initiated only by the states. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 75:Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves the feet of angels bright; unseen they pour blessing, and joy without ceasing, on each bud and blossom, and each sleeping bosom. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 76:When starting out, don't worry about not having enough money. Limited funds are a blessing, not a curse. Nothing encourages creative thinking in quite the same way. ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 77:History comes and history goes, but principles endure, and ensure future generations will defend liberty not as a gift from government but as a blessing from our Creator. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 78:How many gifts and graces You have given me! How many favors You have fed me from your hand! I look for your love in all directions, then suddenly its blessing burns in me. ~ rabia-basri, @wisdomtrove 79:When we ask of the Lord coolly, and not fervently, we do as it were, stop His hand, and restrain Him from giving us the very blessing we "pretend" that we are seeking. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 80:Every failure is a blessing in disguise, providing it teaches some needed lesson one could not have learned without it. Most so-called Failures are only temporary defeats. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 81:To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 82:To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 83:I'm lost in the middle of my birthday. I want my friends, their touch, with the earth's last love. I will take life's final offering, I will take the last human blessing. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 84:Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland: the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all of the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 85:All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only beloved who will never pass away. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 86:What once seemed such a curse has become a blessing. All the agony that threatened to destroy my life now seems like the fertile ground for greater trust, stronger hope, and deeper love. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 87:If you only knew what God had to take me through to get me to the place where he could use me to be a blessing to other people, I doubt whether you would be willing to pay the price. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 88:You don't know what is going to come to you in this world; you have to go on living and worrying. Those who die are pitying us; they are blessing us. Why should you grieve for them? ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 89:When you reach out to hurting people, that’s when God is going to make sure your needs are supplied. When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 90:I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, What! all this, and Christ too? ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 91:We live charmed lives if we are living in the center of God's will. All the attacks that Satan can hurl against us are not only powerless to harm us, but are turned into blessing on the way. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 92:If you’ll dare to take your mind off your troubles, get your mind off your own needs and, instead, seek to be a blessing to other people, God will do more for you than you could even ask or think. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 93:For the rest of his life, Oliver Twist remembers a single word of blessing spoken to him by another child because this word stood out so strikingly from the consistent discouragement around him. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 94:When our Lord looked at us, He saw not only what we were - He was faithful in seeing what we could become! He took away the curse of being and gave us the glorious blessing of becoming. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 95:God's dream is that you have an abundance, that you be totally out of debt, pay your house off, pay your credit cards off, and have so much overflow that you can be a blessing to everyone around you! ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 96:Leadership is not about executive position or title. It is about connection and influence. At its highest, leadership is all about adding value to the world and blessing lives through the work you do. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 97:Hopefully, I will emerge more shining. If I have that good fortune, if I am blessed in that way - and I do feel I am in the middle of the blessing - then I have faith my service will be greater. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 98:Ah, race of mortal men, How as a thing of nought I count ye, though ye live; For who is there of men That more of blessing knows, Than just a little while To seem to prosper well, And, having seemed, to fall? ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 99:It is up to us to determine whether the years ahead will be for humankind a curse or a blessing. We always must remember that it is given to men and women to choose life and living, not death and destruction. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 100:I'm learning that the blessing is located in our poor people, in people who are weak; they are the ones we should stay close to, not because they need us but because we need to receive from them the blessing. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 101:You cannot receive vibrationally something that you are not a vibrational match to. And so, bless those who are finding abundance. And in your blessing of them and their abundance, you will become abundant too. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 102:Personally I am always looking for God to show me where He would like me to give or make a difference in someone else's life. I wake up every day and ask God how He would like me to be a blessing to someone that day. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 103:Don't be too quick to interpret the moment. Just keep quiet. My encouragement would always be: never think anything is against you, everything is blessing. Why should it be different? Just be quiet. Let it all work itself out. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 104:Ministers are powerless people who have nothing to boast of except their weaknesses. But when the Lord whom they serve fills them with His blessing they will move mountains and change the hearts of people wherever they go. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 105:Never let a day pass without looking for the good, feeling the good within you, praising, appreciating, blessing, and being grateful. Make it your life commitment, and you will stand in utter awe of what happens in your life. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 106:It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse: a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 107:Oh, for five hundred Elijahs, each one upon his Carmel , crying unto God, and we should soon have the clouds bursting into showers. Oh, for more prayer, more constant, incessant prayer! Then the blessing would rain upon us. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 108:There's a belief that you're supposed to be poor, and suffering, and show your humility. I just don't see the Bible that way. I see that God came and Jesus died so that we might live an abundant life and be a blessing to others. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 109:Listen carefully to the words and tone of voice you use with your spouse. Are you complaining all the time and telling her what she's not doing right? Or are you doing like Solomon-blessing, encouraging, and uplifting that woman? ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 110:Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 111:Get a friend to tell you your faults, or better still, welcome an enemy who will watch you keenly and sting you savagely. What a blessing such an irritating critic will be to a wise man, what an intolerable nuisance to a fool! ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 112:I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 113:Liberty is a blessing so inestimable, that, wherever there appears any probability of recovering it, a nation may willingly run many hazards, and ought not even to repine at the greatest effusion of blood or dissipation of treasure. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 114:With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking his blessing and his help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 115:No action, whether foul or fair, Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere A record, written by fingers ghostly, As a blessing or a curse, and mostly In the greater weakness or greater strength Of the acts which follow it. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 116:If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testing ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 117:Finding happiness should not be seen as finding a needle in a haystack. Happiness is within. Each day is a blessing that brings an abundance of happiness. Therefore, finding happiness should be like finding a gift in a stack of gifts. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 118:I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days during their early adult life. Darkness would make them more appreciative of sight; silence would teach them the joys of sound. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 119:The blessing in life is when you find the torture you are comfortable with. That's marriage, it's kids, it's work, it's exercise. Find the torture you're comfortable with and you'll do well. You've mastered that, you've mastered life. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 120:I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: ‘Oh my God, what a blessing.’ Then you realise it’s important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 121:A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else's way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 122:When you ask the Universe to bless you in your effort to align yourself with your soul, you open a passageway between yourself and your guides and Teachers. That is what a blessing is: the opening of a passageway between you and nonphysical guidance. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 123:A blessing is not something that one person gives another. A blessing is a moment of meeting, a certain kind of relationship in which both people involved remember and acknowledge their true nature and worth, and strengthen what is whole in one another. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 124:the real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me. To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing& 125:Each of us brings something alive in the world that is unique. There is a profound necessity at the heart of individuality. As we awaken to this sense of destiny, we can begin to live a life that is generous and worthy of the blessing that is always calling us. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 126:The experiences of men who walked with God in olden times agree to teach that the Lord cannot fully bless the a man until He has first conquered him. The degree of blessing enjoyed by any man will correspond exactly with the completeness of God's victory over him. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 127:I teach and believe that God wants his people to be blessed. If we give and we are a blessing to other people, that God promises in his word that he will take care of us. Actually, says he'll open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so great that we can't contain it. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 128:Spiritual traditions that encourage some sort of inner conflict often make the mind an enemy, but it really isn't. The mind is a great blessing, not an adversary to be silenced. Our ability to think is what makes us human. If we didn't think, we wouldn't be wise, we'd be stupid. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 129:When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place [if we anticipate and look for it, rather than wallow in our & 130:How sweet and soothing is this hour of calm! I thank thee, night! for thou has chased away these horrid bodements which, amidst the throng, I could not dissipate; and with the blessing of thy benign and quiet influence now will I to my couch, although to rest is almost wronging such a night as this. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 131:To inhabit our body fully and saturate it with loving-kindness is what the world calls ‘glow.’ A person who has made their body and mind a home—not a prison—is one who radiates from the inside out, blessing the outer world with its light. That is love. That is the miracle of loving your “youness.” ~ aimee-davies, @wisdomtrove 132:If chanting is not possible during a certain task, then pray before starting it: & 133:The Church will always be renewed when our attention shifts from ourselves to those who need our care. The blessing of Jesus always comes to us through the poor. The most remarkable experience of those who work with the poor is that, in the end, the poor give more than they receive. They give food to us. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 134:Shower on him every blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, give him economic prosperity such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes, and busy himself with the continuation of the species, and even then, out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 135:Money gained on Sabbath-day is a loss, I dare to say. No blessing can come with that which comes to us, on the devil's back, by our willful disobedience of God's law. The loss of health by neglect of rest, and the loss of soul by neglect of hearing the gospel, soon turn all seeming profit into real loss. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 136:If you can break the link between feeling tones and craving—if you can be with the pleasant without chasing after it, with the unpleasant without resisting it, and with the neutral without ignoring it—then you have cut the chain of suffering, at least for a time. And that is an incredible blessing and freedom. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 137:Sometimes we are inclined to think that a very great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing, because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery; restoring the prodigal to the Father's house, and never making him say, ‚ÄúFather, I have sinned.‚Äù ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 138:My father died and left me his blessing and his business. His blessing brought no money into my pocket, and as to his business, it soon deserted me, for I was busy writing poetry, and could not attend to law, and my clients, though they had great respect for my talents, had no faith in a poetical attorney. ~ washington-irving, @wisdomtrove 139:Whenever you focus on the blessings in your life, you're instantaneously on the blessing frequency, and blessings increase in your life IN THAT MOMENT! & 140:God, the source of our knowledge, has been expelled from the classroom. He gives us His greatest blessing, life, and yet many would condone the taking of innocent life. We expect Him to protect us in a crisis, but turn away from Him too often in our day-to-day living. I wonder if He isn't waiting for us to wake up. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 141:Children, don't waste a single second. Serve others, above all the poor, expecting nothing in return. Just as the person who offers God flowers is the first to enjoy their fragrance, the person who offers compassion is the first to receive its blessing. Wherever a heart beats with compassion: God is there. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 142:Maybe you’ve invested a lot of time, effort, money, emotion, and energy in a relationship; you did your best to make it work out. But for some reason, things got off course. And now you feel as though you have been robbed. When we focus on or disappointments, we stop God from ringing fresh new blessing into our lives. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 143:Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins ... Society is in every state a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 144:When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 145:This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry; the cloud is black before it breaks, and overshadows before it yields its deluge of mercy. Depression has now become to me as a prophet in rough clothing, a John the Baptist, heralding the nearer coming of my Lord's richer benison ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 146:I preach that anybody can improve their lives. I think God wants us to be prosperous. I think he wants us to be happy. To me, you need to have money to pay your bills. I think God wants us to send our kids to college. I think he wants us to be a blessing to other people. But I don't think I'd say God wants us to be rich. It's all relative, isn't it? ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 147:Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 148:Choose today to let the peace of Christ rule in your heart and have an attitude of gratitude toward the Lord. Even if you have things that are upsetting you, take a step of faith and begin to thank God for His goodness in your life. Thank Him for working behind the scenes on your behalf. As you do, you will walk forward into the life of blessing He has in store for you! ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 149:The heavenly blessing is to be delivered from the law, sin and death; to be justified and quickened to life: to have peace with God; to have a faithful heart, a joyful conscience, a spiritual consolation; to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ; to have the gift of prophecy, and the revelation of the Scriptures; to have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to rejoice in God. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 150:The sad truth is, if you push hard enough, and if you’re so stubborn that you must have things your way, God will sometimes allow you to undertake a project without His blessing or at the wrong time. The problem with that, of course, is when you start something in your own strength and in your own timing, you’re going to have to finish it and maintain it in your own strength. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 151:Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moments help us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments — but all of this is transitory it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 152:Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing - instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 153:I remember my first lesson on the pilgrimage was the lesson of receiving. I had been on the giving side for many years and I needed to learn to accept as gracefully as I had been able to give, in order to give the other fellow the joy and blessing of giving. It's so beautiful when you live to give. To me it's the only way to live because as you give you receive spiritual blessings. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 154:Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 155:The primordial blessing, & 156:Knowing yourself as the dweller in both the personal body and the universal body [the world], you will disown nothing. All the universe will be your concern; every living thing you will love and help most tenderly and wisely. There will be no clash of interests between you and others. All exploitation will cease absolutely. Your every action will be beneficial, every movement will be a blessing. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 157:The history of humanity is not a hotel where someone can rent a room whenever it suits him; nor is it a vehicle which we board or get out of at random. Our past will be for us a burden beneath which we can only collapse for as long as we refuse to understand the present and fight for a better future. Only then ‚Äî but from that moment on ‚Äî will the burden become a blessing, that is, a weapon in the battle for freedom. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 158:Life is too short to live that way. Learn to travel light. Every morning when you first get up, forgive the people that did you wrong the day before. Forgive your spouse for what they said. At the start of the day, let go of the disappointments, the set backs from yesterday. Start every morning fresh and new. God did not create you to carry around all that baggage. Let it go and move forward in the life of blessing He has in store for you! ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 159:Father Time is not always a hard parent and though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigor. With such people the gray head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 160:…Forgive us, O Lord, we acknowledge ourselves as type of the common man, Of the men and women who shut the door and sit by the fire; Who fear the blessing of God, the loneliness of the night of God, the surrender required, the deprivation inflicted; Who fear the injustice of men less than the justice of God; Who fear the hand at the window, the fire in the thatch, the fist in the tavern, the push into the canal, Less than we fear the love of God. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 161:There were times in my life when I said, "Oh God, I'm making a terrible, terrible mistake here." And on another level it looked as if that's exactly what I had done. All of us can look back across our lives and see what we thought was a disaster was actually a blessing - from a long-term perspective, it was a blessing. With practice, we can shorten the length of time between "what a dumb mistake I've made" and "what a brilliant choice that was. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 162:If one asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him: It means all that the Constitution of our people, organizing for justice, for liberty, and for happiness, meant. Our flag carries American ideas, American history and American feelings. This American flag was the safeguard of liberty. It was an ordinance of liberty by the people, for the people. That it meant, that it means, and, by the blessing of God, that it shall mean to the end of time! ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 163:I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one - and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 164:Forgiveness doesn't mean that what that person did was right or that you even have to get back into a relationship with that person. Forgiveness simply releases the debt they owe you so that God can release the debt you owe Him. Ask the Lord to search your heart and show you if there is any unforgiveness blocking His blessing in your life. Ask Him to show you more about this gift of forgiveness so that you can walk in the freedom and victory He has for you today. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 165:If I'm a blessing to you, then either God will put it on your heart to bless me, or he'll use somebody else to bless me. If I'm friendly with you, then I'll have friends. If I'm merciful with people, the Bible says I'll get mercy back. If I'm not judgmental, then people won't be judgmental with me. And it works also with finances. If you give to help other hurting people and you give to the preaching of the gospel, because you love God, then God takes care of you. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 166:When it was reported to General Washington that the army was frequently indulging in swearing, he immediately sent out the following order: The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing - a vice little known heretofore in the American army - is growing into fashion. Let the men and officers reflect "that we can not hope for the blessing of heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly." ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 167:About halfway through I broke down crying, which I hadn't expected. I was a little ashamed, but only a little;it was her, you see, and she never taxed me with the times that I slipped from the way I thought a man should be... the way I thought I should be, at any rate. A man with a good wife is the luckiest of God's creatures, and one without must be among the most miserable, I think, the only true blessing of their lives that they don't know how poorly off they are. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 168:Concealed in every new situation we face is a spiritual lesson to be learned and a spiritual blessing for us if we learn that lesson. It is good to be tested. We grow and learn through passing tests. I look upon all my tests as good experiences. Before I was tested, I believed I would act in a loving or non-fearing way. After I was tested, I knew! Every test turned out to be an uplifting experience. And it is not important that the outcome be according to our wishes. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 169:When we were told that by freedom we understood free enterprise, we did very little to dispel this monstrous falsehood. Wealth and economic well-being, we have asserted, are the fruits of freedom, while we should have been the first to know that this kind of happiness has been an unmixed blessing only in this country, and it is a minor blessing compared with the truly political freedoms, such as freedom of speech and thought, of assembly and association, even under the best conditions. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 170:Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 171:But judgment may heal over time. One of the blessings of growing older is the discovery that many of the things I once believed to be my shortcomings have turned out in the long run to be my strengths, and other things of which I was unduly proud have revealed themselves in the end to be among my shortcomings. Things that I have hidden from others for years turn out to be the anchor and enrichment of my middle age. What a blessing it is to outlive your self-judgments and harvest your failures. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 172:A woman once told me that she did not feel the need to reach out to those around her because she prayed every day. Surely, this was enough. But a prayer is about our relationship to God; a blessing is about our relationship to the spark of God in one another. God may not need our attention as badly as the person next to us on the bus or behind us in line in the supermarket. Everyone in the world matters, and so do their blessings. When we bless others, we offer them refuge from an indifferent world. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 173:Rain Soft rain, summer rain Whispers from bushes, whispers from trees. Oh, how lovely and full of blessing To dream and be satisfied. I was so long in the outer brightness, I am not used to this upheaval: Being at home in my own soul, Never to be led elsewhere. I want nothing, I long for nothing, I hum gently the sounds of childhood, And I reach home astounded In the warm beauty of dreams. Heart, how torn you are, How blessed to plow down blindly, To think nothing, to know nothing, Only to breathe, only to feel. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 174:Most of us lead far more meaningful lives than we know. Often finding meaning is not about doing things differently; it is about seeing familiar things in new ways. When we find new eyes, the unsuspected blessing in work we have done for many years may take us completely by surprise. We can see life in many ways: with the eye, with the mind, with the intuition. But perhaps it is only those who speak the language of meaning, who have remembered how to see with the heart, that life is ever deeply known or served. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 175:Mind how you pray. Make real business of it. Let it never be a dead formality... plead the promise in a truthful, business-like way... Ask for what you want, because the Lord has promised it. Believe that you have the blessing, and go forth to your work in full assurance of it. Go from your knees singing, because the promise is fulfilled: thus will your prayer be answered... the strength [not length] of your prayer... wins... God; and the strength of prayer lies in your faith in the promise which you pleaded before the Lord. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 176:It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God,. to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits , and humbly to implore his protection and favor... beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 177:Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliott, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 178:There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 179:To become fully human means learning to turn my gratitude for being alive into some concrete common good. It means growing gentler toward human weakness. It means practicing forgiveness of my and everyone else's hourly failures to live up to divine standards. It means learning to forget myself on a regular basis in order to attend to the other selves in my vicinity. It means living so that "I'm only human" does not become an excuse for anything. It means receiving the human condition as blessing and not curse, in all its achingly frail and redemptive reality. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 180:God has blessed me in many ways. Money is not the greatest blessing you can have, but I literally had absolutely nothing. The first message that I preached at Life in the Word, I had to borrow a suit from my pastor's wife, because I didn't have any decent clothes, and I was driving a 20-year-old car. We went through a lot of years of having nothing, sleeping in McDonald's parking lots, because we didn't have money to stay all night in a hotel. But, like anybody else who works hard and is diligent and doesn't quit and doesn't give up, there is a day the blessings come. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 181:Befriending the life in others is sometimes a complex matter. There are times when we offer our strength and protection, but these are usually only temporary measures. The greatest blessing we offer others may be the belief we have in their struggle for freedom, the courage to support and accompany them as they determine for themselves the strength that will become their refuge and the foundation for their lives. I think it is especially important to believe in someone at a time when they cannot yet believe in themselves. Then your belief will become their lifeline. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 182:For many years now I have listened to the stories of people with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses as their counselor. From them I have learned how to enjoy the minute particulars of life once again, the grace of a hot cup of coffee, the presence of a friend, the blessing of having a new cake of soap or an hour without pain. Such humble experience is the stuff that many of the very best stories are made of. If we think we have no stories it is because we have not paid enough attention to our lives. Most of us live lives that are far richer and more meaningful than we appreciate. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 183:A person should always offer a prayer of graciousness for the love that has awakened in them. When you feel love for your beloved and the beloved’s love for you, now and again you should offer the warmth of your love as a blessing for those who are damaged and unloved. Send that love out into the world to people who are desperate, to those who are starving, to those who are trapped in prison, in hospitals, and into all the brutal terrains of bleak and tormented lives. When you send that love out from the bountifulness of your own love, it reaches other people. This love is the deepest power of prayer. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 184:A Blessing of Solitude May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul. May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe. May you have respect for your own individuality and difference. May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here, that behind the facade of your life there is something beautiful, good, and eternal happening. May you learn to see yourself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees you in every moment. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 185:Once you reach your destination and know your real nature, your existence becomes a blessing to all. You may not know, nor will the world know, yet the help radiates. There are people in the world who do more good than all the statesmen and philanthropists put together. They radiate light and peace with no intention or knowledge. When others tell them about the miracles they worked, they also are wonder struck. Yet, taking nothing as their own, they are neither proud, nor do they crave for reputation. They are just unable to desire anything for themselves, not even the joy of helping others knowing that God is good they are at peace. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 186:A Blessing; May the light of your soul guide you; May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart; May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul; May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work; May your work never weary you; May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement; May you be present in what you do. May you never become lost in the bland absences; May the day never burden; May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities and promises; May evening find you gracious and fulfilled; May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected; May your soul calm, console and renew you. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:No blessing lasts forever. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
2:An injury may prove a blessing. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
3:Every step I take is a blessing. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
4:A blessing is a gift. ~ Tiffany L Warren, #NFDB
5:Birth of Blessing Packets ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
6:May her memory be a blessing. ~ Jo Walton, #NFDB
7:Abortion is a blessing. ~ Anne Nicol Gaylor, #NFDB
8:Be a blessing to someone else. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
9:Humor is man's greatest blessing. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
10:A desert blessing, an ocean curse. ~ John Green, #NFDB
11:Labour is the source of every blessing. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
12:Literacy: Blessing? Or curse? ~ Charles Frazier, #NFDB
13:A man with courage has every blessing. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
14:Wi-Fi is a blessing from the gods. ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
15:You want your coach's blessing. ~ Candace Parker, #NFDB
16:Religion is a mixed blessing. ~ John Shelby Spong, #NFDB
17:Humor is mankind's greatest blessing. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
18:What a blessing to live to be missed. ~ Johnny Hunt, #NFDB
19:Every step I take is a Blessing. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi ♡, #NFDB
20:He had a face like a blessing. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
21:My son is a blessing in every way. ~ Elizabeth Emken, #NFDB
22:Having babies is a blessing, not a duty. ~ Betty Ford, #NFDB
23:Look for the blessing in all situations. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
24:Lord, make me a blessing to someone today ~ Jan Karon, #NFDB
25:Every blessing ignored becomes a curse. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
26:Honor, riches, marriage-blessing ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
27:Lord, make me a blessing to someone today. ~ Jan Karon, #NFDB
28:We are all born to be a blessing. ~ Rachel Naomi Remen, #NFDB
29:Life has no blessing like a prudent friend. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
30:...every blessing ignored becomes a curse ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
31:Open your eyes, I'm a BLESSING in disguise ~ Young Jeezy, #NFDB
32:Maybe it was a blessing he never loved her. ~ Rita J Webb, #NFDB
33:The way of obedience is the way of blessing. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
34:When reason rules, money is a blessing. ~ Publilius Syrus, #NFDB
35:A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
36:A revolution in itself is not a blessing. ~ John C Calhoun, #NFDB
37:Sometimes a blessing is disguised as despair. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
38:What a blessing it is to love books. ~ Elizabeth von Arnim, #NFDB
39:Before you taste anything, recite a blessing. ~ Rabbi Akiva, #NFDB
40:I'm blessed to be a blessing to someone else. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
41:Memories have to be our most painful blessing. ~ Kanye West, #NFDB
42:We are living in the blessing of that moment. ~ Buddy Ebsen, #NFDB
43:... friends are such a mixed blessing. ~ MaryJanice Davidson, #NFDB
44:Many a blessing has been recognized too late. ~ John Lubbock, #NFDB
45:This world's a blessing and a beast everyday. ~ Shawn Colvin, #NFDB
46:To be loved, even to lose it, was a blessing ~ Shannon Mayer, #NFDB
47:You never know where a blessing can come from. ~ Teena Marie, #NFDB
48:a mixed blessing, like the Star Wars prequels. ~ Dale E Basye, #NFDB
49:Criticism plugs the flow of God's blessing. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
50:It's a blessing to have work that feels fulfilling. ~ Al Gore, #NFDB
51:Praise first the mighty blessing of yourself! ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
52:She bestowed the blessing of a wild girl's lips. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
53:Anything is a blessing which makes us pray. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
54:Joy is a blessing but it often it is a conquest ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
55:Reflect that life, like every other blessing, ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
56:Sir 39:27 His blessing hath overflowed like a river. ~ Various, #NFDB
57:The hardest blessing you give up is silence. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
58:What if your mourning could lead to a blessing? ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
59:Profit is a blessing, if it's not stolen. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
60:ultimate blessing. “What are you doing here, then? ~ Jay Antani, #NFDB
61:Nostalgia... the blessing of a merciful memory. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
62:blessing. I pray earnestly that our gracious Lord ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
63:Looking a certain way is a blessing and a curse. ~ Farrah Fawcett, #NFDB
64:To be a good draftsman was to me a blessing. ~ John James Audubon, #NFDB
65:To live is not a blessing, but to live well. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
66:Your happiness is more of a blessing than your pain. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
67:And his words fell upon the table like a blessing. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
68:Global warming is more of a blessing than a curse. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
69:It's always important to have the blessing. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
70:Liberty without virtue would be no blessing to us. ~ Benjamin Rush, #NFDB
71:Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless. ~ W H Auden,#NFDB
72:Sometimes not seeing things can be a blessing. ~ August Strindberg, #NFDB
73:To do a Bond picture is a blessing but also a curse. ~ Maryam d Abo, #NFDB
74:Wanting less is a better blessing than having more. ~ Joshua Becker, #NFDB
75:Anything you attend to carefully can bring blessing. ~ James Hillman, #NFDB
76:God's rarest blessing is, after all, a good woman! ~ George Meredith, #NFDB
77:It would be a blessing to play in Brooklyn Nets . ~ Lance Stephenson, #NFDB
78:My angel says: "start moving, so I can start blessing ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
79:Disappointment is sometimes a blessing in disguise. ~ Sally MacKenzie, #NFDB
80:Disenchantment is the blessing of becoming yourself. ~ Rebecca Solnit, #NFDB
81:Photography was a blessing because it filled my time. ~ Jessica Lange, #NFDB
82:What I'm looking for is a blessing not in disguise. ~ Jerome K Jerome, #NFDB
83:Earth reserves no blessing For the unblessed of Heaven! ~ Emily Bronte, #NFDB
84:It's a blessing to die at the hand of someone beautiful ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
85:One man’s overlooked blessing is soon another man’s gain. ~ Vi Keeland, #NFDB
86:War is a blessing compared with national degradation. ~ Andrew Jackson, #NFDB
87:What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise. ~ Jerome K Jerome, #NFDB
88:Every day's a blessing, right? It's all in your control. ~ Martin Starr, #NFDB
89:I go of my free choice, with the blessing of obedience. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
90:Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
91:Single motherhood is an amazing thing; it's a blessing. ~ Kelly Cutrone, #NFDB
92:Working with Anthony Hopkins every day is a blessing. ~ Chris Hemsworth, #NFDB
93:Beauty, it would seem, was both a blessing and a curse. ~ Bertrice Small, #NFDB
94:But there's a blessing in everything if we open our eyes. ~ Beth Hoffman, #NFDB
95:Different is special. And being special is a blessing. ~ Jill Williamson, #NFDB
96:Everything that happens to us has a blessing built into it. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
97:If you withhold a blessing, it will be given through others. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
98:Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
99:Labor is a blessing, toil is the misery of man. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
100:A free and independent Britain is a blessing to the world. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
101:Family is the one blessing we sometimes forget to count. ~ Sheila Roberts, #NFDB
102:I feel blessed. To live an artistic life, it's a blessing. ~ Elias Koteas, #NFDB
103:No better blessing than the responsibility of fatherhood. ~ Stephen Curry, #NFDB
104:The blessing of Christ will make a little go a great way. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
105:Blessing come to you when you are obedient to God’s commands. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
106:Blessings come in disguise. And challenges can be a blessing. ~ Diane Lane, #NFDB
107:Even the smallest act of peace is a blessing upon the world. ~ N K Jemisin, #NFDB
108:It is the breaking of life that produces the blessing of life. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
109:Straight talk is a virtue. Dirty talk is a goddamn blessing. ~ Kate Meader, #NFDB
110:The blessing of life as a wholecan never be found in work. ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
111:The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me. ~ Thomas A Edison, #NFDB
112:The message of the bicycle: Simplicity is a blessing! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
113:Life is a mixed blessing, which we vainly try to unmix. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, #NFDB
114:The blessing always comes back to the door of the author. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
115:The curse and blessing of the human race was its chumminess. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
116:The greatest spiritual blessing comes from helping another. ~ David O McKay, #NFDB
117:An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
118:For an actor to go to work every day is an extreme blessing. ~ Boyd Holbrook, #NFDB
119:I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing. ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
120:Sometimes the blessing is in the prayer not being answered. ~ Andrena Sawyer, #NFDB
121:Troubles are a blessing that force you to change, to believe. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
122:Try it first And you'll see its a blessing And it's not a curse ~ Ben Harper, #NFDB
123:We were blessed, and with blessing comes responsibility. ~ Michaela DePrince, #NFDB
124:You know what you call a herd of unicorns? A blessing. True. ~ Matthew Quick, #NFDB
125:All's I'm saying is love's a blessing, no matter all the same. ~ Abigail Roux, #NFDB
126:All’s I’m saying is love’s a blessing, no matter all the same. ~ Abigail Roux, #NFDB
127:A single good government is a blessing to the whole earth. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
128:Don't hate the circumstance, you may miss the blessing ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
129:It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
130:O heart!
What a blessing to have reached
The circle of Lovers. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
131:Perseverance and gratefulness makes hope closer to the blessing. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
132:She’s still taking on water.” A desert blessing, an ocean curse. ~ John Green, #NFDB
133:She's still taking on water". A dessert blessing, an ocean curse ~ John Green, #NFDB
134:Sleep is the most blessed and blessing of all natural graces. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
135:Blessing is the lifeblood throbbing through the universe. ~ David Steindl Rast, #NFDB
136:If you live the life you love, you get the blessing from above. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
137:I think adoption is a blessing all around when it's done right. ~ Hugh Jackman, #NFDB
138:Lord, my hands were made for blessing, but not my feet! ~ Giovannino Guareschi, #NFDB
139:No role brings greater joy or blessing than being a parent. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
140:ruin. To do good, work well, and lie low is the way of the blessing. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
141:That rotten houseboat turned out to be a blessing in disguise. ~ Joanna Gaines, #NFDB
142:If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
143:(“It is a blessing to die in the natural order.”—Sofia Gelman.) ~ Boris Fishman, #NFDB
144:It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
145:Unsupervised reading is a blessing for a certain kind of child ~ Victor LaValle, #NFDB
146:Urd’s well, to receive the blessing and the counsel of the norns. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
147:Whenever God is blessing, we can expect the devil to be opposing. ~ Greg Laurie, #NFDB
148:Accept life as it comes and you will find a blessing. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
149:A human intimacy--free from the earth but blessing the earth. ~ Dag Hammarskj ld, #NFDB
150:My prayer is, let me be a blessing to someone or something today. ~ Jean Houston, #NFDB
151:Sometimes not getting what you want is God's greatest blessing. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
152:Unsupervised reading is a blessing for a certain kind of child. ~ Victor LaValle, #NFDB
153:America has enjoyed the doubtful blessing of a single-track mind. ~ Ellen Glasgow, #NFDB
154:There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
155:submitting to authority is never for evil, but always for blessing. ~ K P Yohannan, #NFDB
156:To be able to thank Allah for a blessing is a blessing within itself. ~ Al Shafi i, #NFDB
157:We had sweated the labor, the pilgramige. Now we wanted the blessing. ~ Ted Hughes, #NFDB
158:A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good one is a great blessing. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
159:All I am is what I create. It's my blessing to share with the world. ~ Michael Bell, #NFDB
160:For memory is a blessing: it creates bonds rather than destroys them. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
161:Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it. ~ John Henry Newman, #NFDB
162:If the soil were as good as the harbours, it would be a blessing. ~ Jacques Cartier, #NFDB
163:It is a blessing for a man to have a hand in determining his own fate. ~ Blackbeard, #NFDB
164:It is our duty to improve upon every blessing the Lord gives to us. ~ Brigham Young, #NFDB
165:Life is effort. So says the body. Life is blessing. So says the soul. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
166:Marriage is a great blessing, but it can be a great lesson ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
167:Truth is in the guidance of the Coven. Is it a curse or a blessing? ~ Amy Lunderman, #NFDB
168:Blessing and obedience do comfortably and mysteriously coexist. ~ Jen Pollock Michel, #NFDB
169:Even the most ill-formed words, set to paper, are a great blessing. ~ Ruthanna Emrys, #NFDB
170:God's blessing is not always to be distinguished from His wrath. ~ Joyce Carol Oates, #NFDB
171:Precisely where I feel my poverty is where I discover God's blessing. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
172:For a homebody like me, the evolution of gadgets has been a blessing. ~ Okky Madasari, #NFDB
173:I never saw no miracle of science that did not go from a blessing to a curse. ~ Sting, #NFDB
174:The blessing is that everyone knows who I am because of the commercials. ~ Carrot Top, #NFDB
175:There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing. ~ Donald Miller, #NFDB
176:To a fireman, wind is a curse. To a sailor, wind is a blessing. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
177:To belong nowhere is a blessing and a curse, like any kind of freedom. ~ Leah Stewart, #NFDB
178:What a blessing it is, when undue influence does not survive the grave! ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
179:When El Shaddai blesses you, no one can steal His blessing—except you. ~ Mesu Andrews, #NFDB
180:When you're kept out of the adult world, it's a blessing in disguise. ~ Henry Rollins, #NFDB
181:You are the incarnation of the blessing of God, which rests upon men. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
182:Do you know what a blessing it is to make movies that make people happy? ~ Kate Hudson, #NFDB
183:Feeling no remorse must be a blessing when all you have are your memories ~ Jon Ronson, #NFDB
184:God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessing into old attitudes. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
185:Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil. ~ Henry Van Dyke, #NFDB
186:I'm able to sign my name to the paintings. That is really a blessing. ~ Margaret Keane, #NFDB
187:Oblivion - what a blessing...for the mind to dwell a world away from pain. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
188:PSA3.8 Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
189:Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
190:Skepticism can keep us from blessing, can keep us trapped in two minds. ~ John Ortberg, #NFDB
191:The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
192:The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
193:I believe that whatever comes at a particular time is a blessing from God. ~ A R Rahman, #NFDB
194:I take that back. If Hank wants to shoot Scott, he has my blessing. ~ Becca Fitzpatrick, #NFDB
195:People find it a great blessing if their child left behind a child. ~ Elizabeth Edwards, #NFDB
196:The Blessing of a B Minus: The Real Lessons of Homework, Chores, and Jobs ~ Wendy Mogel, #NFDB
197:The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
198:To say goodbye with all our heart is to turn a parting into a blessing. ~ Roger Housden, #NFDB
199:Was that job offer you worked into the blessing? I never saw such tact. ~ Thomas Harris, #NFDB
200:Well, what is a blessing but a curse from another point of view? ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
201:[H]appy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses[. ~ Giacomo Casanova, #NFDB
202:It is through exchange that difference becomes a blessing, not a curse. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
203:That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
204:To win the guilty kiss of a saint, I'd welcome the plague as a blessing. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
205:Was memory always as much of a burden as it could sometimes be a blessing. ~ Mary Balogh, #NFDB
206:We in America should be grateful to God for the blessing he has given us. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
207:All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
208:By birth you have been blessed, and it is time to acknowledge that blessing. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
209:Everything that is given to us in life is either a blessing or a curse. ~ Seth Adam Smith, #NFDB
210:For the Christian, every tragedy is ultimately a blessing, or God is a liar. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
211:God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
212:Great teachers who are faithful to God’s Word are a blessing to God’s church. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
213:Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it. ~ Saint John Henry Newman, #NFDB
214:Isn't it a blessing when the Lord shows us the path to who we really are? ~ Jamison Green, #NFDB
215:...the wise man knows that every experience is to be viewed as a blessing. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
216:To be human was to be homeless, furthest removed from the blessing of God. ~ Joy Williams, #NFDB
217:To the one who views from a larger perspective....everything is a blessing. ~ Vivian Amis, #NFDB
218:When a man turns a blessing from his door, it falls to them as take it in. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
219:22 The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
220:An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
221:Life is the gift that keeps on giving. Appreciate that blessing for what it is ~ Les Brown, #NFDB
222:The blessing of a tragedy is that it puts your life into perspective. ~ Lisa Papademetriou, #NFDB
223:the greatest blessing can come wrapped up in the worst trouble ~ ReShonda Tate Billingsley, #NFDB
224:What seems to be a problem or block is often really a Blessing in Disguise ~ Doreen Virtue, #NFDB
225:When you are praising or blessing you are on the highest frequency of love. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
226:Before I give you a blessing, I ask you for a favor: I want you to bless me. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
227:From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. ~ Neta Jackson, #NFDB
228:God don’t bless no mess.” “No, but God can take your mess and make it a blessing. ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
229:God is not preparing the Blessing for YOU, He is preparing YOU for the Blessing ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
230:God withholds his blessing in the very areas in which we lift up false gods. ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
231:It's been a huge blessing, being able to travel and have a great life. ~ Sean William Scott, #NFDB
232:It was my blessing and my curse - to be surrounded by strong-minded women. ~ Carolyn J Rose, #NFDB
233:Money to me is just the biggest blessing in the world that allows me freedom. ~ Linda Evans, #NFDB
234:To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
235:Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
236:Ah, love, - you are my unutterable blessing.....I am in full sunshine now. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
237:I seen the worst of the worst. I deserve every blessing I receive I'm from the dirt. ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
238:I think American Idol is a great career launcher. A blessing for all of us. ~ LaToya London, #NFDB
239:Makes us appreciate blessing, not be greedy and mean and fat like Polyphemus. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
240:The crowning blessing of life-to be born with a bias to some pursuit. ~ Evelyn Beatrice Hall, #NFDB
241:Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you're comfortable with. ~ Jerry Seinfeld, #NFDB
242:Blessing is a curse, seduction and thirst, feeds the hunger that burns inside. ~ Glenn Danzig, #NFDB
243:Eat together and not separately, for the blessing is associated with the company. ~ Ibn Majah, #NFDB
244:He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the LORD your God loves you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
245:It is a rare blessing to see things, and to accept people, as they are. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
246:The condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
247:The poem comes in the form of a blessing, like rapture breaking on the mind. ~ Stanley Kunitz, #NFDB
248:the war seemed a curse. But now it's a blessing, because it brought you to me. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
249:Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
250:When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
251:It is a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing. ~ Andrew Young, #NFDB
252:Keep memories of insult on a short leash, and memories of blessing on a long one. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
253:Losing something might be a blessing; gaining something might be a curse! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
254:The absolute nothingness of death is a blessing. Something to look forward to. ~ Quentin Crisp, #NFDB
255:To ask another man’s blessing is simply to avoid taking the responsibility. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
256:And perhaps the greatest blessing was that we never knew how short the time was. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
257:Maybe that's what these films are doing. They are my way of blessing the child ~ Hayao Miyazaki, #NFDB
258:We ought as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod as upon our daily bread. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
259:A guilty conscience is a great blessing, but only if it drives us to come home. ~ John R W Stott, #NFDB
260:A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. ~ Alexander Hamilton, #NFDB
261:I wondered if a blessing is still a blessing if it lasts for only a little while. ~ Bette Greene, #NFDB
262:Money. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
263:Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
264:When God gives a blessing to be enjoyed, He gives it with a duty to be done. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
265:Death might be a blessing if it means you never have to face this kind of grief. ~ Carol Cassella, #NFDB
266:Love is not a possession to hoard. You give it away. It's a blessing and a balm. ~ Winston Graham, #NFDB
267:she counted it as a blessing that she was familiar making peace with disappointment. ~ Jo Goodman, #NFDB
268:To die old with a young mind is such a tragedy. Naiveness was never a blessing. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
269:To heal divisions, to relieve the oppress'd, In virtue rich; in blessing others, bless'd. ~ Homer, #NFDB
270:Children are a blessing. They are a happiness so sharp that it feels like pain. ~ Maureen F McHugh, #NFDB
271:It's a blessing to be paid to be in paradise. The Hawaiian people are so friendly. ~ Rebecca Mader, #NFDB
272:It's a real blessing for me to tell you, sir, that calvary has arrived - Fox is here! ~ Glenn Beck, #NFDB
273:I understand something I didn’t see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
274:May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead. (Irish blessing) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
275:Respect toward others can't be imposed.
It's a blessing...or learning the hard way. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
276:A minority is always compelled to think. That is the blessing of being in the minority. ~ Leo Baeck, #NFDB
277:...and whether or not we had now paid our dues, he was my blessing, and I was his... ~ Anne Fortier, #NFDB
278:Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will be worthy to receive greater. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
279:Billy Graham, the icon of American evangelicalism, gave the Jesus freaks his blessing. ~ Don Lattin, #NFDB
280:God doesn't bless us just to make us happy; He blesses us to make us a blessing. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
281:If I wasn't plagued by needing to write things, that would perhaps be a blessing. ~ Conor McPherson, #NFDB
282:It is a rare blessing to not want to live a second longer than you will live. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
283:The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
284:... the nose. It can be a nuisance in winter and such a blessing before a meal. ~ Richard Llewellyn, #NFDB
285:Treat every challenge as a lesson, every mistake you make as a blessing and move on. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
286:will pour my spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
287:You can always make a good film but for it to be successful, you need God's blessing. ~ Yash Chopra, #NFDB
288:Adam said the other blessing you have to give up in the outside world is darkness. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
289:It's just such a blessing that I get to be paid for something that I'm in love with. ~ Paige VanZant, #NFDB
290:shall receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation ~ Sarah Price, #NFDB
291:The existence of the Bible is the greatest blessing which humanity ever experienced. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
292:To find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing. ~ Baltasar Gracian, #NFDB
293:When God blesses you, don't let no devil in hell move you out of your place of blessing! ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
294:Without the blessing of cowardice, the world would long since have been torn to bits. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
295:You can't just be a recipient of a blessing, you have to do something to make it happen. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
296:You think of beauty only as a blessing, Majesty, but it brings its own punishments. ~ Erika Johansen, #NFDB
297:Everything you experience is a blessing and pushes you toward realizing your true self. ~ Vivian Amis, #NFDB
298:I've always played 'NBA Live' since I was a kid, so to be on the cover is a blessing. ~ Dwight Howard, #NFDB
299:Pay attention to what you’re saying. Are you blessing your life? Or are you cursing it? ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
300:The idea that I get to travel and do what I love and call it a job is just a blessing. ~ Lily Collins, #NFDB
301:We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing. ~ Robert E Lee, #NFDB
302:You care because God gave you this unusual blessing: a burden to make a difference. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
303:Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
304:The birth of my sons. The birth of new emotions...what a privilege. What a blessing. ~ Elle Macpherson, #NFDB
305:To touch God a little with our mind is a great blessing, to grasp him is impossible. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
306:Whoever brings blessing m will be enriched, and n one who waters will himself be watered. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
307:My goal is GOD HIMSELF. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but HIMSELF...my GOD. ~ Leonard Ravenhill, #NFDB
308:Obviously, I'm suffering from lack of sleep, but it truly is a blessing to be a mother. ~ Bernard Lagat, #NFDB
309:She is herself,” said Sasha. “Doom and blessing both, and it is for God to judge her. ~ Katherine Arden, #NFDB
310:The great blessing of life is the existence of tomorrows - and having dreams to realize. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
311:When one is in great pain, you know one cannot feel any blessing quite as it may deserve. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
312:Why is it that we believe God's promises of blessing but not his promises of punishment? ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
313:Enlightenment is blessing the world with one hand and touching the earth with the other hand. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
314:For beauty is God's handwriting...A nd, thank God for it as a cup of His blessing. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
315:If you inspire one person each day, you’re day hasn't been a waste. It’s been a blessing. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
316:John 1:16: “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
317:Mistakes are about getting the blessing in the lesson and the lesson in the blessing. ~ Michael Beckwith, #NFDB
318:That no one dies of migraine seems, to someone deep into an attack, an ambiguous blessing. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
319:The blessing of heaven will not accompany the preaching that is done in a worldly manner. ~ Steven J Law, #NFDB
320:Under divine blessing, we must rely on the bayonet when firearms cannot be furnished ~ Stonewall Jackson, #NFDB
321:When we share love with the lonely, the boomerang of blessing lands right back in our lap. ~ Karen Ehman, #NFDB
322:Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
323:Awareness of your inadequacy is a rich blessing, training you to rely wholeheartedly on Me. ~ Sarah Young, #NFDB
324:blessing of scars: the deeper they were, the more you couldn’t feel anything in them at all. ~ Jenna Blum, #NFDB
325:each morning is a blessing, as votive in nature as a communion wafer raised to the sky. ~ James Lee Burke, #NFDB
326:Heaven breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole One common blessing, as one common soul. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
327:I think being gay is a blessing, and it's something I am thankful for every single day. ~ Anderson Cooper, #NFDB
328:The music was as much a gift as sunshine, as rain, as any blessing ever prayed for. ~ Bebe Moore Campbell, #NFDB
329:Today, I understand something I didn’t see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
330:Why has God given me such magnificent talent? It is a curse as well as a great blessing. ~ Albrecht Durer, #NFDB
331:Doubt is the ally of hope, not its enemy, and together they made all the blessing he had. ~ Barry Unsworth, #NFDB
332:I'm able to really enjoy the wonderful things happening to me and that's a great blessing. ~ Jeremy Renner, #NFDB
333:It is a blessing to be the color of earth
do you know how often flowers confuse me for home ~ Rupi Kaur,#NFDB
334:The joys of the flesh are a blessing to be shared, not a curse to be guarded against. ~ Laurell K Hamilton, #NFDB
335:I don't think courting and dating is a liability. I actually think it can be a blessing. ~ Rebecca St James, #NFDB
336:Part of the blessing and challenge of being human is that we must discover our own true nature. ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
337:The great blessing and great cruelty of youth is that there seems to be time enough. ~ Catherynne M Valente, #NFDB
338:To have a thankful heart for deliverance is a greater blessing than the deliverance itself. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
339:Blessing is giving yourself and what is good to another person under the invocation of God. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
340:In death, I love you still.
So, forward! Aspire! Achieve!
I remain,
Daniel Blessing ~ Jeff Mariotte,#NFDB
341:I've been smoking marijuana for 44 years now, and ... I think it's a tremendous blessing. ~ Lester Grinspoon, #NFDB
342:Technology without hatred can be a blessing. Technology with hatred is always a disaster. ~ Simon Wiesenthal, #NFDB
343:There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in self. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
344:You talk as if Bea were a trophy.'
'No, as if she were a blessing,' Fermin corrected. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n,#NFDB
345:Ah, so much to ponder. But not now. Now was the time for the conjugal blessing of this new abode. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
346:...blessing and cursing are born as twins and separated at birth
to meet again in mourning ~ Adrienne Rich,#NFDB
347:I'm used to always deciding everything myself. It's a blessing, but also a terrible defect. ~ Roberto Cavalli, #NFDB
348:Isn't it funny how something that will later be a blessing can be a curse if you get it too soon. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
349:That's just part of the blessing of being an actor: you get to learn so many things about life. ~ Tasha Smith, #NFDB
350:The leaf of every tree brings a message from the unseen world. Look, every falling leaf is a blessing. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
351:To live for love is a blessing, but to die for love? I see, now, to die for love is an honor. ~ Shannon Mayer, #NFDB
352:What a blessing this smoking is! Perhaps the greatest that we owe to the discovery of America. ~ Arthur Helps, #NFDB
353:Whatever the blessing, the talent, or technology, we can still find some way to fuck it up. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
354:What was sleep? A blessing, a respite from life, an echo of death, a demanding nuisance? ~ Colleen McCullough, #NFDB
355:You're nothing like I expected."
"I'm never what anyone expects. It's a blessing and a curse. ~ K Bromberg,#NFDB
356:Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone needs to be appreciated. Every person needs that blessing. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
357:Guests aren't trouble[...]they're a blessing. Having no one to cook for, now, that's a sadness. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
358:In the words of William McKinley, "Our flag has never waved over any community but in blessing. ~ Oliver North, #NFDB
359:That no one dies of migraine seems to someone deep in an attack as an ambiguous blessing. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
360:I think diversity for most actors is such a blessing. It's something definitely I've strived for. ~ Rose Byrne, #NFDB
361:Love is being dependent on another, in life and spirit. That’s a rare blessing, isn’t it?” Don ~ Viola Shipman, #NFDB
362:Madness really is contagious, and friends are a blessing, especially when you're on your own. ~ Roberto Bola o, #NFDB
363:There’s no disaster that can’t become a blessing, and no blessing that can’t become a disaster. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
364:The ultimate blessing that God can confer on a man is the possession of a good and pious wife. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
365:What was sleep? A blessing, a respite from life, an echo of death, a demanding nuisance? ~ Colleen McCullough, #NFDB
366:What we are tempted to call a disaster is sometimes the first, painful stage of a blessing. ~ Stephen Mitchell, #NFDB
367:A portion of my consciousness is always reserved for documenting. It's a blessing and a curse. ~ Jillian Lauren, #NFDB
368:blessing is not something that one earns; rather, it is entirely the gracious gift of God Almighty. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
369:Isn’t death a blessing? Doesn’t it define the value of our lives, minute to minute, year to year? ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
370:Live a wild, generous full, exciting life – blessing those around you and seeing the good in all. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
371:My life is a blessing every day that I get up. God saved my feet. How am I not going to use them? ~ Gail Devers, #NFDB
372:Not all dying words are true and this blessing is no less real for being shorn of its ground. ~ Cormac McCarthy, #NFDB
373:So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
374:That which is so universal as death must be a blessing. And none may escape its benediction. ~ Cornell Woolrich, #NFDB
375:The people who test your patience are a blessing.. Without them, you can't practice patience. ~ Nouman Ali Khan, #NFDB
376:Whoever brings blessing m will be enriched, and n one who waters will himself be watered. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
377:Don't you know your imperfections is a wonderful blessing, from heaven is where you got it from ~ Kendrick Lamar, #NFDB
378:Friendship's the privilege of private men; for wretched greatness knows no blessing so substantial. ~ Nahum Tate, #NFDB
379:If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only Beloved who will never pass away. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
380:I may think I have inalienable rights to be alive and happy but I don't - life is a blessing. ~ Terrence McNally, #NFDB
381:Love is a rare gift. It comes in many packages and forms, each one unique...each one a blessing. ~ R G Alexander, #NFDB
382:Sometimes happiness is a blessing, but generally it is a conquest. Each day's magic moment helps. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
383:The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
384:The scandal happened and I made the best of it. I kind of feel like in the end it was a blessing. ~ Jessica Hahn, #NFDB
385:"What we are tempted to call a disaster is sometimes the first, painful stage of a blessing." ~ Stephen Mitchell, #NFDB
386:but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
387:May you get all your wishes but one, So you always have something to strive for. Irish blessing ~ Janice Thompson, #NFDB
388:She closed one eye and looked at me and said, "I know there is a blessing in this somewhere. ~ Marilynne Robinson, #NFDB
389:The blessing and the prosperity of God are invisible and spiritual, not financial or physical. ~ Jefferson Bethke, #NFDB
390:To have the recognition of your colleagues is great. The public attention is a mixed blessing. ~ Joshua Lederberg, #NFDB
391:When we ask for God’s blessing, we’re not asking for more of what we could get for ourselves. ~ Bruce H Wilkinson, #NFDB
392:Blessing will happen to you and your family throughout the year because you faster in January. ~ Jentezen Franklin, #NFDB
393:hold of the thoughts, and have asked God for His blessing, to go out in the hope that the blessing ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
394:Ignorance is a blessing as much as it is a curse. You can’t crave what you don’t know exists.” The ~ Kandi Steiner, #NFDB
395:Reason is a permanent blessing of God to the soul. Without it there can be no large religion. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
396:When someone picks up one of my songs and records it, I'm a flattered man, it's a blessing to me ~ Smokey Robinson, #NFDB
397:Crisis is almost a blessing providing cessation of a kind, and with it, the opportunity for change. ~ Russell Brand, #NFDB
398:Every day I feel is a blessing from God. And I consider it a new beginning. Yeah, everything is beautiful. ~ Prince, #NFDB
399:It's a beautiful blessing that I get to help raise a man. And I want to show him as much as possible. ~ Alicia Keys, #NFDB
400:Let me leap out of the frying-pan into the fire; or, out of God's blessing into the warm sun. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
401:Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
402:us to obey it, how indispensable the experience of its blessing is to a healthy Christian life, and ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
403:God can use a sensitive Christian to be a rich blessing in the life of one who knows pain and sorrow. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
404:How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them! ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
405:The dead don't bear a grudge nor seek a blessing. The dead don't rest uneasy. Only the living. ~ Margaret Laurence, #NFDB
406:African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing. ~ Jefferson Davis, #NFDB
407:A good man's prayers will from the deepest dungeon climb heaven's height, and bring a blessing down. ~ Joanna Baillie, #NFDB
408:Aim to live a wild, generous, full, exciting life—blessing those around you and seeing the good in all. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
409:...and I suppose now God's greatest blessing to His creatures below is that they can't see the future. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
410:Do I believe that God can change bitter circumstances into sweet blessing? Am I willing to let Him? ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
411:Hands up if you’re ready to do something you’ll regret this weekend. Go forth! You have my blessing. ~ Florence Welch, #NFDB
412:I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more. ~ Henry Fielding, #NFDB
413:If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after. ~ Shmuel Yosef Agnon, #NFDB
414:If we have faith in Jesus Christ the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
415:It is a blessing as well as a burden to love so much that you can hurt so badly when love is gone. ~ Deborah Harkness, #NFDB
416:It is the blessing of dumb work done close to the earth-one gritty minute at a time, we move forward. ~ Michael Perry, #NFDB
417:I would consider it a great blessing, but some of us are cursed to love unwisely and do so until death. ~ Lucy Monroe, #NFDB
418:Let us be grateful to Adam: he cut us out of the blessing of idleness and won for us the curse of labor. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
419:The Spirit Realm, realm of beauty No one knows fate’s secrets Judgment or blessing No man can say T ~ Jaclyn Dolamore, #NFDB
420:We all know that we're going to die, but we don't know when. That's not a blessing, that's a curse. ~ Peter Greenaway, #NFDB
421:What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
422:As if one was mistaken in believing that love protects life. As if it were a lie that love is a blessing. ~ Unica Z rn, #NFDB
423:Miho. You're an angel. You're a saint. You're a blessing from above. You're Mother Theresa. You're God. ~ Frank Miller, #NFDB
424:Never undertake anything unless you have the heart to ask Heaven's blessing on your undertaking. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
425:Once the seed of faith takes root, it cannot be blown away, even by the strongest wind - Now that’s a blessing. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
426:That's why I say that a woman so charming as yourself, Miss Everdene, is hardly a blessing to her race. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
427:True Christian hope is more than “hope so.” It is confident assurance of future glory and blessing. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
428:Well, by accepting that sex is a physical manifestation of God, and that is not a sin-it is a blessing. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
429:You do not need to understand healing to be healed or know anything about blessing to be blessed. ~ Frederick Buechner, #NFDB
430:Bills should be paid cheerfully, all money should be sent forth fearlessly and with a blessing. ~ Florence Scovel Shinn, #NFDB
431:I've had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work. ~ Kamala Harris, #NFDB
432:Only the carelessly youthful and naive could have the gall to think that surviving is blessing enough ~ Allegra Goodman, #NFDB
433:Self-esteem starts out as a personal blessing, but it becomes nothing less than an evolutionary force. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
434:Everlasting misfortune does have one blessing, that it ends up by toughening those whom it constantly afflicts. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
435:Giving is a responsibility. It is an opportunity. And it is a blessing for every follower of Jesus Christ. ~ Greg Laurie, #NFDB
436:If you have one good series, you know, it's a blessing. Two good series is unusual. Three is a phenomenon. ~ Betty White, #NFDB
437:It is the 1st mild day of March. Each minute sweeter than before... there is a blessing in the air. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
438:It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither. ~ Philip Pullman, #NFDB
439:My people are crumbling and dying and starving, and you’re blessing blessed people and serving the saved. ~ Jen Hatmaker, #NFDB
440:Sir 11:24 The blessing of God maketh haste to reward the just, and in a swift hour his blessing beareth fruit. ~ Various, #NFDB
441:Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil. . . . ~ Howard Zinn, #NFDB
442:The leaf of every tree brings a message from the unseen world. Look, every falling leaf is a blessing. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #NFDB
443:the Lord may very well have removed His blessing from America the moment America stopped blessing us. ~ Joel C Rosenberg, #NFDB
444:A blessing in disguise, is right before our eyes. But since it is in disguise, we don't know that it's there. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
445:And so...we prayed. And I added a silent prayer of my own, giving God thanks for the blessing of my father. ~ Nancy Moser, #NFDB
446:Creativity is not a trait that we inherit in our genes or a blessing bestowed by the angels. It's a skill. ~ Jonah Lehrer, #NFDB
447:Cultivate blessing. Bless yourself. Bless the whole world. Let it be full with love, peace, joy and happiness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
448:God wants my life to be about being successful and being happy and blessing other people and being blessed. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
449:I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English. ~ Saki, #NFDB
450:I'm not one of those artists who refuses to play their hits. I find that ridiculous. Hits are a blessing. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
451:In the performance of a good action, we not only benefit ourselves, but we confer a blessing upon others. ~ Philip Sidney, #NFDB
452:It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
453:Nothing that man can present to God by way of sacrifice can ever purchase the blessing of forgiveness. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
454:One should part from life as Odysseus parted from Nausicaa-blessing it rather than in love with it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
455:The blessing of the state, implicit or explicit, has been crucial to every twentieth-century information empire. ~ Tim Wu, #NFDB
456:Walking in the night is a great blessing for the wise souls who are deeply in love with the silence! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
457:What a great blessing is a friend with a heart so trusty you may safely bury all your secrets in it. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
458:17Every man shall give as he is able, aaccording to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
459:A heartbreak is a blessing from God. It's just His way of letting you realize, He saved you from the wrong one ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
460:A heartbreak is a blessing from God, it's just his way of letting you realize he saved you from the wrong one. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
461:Before we can pray for God's blessing, we should ask ourselves if our disobedience could hinder his blessing. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
462:For the blessing that God bestowed upon Jacob brings us face to face with the fact that God wants a fight. ~ Peter Rollins, #NFDB
463:I don't want to consider myself a TV5 favorite, but it's a blessing that I have more shows than the others. ~ Mark Neumann, #NFDB
464: In every disaster, in every blessing, ask, "Why me?" There's a reason, of course, there's an answer. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
465:Let the GRATEFUL HEART sweep through the day that it may recognize in every hour some sweet blessing. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
466:One should part from life as Ulysses parted from Nausicaa-- blessing it rather than in love with it. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
467:Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way. James 3:10 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
468:Riches are a blessing or a curse to a man according as he has or has not a heart to make good use of them. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
469:The blessing of influence is helping others succeed. It is lifting up Christ with your established platform. ~ Johnny Hunt, #NFDB
470:Being able to touch so many people through my businesses and make money while doing it, is a huge blessing. ~ Magic Johnson, #NFDB
471:Everlasting misfortune does have one blessing, that it ends up by toughening those whom it constantly afflicts. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
472:Hush, my darling! Hush, hush, Catherine! I'll stay. If he shot me so, I'd expire with a blessing on my lips. ~ Emily Bronte, #NFDB
473:If your mind can go along with you it is a blessing. If your mind obeys you, it is a super-blessing. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
474:It’s sometimes a blessing that great historical figures don’t live to see what people do to their visions. ~ Jack L Chalker, #NFDB
475:May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten.” – Irish Blessing ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
476:To have a job where you can make things better for people? That's a blessing. Why would I do anything else? ~ Marla Ruzicka, #NFDB
477:You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
478:At times, it was an incredible blessing to have all the attention; at times it was a logistical nightmare. ~ Rocco DiSpirito, #NFDB
479:But it's our curse and our blessing to remember the past and to know there's a future.
—Charlie ~ Susan Beth Pfeffer,#NFDB
480:Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
481:Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
482:God’s Blessing are more numerous than those growing trees. /Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, Defeat of the Infidels/ ~ Steven Gould, #NFDB
483:Having the opportunity to choose is no blessing if we feel we do not have the wherewithal to choose wisely. ~ Barry Schwartz, #NFDB
484:I believe in blessings," he replied, against my temple, "I believe that for every curse, there is a blessing. ~ Anne Fortier, #NFDB
485:Life is not meant to be a burden. Life is not a problem to be solved. It is a blessing to be celebrated. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
486:The blessing of God enriches the soul for eternity while that given by the world enriches the body temporarily. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
487:Wealth, status, pride, are their own ruin. To do good, work well, and lie low is the way of the blessing. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
488:But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'? I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen' Stuck in my throat. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
489:Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
490:Never undertake anything unless you have the heart to ask Heaven's blessing on your undertaking. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #NFDB
491:No, he joins the three Persons in the one work of blessing — God the Father, God the Shepherd, and the Angel. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
492:Solitude can be very rewarding and full of blessing because in the silence of the inner being, one finds God ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
493:To have memories, happy or sorrowful, is a blessing, for it shows we have lived our lives without reservation. ~ Tan Twan Eng, #NFDB
494:Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
495:If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
496:I want to be where your bare foot walks, because maybe before you step, you'll look at the ground. I want that blessing ~ Rumi, #NFDB
497:... I was surrounded by trust and affection. No one could ask more of life, it is the greatest blessing of all. ~ S ndor M rai, #NFDB
498:What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears...as easily as we open and shut our eyes. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
499:When the positive qualities of your mind increase and negativities decrease, that is what blessing means. The ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
500:Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
501:I asked if she was doing okay, and the guy said, “She’s still taking on water.” A desert blessing, an ocean curse. ~ John Green, #NFDB
502:It is a blessing and a curse to know too much. When knowledge overflows the cup, there's no room left for faith. ~ Heidi Heilig, #NFDB
503:Liberty is not less a blessing, because oppression has so long darkened the mind that it can not appreciate it. ~ Lucretia Mott, #NFDB
504:Only three things are necessary to make life happy: the blessing of God, books , and a friend. ~ Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, #NFDB
505:Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others. ~ Henry Fielding, #NFDB
506:There is no surer means of calling down God's blessing upon the family than the daily recitation of the Rosary. ~ Pope Pius XII, #NFDB
507:What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears...as easily as we open and shut our eyes. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
508:You are sad in the midst of every blessing. Take care that Fortune does not observe--or she will call you ungrateful. ~ Martial, #NFDB
509:Having had loving people who brought me up, and then I find another set of people. That really is a double blessing. ~ Kate Adie, #NFDB
510:He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom is a scourge to it; while he who does not (try to) do so is a blessing. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
511:I consider myself more of an international artist than I do a one-territory artist, which I think is a blessing. ~ Melanie Fiona, #NFDB
512:It is oftentimes a blessing to not know our limitations.
It's the only way to accomplish the impossible. ~ Richard Paul Evans,#NFDB
513:May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore Thy blessing, and in which I cannot invite Thy inspection. Prosper ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
514:Possessions are not God's blessing and goodness, but the opportunities of service which he entrusts to us. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
515:The booby father craves a booby son, And by Heaven’s blessing thinks himself undone. ~ Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-1728), #NFDB
516:We need not just one flash of light and comfort, but we need the continuing blessing of communication with God. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
517:Whenever anyone utters with reverence the name of Babaji, that devotee attracts an instant spiritual blessing. ~ Lahiri Mahasaya, #NFDB
518:As long as you're alive, there is hope...Hope is saying that I will live one more day, and that is a blessing, too. ~ Ilsa J Bick, #NFDB
519:Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
520:Here's a new 'Blessing' for our time --
'May Anderson Cooper never be sent to report on your town! ~ Vera Nazarian,#NFDB
521:If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening ... ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
522:[On her father:] ... in losing him I lost my greatest blessing and comfort, for he was always that to me. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
523:Only the most saintly and delusional among us welcomes all pain as challenge, perceives all loss as harsh blessing. ~ Scott Jurek, #NFDB
524:God always gives a great blessing to humble beginnings than to those that start with the chiming of bells. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
525:Having no history, I decide, is a blessing. I wouldn’t want to be cursed with the memory of a lifetime of mistakes. ~ Anne Heltzel, #NFDB
526:How you deal with money reflects how you deal with power. Is it an affliction or a blessing? A game or a burden? ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
527:Meditation is preparing one hand for blessing the world and preparing the other hand for doing well-being of the world. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
528:Within the soil of a discouraging season can often be the seeds of incredible blessing, miracles and breakthrough! ~ Brian Houston, #NFDB
529:With my talent, I can make people laugh and give them another attitude about life. What a blessing that is for me. ~ Doris Roberts, #NFDB
530:Every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake His mercy waits upon us. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
531:Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces! ~ J R R Tolkien, #NFDB
532:God isn’t like a candy machine. We can’t insert a good deed and receive a blessing. Then we’d be in charge, not him. ~ Sarah Sundin, #NFDB
533:I absolutely love being a mother. It's been a blessing. It's fun and it's hard, but it's absolutely amazing. ~ Keisha Castle Hughes, #NFDB
534:I know that God gave me the blessing to use, to bring honor and glory to Him, and to use to impact the lives of people. ~ Lee Haney, #NFDB
535:Let us realize that: the privilege to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, the love of work is success! ~ David O McKay, #NFDB
536:the power of ritual. In Judaism, blessings are as plentiful as iPhone apps. Waking up? There’s a blessing for that. ~ Peter Bregman, #NFDB
537:There are two sides to being pregnant. There is the beautiful, wonderful blessing side. The second side - it sucks! ~ Tamar Braxton, #NFDB
538:Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
539:Everyone always says it's a blessing to look a lot younger than my age, but sometimes I just want to look my real age. ~ Dave Franco, #NFDB
540:In prosperity God is heard, and that is a blessing; but in adversity God is seen, and that is a greater blessing. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
541:May your neighbors respect you, Trouble neglect you, The angels protect you, And heaven accept you. Irish blessing ~ Janice Thompson, #NFDB
542:The discipline of fasting releases the anointing, the favor, and the blessing of God in the life of a Christian. ~ Jentezen Franklin, #NFDB
543:When one is in love with existence one feels such blessing, such bliss, that it is natural to bow down in deep gratitude. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
544:A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. It will be powerful cement of our union.”12 ~ Ron Chernow, #NFDB
545:Being a parent is not easy, but speaking for myself, it's a wonderful blessing and the most rewarding job I've ever had. ~ Eric Benet, #NFDB
546:Everything we have - every blessing, every talent - is a gift from our Father. The only thing that's all ours is our sin. ~ Mark Hart, #NFDB
547:God's little Blond Blessing we have long deemed you, and hope his so-called Will will not compel him to revoke you. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
548:I believe that everything happens for a reason, and what seems bad at first might in fact be something of a blessing. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
549:Our sense of wonder is a blessing from God, given so that we would be continually amazed at His beauty and creation. ~ Ravi Zacharias, #NFDB
550:psychologist Wendy Mogel, best-selling author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and The Blessing of a B Minus, ~ Julie Lythcott Haims, #NFDB
551:See life for what it is - a blessing to be lived - rather than what is so often reduced to; a problem to be fixed. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
552:The good life is impossible without a good state; and there is no greater blessing than a well-ordered state. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
553:The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
554:Forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. Forgiveness indeed heals memories . . . ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
555:Hannah said to Elkanah, “none of us deserve blessing, but I am so glad God gives it anyway.”
A Passionate Hope ~ Jill Eileen Smith,#NFDB
556:I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English. ~ Hector Hugh Munro, #NFDB
557:Not that I’m calling motherhood a job. It’s a blessing. Really, it is. Such a blessing. I’m blessed. Truly. #soblessed ~ Bunmi Laditan, #NFDB
558:The greatest blessing in life is that a person is aware of and appreciates the blessings that he has in his life! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
559:The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
560:With every adversity comes a blessing because a shock acts as a reminder to oneself that we must not get stale in routine. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
561:A calamity that makes you turn to Allah(God) is better for you than a blessing which makes you forget the remembrance of Allah (God). ~, #NFDB
562:even when the covenant community is obeying the Lord and enjoying blessing, there will still be unexpected deaths (19:4–5). ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
563:Every unkind remark or crude gesture by others is a blessing, an opportunity to exercise our own capacity to forgive. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
564:Heaven's blessing must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions under a ruthless bondage. ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
565:if we have Jesus Christ with us, we shall come upon nothing so accursed that he will not turn it into a blessing; nothing ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
566:In terms of my career and stuff, Game of Thrones has just been such a blessing because people really love the show. ~ Nathalie Emmanuel, #NFDB
567:It is a great thing to be young and to live without pain. And yet it is a blessing few of us count until we lose it. ~ Geraldine Brooks, #NFDB
568:It was the year you learned that shooting stars were either a blessing or a curse, depending on what you wanted to believe. ~ Lang Leav, #NFDB
569:I've always been a religious person, and I try to think that every disappointment might just be a blessing in disguise. ~ Jermain Defoe, #NFDB
570:May your troubles be less And your blessings be more And nothing but happiness Come through your door. Irish blessing ~ Janice Thompson, #NFDB
571:Scent, sound or sight, beneficent, malign – Who cares if you’re a blessing or a curse, So long as you bring light, ~ Charles Baudelaire, #NFDB
572:The leaf of every tree brings a message from the unseen world. Look, every falling leaf is a blessing. ~ Jalaluddin RumiWelcome Spring!, #NFDB
573:wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state ~ Socrates, #NFDB
574:When people are blessed they discover that their lives matter, that there is something in them worthy of blessing. ~ Rachel Naomi Remen, #NFDB
575:Every time I see the moon, I shall send you a blessing, knowing the same moon will soon shine my blessing down upon you. ~ Laila Ibrahim, #NFDB
576:I come from a religious tradition where we make a blessing over great scientists regardless of their views on religion. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
577:I said: 'Go with my blessing if you go
Always remembering what we did. To me
You have meant everything, as you well know. ~ Sappho,#NFDB
578:...perhaps mankind must have a time of darkness so that we will one day again know what a blessing is the light. ~ Marion Zimmer Bradley, #NFDB
579:So young," said Wyman Manderly, "Though mayhaps this was a blessing. Had he lived he would've grown up to be a Frey. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
580:The power of music, whether joyous or cathartic must steal on one unawares, come spontaneously as a blessing or a grace-- ~ Oliver Sacks, #NFDB
581:Through a woman [Eve] a curse fell upon the earth; through a woman [Mary] as well there returned to the earth a blessing. ~ Peter Damian, #NFDB
582:A calamity that makes you turn to Allah is better for you then a blessing which makes you forget the remembrance of Allah ~ Ibn Taymiyyah, #NFDB
583:From the ground up, I was going to detox my identity of any and everything that someone else put there without my blessing. ~ Eddie Huang, #NFDB
584:Knowledge is power," she finishes, and I open my eyes to find her rounding the chair, "but ignorance can be a blessing. ~ Victoria Schwab, #NFDB
585:Once the seed of faith takes root, it cannot be blown away, even by the strongest wind. Now that's a blessing.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5],#NFDB
586:Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing. ~ Shmuel Yosef Agnon, #NFDB
587:Do not be contented with this unspeakable blessing for yourself alone—but publish abroad the story of the cross. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
588:Never, ever ask a former clergyman to say the blessing over a holiday dinner. Not if you like your dinner warm, anyway. ~ Mary Kay Andrews, #NFDB
589:She was the blessing that had now become his need, and what could prove it better than that without her he had lost himself? ~ Henry James, #NFDB
590:There's no such thing as luck. These are blessings. God endows them upon you. He makes you a blessing to become a blessing. ~ Steve Harvey, #NFDB
591:We are healed to help others. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are saved to serve, not to sit around and wait for heaven. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
592:Blessing: Constructive thought directed toward anyone or condition. You bless a man when you recognize the divinity in him. ~ Ernest Holmes, #NFDB
593:Don't shove away a lifetime of blessing because you fear trials. You'll have them no matter what you do.~ Marianne Lister ~ Melissa Jagears, #NFDB
594:Grace is God’s stance of giving, loving, blessing. The Greek word for grace (claris) means favor and gift and blessing. In ~ Stuart Briscoe, #NFDB
595:I am above being injured by fortune, though she steals away much, more will remain with me. The blessing I now enjoy transcend fear. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
596:In giving a gift, you are attached to it. In receiving a gift, the blessing that comes to the giver is your chief delight. ~ Douglas Wilson, #NFDB
597:In this life, there will be trials," Blessing murmured. "If we love, we suffer not only our own trials but those of our beloved. ~ Lyn Cote, #NFDB
598:In vowing ourselves to one another, we are entitled to stand before the Almighty and ask Him for His grace and His blessing. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
599:I think it's absolutely a blessing when you just know what your purpose is and your destiny. I don't think it's a curse at all. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
600:Peace be with all the world! My blessing on my friends! My forgiveness to my enemies! For I am in the realm of quiet! ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
601:Thus is the blessing of Chi-Ji,” the crane said. “No more shall die this day. Take this second chance, and use it wisely. ~ Christie Golden, #NFDB
602:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all; but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Bob Proctor, #NFDB
603:Why is this soe long detaind in a dark manuscript, that if printed would be a Light to the World, & a Universal Blessing? ~ Thomas Traherne, #NFDB
604:You know, people come to therapy really for a blessing. Not so much to fix what's broken, but to get what's broken blessed. ~ James Hillman, #NFDB
605:A deep man believes that the evil eye can whither, the heart's blessing can heal, and that love can overcome all odds. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
606:Having someone who understands is a great blessing for ourselves. Being someone who understands is a great blessing to others. ~ Janette Oke, #NFDB
607:he wanted to prostrate at newton's alter and weep with gratitude for the blessing that made all things fall to the goddamn ground ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
608:Hope is the thing that can't be reigned in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It's a blessing and a curse. ~ Cinda Williams Chima, #NFDB
609:If he ever left me, I wouldn't even be sad; no, 'cause there's a blessing in every lesson, and I'm glad that I knew him at all. ~ India Arie, #NFDB
610:If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
611:I think God's blessing might have everything to do with Him and His riches, and nothing to do with whether we deserve it. ~ Susan May Warren, #NFDB
612:It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for. ~ Kofi Annan, #NFDB
613:Looking back on all the things I went through to get here. It was all worth it. It's a blessing that I can write about it all. ~ Big K R I T, #NFDB
614:The most powerful weapon known is the weapon of blessing. Therefore, a clever person relies on it. He wins with peace, not with war. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
615:This truth I firmly hold, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding; my life has been a gift, a blessing to the world. ~ Anthony de Mello, #NFDB
616:...we must pray to the Almighty not to refuse His blessing to this change and not to abandon our people in the times to come. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
617:You are a man with a protective instinct. To care that deeply is a blessing. But like most blessings, it can also be a curse. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
618:A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God. ~ Ellen G. White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing (1896), p. 53, #NFDB
619:An emotionally maladjusted species , we have the uncanny power of turning every blessing, including language, into a curse. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
620:Capture my heart and my mind. Become my ultimate challenge, greatest vexation, strongest desire, and most precious blessing. ~ Imania Margria, #NFDB
621:Even in the the dark times, He is there. And in the good times we need to be good stewards of the blessing.~ Nancy Moser pg 219 ~ Nancy Moser, #NFDB
622:Forgetting is a blessing; remembering is a blessing! We are lucky that we can forget; we are lucky that we can remember! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
623:May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten.”
~ Kevin Horsley Irish Blessing ~ Kevin Horsley,#NFDB
624:Sincere prayer implies that when we ask for any virtue or blessing, we should work for the blessing and cultivate the virtue. ~ David O McKay, #NFDB
625:What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! ~ Thomas B Macaulay, #NFDB
626:When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. ~ Lou Gehrig, #NFDB
627:A mother's love is a blessing
No matter where you roam.
Keep her while you have her,
You'll miss her when she's gone. ~ Frank McCourt,#NFDB
628:Children are a blessing, but God has given us a brain, and we are not prevented from using it to help us organize our lives. ~ Elizabeth Letts, #NFDB
629:Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
630:Everybody’s heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
631:It is a blessing. When I first got wind of [Chris Rivers] taking the rap thing serious and wanting to make a career out of it. ~ Tony Sunshine, #NFDB
632:It's never too late. Don't focus on what was taken away. Find something to replace it, and acknowledge the blessing you have. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
633:I've always loved drama. This is a blessing because I can show a little bit of what I can do, and hopefully more, in the future. ~ Steven Yeun, #NFDB
634:My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
635:Perhaps it didn’t matter, I told myself. Who was there to miss me? No one would suffer from my going. That was a blessing. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
636:someday you’ll learn that our countryside is the best, and our women are the most beautiful.” And he gave the boy his blessing. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
637:The thirst for education that comes with the change the gospel brings can be a blessing or a curse, depending on our motives. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
638:To give liberty to a slave before he understands its value is, perhaps, rather to impose a penalty than to bestow a blessing. ~ Frances Wright, #NFDB
639:Uncorrupted man, with God's blessing, advances across the fields of the universe as though he were walking down a country lane. ~ Robert Payne, #NFDB
640:For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity befalls you, if you thank & praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. ~ Jody Hedlund, #NFDB
641:It is one of the biggest blessing that you can be stupid with your true friends and behave like you shame to do elsewhere ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
642:This truth I firmly hold, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding;
my life has been a gift, a blessing to the world. ~ Anthony de Mello,#NFDB
643:To 'be loved' is the most basic of human needs. Like a flower, it waters the human soul. But 'to love' is a true blessing. ~ Olivia Newton John, #NFDB
644:Elohim obliged no man life or blessing. He dispensed his purposes as he wished and he did not owe an explanation for his ways. He ~ Brian Godawa, #NFDB
645:it is not every tourist who bubbles over with mirth, and that unquenchable spirit of humor which turns a trial into a blessing. ~ Agnes Repplier, #NFDB
646:It's a blessing and a curse. But it's not always the best situation to be in. As a profession, I don't recommend acting at all. ~ Armand Assante, #NFDB
647:No one knows whether death is really the greatest blessing a man can have, but they fear it is the greatest curse, as if they knew well. ~ Plato, #NFDB
648:Some men there are with minds so strangely fashioned, that they extract an ill from every good and grief from every blessing. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
649:The next 10 to 20 years will bring Native cultural expressions to the body of Christ that will be a tremendous blessing to many. ~ Richard Twiss, #NFDB
650:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
651:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all. But to believe in the unseen is both a triumph and a blessing. ~ Bob Proctor, #NFDB
652:When you fall into a midseason slot, you have the sort of blessing of not being on television while you shoot most of your season. ~ Stark Sands, #NFDB
653:Boredom is a blessing when it leads you to wisdom. And boredom is a curse when it leads you to frustration and depression. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
654:Expectations are just leftover praise. They are a blessing. If you didn't have the capability to meet them, they wouldn't exist. ~ Chris Shiflett, #NFDB
655:Grace is not a shortcut around our effort; it is the divine blessing on efforts that are undertaken in dependence and trust on God. ~ Andy Crouch, #NFDB
656:Hooray!” said her mother. “I’m so glad you’ve lost your memory. This accident is going to turn out to be a blessing in disguise. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
657:In the midst of prosperity, the challenge for believers is to handle wealth in such a way that it acts as a blessing, not a curse. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
658:It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence now and independence forever. ~ Daniel Webster, #NFDB
659:Margaret told me that often we get so caught up in seeing our own prayers answered that we don't realize we are blessing others. ~ Rachel Fordham, #NFDB
660:Surely, I thought, a few bushes and some dilapidated wood couldn't stop someone's best and brightest blessing! Surely not! ~ Wendelin Van Draanen, #NFDB
661:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
662:To see yourself objectively from the outside is a great blessing! Sometimes to visit your true-self you must leave yourself! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
663:I would like to do a novel where some curse turns that into how the world really is - a blessing or a curse, I don't know which. ~ Robert Sheckley, #NFDB
664:Love is the greatest blessing there is, and when you love someone as much as he loved you, you can’t let go lightly. You just can’t. ~ Luanne Rice, #NFDB
665:Manipulation, fueled with good intent, can be a blessing. But when used wickedly, it is the beginning of a magician's karmic calamity. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
666:The infinity of the universe is a great blessing for human beings, because human beings’ desire to discover is also infinite! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
667:The older I get, the more I appreciate my rural childhood. I spent a lot of time outdoors, unsupervised, which is a blessing. ~ Barbara Kingsolver, #NFDB
668:What a blessing to be born with such Sloaney arrogance. Perpetua could be the size of a Renault Espace and not give it a thought. ~ Helen Fielding, #NFDB
669:Be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing. 1 Peter 3:8–9 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
670:Like people touch the feet of Jesus on the Pieta and hope for a blessing, I would touch the feet of the dancer and hope for grace. ~ Jillian Lauren, #NFDB
671:The blessing of resistance lies in its power to illuminate those aspects of ourselves which have eluded our appreciation. ~ Eric Micha el Leventhal, #NFDB
672:Death is what takes place within us when we look upon others not as gift, blessing, or stimulus but as threat, danger, competition. ~ Dorothee Solle, #NFDB
673:Every failure, every adversity, every heartache may be a blessing in disguise providing it softens the animal portion of our nature. ~ Napoleon Hill, #NFDB
674:For we must share, if we would keep, that blessing from above; ceasing to give, we cease to have; such is the law of love. ~ Richard Chenevix Trench, #NFDB
675:I'm telling you, people. Everyday we wake up is another blessing. Follow your dreams and don't let anyone stop you. Never say never. ~ Justin Bieber, #NFDB
676:My Aunt Sara says it's in our blood, an innate need to tell a story through food. 'Buela says it's definitely a blessing, magic. ~ Elizabeth Acevedo, #NFDB
677:Sometimes it seemed to me a cruelty that so much was unresolved between us; at other times, a blessing that a hope of reunion lingered. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
678:Accident, blessing in disguise, fate, fortune, or happenstance-they were definitions of the same: life with no guaranteed happy ending. ~ Sarah McCoy, #NFDB
679:And steal immortal blessing from her lips, Who, even in pure and vestal modesty, Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin; ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
680:For every teenager I know, having a phone is a mixed blessing, because your parents can press a button and figure out where you are. ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
681:Great power requires great character if it is to be a blessing and not a curse, and that character is something we only grow toward. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
682:My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
683:The most important thing is God's blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about. ~ Mohamed Al Fayed, #NFDB
684:You think that God positioned you here so you can just have it all to yourself? God blesses you to become a blessing. That's the deal. ~ Steve Harvey, #NFDB
685:Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
686:For all that is good,
For all that is ours,
Thanks to the spirits,
Thanks to the Powers!
(blessing over a meal) ~ Nina Kiriki Hoffman,#NFDB
687:He was formulating a plan. He would redeem the dream. I could understand that. It is the universal blessing—and curse—of those who dare. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
688:I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our eyes. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
689:Lord, thank You for the blessings You bring through others whom You put in my life. Help me to be a blessing where You have placed me. Amen. ~ Various, #NFDB
690:To support mother and father, to cherish wife and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation - this is the greatest blessing. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
691:What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor! 31 Let them praise the LORD for his great love and ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
692:A mother's love is a blessing No matter where you roam. Keep her while you have her, You'll miss her when she's gone -- Angela's Ashes. ~ Frank McCourt, #NFDB
693:He will send "showers of blessing." Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
694:I glided up to the first floor, blessing the blades of a fan that swirled above the sleepy readers melting like ice cubes over their books. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
695:Not every wish you wish comes true and this is a great blessing for you because not every wish you wish is ethical, only some are! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
696:21 The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense. 22 The Lord’s blessing enriches, and struggle adds nothing to it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
697:A deep man, believes that the evil eye can wither,
that the heart's blessing can heal, and that love can overcome
all odds ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#NFDB
698:for in the absence of God he had found Man. Man killing man, man helping man, both of them anonymous: the scourge and the blessing. ~ Guillermo del Toro, #NFDB
699:God really is in the business of blessing his people in unusual ways so his goodness and his greatness will be declared among all peoples. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
700:God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty. ~ Peter Marshall, #NFDB
701:He, that noble prize possessing He that boasts a friend that's true, He whom woman's love is blessing, Let him join the chorus too! ~ Friedrich Schiller, #NFDB
702:If God really valued loyalty, He would have blessed every single believer before He even considered blessing a single nonbeliever. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
703:It's fun that I get to live out my dream every single day. It's a blessing. I can't lose sight of that and I've just got to keep pushing. ~ Kevin Durant, #NFDB
704:I've been given this blessing, which is my granddaughter. You're no longer just you. You suddenly fit into the chest of drawers of life. ~ Joanna Lumley, #NFDB
705:May you always walk in sunshine. May you never want for more. May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door. Irish blessing ~ Janice Thompson, #NFDB
706:Mrs. Rimas cried at the mention of the wafer and the traditional Christmas blessing. "God grant that we are all together again next year. ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
707:No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it, or believes that living through many consulships is a great blessing. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
708:What do you think Dimitri? Is this a good idea, Dimitri? Please give us your blessing so that we can fall down and worship you, Dimitri. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
709:You have to wait for a big star to come in and generate interest on a project, and now that has become me, which is an amazing blessing. ~ Jeremy Renner, #NFDB
710:11 s You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf t for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
711:Bare your forehead, waiting for the first blessing of light, and sing with the bird of the morning in glad faith. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, Fruit Gathering, #NFDB
712:How fortunate that science hasn't cracked human immortality. It's a great blessing that we can outlive old wars. And old warriors. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
713:Maybe they’re a blessing—those first few misty moments of morning, when you’re allowed to forget what your life is really like today. ~ Wendy Corsi Staub, #NFDB
714:Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
715:Suffering While the cup of blessing may and often does run over, I doubt if the cup of suffering is ever more than filled to the brim. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
716:Thankfulness is the attitude that perfectly displaces my sinful tendency to complain and thereby release joy and blessing into my life. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
717:The problem is, hope is the thing that can’t be reined in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It’s a blessing and curse. ~ Cinda Williams Chima, #NFDB
718:The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
719:blessing. • When you consider your level of willingness to give of yourself, does it reveal more contentment or discontentment residing ~ Priscilla Shirer, #NFDB
720:Humiliation of soul always brings a positive blessing with it. If we empty our hearts of self, God will fill them with his love. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
721:I feel it is a blessing, a duty, an honor, that we give the love that we have, and we share the lives that we have with our fullest heart. ~ Bellamy Young, #NFDB
722:I say, ‘You should blanket me’ or ‘you should blanket her’, meaning like a blanket is a blessing. It’s a way of showing love and caring. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
723:know myself in them, through them. Because they are what we’ve become. Every blessing from soup bowls to salvation they discovered for us. ~ Andrew Klavan, #NFDB
724:O what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business like the divine path of the Israelites through the sea. ~ Samuel Wilberforce, #NFDB
725:Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
726:That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
727:The new assignment with much more responsibility and a heartbreaking workload would be what Luke and Bill liked to call a "hard blessing. ~ Janice Cantore, #NFDB
728:There’s an Irish blessing that I think fits well here,” Kathleen said. “May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. ~ Julie James, #NFDB
729:Two rings. One of ink and one of gold. Not too many women would ever know the blessing of being loved so deeply by more than one man. Blessed ~ Beth Flynn, #NFDB
730:We must choose with our agency to obey in faith that the promised blessing will come, that the promise is true because it comes from God. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
731:Don't shove away a lifetime of blessing because you fear trials. You'll have them no matter what you do.~ Melissa Jagears Marianne Lister ~ Melissa Jagears, #NFDB
732:Dr. J. H. Jowett said, “Ministry that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.” If there is to be any blessing, there must be some “bleeding. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
733:I am going to save your daughter. And then I intend to marry her. I would like your blessing in this, but I can live without it. ~ Sarah Blakley Cartwright, #NFDB
734:I believe that illness has led me to a life of gratitude, so I consider Lyme disease at this point in my life to be a blessing in disguise. ~ Rebecca Wells, #NFDB
735:If we breathe the scent of goodly grass, the fragrance of spices, the aroma of good fruits, we pronounce a blessing over the pleasure. ~ Shmuel Yosef Agnon, #NFDB
736:It was Christmas joy, giving being the blessing it is. And that’s something a human being never stops learning either, I’ll tell you. ~ James Calvin Schaap, #NFDB
737:Society in every state is a blessing, but a government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
738:How blessed are those whose lives have no fears, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.- Dracula ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
739:I have a good brain on me, but I've never really used it when it came to making decisions about love, which has been a blessing and a curse. ~ Sienna Miller, #NFDB
740:I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
741:I like you, Miss York, because you are wicked, and there can be no finer blessing for a man than a good and wicked wife. Wouldn't you agree? ~ Victoria Dahl, #NFDB
742:In very large measure each of us holds the key to the blessings of the Almighty upon us. If we wish the blessing, we must pay the price. ~ Gordon B Hinckley, #NFDB
743:It’s really a blessing, to let go of grudges, to forgive, and to move on. To allow yourself to get rid of what they called emotional hoarding. ~ Kaira Rouda, #NFDB
744:LIBERTY WILL NOT DESCEND TO A PEOPLE; A PEOPLE MUST RAISE THEMSELVES TO LIBERTY; IT IS A BLESSING WHICH MUST BE EARNED BEFORE IT CAN BE ENJOYED. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
745:May the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, always smile on your spirit, obtaining for it, from her Most Holy Son, every heavenly blessing. ~ Pio of Pietrelcina, #NFDB
746:Neither human wisdom nor divine inspiration can confer upon man any greater blessing than this [live a life of happiness and harmony here on earth]. ~ Plato, #NFDB
747:No one praises happiness as one praises justice, but we call it a 'blessing,' deeming it something higher and more divine than things we praise. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
748:No one's hurt is too small, no worry too removed, no blessing so elusive that it cannot be seen by the eyes in the back of the human heart. ~ Jerry Spinelli, #NFDB
749:Rain is a blessing if it gives its place to Sun after a fair while; Sun is a blessing if it gives its place to rain after a fair while! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
750:Society in every state is a blessing, but a government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
751:To have much learning, to be skillful in handicraft, well-trained in discipline, and to be of good speech -- this is the greatest blessing. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
752:Accept the process. Your blessing is already ready. It’s already done. God is getting you ready for the blessing, preparing you for your destiny. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
753:A firm confidence that the blessing is actually within our reach is the first step toward obtaining it and a powerful impulse in the pursuit. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
754:DEU33.23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess thou the west and the south. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
755:Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, z bless, for a to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
756:The sooner I learn to forget myself in the desire that He may be glorified, the richer will the blessing be that prayer will bring to myself. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
757:All the human talent, cleverness, and church-growth methods in the world can never compare with the invisible but very real blessing of God. The ~ Jim Cymbala, #NFDB
758:Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
759:e Blessed be f the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing g in the heavenly places, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
760:God in His grace will allow us a certain number of friendships that stick for the long haul of life. These friendships are a treasured blessing. ~ Bill Hybels, #NFDB
761:God will fulfillHis purposes in ways we don't understand. So yes, whatever God gives us on earth is a blessing. Even if it's not what we want. ~ Ruth Everhart, #NFDB
762:He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves. 30 What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
763:Is the Archbishop's blessing any more meaningful than the Politician's handshake? The come, they go, with bigger things than us on their minds. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
764:Love is the knot you tie in your proverbial rope, to hang on to while God works out His will in your life. You were born to be a blessing. ~ Charlotte Hubbard, #NFDB
765:Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed. ~ Muriel Rukeyser, #NFDB
766:So actual blessing is received when the mind’s virtuous attributes gain strength and its defective characteristics weaken or deteriorate. The ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
767:You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
768:A man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
769:One of the bitterest ironies of life is that one truly appreciates a blessing only after having been deprived of it or imagining that. ~ Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, #NFDB
770:...our free will could convert a curse into a blessing or a blessing into a curse...To transform a crisis into an opportunity was true wisdom ~ Radhanath Swami, #NFDB
771:The church has no power over our lives any more, which is something of a blessing for those who do not enjoy red-hot pokers or iron thumb-screws. ~ Stephen Fry, #NFDB
772:True blessing comes in the dress of sweats, never delaying to wave bye to the excuses and procrastination. True blessing lies in hard work! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
773:When your heart overfloweth broad and full like the river, a blessing and a danger to the lowlanders: there is the origin of your virtue. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
774:A mind unruffled by the vagaries of fortune, from sorrow freed, from defilements cleansed, from fear liberated - this is the greatest blessing. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
775:As a wife you don’t question. By doing as you’re told, you’re relieved of the responsibility of decisions.[...]It’s a blessing. Don’t you agree? ~ Aleatha Romig, #NFDB
776:A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all. ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
777:for I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value is our estimation. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
778:In every sphere of social interaction, that hermeneutic leap—that ability to put yourself in the mind frame of the other—is a virtue and a blessing. ~ Ted Gioia, #NFDB
779:Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome. ~ Golda Meir, #NFDB
780:The most important thing I've come to believe in is that people with mental handicaps have a unique mission to bring God's blessing to the World. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
781:All that appears in your life is a blessing, presenting you with a greater opportunity to define who you are, and to know yourself as that. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
782:As we ask God for some blessing, we have an obligation to participate ourselves in the fulfillment of those dreams, aspirations, hopes, and ideas. ~ Jimmy Carter, #NFDB
783:Being underestimated can be a blessing in disguise,” Xifeng said. “That is to say, it gives us a chance to astonish those who doubt our true worth. ~ Julie C Dao, #NFDB
784:Brothers are a blessing for one thing. There is no possibility of any young lady getting unreasonably conceited if she be endowed with them. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
785:How sad it is when people only hear about God's blessing, but never experience it, because they are not in the place where God can bless them. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
786:If you're retired, it's a blessing. You know, if you want to keep working and doing what you want to do, it's not a blessing as all - it's a curse. ~ Pat Benatar, #NFDB
787:I love cable, but not because you can show boobies and say the F-word. I love it because you have more time to think. That's the blessing of it. ~ Vince Gilligan, #NFDB
788:I want you to wrestle with the Bible. Do it. Wrestle until, Jacob-like, you walk with a limp ever after, and you receive the blessing of the Lord. ~ Sarah Bessey, #NFDB
789:Sometimes, if you’re lucky, the biggest hardship can lead to your greatest blessing. It just takes time to see that God works in mysterious ways. ~ Penelope Ward, #NFDB
790:There are those special projects that don't ever feel like work but just a blessing to be a part of, and 'Revolution' is one of those projects. ~ Daniella Alonso, #NFDB
791:The warmth of hell would be a blessing after this. Do you suppose there is a cold hell for those who died in wintertime?
- Fernandez de Anguilar ~ Manda Scott,#NFDB
792:The whole key is to be you, because when you’re you, you activate your anointing. There’s a favor, a blessing, a grace that is unique to your life. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
793:Why do they both refer to your deity while mating?" Tochee inquired as it munched on some rehydrated cabbage. "Is it a request for a blessing? ~ Peter F Hamilton, #NFDB
794:Blessing is bowing down to receive the expressions of divine favor that in the inner recesses of the human heart and mind make life worth the bother. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
795:I get more choices of things, projects, which is a blessing and a curse. I can only do one at a time. Sometimes you don't know which way to go. ~ Benicio Del Toro, #NFDB
796:I have enough energy to write with and as that is all I have any business doing anyhow, I can with one eye squinted take it all as a blessing. ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
797:In the light of His example, we can prove that suffering is to God’s child the token of the Father’s love and the channel of His richest blessing. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
798:Lord Chiltern recognizes the great happiness of having a grievance. It would be a pity that so great a blessing should be thrown away upon him. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
799:Perhaps it was a blessing that he couldn’t cross paths with himself, lest he be tempted to shoot himself before making the deal with Ironwood. ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
800:Prayer is the burden of revival; repentance is the breakthrough of revival; evangelism is the blessing of revival; holiness is the bounty of revival. ~ Steve Camp, #NFDB
801:When you enter the home, give it your blessing. 13 If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
802:Everything they do, from smiling to crying, feels like a blessing. Being a father feels amazing. This has been the most spiritual moment in my life. ~ Ricky Martin, #NFDB
803:I do believe that God blessed me in life with a wonderful family, a successful career, and a loving marriage, and remain thankful for that blessing. ~ Bonnie Tyler, #NFDB
804:I was raised with the blessing of being involved with peace and social justice, and the environmental movement. I have my parents to thank for that. ~ Bonnie Raitt, #NFDB
805:There is this awesome blessing we must cherish and thank God everyday: waking up every day to see a new beautiful day with a good morning! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
806:To love all ages yield surrender; But to the young it's raptures bring A blessing bountiful and tender- As storms refresh the fields of spring. ~ Alexander Pushkin, #NFDB
807:Verily, Allah lets [a person] enjoy a blessing for as long as He wills. But when He is no longer thanked for it, He turns it into a punishment. ~ al Hasan al Basri, #NFDB
808:A warrior lives by challenge. The average man sees everything in his life as either a blessing or a curse; the warrior sees everything as a challenge. ~ Th un Mares, #NFDB
809:How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
810:It's a blessing to have the support that I do. The support from the people. To get all the love from them, is just amazing and it keeps me going day by day. ~ Lil B, #NFDB
811:Rather, we were created to be all we can be for the one who created us. And by taking care of ourselves and using our talents, we are a blessing. ~ Jessica N Turner, #NFDB
812:rushing headlong into the next thing, we fail to appreciate the blessing of the only thing we can really claim as ours to own, the present moment. ~ Katrina Kenison, #NFDB
813:Therefore, if you would fulfill your purpose to be a true blessing to your spouse you must have an open and obedient relationship with the living God. ~ Connie Neal, #NFDB
814:We are all woven together in the great web of humanity, and whatever we can do to benefit and uplift others will reflect in blessing upon ourselves. ~ Ellen G White, #NFDB
815:When you meet someone, you can silently send them a blessing, wishing them happiness, joy and laughter. This kind of silent giving is very powerful. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
816:why can't you place a blessing like that on us," I asked.
"It only works on wild animals,"
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned. ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
817:Foggy road is a blessing because it is full of surprises and life is such a road! We are incredibly lucky that we all have an unknowable future! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
818:How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
819:How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
820:It's like some people just come through our lives to bring us something: a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn. And that's why they're here. ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
821:It was Mario Cuomo's great gift and our good fortune that he was both a sterling orator and a passionate public servant. His life was a blessing. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
822:The blessing which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent. ~ Jane Addams, #NFDB
823:What we Americans need to do is respect that incredible blessing that we have as a nation and make sure that we are leading in the best ways possible. ~ John F Kerry, #NFDB
824:A constitutional amendment for congressional term limits could never achieve the blessing of Congress; it could be initiated only by the states. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower, #NFDB
825:Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments. ~ Andrew Jackson, #NFDB
826:Even if this earth is only a vestibule, we ought undoubtedly to make such a use of its blessing that we are assisted rather than delayed in our journey. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
827:For what benefit is beauty, the greatest blessing of heaven, if it be mixed with affectation? What youth, if corrupted with the severity of old age? Lastly, ~ Erasmus, #NFDB
828:Happiness is attained by three things: being patient when tested, being thankful when receiving a blessing, and being repentant upon sinning. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
829:Look at the one who is at a lower level than you, and do not look at the one who is above you, for that may keep you from scorning the blessing of Allah. ~ Darussalam, #NFDB
830:Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
831:Right, yeah, you know, my favorite thing just globally about music is just hopefully I'm able to be, you know, blessing the people in any way that I can. ~ Jonny Lang, #NFDB
832:Secrets rarely stay secret for long, so you may as well be honest from the start,” Seamus said. “And love is a blessing, no matter what form it takes. ~ R G Alexander, #NFDB
833:childbearing becomes an evil rather than a blessing to the State; where violence comes but rarely and off-spring are secure, there is less necessity—indeed ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
834:Have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
835:It's like some people just come through our lives to bring us something, a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn, and that's why they're here... ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
836:Polgar’s praise for his brains: “High intelligence, from which the blessing of refreshing words falls in a shower, offers here a rich substitute for art. ~ Clive James, #NFDB
837:You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to push me over! Can't he see what's inside of me? All my sins. ~ Paul Schrader, #NFDB
838:Meeting obstacles can be a blessing! Just know the lesson and change something with the lessons and you shall see a new lesson with a blessing! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
839:They say there are no atheists in war; I tell you that pantheists abound at the edge of a cliff. I would have taken the blessing of any god I could get. ~ Marie Brennan, #NFDB
840:When your heart is filled with gratitude, any door that appears closed can be an opening for an even greater blessing. ~ Osho#osho #gratitude 🙏🏼 #heart ❤️#blessings ✨🙏🏼, #NFDB
841:blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. [1] 23Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
842:Just this whole journey [of life] has been a blessing from God, so for me to be here [on Earth] I'm just taking it one day at a time and really enjoying it. ~ Jeremy Lin, #NFDB
843:No effort is complete without prayer - without definite recognition that the best human endeavor is of no effect if it has not God's blessing behind it. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
844:Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: 'This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
845:The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing. But in our culture we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture. ~ Doug Phillips, #NFDB
846:What an inspiring book. Thank heaven Lee Thornton decided to share her remarkable life story with us. Lee's book is a blessing as well as a terrific read. ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
847:Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting—that is, of hopefully doing without—will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
848:God can't force his children to become like him. It's something they have to want, a blessing they have to fight for and be willing to sacrifice to attain. ~ Chris Stewart, #NFDB
849:having once committed the sin of despair she was determined to believe in the blessing of life (‘And when God walks beside you/You are not afraid . . .’). ~ Laura Thompson, #NFDB
850:Only that which is good for all men is good for every man. No one is truly inspired for his own sake. He who is blessed, is a blessing for others. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
851:The inevitableness, the idealism, and the blessing of war, as an indispensable and stimulating law of development, must be repeatedly emphasized. ~ Friedrich von Bernhardi, #NFDB
852:Today is a better day. Today is a good day. Its a blessing to be heard when you need to say something and you have kept it inside of yourself for so long... ~ Jos N Harris, #NFDB
853:You have learned from your mistake, and you shall not make it again. Why, then, should you withhold your blessing from those who may benefit from it? ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
854:You may speak a great deal about what a “blessing” your faith is and how you “just really love the Lord,” but if you are prayerless—is that really true? ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
855:But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
856:Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only Beloved who will never pass away. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
857:God wants sin out of your life because it's the only thing that keeps you from experiencing the torrential downpour of blessing He wants to rain upon you. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
858:If the Lord wills for you a hardship, do not protest. Take it as a blessing and indeed it will become so.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Difficulties of Surrender,#NFDB
859:It is a blessing to have pretty people around me. I like people who are sparky, positive. Evil, dark people are repelled by me: Oooh no! Too much sunlight. ~ Geri Halliwell, #NFDB
860:Other blessings may be taken away, but if we have acquired a good friend by goodness, we have a blessing which improves in value when others fail. ~ William Ellery Channing, #NFDB
861:That day has come. God is now dealing with us in a new way. Our badness is no longer the obstacle to blessing. Nor is our goodness the condition for blessing. ~ Larry Crabb, #NFDB
862:To love all ages yield surrender;
But to the young it's raptures bring
A blessing bountiful and tender-
As storms refresh the fields of spring. ~ Alexander Pushkin,#NFDB
863:What she said was something about trusting that everything, no matter how horrible it might seem at the moment, ultimately turns out to be a blessing. ~ Laurie Viera Rigler, #NFDB
864:As she swallow a few more drops, I whisper to my child's namesake, "The first of untold numbers of sweet things you will taste in this life." It is my blessing. ~ Sarah Bird, #NFDB
865:[On sister Kim's pregnancy] The new year, we've got another child coming, so that's great. Kim's never had a baby, so it's going to be a beautiful blessing. ~ Rob Kardashian, #NFDB
866:This was really what I was supposed to be doing, and it was a great blessing to have discovered this, and to be doing what was God's will for your life. ~ Coretta Scott King, #NFDB
867:When seeking guidance, don't ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessing, cajole them, but do not follow their advice. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes, #NFDB
868:When seeking guidance, don't ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessing, cajole them, but do not follow their advice. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Est s, #NFDB
869:A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race. ~ Joseph Smith Jr, #NFDB
870:I praise the Lord here today. I know that all my talent and all my ability comes from him, and without him I'm nothing and I thank him for his great blessing. ~ Ernie Harwell, #NFDB
871:The first step to being more attractive is to see rejection as a means to eliminate women who won't make you happy from your life. It's a blessing, not a curse. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
872:Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the temples in which thou dwellest, will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
873:Having somewhere to go is what we call home. Having someone to love, who loves us in return, is what we call family. Having both; a blessing." -Donna Hedges ~ Michelle Rathore, #NFDB
874:He never admitted anything, even on his deathbed. He was a deluded liar. If it weren't for my father, I don't think I would be so open. So that's a huge blessing. ~ Anne Heche, #NFDB
875:No lifetime is long enough for those ... who simply wish to understand themselves and their lives. It is, perhaps, the curse of being human, but also a blessing. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
876:Not all murder is evil...
In the right time, the right place, for the right reason --
it can be a blessing more profound than any you can imagine ~ J Michael Straczynski,#NFDB
877:When families bring children into the world, train them in faith and sound values, and teach them to contribute to society, they become a blessing in our world. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
878:Work is a blessing when it helps us to think about what we are doing; but it becomes a curse when its sole use is to stop us thinking about the meaning of life. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
879:Work is a blessing when it helps us to think about what were doing;but it become a curse when its sole use is to stop us thinking about the meaning of our life. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
880:A blessed day is every day,” said the groom, “since it's a blessing that anyone's alive. The best day is payday, which cannot come around often enough for any man. ~ D L Carter, #NFDB
881:Donna VanLiere's "A Christmas Blessing"
“Don’t ever take your EYES off the FINISH line. If you take your eyes off the GOAL, you’ll never make it to the END. ~ Donna VanLiere,#NFDB
882:Don't pay people back with evil for the evil they do to you, or ridicule those who ridicule you. Instead, bless them, because you were called to inherit a blessing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
883:I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof! ~ John Adams, #NFDB
884:Now may this little Book a blessing be To those that love this little Book, and me: And may its Buyer have no cause to say, His money is but lost, or thrown away. ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
885:On the cross, Jesus lost the Father’s blessing and received a curse so that we, who have all our lives lived beneath a curse, could receive the Father’s blessing. ~ Scott Sauls, #NFDB
886:There is a reality in blessing, which I take baptism to be, primarily. It doesn’t enhance sacredness, but it acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. ~ Marilynne Robinson, #NFDB
887:Don't be taken in by the guff that critics are killing the theater. Commonly they sin on the side of enthusiasm. Too often they give their blessing to trash. ~ Tallulah Bankhead, #NFDB
888:Every day that I bring this World Title home with me, I realize it's a gift. It's a blessing. And this? This has been the biggest, the BIGGEST ride of my life. ~ Oscar Gutierrez, #NFDB
889:Fanaticism was so popular. There had to be a reason for that, didn’t there? Some vast reward to the end of thinking, some great bliss to the blessing of idiocy. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
890:IF OUR PHONE CONVERSATION GETS DISCONNECTED, THERE’S NO NEED TO CALL BACK I get it. You get it. We take forever getting off the phone anyway. This was a blessing. ~ Mindy Kaling, #NFDB
891:I'm going to make my life everyday about being a blessing in people's lives. If I'm a blessing to people's lives, then there will be nothing to worry about again. ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
892:I'm incredibly focused. I think it's a blessing and a curse. I'm so driven that nothing else can stand in my way. For many years, I didn't have a personal life. ~ Lynsey Addario, #NFDB
893:I think it's an enormous blessing to be the child of an immigrant who fled oppression, because you realize how fragile liberty is and how easily it can be taken away. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
894:It's easy to write for God and about God, because what a thrill to remind the church that the Holy Spirit of God is in you. What a rush! What an amazing blessing! ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
895:Skyscrapers! Unhealthy ugly giants! To live and work as close as to the land is a blessing! Remember, you are not a cloud! Come down and live on the ground! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
896:Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked. "It only works on wild animals." "So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned. "Hey!" I protested. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
897:You know what your problem is?" I ask him.
"Yes. I have a daughter who insists she knows everything."
"That's not your problem, Aba. That's your blessing. ~ Simone Elkeles,#NFDB
898:I just think everything is a learning experience and every moment that you have that actually feels good inside of your heart is an absolute blessing and a gift. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
899:It's still very difficult for me to rely. Your weakness, the blessing of your weakness is it forces you into friendships. The things that you lack, you look for in others. ~ Bono, #NFDB
900:Jews have deep respect for the Queen and the royal family. We say a prayer for them every Sabbath in synagogue. We recite a special blessing on seeing the Queen. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
901:No,” he said, “I have no sensation there.” That was true, and it was the blessing of scars: the deeper they were, the more you couldn’t feel anything in them at all. ~ Jenna Blum, #NFDB
902:This can be both a blessing and a curse. You are blessed with a wonderfully unique filter but cursed with a systematic inability to understand anybody else's. ~ Marcus Buckingham, #NFDB
903:While many ethnic and religious groups are mainly focused on the afterlife and downplaying this world, Jews view wealth and success as a blessing and gift from God. ~ H W Charles, #NFDB
904:Work is a blessing when it helps us to think about what we're doing; but it becomes a curse when its sole use is to stop us thinking about the meaning of our life. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
905:He might have heard the first whisper of that wild blessing that afterwards took the form of a blasphemy; "He listens to those to whom God himself will not listen ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
906:I'm trying to stay open to the idea that the Internet is not the evil foe of publishing but the handmaiden that will turn out to be a blessing for poets and writers. ~ Joan Larkin, #NFDB
907:I am not overstatingthis; the anointing is mandatory if you are called to serve The Lord. Without it there will be no growth, no blessing, no victory in your ministry. ~ Benny Hinn, #NFDB
908:To be able to greet the sun with the sounds from all of Nature is a great blessing, and it helps us to remember Who is the real provider of all of our benefits. ~ Thomas Yellowtail, #NFDB
909:To bear many children is considered not only a religious blessing but also an investment. The greater their number, some Indians reason, the more alms they can beg. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
910:Welcome, welcome joy, welcome sorrow, welcome pleasure, welcome pain. You are all the ingredients of life -- and with you all, life is an inestimable blessing. ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
911:When we would say 'No way,' he would say, 'My way.' Then the ones who doubted would scramble to salvage the blessing. And the one who gave it would savor the surprise. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
912:You have the right to claim blessing, healing, protection, freedom, deliverance, because He was unjustly nailed to a cross so you could have a life that is fulfilling. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
913:All I can say in my solitude is, May Heaven's rich blessing come down on every one - American, English, Turk - who will help to heal this open sore of the world. ~ David Livingstone, #NFDB
914:Blessing? I'm not a homophobe or anything, but that sounded just a little too much like a line from this bukake film I sorta accidentally downloaded the other week. ~ Rick Gualtieri, #NFDB
915:Their virtues lived in their children. The family changed its persons but not its manners, and they continued a blessing to the world from generation to generation. ~ Sarah Fielding, #NFDB
916:The leaf of every tree brings a message from the unseen world. Look, every falling leaf is a blessing. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi ~ Jalaluddin Rumi #Poetry #Sufism #Spring #Blessings #Beauty, #NFDB
917:14He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
918:This teaches us that no outward instruction, even from Christ himself, or His words in Scripture, can bring us the full blessing—until the Holy Spirit works it in us. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
919:To be effortlessly yourself is a blessing, an ambrosia. It is like a few tiny little puffs of opium which lift you ever so slightly off the hard surface of the world. ~ Laurie Colwin, #NFDB
920:To me, my grandfather’s urgency to preach the Gospel one more time to a lost and dying world is the definition of 'finishing well,' and it’s such a blessing and lesson. ~ Will Graham, #NFDB
921:You smile, but I’ve seen my share of greatness over the years, and it’s not a blessing. The only difficulty is that escaping greatness brings an even greater curse. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
922:Among all the disappointments and perplexities which have fallen my share in life, nothing has contributed so much to support my mind as the choice blessing of a wife.... ~ John Adams, #NFDB
923:Documentary filmmaking has all the challenges and hardships of narrative filmmaking without any of the infrastructure or support. That's both a blessing and a curse. ~ Brian Lindstrom, #NFDB
924:It is a blessing not yet to have acquired that over-keen, diagnostic, misanthropic eye, and to be able to look at people and things trustfully when one first sees them. ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
925:It is a blessing to get old. It is a blessing to find the time to do the things, to read the books, to listen to the music. I have nothing now but praise for my life. ~ Maurice Sendak, #NFDB
926:It is a mistake to suppose that any technological innovation has a one-sided effect. Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that. ~ Neil Postman, #NFDB
927:My birth was a blessing. Sent to live and die on Earth; it's a blessing. We each have a star; all you have to do is find it. Once you do, everyone sees it, you won't be blinded. ~ DMX, #NFDB
928:There are some years in our lives that we would not want to live again. But even these years will pass away, and the lessons learned will be a future blessing. ~ Marjorie Pay Hinckley, #NFDB
929:Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves the feet of angels bright; unseen they pour blessing, and joy without ceasing, on each bud and blossom, and each sleeping bosom. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
930:Each morning brings a hidden blessing; a blessing which is unique to that day, and which cannot be kept or re-used. If we do not use this miracle today, it will be lost. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
931:Is Obama satanic?” he asked me. I was grateful for the conversation starter — I consider anything that staves off social awkwardness to be a blessing — but I couldn’t lie. ~ Jon Ronson, #NFDB
932:It’s a blessing: every day someone shows up at the fence. And when no one shows up, a different
kind of blessing. In the wrong light anyone can look like a darkness. ~ Richard Siken,#NFDB
933:Some days are a blessing when you wake up and you say, 'Wow, I feel good today.' Some days are like: 'Wow, I feel bad. I got no chance today.' You tape it up and you go. ~ Jorge Posada, #NFDB
934:The freedom to carve out the time and have a safe place to create that art is a blessing of the highest level in a world where so many people are unable to have either. ~ Rachel Hollis, #NFDB
935:I would love it if we could limit my red carpet topics to my favorite colors, what sound a duck makes, and my thoughts on McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast—blessing or curse? ~ Anna Kendrick, #NFDB
936:Now may this little Book a blessing be
To those that love this little Book, and me:
And may its Buyer have no cause to say,
His money is but lost, or thrown away. ~ John Bunyan,#NFDB
937:Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God’s favor. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
938:The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
939:The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. DEUTERONOMY 28:8 ~ Sheri Rose Shepherd, #NFDB
940:Tulsi, beyond any perceivable clouds of skepticism, was the best living form of beauty known—the matchless delight, the most generous blessing granted to a human eyeball. ~ Pawan Mishra, #NFDB
941:When starting out, don’t worry about not having enough money. Limited funds are a blessing, not a curse. Nothing encourages creative thinking in quite the same way. ~ H Jackson Brown Jr, #NFDB
942:He had no idea that he never went out of the house without her blessing going with him too, hovering, like a little echo of finished love, round that once dear head ~ Elizabeth von Arnim, #NFDB
943:History comes and history goes, but principles endure, and ensure future generations will defend liberty not as a gift from government but as a blessing from our Creator. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
944:How many gifts and graces You have given me! How many favors You have fed me from your hand! I look for your love in all directions, then suddenly its blessing burns in me. ~ Rabia Basri, #NFDB
945:Maybe we should stop looking at why God doesn’t answer every prayer the way we think He should. But instead we should count it a blessing that He hears our prayers at all. ~ Jody Hedlund, #NFDB
946:Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music. ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
947:When we ask of the Lord coolly, and not fervently, we do as it were, stop His hand, and restrain Him from giving us the very blessing we "pretend" that we are seeking. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
948:You can bless or curse yourself with your mouth. You can bring a blessing by speaking positive truths from God’s Word . . . or you can bring a curse by speaking negatively. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
949:Adoption is wonderful and beautiful and the greatest blessing I have ever experienced. Adoption is also difficult and painful. Adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption. ~ Katie Davis, #NFDB
950:Consider humility to be the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God, the one constant safeguard of the soul, and set your heart on it as the source of all blessing. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
951:Every failure is a blessing in disguise, providing it teaches some needed lesson one could not have learned without it. Most so-called Failures are only temporary defeats. ~ Napoleon Hill, #NFDB
952:I believe this; "When you have a needy person in your neighbourhood, it's an opportunity for you to become a wealthy and healthy person!" Giving time is blessing time! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
953:Rather than elevating poverty to a form of righteousness, Jesus is instead calling for a revolution of imagination around the nature of what we consider true blessing. ~ Jamie Arpin Ricci, #NFDB
954:Romance in marriage, for it to be truly a mingling of souls, cannot simply be a mingling of body parts. No, we must acknowledge both the blessing and the danger of beauty. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
955:that this was a lesson my father impressed on me at an early age: “Often adversity is a blessing in disguise and is certainly the greatest character builder.” Fred Koch’s ~ Charles G Koch, #NFDB
956:And then--with the curse, or, in this case, blessing, of the unpopular, the unathletic, the overweight, the strange--they vanished like shadows into the spring night. ~ Francesca Lia Block, #NFDB
957:But I would never insult the people that love this music and I would never insult the blessing of music in my life and I would never insult myself by playing uninspired music. ~ Ben Harper, #NFDB
958:Charles H. Spurgeon, in his wry way, once declared, “I daresay the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness.”[25] ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
959:Friendship is a beautiful blessing. You may love your friends and they may love you, but that doesn’t mean they should have unexamined influence in all areas of your life. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
960:Good food is an amazing blessing. Whenever you can sit down at a table, eat food that is extremely delicious, and are surrounded by people you love...it's: Wow, life is good. ~ Alicia Keys, #NFDB
961:I am living here and now. The blessing of my life is that I am totally concentrating on the present moment. And I want to be because there is nothing but the present moment. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
962:If you have not tasted poverty, you will not be able to manage blessing when it comes. If you have not tasted humiliation, you will not be able to manage honour when it comes. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
963:I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
964:It is best, it seems to me, to separate one's inner striving from one's trade as far as possible. It is not good when one's daily break is tied to God's special blessing. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
965:Let it sink in: you don’t serve God for blessing; you serve him from blessing. Whatever you do for God can only thrive in the outflow of what God has first done for you. ~ Bill Giovannetti, #NFDB
966:Prayer isn’t an option; it’s an obligation and an opportunity for us to glorify God’s name and receive his blessing. It’s also an opportunity to participate in miracles. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
967:To know you can do better next time, unrecognizably better, and that there is no next time, and that it is a blessing there is not, there is a thought to be going on with. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
968:A mind which remains calm in the midst of the vicissitudes of life, delivered from preoccupations, liberated from passion, dwelling in serenity—that is a great blessing. ~ Mahamangala Sutta, #NFDB
969:But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. ~ Andrew Jackson, #NFDB
970:Hardships are the Lord’s greatest blessing to the believer. Without them we would love the Lord only for what He does for us. Our troubles teach us to love Him for who He is. ~ Jody Hedlund, #NFDB
971:I cannot think of a greater blessing than to die in one's own bed, without warning or discomfort, on the last page of a new book that we most wanted to read. ~ John Russell 1st Earl Russell, #NFDB
972:Well, filming in Hawaii, you know, is a blessing. It's one of the most beautiful places on this planet. It has a very mystic energy which informs you as an actor. ~ Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje, #NFDB
973:A vocation makes us unthinking; that is its greatest blessing. For it is a bulwark behind which we are permitted to withdraw whencommonplace doubts and cares assail us. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
974:Even though my Sunday school upbringing had taught me that God loved me, inwardly I always suspected that maybe He was more interested in making me miserable than in blessing me. ~ Eric Ludy, #NFDB
975:Every Christian, you see, has at least two major callings: (A) The call to use your vocation for the glory of God and the blessing of others; and (B) the call to make disciples. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
976:I wish that your journey will be to a light not only for yourself but for all of us. I wish that it will be a journey for the sake of heaven. I give you my blessing, Asher Lev. ~ Chaim Potok, #NFDB
977:But dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing. ~ Natalie Babbitt, #NFDB
978:I've seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling, I've felt all its favours and found its decay; Sweet was its blessing, kind its caressing, But now it is fled, fled far, far away. ~ Richard Cobden, #NFDB
979:Lords of space and Lords of time,
Lords of blessing, Lords of grace,
Who is in the warmer clime?
Who will follow Madoc's rhyme?
Blue will alter time and space. ~ Madeleine L Engle,#NFDB
980:My son is everything to me. He's the reason why I get up and I work out the way I work out and train the way that I train. He changed everything about me, so he was a blessing. ~ Derrick Rose, #NFDB
981:People may surprise you with unexpected kindness. Dogs have a depth of loyalty that often we seem unworthy of. But the love of a cat is a blessing, a privilege in this world. ~ Kinky Friedman, #NFDB
982:Percy," my mom said. "I give you my blessing." "Be safe brother!" Tyson pleaded. "Enchiladas!" Grover said. I wasn't sure where that came from, but it didn't seem to help much. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
983:But I'm clear about this, when God gives a blessing to be enjoyed, He gives it with a duty to be done; and the duty of the happy is to help the suffering to bear their woe. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
984:I'm lost in the middle of my birthday. I want my friends, their touch, with the earth's last love. I will take life's final offering, I will take the last human blessing. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
985:It seemed like there was no control over it. I think certain things just popped. God was blessing us in telling us that certain things were going the way they were supposed to go. ~ Jack White, #NFDB
986:The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
987:The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse. ~ Michael E Gerber, #NFDB
988:The geat blessing of mankind are within us and within our reach; but we shut our eyes, and like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
989:We will never forget that blessing. It was the most pained and moving blessing, which left us with the extreme testimony of his will to complete his ministry until the end. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
990:I think a lot of us are not on a path; we're in a rut. We have confused comfort with peace, belief with faith, safety with wisdom, wealth with blessing, and existence with life. ~ Erwin McManus, #NFDB
991:Zen is a totally different kind of religion. It brings humanness to religion. It is not bothered about anything superhuman; its whole concern is how to make ordinary life a blessing. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
992:A just and wise magistrate is a blessing as extensive as the community to which he belongs; a blessing which includes all other blessings whatsoever that relate to this life. ~ Francis Atterbury, #NFDB
993:Not on the strong or the fervent feeling with which I pray does the blessing of the closet depend, but upon the love and the power of the Father to whom I there entrust my needs. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
994:The possibility of an Oscar is something I definitely think about and the fact that I can even say that is just a blessing. It's something I would be incredibly honored to be a part of. ~ Common, #NFDB
995:To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
996:What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden. ~ Elizabeth von Arnim, #NFDB
997:And Inigo felt, for the first time since the dying, such happiness. It had fled from him, happiness, and when you spend years without, you forget that no blessing compares . . . ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
998:God has not given this false marriage his blessing. Every year he has turned his face from me and I should have seen it earlier. The queen is not my wife, she is Arthur’s wife. ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
999:Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland: the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all of the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
1000:I'm so jealous of people who have crushes on people they go to school with, or work with. That's such a blessing. You actually get to see them all the time and spend time with them. ~ Aziz Ansari, #NFDB
1001:Luther once said, “The devil hates goose quills” and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing, have done his kingdom much damage. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1002:Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised[*] Holy Spirit through faith. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1003:To find one's special quality One must lead a life of deep humility. To serve in this way Never question but obey Is the blessing of St Aggie's charity. - The owls of St. Aegolius ~ Kathryn Lasky, #NFDB
1004:Just living is not always living. Look at your life. Can you call it a blessing? Can you call it a gift? A present of existence? Would you want this life to be given to you again and again? ~ Osho, #NFDB
1005:Love Others Today: Take an honest inventory of your relationships. Are you trying to buy anyone’s friendship for your own benefit instead of blessing that person out of sincere love? ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1006:Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised, and enjoyed now. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1007:Fast car . . . You can drive anywhere in just a few minutes and time becomes just another thing we take advantage of never appreciating each moment that passes as a blessing from God. ~ Sarah Price, #NFDB
1008:Greatness, with private men Esteem'd a blessing, is to me a curse; And we, whom, for our high births, they conclude The happy freemen, are the only slaves. Happy the golden mean! ~ Philip Massinger, #NFDB
1009:Its hard for me to listen to any actors whine or moan about anything acting-related because look at the world. We really have nothing to complain about. Just to be working is a blessing. ~ Dan Byrd, #NFDB
1010:Percy," my mom said. "I give you my blessing."
"Be safe brother!" Tyson pleaded.
"Enchiladas!" Grover said. I wasn't sure where that came from, but it didn't seem to help much. ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
1011:The uncertainty of the future is a great blessing for us humans! Let the road ahead of us be completely unknown for us so that we can have the marvellous joy of discovering it! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1012:Thoughts and words form your mental image. And since we become what we picture be sure your thoughts and words express prosperity and blessing rather than poverty and defeat. ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
1013:Cable was a blessing for me. Thank god, I've done a show that's going to be iconic. So, if I screw up, it's all right because I already have something that's going to be iconic. ~ Giancarlo Esposito, #NFDB
1014:Friendships are like plowed open fields ready for growth. What we plant is what will grow. If we plant seeds of reassurance, blessing, and love, we reap a great harvest of security. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1015:God blesses us all up to the full measure and extremity of what it is safe for him to do. If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one. If ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1016:It is a vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found - in loving obedience. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1017:Jesus paid it all. I mean all. He not only purchased your forgiveness of sins and your ticket to heaven, He purchased every blessing and every answer to prayer you will ever receive. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
1018:That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing. Could I have remembered, as some men do, what I read, I should have been able to call myself an educated man. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1019:Whatever pain and suffering you've experienced in your life has been a blessing at least in this one regard: you now know some true things that you couldn't have learned any other way. ~ Eric Maisel, #NFDB
1020:Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.
"It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.
"Hey!" I protested. ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
1021:Why can’t you place a blessing like that on us?” I asked. “It only works on wild animals.” “So it would only affect Percy,” Annabeth reasoned. “Hey!” I protested. “Kidding,” she said. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1022:Early publication can be a dubious blessing: we all know writers who would give anything not to have published their first book, and go about trying to buy up all existing copies. ~ Joyce Carol Oates, #NFDB
1023:I saw light wreaths from Joe's pipe floating there, and I fancied it was like a blessing from Joe,—not obtruded on me or paraded before me, but pervading the air we shared together. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1024:It is his absence that is part of me and has been for years. This is who I am, perhaps who we all are, keepers of the absent and the dead. It is the blessing and burden of being alive. ~ Camilla Gibb, #NFDB
1025:Sometimes some of our dreams don't come true! And after a long time, we realize that it was not a punishment of the universe but on the contrary it was its great blessing for us! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1026:The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse, ~ Michael E Gerber, #NFDB
1027:A life-long blessing for children is to fill them with warm memories of times together. Happy memories become treasures in the heart to pull out on the tough days of adulthood. ~ Charlotte Sophia Kasl, #NFDB
1028:All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only beloved who will never pass away. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1029:For some couples, when the children leave home and start their own lives, it is a blessing. More time to spend with your spouse, to rekindle the romance that was lost through the years. ~ Sejal Badani, #NFDB
1030:He expects us to come to him for refuge from our grief, fear, and pain and not to dull those emotions with amusements and distractions that promise, but can never deliver, blessing. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1031:I played pretty darn competitive-level hockey. Then the good old knee injury. Obviously, it's a blessing in disguise, but growing up Canadian, that's our religion, that's our football. ~ Taylor Kitsch, #NFDB
1032:Jesus Christ is our great peace-offering; for he made himself a sacrifice, not only to atone for sin, and so to save us from the curse, but to purchase a blessing for us, and all good. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1033:One final reason to study Revelation is that it’s the only book of the Bible that contains a special blessing for those who read it and keep the things written in it (Revelation 1:3). ~ Mark Hitchcock, #NFDB
1034:Great as the planning were for the dinner, the lot was so contrived that not a soul in the house be supposed to be kept from the break of day ceremony of Blessing in the church. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, #NFDB
1035:...What does the blessing of heaven mean? We know the kirin is just an animal, not a mythical creature."
It has become a symbol now.... That is the way human beings deal with the world. ~ Lian Hearn,#NFDB
1036:What once seemed such a curse has become a blessing. All the agony that threatened to destroy my life now seems like the fertile ground for greater trust, stronger hope, and deeper love. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1037:When you're kept by a patron you don't have to duke it out in the media marketplace for dollars and for readers. In some ways that's a blessing because it takes a lot of pressure off you. ~ David Talbot, #NFDB
1038:Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it was its continuance which should have taught us its value. [It is wise to be grateful of what we have while we have it.] ~ Henry Moore, #NFDB
1039:Sir 11:23 For it is easy in the eyes of God on a sudden to make the poor man rich. Sir 11:24 The blessing of God maketh haste to reward the just, and in a swift hour his blessing beareth fruit. ~ Various, #NFDB
1040:This one says they’ll place your ‘little blessing in disguise’ with a local ‘Christ-oriented family.’ What about the non-Christ-oriented families? Don’t they deserve the right to adopt kids? ~ Megan Hart, #NFDB
1041:Mother's love is bliss, is peace, it need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. If it is there, it is like a blessing; if it is not there it is as if all the beauty had gone out of life. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
1042:...she found herself blessing God for her creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all for His inestimable Love; out loud; in a burst of acknowledgement. ~ Elizabeth von Arnim, #NFDB
1043:Chris Christie travelled to Ft. Worth, Texas, to give his blessing to a former rival who one week ago was approvingly discussing killing Muslim terrorists with bullets smeared in pig`s blood. ~ Chris Hayes, #NFDB
1044:It is impossible to boldly claim by faith a blessing which we are not sure God offers, because the blessings of God can be claimed only where the will of God is known, trusted, and acted upon. ~ T L Osborn, #NFDB
1045:You don't know what is going to come to you in this world; you have to go on living and worrying. Those who die are pitying us; they are blessing us. Why should you grieve for them? ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1046:You will b experienced as a blessing--to the extent you have fist experienced yourself as blessed. You must feel the fullness of your own pitcher before you trust the pouring out of yourself. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
1047:Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are. ~ Isabel Allende, #NFDB
1048:Each human being has the right to two blessings, which are: the blessing to do right, and the blessing to err. In the latter case, there is always a path of learning leading to the right way. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1049:HEB6.13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, HEB6.14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1050:I dreamt that the Beloved entered my body,
pulled out a dagger,
and went looking for my heart—
He couldn't find it.
So he struck anywhere.
I woke up
counting this as a blessing. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
1051:I just had to find something else to fulfill me. Always being a singer and writing, it was a blessing. My brother started making music that was the kind of music I always saw myself singing. ~ Taryn Manning, #NFDB
1052:In blessing, you purchase a moment of peace, in the one being blessed, in the one for whom blessing is asked. Perhaps it does not last, but the gift you provide, well, its value never fades ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1053:I think that's something that Oprah [Winfrey] and Ava [ DuVernay] do seamlessly. They know how to connect to people and they know how to share our stories. To be a part of that is a blessing. ~ Kofi Siriboe, #NFDB
1054:It's a luxury to be in the mood to write. It's a blessing but it's not a necessity. Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
1055:Making another person feel guilty will never build unity or goodwill; only blessing, not blaming, can do that. All judgment does is to shut people down emotionally and psychologically. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1056:One small decision can shape an entire life. Sometimes, if you're lucky, the biggest hardship can lead to your greatest blessing. It just takes time to see that God works in mysterious ways. ~ Penelope Ward, #NFDB
1057:Such is the blessing of this republic. We are not confronted by one czar of the size of an elephant, but by a hundred thousand czars, as small as mosquitoes, but equally disagreeable and annoying. ~ Various, #NFDB
1058:54Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. 55I remember your name in the night, O LORD, and keep your law. 56This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1059:And all babies were God’s blessing, even those who said bugger quite a lot, and whose presence meant that half the potential wage earners in our family couldn’t actually go and get a decent job. ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
1060:Beware of praying only for a blessing. Let us seek first obedience, and God will supply the blessing. Our constant question as a Christian should be ‘‘How can I obey and please God perfectly? ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1061:But theres a huge blessing that comes from being a part of a show like The Cosby Show that sets such a high standard of quality - it touched so many people on so many different levels. ~ Malcolm Jamal Warner, #NFDB
1062:I bless God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed my family in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm! —EPHESIANS 1:3 ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1063:When you reach out to hurting people, that’s when God is going to make sure your needs are supplied. When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1064:YOU are YOU! Know YOU can! YOU must not be afraid because God has a prosperous future plan for YOU! YOU got to know YOU! Guess who you are? YOU are a blessing to all others especially me! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1065:All the paths of this universe are ready to be your fate! You see, you are very rich in the matter of having different fates! Use this blessing very well, choose a good fate for yourself! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1066:My world has just become perfect, midnight is also noonday, pain is also joy, a curse is also a blessing, the night is also a sun – be gone, or you will learn: a wise man is also a fool. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1067:Proverbs 20:20-21 20 If you insult your father or mother, your light will be snuffed out in total darkness. 21 An inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing in the end. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1068:To avoid a comparative poverty, which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors, I have, by raising myself to affluence, lost everything that could make it a blessing. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1069:We have trials to face because our Heavenly Father loves us. His purpose is to help us qualify for the blessing of living with Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, forever in glory and in families. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
1070:If Christianity is dull and boring, if it is a burden and not a blessing, then most likely we are involved in a project, not a Person - a system not a Savior, rules rather than a relationship. ~ Joseph Stowell, #NFDB
1071:I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, What! all this, and Christ too? ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1072:The most powerful tool that I can share with you to transform any situation is the power of blessing with love. No matter where you work or how you feel about the place, bless it with love. ~ Cheryl Richardson, #NFDB
1073:This is the love of God; not that He gives us something, but that He gives us some one - a living person - not one or another blessing, but Him in whom is all life and blessing - Jesus Himself. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1074:We live charmed lives if we are living in the center of God's will. All the attacks that Satan can hurl against us are not only powerless to harm us, but are turned into blessing on the way. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1075:Helianos wanted to accept everything as it appeared on the surface; at least to interpret everything as favorably as he could, as mere kindliness, a wonderful improvement and a great blessing. ~ Glenway Wescott, #NFDB
1076:If you’ll dare to take your mind off your troubles, get your mind off your own needs and, instead, seek to be a blessing to other people, God will do more for you than you could even ask or think. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1077:It is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing. ~ Galway Kinnell, #NFDB
1078:No lifetime is long enough for those who wish to create, Raul. Or for those who simply wish to understand themselves and their lives. It is, perhaps, the curse of being human, but also a blessing. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
1079:Quotations (such as have point and lack triteness) from the great old authors are an act of reverence on the part of the quoter, and a blessing to a public grown superficial and external. ~ Louise Imogen Guiney, #NFDB
1080:To be an artist is a blessing and a privilege. Artists must never betray their true hearts. Artists must look beneath the surface and show that there is more to this world than what meets the eye. ~ Marvin Gaye, #NFDB
1081:When the teacher, the spiritual master, is praying for the mercy of the Lord to enlighten the student, then by the blessings of the Lord the student gets the blessing of knowledge. ~ Bhaktisvarupa Damodar Swami, #NFDB
1082:Every time you make a choice that expresses respect for life, you bring a little more love in your body, into your family, into our society, and into a world that is calling out for this blessing. ~ John Robbins, #NFDB
1083:He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1084:In essence he declared, “If I have to choose between Your presence and Your blessing, I’ll take Your presence—even if it’s in a place of lack and hardship—over Your blessing in a great environment. ~ John Bevere, #NFDB
1085:Notice the Scripture says, “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing.” If they “rail” on you, don’t rail on them, “but contrariwise blessing.” Blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing. ~ Kenneth E Hagin, #NFDB
1086:Because a woman brought death a bright Maiden overcame it, and so the highest blessing in all of creation lies in the form of a woman, since God has become man in a sweet and blessed Virgin. ~ Hildegard of Bingen, #NFDB
1087:Columbus. It is distant about a hundred and twenty miles from Cincinnati, but there is a macadamised road (rare blessing!) the whole way, and the rate of travelling upon it is six miles an hour. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1088:For the rest of his life, Oliver Twist remembers a single word of blessing spoken to him by another child because this word stood out so strikingly from the consistent discouragement around him. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1089:in Him What specific thing can you do to bless someone in your life? Be deliberate—develop a plan to make this blessing a reality. When you live this way, you can trust that God will bless you, too. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1090:My mother was the making of me. She was so true and so sure of me, I felt that I had someone to live for - someone I must not disappoint. The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me. ~ Thomas A Edison, #NFDB
1091:Once you make up your mind never to stand waiting and hesitating when your conscience tells you what you ought to do, and you have got the key to every blessing that a sinner can reasonably hope for. ~ John Keble, #NFDB
1092:Sometimes it [music in my head] is a curse, but it's also a blessing. It is a gift that I am completely grateful for. That's why I keep [making music], because I don't want to be ungrateful for the gift. ~ Prince, #NFDB
1093:The sooner I learn to forget myself in the desire that He may be glorified, the richer will be the blessing that prayer will bring to myself. No one ever loses by what he sacrifices to the Father. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1094:Truly, it is a blessing and not a blasphemy when I teach that "above all things there stands the heaven of chance, the heaven of innocence, the heaven of accident, the heaven of wantonness". ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1095:But it's a blessing to be so successful within a year; it's the greatest feeling in the world, making money and doing the things that I'm doing, and I definitely trying to continue doing what I'm doing. ~ Ludacris, #NFDB
1096:If someone talks about union, fidelity, a monogamous relationship, love, blessing; I would say it sounds like marriage to me. And blessing, you see, I think is undermining our sacrament of marriage. ~ George Carey, #NFDB
1097:I know I have gained Christ and through His blessing I have gained the whole world too, but for what I have lost, for what we have all lost, there is no end to the reckoning. We lost everything. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
1098:I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, 'It tastes sweet, does it not?' 'You've caught me,' grief answered, 'and you've ruined my business. How can I sell sorrow, when you know it's a blessing? ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1099:To find one's special quality
One must lead a life of deep humility.
To serve in this way
Never question but obey
Is the blessing of St Aggie's charity.
- The owls of St. Aegolius ~ Kathryn Lasky,#NFDB
1100:We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall. ~ Joko Beck, #NFDB
1101:A God who is good knows no segregation amongst words or names. And were a God to deny his blessing to those who pursue a different path to eternity, there would be no human who should offer worship. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1102:The blessing that this film business has given me is that when I walk into a school I automatically have everyone's attention. They want to hear what the guy from 'Con Air' and 'Desperado' has to say. ~ Danny Trejo, #NFDB
1103:To trust him is the sure way to every blessing, and he is worthy of the most implicit confidence; but unbelief makes them prefer the cold porches of Bethesda to the warm bosom of his love. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1104:Believe in a love that is preserved for you like a heritage, and trust that in this love there is a strength and a blessing which you are not bound to leave behind you though you may travel far! ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1105:I've been blessed to work with some good people as well as different actors. So it's a blessing to be able to have friends who... the friendships are a result of projects that you've worked on together. ~ Kim Fields, #NFDB
1106:Leadership is not about executive position or title. It is about connection and influence. At its highest, leadership is all about adding value to the world and blessing lives through the work you do. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
1107:The best service that can be rendered to a Country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation, and the enjoyment of the blessing. ~ James Madison, #NFDB
1108:When that which offers blessing predicates such on the absolute obeisance of the supplicant…demands, in fact, the soul’s willing enslavement – no, how could such a force stand tall in moral probity? ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1109:Yes, gay marriage is about symbolically blessing a relationship, but the larger issue is about transmitting a fundamental message about equality. Gay people should have equality in law everywhere. ~ Daniel Radcliffe, #NFDB
1110:A man with a good wife is the luckiest of God's creatures, and one without must be among the most miserable, I think, the only true blessing of their lives that they don't know how poorly off they are. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1111:Freedom is the first wish of our heart; freedom is the first blessing of nature; and unless we bind ourselves with voluntary chains of interest or passion, we advance in freedom as we advance in years ~ Edward Gibbon, #NFDB
1112:Hopefully, I will emerge more shining. If I have that good fortune, if I am blessed in that way - and I do feel I am in the middle of the blessing - then I have faith my service will be greater. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1113:The blessing hands of Christ are like a roof that protects us. But at the same time, they are a gesture of opening up, tearing the world open so that heaven my enter in, may become "present" within it. ~ Benedict XVI, #NFDB
1114:If you love only those who give you happy news, you will never love those worthy of your trust. For those who love you will speak truth, and truth is not always happy, but it is always a blessing. ~ Richard Paul Evans, #NFDB
1115:Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft, #NFDB
1116:In the most absolute tranquility or in the midst of tumultuous events, in safety or danger, in innocence or corruption, we are a crowd of others. And this crowd is certainly a blessing for literature. ~ Elena Ferrante, #NFDB
1117:It was all a back-handed blessing, and my friends were the ones who kept the faith, read my work, and urged me to submit it to publishers by sending it out for me - they would not hear no for an answer. ~ Leslie Banks, #NFDB
1118:But, alas, this wealth, instead of blessing the race, has been the means of enslaving it. The few have come in possession of all, and the many have been reduced to the extremity of living by permission. ~ Eugene V Debs, #NFDB
1119:Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea. ~ Lou Dorfsman, #NFDB
1120:Flurries early, pristine and pearly. Winter's come calling! Can we endure so premature a falling? Some may find this trend distressing- others bend to say a blessing over sage and onion dressing. ~ Old Farmer s Almanac, #NFDB
1121:I don't think you can be too ashamed of anything as long as you were being yourself. I think why people feel, um, so entitled over me is that they've watched me grow up. But that's a blessing and a curse. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
1122:We all seek approval, and our mother's seal is usually the most important. The nitty gritty is that we have to accept ourselves, even if it is just to be ready for the next cut-down. Mom's blessing or not. ~ Beth Ditto, #NFDB
1123:With hands raised, the minister extends God’s welcome and blessing to the gathered congregation, who may receive the welcome and blessing with hands open in a spirit of mutual welcome and expectation. ~ James K A Smith, #NFDB
1124:And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true Sense of things, they will find Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing than Deliverance from Affliction. ~ Daniel Defoe, #NFDB
1125:I think I'm a dime, I think I'm amazing, I think I'm blessed and a blessing to whoever gets me next. I think that person has to understand that because that's the way I'm going to treat them as well. ~ Demetria McKinney, #NFDB
1126:It's hard to explain. It's a love that I never knew existed until I had my first son. Basically what I'm saying is it's the most beautiful thing in the world. It's the biggest blessing I ever had in my life. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
1127:It was not enough now, but when she stepped back into the bedroom and saw that Morgan had not returned to say good night, she counted it as a blessing that she was familiar making peace with disappointment. ~ Jo Goodman, #NFDB
1128:Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
1129:What a blessing to love someone so much that you long for them at the core of your being. At the same time, when you are separated from that person, that longing is a torture I would not wish on anyone. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1130:What is gain to the ego is loss to the soul. What is a blessing to the ego is a curse to the soul. What seems to be of tremendous importance to the ego is just sheer stupidity to the innermost core of your being. ~ Osho, #NFDB
1131:When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me" Erma Bombeck as quoted in A Christmas Blessing ~ Erma Bombeck, #NFDB
1132:Ah, race of mortal men, How as a thing of nought I count ye, though ye live; For who is there of men That more of blessing knows, Than just a little while To seem to prosper well, And, having seemed, to fall? ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1133:Certainly, I was typed. But what is typing? It is a trademark, a means by which the public recognizes you. Actors work all their lives to achieve that. I got mine with just one picture. It was a blessing. ~ Boris Karloff, #NFDB
1134:If you keep on excusing, you eventually give your blessing to the slave camp, to cowardly force, to organized executioners, to the cynicism of great political monsters; you finally hand over your brothers. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1135:I hear you’re a medicine man. I heard you are a singer of the Blessing Way. Is that right?” Chee looked slightly stubborn. “Yes sir,” he said. “I would like to ask you to sing one for me,” Leaphorn said. ~ Tony Hillerman, #NFDB
1136:I see I have this patience to wait it out, and the truth is no matter how dark I feel I would never take my own life, because when the darkness is over, then what a blessing is the feeblest ray of light! ~ Valerie Martin, #NFDB
1137:I think that we have a unique opportunity as performers and artists to be kind of the town criers and also to get more people to listen, so that's a blessing and a responsibility that I take very seriously. ~ Bonnie Raitt, #NFDB
1138:Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, "This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way." ~ Henry Van Dyke, #NFDB
1139:Succeed in not fearing the lion, and the lion will fear YOU. Say to suffering, 'I will that you shall become a pleasure,' and it will prove to be such-- and even more than a pleasure, it will be a blessing. ~ Eliphas Levi, #NFDB
1140:The blessing hands of Christ are like a roof that protects us. But at the same time, they are a gesture of opening up, tearing the world open so that heaven my enter in, may become "present" within it. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
1141:A jealous person is doubly unhappy-over what he has, which is judged inferior, and over which he has not, which is judged superior. Such a person is doubly removed from knowing the true blessing of creation. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1142:Always remember God. Each and every event, everywhere, is by His Will alone and is for our own good. Each thing in our lives is always only Blessing, even though it may not appear so, at the time. ~ Sri Yogi Ramsuratkumar, #NFDB
1143:Ignore how it feels when the only real talent you have is for hidding the truth. You have a God-given knack for commiting a terrible sin. It's your calling. You have a natural gift for denial. A blessing. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1144:It is up to us to determine whether the years ahead will be for humankind a curse or a blessing. We always must remember that it is given to men and women to choose life and living, not death and destruction. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
1145:The most important anchor, and therefore our “greatest help and blessing,” St. Teresa noted, is the fact that in Christ God became a man, hence someone we can concretely envision in our minds when we pray. ~ Gregory A Boyd, #NFDB
1146:For love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
1147:If by happiness you mean ecstasy ... Yes, I've known ecstasy, and it's a blessing to be able to say it because those who can say it are very few. But ecstasy doesn't last long and is seldom if ever repeated. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
1148:I'm learning that the blessing is located in our poor people, in people who are weak; they are the ones we should stay close to, not because they need us but because we need to receive from them the blessing. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1149:Poland has resumed its place as a leading nation of a Europe that is strong, whole, and free.A strong Poland is a blessing to the nations of Europe. A strong Europe is a blessing to the West and to the world. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1150:Spend your brief moment according to nature's law, and serenely greet the journey's end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1151:Approving of women as pastors and elders primarily because we see evidence of blessing on their ministries and not primarily because we see it taught in the Bible is another step on the path toward liberalism. ~ Wayne Grudem, #NFDB
1152:Succeed in not fearing the lion, and the lion will fear YOU. Say to suffering, 'I will that you shall become a pleasure,' and it will prove to be such-- and even more than a pleasure, it will be a blessing.
~ Eliphas Levi,#NFDB
1153:Those little children have not yet any understanding to desire His blessing; but when they are presented to Him, He gently and kindly receives them, and dedicates them to the Father by a solemn act of blessing. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1154:We sing a little song before we eat, a little blessing before we eat, and it's really - we're thanking the Lord and the Earth for the food that we eat, and it really brings you together in a profound kind of way. ~ Phil Lesh, #NFDB
1155:I've found that if you have two films that don't perform well it doesn't matter that you've had a bunch of successful ones. The phone stops ringing, and after Deadly Blessing and Swamp Thing that's what happened. ~ Wes Craven, #NFDB
1156:Allah (swt) by His grace has given you some ni'ma (blessing), some bounty. So, the best way to be thankful to Allah (swt) is to use that bounty and ni'ma to bring the people of Allah (swt) close to Allah (swt). ~ Junaid Jamshed, #NFDB
1157:Among these treasures of our land is water-fast becoming our most valuable, most prized, most critical resource. A blessing where properly used-but it can bring devastation and ruin when left uncontrolled. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower, #NFDB
1158:Blessings come in packages of two. With every blessing is a test. So don't ever envy people who seem to have more than you. The more blessings, the more tests. And the greater the blessing, the harder the test. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
1159:For love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive. The ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
1160:Leaders think it’s possible. They inspire followers to believe in the same good news and it becomes a blessing to them. Leadership is all about inspiring people to believe in what becomes profitable to them! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1161:Marner was in the right in what he said about a man’s turning away a blessing from his door: it falls to somebody else. I wanted to pass for childless once, Nancy – I shall pass for childless now against my wish. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1162:rooted is to say, here am I nourished and here will I grow, for I have found a place where every sunrise shows me how to be more than what I was yesterday, and I need not wander to feel the wonder of my blessing. ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
1163:The soul is kissed by God in its innermost regions. With interior yearning, grace and blessing are bestowed. It is a yearning to take on God's gentle yoke, It is a yearning to give one's self to God's Way. ~ Hildegard of Bingen, #NFDB
1164:We all want to believe that our pain is singular - that no on else has felt this way - but our pain is ordinary, which is both a blessing and a curse. It means we're not unique. But it also means we're not alone. ~ Sarah Hepola, #NFDB
1165:When you become an actor, you never, ever imagine you're going to be working on one role for a decade, and while it is such a blessing to get the opportunity to do that, it's also nice to do something different. ~ Misha Collins, #NFDB
1166:my experience was that the less I spent on myself and the more I gave away, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become. Unspeakable joy all the day long, and every day, was my happy experience. ~ James Hudson Taylor, #NFDB
1167:Alas! it is too true that our souls always contract themselves on the approach of a blessing, and seem as if their powers, exhausted in the effort to obtain it, had no longer energy to embrace the object. ~ Charles Robert Maturin, #NFDB
1168:At the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
1169:It's a shame you know," he called over his shoulder. "What's a shame?" Duncan asked. "That I didn't capture her first." Duncan smiled. "Nay, Edmond, it was a blessing. God's truth, I would have taken her from you. ~ Julie Garwood, #NFDB
1170:My life path has been a blessing and a great learning experience. Skateboarding is my passion and I don't see that changing. When I'm not skating, I love to surf. I'm open to the new experiences and opportunities. ~ Ryan Sheckler, #NFDB
1171:One of my most precious possessions is my memory of a home in which love was supreme, in which I cannot recall ever a cross word having passed between father and mother. We all owe such a blessing to our children. ~ David O McKay, #NFDB
1172:There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing. And I smiled. I’m not saying I was happy, but for some reason I smiled. It hurts now, but I’ll love this memory, I thought to myself. And I do. ~ Donald Miller, #NFDB
1173:I'd already rehearsed it [ Don't Kill It script ] for the first time it was supposed to happen and the second time. That was a blessing in disguise because the character [Jebediah Woodley] grew a little bit in me. ~ Dolph Lundgren, #NFDB
1174:My blessing is I'm blessed with good health. If I weren't feeling good or if I didn't have the energy, then it's not that much fun. But this way, you can get away with murder because you're going to be 90 in January. ~ Betty White, #NFDB
1175:Applauds of the ignorant majority are worthless; applauds of the wise minority are priceless! Look carefully, who are applauding you? Look carefully, who are blessing you? Mud in the ground or stars in the sky? ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1176:Cravings. Are they a curse or a blessing? The answer to that depends on what we’re craving. And what we’re craving will always depend on whatever we’re consuming . . . the object of our desire or God and His truth. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1177:Eragon blinked. Is it me, or is everyone on the edge today? Like Arya-one moment she's angry, the next she's giving me a blessing!
No one will be comfortable until things return to normal.
Define normal. ~ Christopher Paolini,#NFDB
1178:I cannot think without a shudder of contracting any obligation towards death. I hate death; for, happy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses, and those who do not love it are unworthy of it. ~ Giacomo Casanova, #NFDB
1179:It is your blessing, the path God has chosen for you here on Earth. Whenever a man does that which gives him enthusiasm, he is following his Legend. However, not everyone has the courage to face up to his own dreams. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1180:That night, it was blessing enough to be beside him. It was blessing enough to know that he was here, to feel the warmth of him next to her, to lie with him, their heads touching, his right hand laced in her left. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1181:We need to be politically engaged, but peculiar in how we engage. Jesus and the early Christians had a marvelous political imagination. They turned all the presumptions and ideas of power and blessing upside down. ~ Shane Claiborne, #NFDB
1182:If all literary women had such thoughtful angels for husbands, they would live longer and write more. Perhaps that wouldn't be such a blessing to the world though, as most of us write too much now,' said Mrs. Jo… ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
1183:Similarly, unless we suffer from a remarkably restricted range of acquaintances, we all know that there are people who please God and have his blessing without being poor, hungry, grief-stricken, or persecuted. They ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
1184:There is this blessing, that while life has but one entrance, it has exits innumerable, and as I choose the house in which I live, the ship in which I will sail, so will I choose the time and manner of my death. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1185:We don't have to be perfect to be a blessing. We are asked only to be real, trusting in His perfection to cover our imperfection, knowing that one day we will finally be all that Christ saved us for and wants us to be. ~ Gigi Graham, #NFDB
1186:If you're anxious about the state of the world, that's understandable. But trade your anxiety for the blessing of hearing the words of Scripture, keeping them in faith and obedience, and remembering the time is near. ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
1187:In the hands of a mature, healthy human being—one who has achieved full humanness—power ... is a great blessing. But in the hands of the immature, vicious, or emotionally sick, power is a horrible danger. ABRAHAM MASLOW ~ Fred Kofman, #NFDB
1188:In what ways has God changed you to become more holy because of Jesus’ blessing? How is God inviting you to make further changes in your life to live at greater levels of obedience and holiness to reflect Christ more? ~ Mark Driscoll, #NFDB
1189:...it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing... ~ Galway Kinnell,#NFDB
1190:No excuses ever, for anyone; that is my principle at the outset. I deny the good intention, the respectable mistake, the indiscretion, the extenuating circumstance. With me there is no giving of absolution or blessing. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1191:Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1192:perform! John's Gospel came along to give us the best of good news. We were never meant to live with emptiness! We were meant to be full; His children were all meant to receive His fullness in one blessing after another! ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1193:Some respected and beloved brethren insist that the forming and organising of churches is, according to God's will, the only means of finding blessing in the midst of that confusion which is acknowledged to exist. ~ John Nelson Darby, #NFDB
1194:To be rooted is to say, here am I nourished and here will I grow, for I have found a place where every sunrise shows me how to be more than what I was yesterday, and I need not wander to feel the wonder of my blessing. ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
1195:A marriage is meant to be a blessing on the world, because it is a context in which two people might become more than what they would have been alone. The entire world is healed by the presence of healed people. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1196:Don't be too quick to interpret the moment. Just keep quiet. My encouragement would always be: never think anything is against you, everything is blessing. Why should it be different? Just be quiet. Let it all work itself out. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
1197:Enlightenment begins when you change your mindset - from a blaming mindset to blessing mindset, from a negative mindset to positive mindset, from fixed mindset to growth mind set, from linear mindset to exponential mindset. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1198:Failure is a dreaded concept for most business people. But failure can actually be a huge engine of innovation. The trick lies in approaching it with the right attitude and harnessing it as a blessing, not a curse. ~ Peter H Diamandis, #NFDB
1199:I just think it's a blessing that I was able to have the gift of words and to be able to put them into music. I was given a great gift all the way around. I didn't ever have to really go out and look for songs, you know. ~ Teena Marie, #NFDB
1200:Mechanical instruments, potentially a vehicle of rational human purposes, are scarcely a blessing when they enable the gossip of the village idiot and the deeds of the thug to be broadcast to a million people each day. ~ Lewis Mumford, #NFDB
1201:Power, for the sake of lording it over fellow-creatures or adding to personal pomp, is rightly judged base. But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
1202:As my family story shows, Latinos have been a blessing for USA for many generations. The future of America depends in part on the success of the Latino community, and this opportunity is just one more signifier of that. ~ Julian Castro, #NFDB
1203:The great thing is anytime you see an artist that has a piece of what I've already done, you can see it from afar. 'He's doing that lil' hammer right there' - whether it's the energy, the swag or the look - it's a blessing. ~ MC Hammer, #NFDB
1204:The more I prayed, the more aware I became that, in order to receive God's true blessing, my heart had to be ready to receive His love. But how could He enter my heart when it was holding so much anger and hatred? ~ Immacul e Ilibagiza, #NFDB
1205:What a curse, to want only one person.”
He drew her into his arms and kissed her again, hungrily. “What a glorious blessing, to want only one person and be wanted back, even after thirty-six long years,” he whispered. ~ Diana Palmer,#NFDB
1206:When prayers were ended, and his Mother had wished him good-night with that long steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had all the intensity of a blessing. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
1207:also understood that I wasn’t being intentionally mean. I was being honest (admittedly, without tact), and I was being human. It is either a blessing or a curse that those are rarely likable qualities in a woman. Inevitably ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
1208:In some ways the ACL tear was a blessing. I had hesitated to return to elite gymnastics after the 2008 Olympics. I told myself I had already accomplished so much, and the road was just going to get harder if I continued. ~ Shawn Johnson, #NFDB
1209:It turned out to be nothing, which at first felt like a blessing, but quickly transformed into a curse. A baby would have saved him from the other woman in Andrew’s life—the one who would ultimately tear them apart. Emily ~ Ania Ahlborn, #NFDB
1210:It was such a blessing to find myself thriving in the middle of the pain. Unless you find a way to do that, there’s always going to be this fake illusion that once you get there—wherever “there” is for you—you’ll be happy. ~ Chip Gaines, #NFDB
1211:The blessing that the market does not ask about birth is paid for in the exchange society by the fact that the possibilities conferred by birth are molded to fit the production of goods that can be bought on the market. ~ Theodor Adorno, #NFDB
1212:the greatest hindrance to God’s blessing in your life is not others, it is yourself — your self-will, stubborn pride, and personal ambition. You cannot fulfill God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
1213:Could I look like Thee with disgust upon Mankind, could bury myself for ever in some impenetrable solitude, and forget that the world holds Beings deserving to be loved! Oh God! What a blessing would Misanthropy be to me! ~ Matthew Lewis, #NFDB
1214:I feel so blessed to just have done what I had done. To be able to just use what God has given me is a blessing. You know, never mind the Grammys, never mind the records, never mind all of that. Just to be able to sing. ~ Whitney Houston, #NFDB
1215:If we want to enjoy the continued blessing of the Lord, we cannot act based on what we think God might want us to do; rather, we must be certain of His statutes. His moral law revealed in Scripture gives us these regulations. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1216:Ministers are powerless people who have nothing to boast of except their weaknesses. But when the Lord whom they serve fills them with His blessing they will move mountains and change the hearts of people wherever they go. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1217:Pass, then, through this little space of time in harmony with nature and end thy journey in contentment, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew. ~ Irvin D Yalom, #NFDB
1218:The blessing of the omnivore is that he can eat a great many different things in nature. The curse of the omnivore is that when it comes to figuring out which of those things are safe to eat, he's pretty much on his own. ~ Michael Pollan, #NFDB
1219:What a blessing to be able to leave the cares of life for a brief period and spend time in the outstretched arms of your Shepherd, rubbing, as it were, your cheek against His face in intimate fellowship through prayer. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
1220:Do they think the tree of blessing will drop its fruit into their mouth when they never shook it by prayer? God does not set His mercies at so low a rate as to cast them away upon those who do not seek them, Ezekiel 36:37. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
1221:(I bring food and drink to the guards when they are on post during feasts. I believe it is written in the Obfuscations of St. Pesto: “In nine cases out of ten, a large friend with a poleax shall truly a blessing be.” ) ~ Christopher Moore, #NFDB
1222:Looking towards the open window, I saw light wreaths from Joe's pipe floating there, and I fancied it was like a blessing from Joe,—not obtruded on me or paraded before me, but pervading the air we shared together. I put ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1223:Writing a book is like raising a child. They are conceived in private, and with hard labor, delivered in due time and given a name. Our own DNA is written all over them, and we pray their life will be a blessing to others. ~ Danny L Deaub, #NFDB
1224:And when the war broke out, its real horrors, its real dangers, its menace of real death were a blessing compared with the inhuman reign of the lie, and they brought relief because they broke the spell of the dead letter. ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
1225:I say, “Yes, Devil, sin is terrible—but I remind you that I got it from you! And I remind you, Devil, that everything good—forgiveness and cleansing and blessing—everything that is good I have freely received from Jesus Christ! ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1226:Every minute, every instant of life ought to be a blessing to man . . . they ought to be, they certainly ought to be! It's the duty of man to make it so; that's the law of his nature, which always exists even if hidden. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1227:I think it [Danger] showed the unity between the spirituality and love I have for Big Pun. It was overdue and I think that was God's plan. I didn't get to create the magic with him in the studio, but it was still a blessing. ~ Tony Sunshine, #NFDB
1228:It’s been said of me that I know how to love well, if any person alive can possess such knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us.
It is all such a blessing—in the beginning, and the end, and the during. ~ David Levithan,#NFDB
1229:j One gives k freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. 25 l Whoever brings blessing m will be enriched, and n one who waters will himself be watered. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1230:Magic is dangerous: it's neither good nor bad, right nor wrong; it can be both a blessing and a curse. It takes strength, the strength of a man, to make the magic his own, to make it serve him, and not the other way around. ~ Daniel Wallace, #NFDB
1231:Never let a day pass without looking for the good, feeling the good within you, praising, appreciating, blessing, and being grateful. Make it your life commitment, and you will stand in utter awe of what happens in your life. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
1232:I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It's the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself. ~ Peter H eg, #NFDB
1233:My curveball is a blessing. My father taught it to me. He felt that it was a pitch he wanted me to learn, right on the side of the house, and it just ended up working. I never asked what the tricks were, or anything like that. ~ Gio Gonzalez, #NFDB
1234:One of the cries from the people was, don't forget us. They have a long road ahead of them. Operation Blessing has found those little fishing towns. They will not be getting what other towns are getting from the government. ~ Connie Sellecca, #NFDB
1235:Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1236:Don Juan in Carlos Castaneda’s A Separate Peace: “The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse. ~ Michael E Gerber, #NFDB
1237:I knew what I wanted to do when I was 13 and I had to go through four years of high school to get out. That's a blessing, because I never had to lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling going, 'What am I going to do with my life?' ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
1238:It is a blessing for us that, as sin lives, and the flesh lives, and the devil lives, so Jesus lives. It is also a blessing that, whatever strength these may have to ruin us, Jesus has still greater power to save us. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1239:It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse: a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
1240:I was given the gifts of the artist, and the trouble that goes with them: So I have that blessing, and there was never a time thatI questioned it or doubted it.... For forty years, I wanted to jump out of windows. ~ Louise Berliawsky Nevelson, #NFDB
1241:Oh, for five hundred Elijahs, each one upon his Carmel , crying unto God, and we should soon have the clouds bursting into showers. Oh, for more prayer, more constant, incessant prayer! Then the blessing would rain upon us. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1242:You are my protection O Lord, my salvation: grant to Farid the blessing of Your adoration. [2667.jpg] -- from Anthology of Great Sufi & Mystical Poets of Pakistan, by Paul Smith
~ Baba Sheikh Farid, You are my protection O Lord
,#NFDB
1243:A person like this is a blessing for the world. And there is no reason why you couldn’t be that person. Why aren’t you that person now? Because of these walls of self-protection you’ve built, these attitudes of limit and lack. ~ Norman Fischer, #NFDB
1244:Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ; for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1245:Blessing is not a technique we perform but a presence we embody. It is not an act we do to someone or something, but a relationship we form with them that enables us all to be embraced in the presence of an unobstructed world. ~ David Spangler, #NFDB
1246:I had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope of His blessing: which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer. ~ Daniel Defoe, #NFDB
1247:Let Thy wonderful revelation of a Father's tenderness free all young Christians from every thought of secret prayer as a duty or a burden, and lead them to regard it as the highest privilege of their life, a joy and a blessing. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1248:Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
1249:Now there will be no more loneliness,” said the minister, as he gave his final blessing on the couple. Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
1250:You young folks go on. I’m going to play bingo at that big Catholic Church around the corner. I heard they draw a big crowd; plus, that’s the only way I’ll step foot in a chapel is to get my blessing in fives, tens, and twenties. ~ Pat Simmons, #NFDB
1251:Comandante Fidel Castro sent his people there into Africa, in the Caribbean; they died right alongside of others who were seeking the blessing of justice and freedom and equity. What other man do you know who did such a thing? ~ Louis Farrakhan, #NFDB
1252:Don’t worry about anything. Even if you find your attention wandering, there is no particular ‘thing’ you have to hold onto. Just let go, and drift in the awareness of the blessing. Don’t let small, niggling questions distract ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
1253:God bless the King, I mean the Faith’s Defender; God bless – no harm in blessing – the Pretender; But who Pretender is, or who is King, God bless us all – that’s quite another thing! John Byrom: To an Officer in the Army ~ Cynthia Harrod Eagles, #NFDB
1254:Maybe some people just aren’t meant to be in our lives forever. Maybe some people are just passing through. It’s like some people just come through our lives to bring us something: a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn. ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
1255:Putting out a debut album is a bit scary - I want it to be just right, so I took some extra time to finish it. Eminem's increased involvement has been such a blessing; I'm getting guidance from an artist I really admire and trust. ~ Skylar Grey, #NFDB
1256:Such are the inconsistences of humans in uniform, that the same endothermic vertebrates, which were believed a blessing, an aid to nostalgia, a sign from God, could also be shot for food (see p281-88) and employed as tools. ~ John Lewis Stempel, #NFDB
1257:The effects of high optimism on decision making are, at best, a mixed blessing, but the contribution of optimism to good implementation is certainly positive. The main benefit of optimism is resilience in the face of setbacks. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
1258:We all know people who become strongly identified with, and attached to, their intelligence. It can become a big ego trap, harmful to oneself or others. Intelligence can also be a great blessing, providing invaluable clarity. ~ Joseph Goldstein, #NFDB
1259:Get a friend to tell you your faults, or better still, welcome an enemy who will watch you keenly and sting you savagely. What a blessing such an irritating critic will be to a wise man, what an intolerable nuisance to a fool! ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1260:I don't think that John Kerry is the Messiah or the Democratic Party is the answer, but I don't like the evangelical community blessing the Republican Party as some kind of God-ordained instrument for solving the world's problems. ~ Tony Campolo, #NFDB
1261:Liberty is a blessing so inestimable, that, wherever there appears any probability of recovering it, a nation may willingly run many hazards, and ought not even to repine at the greatest effusion of blood or dissipation of treasure. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
1262:Maybe that was the hidden blessing: the hurricane was the great equalizer; its wrath indiscriminate. In the end, the blessing, if there were one, was that for a short time, everyone would come together in order to survive. Less ~ Natalie Baszile, #NFDB
1263:She was of course only too good for him; but as nobody minds having what is too good for them, he was very steadily earnest in the pursuit of the blessing, and it was not possible that encouragement from her should be long wanting. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1264:With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
1265:With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking his blessing and his help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
1266:Are we casting abroad good, sound gospel writings? Luther once said, "The devil hates goose quills" and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit's blessing, have done his kingdom much damage. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1267:Death is really a great blessing for humanity, without it there could be no real progress. People who lived for ever would not only hamper and discourage the young, but they would themselves lack sufficient stimulus to be creative. ~ Alfred Adler, #NFDB
1268:God doesn't make us rich so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children, or so we can insulate ourselves form needing God's provision. God gives us abundant material blessing so that we can give it away, and give it generously. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
1269:If in the well and truly made martini DeVoto finds "water of life" and the blessing to the spirit, so also DeVoto's The Hour brings to its readers the breath of life and a vision of themselves made generous, indomitable and wise. ~ Lewis H Lapham, #NFDB
1270:Living? That will always be the hardest thing you will ever do. It hurts like hell, it’s full of bumps down every road, and you’ll take wrong turns, but it’s a blessing to have the chance to fail in the first place, am I right? ~ Rachel Van Dyken, #NFDB
1271:Receive this blessing as you go forth this day: “May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1272:Say to the next generation again and again: God is truthful; God keeps his word; God does not lie; God can be trusted! That’s one blessing of Advent. Receive it as a wonderful Christmas gift, and give it to as many people as you can. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
1273:You remember to trust in Heavenly Father. Life is a blessing, but it is also a testing. Take the one as you do the other and trust Him who allows all. Trust what Creator is doing, though we cannot understand it or see the full path. ~ Lori Benton, #NFDB
1274:As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him. ~ John Adams, #NFDB
1275:For the most part, we should pray rather in aspiration than petition, rather by hoping than requesting; in which spirit also we may breathe a devout wish for a blessing on others upon occasions when it might be presumptuous to beg it. ~ Leigh Hunt, #NFDB
1276:He is: frog: unworried by the self-consciousness with which the human animal is stuck; it is our blessing and our curse; not only do we know, we know that we know. And we are not often willing to face how little we know. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
1277:I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower, #NFDB
1278:I have no secret but hard work. This is a secret that many never learn, and they don't succeed because they don't learn it. Labor is the genius that changes the world from ugliness to beauty, and the great curse to a great blessing. ~ J M W Turner, #NFDB
1279:It's about spending less time thinking about stuff and more time loving people. It's about living in the present and not being caught up in the past or waiting for the future. It's about seeing everything I have as a huge blessing. ~ Joshua Becker, #NFDB
1280:No action, whether foul or fair, Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere A record, written by fingers ghostly, As a blessing or a curse, and mostly In the greater weakness or greater strength Of the acts which follow it. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, #NFDB
1281:Thus the growing complications of our everyday life, which might have been an affliction, proved to be a blessing in disguise. Indeed, had not the epidemic, as already mentioned, spread its ravages, all would have been for the best. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1282:Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. Money, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. —Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary ~ Kim Stanley Robinson, #NFDB
1283:I should regret very much to have you miss the glorious feeling of accomplishment and I know you are not going to let me down. Remember that often adversity is a blessing in disguise and is certainly the greatest character builder. ~ Charles G Koch, #NFDB
1284:It will always be the duty of those who have the most to help those with the least. I did not earn my wealth. It is mine by birth. It blesses me so that I have the means of blessing others. The situation does not mean you are weak. ~ G G Vandagriff, #NFDB
1285:Tack’s eyes stayed locked on Shy’s two beats then he said quietly. “Make her happy.”
Shy held his gaze as, for the first time in fucking months, he began to breathe easy.
There it was.
Tack just gave it.
His blessing. ~ Kristen Ashley,#NFDB
1286:But the blessing Christ promised, the blessing of great reward, is a reward of grace. The blessing is promised even though it is not earned. Augustine said it this way: Our rewards in heaven are a result of God's crowning His own gifts. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1287:If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testing ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
1288:If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with him, and to give him time everyday to work in you, and to keep up the link of connection between you and himself, he cannot give you that blessing of his unbroken fellowship. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1289:The great blessing of being a Christian is that we have both a reason for the journey that we are on, and a companion for it. We are not alone. We are not striving for acceptance, because we have already been accepted and forgiven. ~ Rachel Jankovic, #NFDB
1290:~ Nirmala24~ Nirmala all may have a mind of their own but thoughts are gifts of grace touching mind for an instant like melting snowflakes every place can be home but rest is a divine blessing when effort falls away like the setting sun ~ Nirmala, #NFDB
1291:She remembered how Billy always picked the first apple blossoms and put them into a tin cup for her. They made the house smell like springtime. Billy said apple trees were a double blessing, first for the blossoms and then the apples. ~ Sandra Dallas, #NFDB
1292:What teachings of Scripture do you still mainly follow out of dutiful habit, not with an eye toward honoring God or being used as a blessing to others? What has your legalistic adherence gained for you, and what has it cost you? ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1293:When God provides more money we often think, This is a blessing. Yes, but it would be just as scriptural to say, “This is a test.” Abundance isn’t God’s provision for me to live in luxury. It’s his provision for me to help others live. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
1294:And now I would like to give the blessing, but first - first I ask a favor of you: before the Bishop blesses his people, I ask you to pray to the Lord that he will bless me: the prayer of the people asking the blessing for their Bishop. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1295:Finding happiness should not be seen as finding a needle in a haystack. Happiness is within. Each day is a blessing that brings an abundance of happiness. Therefore, finding happiness should be like finding a gift in a stack of gifts. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1296:Honestly, it's a blessing. Benny's [Blanco] probably one of the most talented people I know. He's just a very proactive guy when it comes to music and is just very creative. I think because of that, it makes it very easy to work with him. ~ Tory Lanez, #NFDB
1297:How you humans survive so much experience is something I shall never understand. To do so much and react to it all in the way you do is as much a curse as a blessing. You never take time to digest and appreciate what happens to you. ~ Peter F Hamilton, #NFDB
1298:I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days during their early adult life. Darkness would make them more appreciative of sight; silence would teach them the joys of sound. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
1299:In India's distant past, when the population was low, the blessing given a woman was, 'May you have many children.' Most of our epics and literature stress this wish, and the idea that a woman should have many children hasn't declined. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
1300:Jesus isn’t recommending that you take up suffering as a weekend hobby. He just wants you to realize that you can find an incredible blessing hidden in the shadows. And that blessing might be visible only through the lens of your tears. ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
1301:My mom stared at her lemonade. She looked like she was trying not to cry. I thought about what Hestia had said, about how hard it was to yield, and I figured maybe my mom was finding that out. “Percy,” she said, “I give you my blessing. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1302:The blessing in life is when you find the torture you are comfortable with. That's marriage, it's kids, it's work, it's exercise. Find the torture you're comfortable with and you'll do well. You've mastered that, you've mastered life. ~ Jerry Seinfeld, #NFDB
1303:The evening makes me think Facebook is a blessing and a curse. Sure, it helps us keep track of people with whom we otherwise would have fallen out of touch. But sometimes relationships fade for a reason. They're better left a memory. ~ Rachel Bertsche, #NFDB
1304:True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing. ~ Baltasar Gracian, #NFDB
1305:True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing. ~ Baltasar Graci n, #NFDB
1306:We all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1307:And as if he had read her thoughts, the old man murmured, 'What a blessing it is to die in your own bed, under your own roof, with your family surrounding you, full of the knowledge that you have lived as thoroughly as you wanted to. ~ Anita Rau Badami, #NFDB
1308:If we continue to seek learning to serve God and His children better, it is a blessing of great worth. If we begin to seek learning to exalt ourselves alone, it leads to selfishness and pride, which will take us away from eternal life. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
1309:It is in sickness that we most feel the need of that sympathy which shows how much we are dependent upon one another for our comfort, and even necessities. Thus disease, opening our eyes to the realities of life, is an indirect blessing. ~ Hosea Ballou, #NFDB
1310:...never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else's blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people's judgments about you are none of your business. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1311:The collected knowledge, art, and amusements of all human civilization were there, waiting for me. But gaining access to all of that information turned out to be something of a mixed blessing. Because that was when I found out the truth. ~ Ernest Cline, #NFDB
1312:The Universe is not punishing you or blessing you. The Universe is responding to the vibrational attitude that you are emitting. The more joyful you are, the more Well-Being flows to you-and you get to choose the details of how it flows. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
1313:Words are both better and worse than thoughts, they express them, and add to them; they give them power for good or evil; they start them on an endless flight, for instruction and comfort and blessing, or for injury and sorrow and ruin. ~ Tryon Edwards, #NFDB
1314:But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people’s judgments about you are none of your business. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1315:I am grateful for who I am and who I am not. I am grateful for the life I have been given and for all that I have and all that I don't. Every breath I take is a blessing and an opportunity to fully experience the sheer joy of being alive. ~ Miranda Kerr, #NFDB
1316:May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand. Irish blessing ~ Janice Thompson, #NFDB
1317:The market economy is deeply congruent with the values set out in the Hebrew Bible. Material prosperity is a divine blessing. Poverty crushes the spirit as well as the body, and its alleviation is a sacred task. Work is a noble calling. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
1318:True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... To find one real friend in a lifetime is a good fortune; to keep him is a blessing. ~ Baltasar Graci n, #NFDB
1319:I believe that it should be the blessing of every child to be born into a home where that child is welcomed, nurtured, loved, and blessed with parents, a father and a mother, who live with loyalty to one another and to their children. ~ Gordon B Hinckley, #NFDB
1320:That is the biggest part I like about the game, the camaraderie. Just seeing how it translates on the field, a lot of those guys helped me out throughout my process and just seeing them and being out there with them is definitely a blessing. ~ Eric Berry, #NFDB
1321:I believe we are all in danger of accumulating—it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation—things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing. ~ James Hudson Taylor, #NFDB
1322:I went through a period in my life when I had no friends, when the phone never rang, when I thought I would die from loneliness. I know that the real blessing here isn't that I have a book published, but that I have so many people to thank. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
1323:I went through a period in my life when I had no friends, when the phone never rang, when I thought I would die from loneliness. I know that the real blessing here isn’t that I have a book published, but that I have so many people to thank. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
1324:Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1325:Such is the indomitable spirit of saffron that even after years stale on my chest, it brought the rice to life with flavor and the color of a sunset. Or perhaps my wife leaned down and touched my efforts with a kettle-blessing to keep me safe. ~ Eli Brown, #NFDB
1326:Water can be a blessing or a curse. Too often we make conservation about saving a whale, a coral reef or a marsh. But we don't make it about saving life. The one thing that every single human being has in common is our need for water. ~ Alexandra Cousteau, #NFDB
1327:God has one destined end for mankind - holiness! His one aim is the production of saints. God is not an eternal blessing-machine for men. He did not come to save men out of pity. He came to save men because He had created them to be holy. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1328:Our early success, blessing that it was, made us complacent and we weren't sufficiently afraid of what came next. Sometimes having a little fear early saves one from experiencing a big fear later on. [Al Gleeson in THE HALCYON DISLOCATION] ~ Peter Kazmaier, #NFDB
1329:When I was growing up, I was obviously gay, and I got heckled every day of my life. The only way I knew how to survive was to make people laugh. If I could make them laugh, I wouldn't get hung in a locker for two hours. That's a blessing. ~ Carson Kressley, #NFDB
1330:I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, nor fancy; but, if I could choose what would be most delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing. ~ Humphry Davy, #NFDB
1331:O look, look in the mirror
O look in your distress
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless
O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart ~ W H Auden,#NFDB
1332:Some people have a thick skin and you don’t. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world. The cost is high, but the blessing of being compassionate is beyond your wildest dreams. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
1333:Be thankful for the smallest blessing and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favors. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
1334:But in fact the one which is really beautiful and delicate, flawless and endowed with every blessing, is the beloved object, while the one which loves is by contrast of an entirely different character, such as I have just described. ~ Plato, Symposium, 204c, #NFDB
1335:Everyone has their own struggles, but I never question the road I'm on. I'm a firm believer in the notion that "everything happens for a reason," so even if sometimes you think you're facing a problem, really it's just a blessing in disguise. ~ Nikki Yanofsky, #NFDB
1336:God is still breathing. The Bible is both inspired and inspiring. Our job is to ready the sails and gather the embers, to discuss and debate, and like the biblical character Jacob, to wrestle with the mystery until God gives us a blessing. ~ Rachel Held Evans, #NFDB
1337:My great blessing is my son, but I have daughters. I have white ones and Black ones and fat ones and thin ones and pretty ones and plain. I have gay ones and straight. I have daughters. I have Asian ones, I have Jewish ones, I have Muslim ones. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1338:Now you feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other - Apache Wedding Blessing ~ Tia Widiana, #NFDB
1339:Some would say a whore don't have no expectation of Heaven. I'd say, if she gives value for cash, she's got a better shot at God's blessing than your average banker. Jesus loved Mary Magdalene. He kicked over tables when He met a moneylender. ~ Elizabeth Bear, #NFDB
1340:Some would say a whore don’t have no expectation of Heaven. I’d say, if she gives value for cash, she’s got a better shot at God’s blessing than your average banker. Jesus loved Mary Magdalene. He kicked over tables when He met a moneylender. ~ Elizabeth Bear, #NFDB
1341:The great gift of age is the realization that each morning is a blessing, as votive in nature as a communion wafer raised to the sky. I made a habit of letting the world go on a daily basis, but unfortunately, it didn’t want to let go of me. ~ James Lee Burke, #NFDB
1342:Work was the poor man's blessing. When there was always something to do, something you liked to do and knew at the same time that it was necessary and useful, you could be contented—after a fashion—even when your husband was in the Pacific ~ Elisabeth Ogilvie, #NFDB
1343:You can't really appreciate anonymity until you've lost it. People say that's sour grapes, but it really isn't To be able to walk down the street without people paying attention to you is a real blessing and you lose it when you become an actor. ~ Paul Newman, #NFDB
1344:24In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, h a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt i my people, and Assyria j the work of my hands, and k Israel my inheritance. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1345:Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing. ~ Eugene H Peterson, #NFDB
1346:But when I think about it, having the kind of body that easily puts on weight was perhaps a blessing in disguise. In other words, if I don’t want to gain weight I have to work out hard every day, watch what I eat, and cut down on indulgences. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1347:Country music fans are the best everywhere and they've always made me feel like I'm at home, no matter what zip code I'm in. I just want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for blessing me with such an incredible career that I truly enjoy. ~ Trace Adkins, #NFDB
1348:I feel like that's a blessing [ Ralph Angel role]. I really just think it's about the overall message, the way it's conveyed and the people involved in the project. Find people you want to create with because it's infinite, unlimited expression. ~ Kofi Siriboe, #NFDB
1349:I grew up feeling like a weirdo like many kids do. But I was lucky to find my own home for peculiar children. I went to a school for the gifted in Florida, and it was full of kids who - we were all strange together. And that was a real blessing. ~ Ransom Riggs, #NFDB
1350:It's one thing to have a goal, but it's quite another thing to actually accept the challenge, develop a strategy to press for the goal, make the sacrifices, pay the price to move forward, and blessing of blessing, to realize some part of it. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
1351:I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: 'Oh my God, what a blessing.' Then you realise it's important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1352:My great fear in this life didn't have a name that I knew of. I was afraid of remaining exactly who I was, and that phobia instilled a shiver of fear into every one of my days. Something as simple as a fear of cats would have been a blessing. ~ William Lashner, #NFDB
1353:On top of all that, you're naked. And while I'm going to hate myself for this later, could you put on some clothes? At least just for a little while, so I can think. Then you can go right back to being naked. All the time. With my full blessing. ~ Lish McBride, #NFDB
1354:The gospel of Jesus Christ is worth living for, yes, and it is worth dying for, of course, but we show it is supremely valuable to us when we deny ourselves and take up our crosses to be a blessing to the people who the gospel is calling us to. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
1355:I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country. ~ Andrew Jackson, #NFDB
1356:In the end, life is about collecting experiences and looking for the lesson and blessing in each one. Yet we are never to carry these experiences on our backs, only in our hearts. One will hold us back, while the other will keep us moving forward. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
1357:Prayer is, paradoxically, both a gift and a conquest, a grace and a duty. Does that not mean, is it not a special case of the truth, that all duty is a gift, every call on us a blessing, and that the task we often find a burden is really a boon? ~ Peter Forsyth, #NFDB
1358:The greatest thing in the world is love. And if we keep that always in our hearts, and give it as a message to those about us, we will be blessed and will be instruments in blessing those with whom we associate. ~ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, #NFDB
1359:A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else's way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1360:Blessings are better than miracles. If you live your life from one miracle to the next, you will live from crisis to crisis. It's better to be blessed with good health than to always need divine healing. God's will is for us to walk in blessing. ~ Andrew Wommack, #NFDB
1361:if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians! ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1362:I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth. ~ Red Cloud, #NFDB
1363:In your journey through New England,' he wrote, 'Would you be willing to visit Northampton? You have the blessing of Heaven with you wherever you go, and I have a desire, if it be the will of God, that same blessing may come down on this town. ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
1364:Marriage is a fierce battle before which the two partners ask heaven for its blessing, because loving each other is the most audacious of enterprises; the battle is not slow to start, and victory, that is to say freedom, goes to the cleverest. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
1365:These are not naturally occurring phenomena; they are the fruit of culture, the products of human making. In blessing the bread and giving thanks for it, Jesus not only hallows the stuff of the earth, but he also hallows the stuff of our hands. ~ James K A Smith, #NFDB
1366:I did not know what life was until I found you. The boy who came into my life as a child. The boy with no voice who miraculously found words in my presence. The boy who kissed me on my lips, blessing me with the foreign, unreachable concept of hope. ~ Tillie Cole, #NFDB
1367:I don't know about changing my perspective, because motherhood is such a glorious blessing and I am very thankful for that. It is such a beautiful experience. I so strongly recommend it. It's bliss, love, and fulfillment of another level. ~ Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, #NFDB
1368:I think to be in exile is a curse, and you need to turn it into a blessing. Youve been thrown into exile to die, really, to silence you so that your voice cannot come home. And so my whole life has been dedicated to saying, I will not be silenced. ~ Ariel Dorfman, #NFDB
1369:It is a maxim of ours to work in the service of the people, with the good pleasure of the pastors, and never to act contrary to their wishes. And, at the opening and closing of each mission, we get their blessing in a spirit of dependence. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
1370:She closed one eye and looked at me and said, "I know there is a blessing in this somewhere."
It is worth living long enough to outlast whatever sense of grievance you may acquire. Another reason why you must be careful of your health. ~ Marilynne Robinson,#NFDB
1371:When you ask the Universe to bless you in your effort to align yourself with your soul, you open a passageway between yourself and your guides and Teachers. That is what a blessing is: the opening of a passageway between you and nonphysical guidance. ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
1372:A national debt if it is not excessive will be to us a national blessing; it will be powerfull cement of our union. It will also create a necessity for keeping up taxation to a degree which without being oppressive, will be a spur to industry. ~ Alexander Hamilton, #NFDB
1373:Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful;
for beauty is God’s handwriting—a wayside sacrament.
Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower,
and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#NFDB
1374:A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
1375:Blessing is defined by neither ease nor worldly possessions nor pain-free existence nor stock-market successes. Blessing is bowing down to receive the expressions of divine favor that in the inner recesses of the human heart make life worth the bother. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1376:Deeply impressed with the blessing which we enjoy, and of which we have much manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly drawn to that Almighty Being, the great source source from whence they proceed and whom our most grateful acknowledgements are due. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1377:God's blessings, however, aren't always bigger, better, and beautiful. In fact, I truly believe that God gifts His chosen leaders with a very unusual blessing. You might even call it a weird blessing because most of the time we call it...a burden. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
1378:Or maybe it was her father's pragmatic dictum -- "You are no better than anyone else, and no one is better than you"-- that disposed her to see the hardships of her life as a fate shared by everyone, her good fortunes as an unearned blessing. ~ Margot Lee Shetterly, #NFDB
1379:The rain does not fall in a certain land only; the sun does not shine only on a particular country. All that comes from God is for all souls. Verily, blessing is for every soul; for every soul, whatever be one's faith or belief, belongs to God. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
1380:The traveler's boast, sometimes couched as a complaint, is that of having been an eyewitness, and invariably this experience - shocking though it may seem at the time - is an enrichment, even a blessing, one of the life-altering trophies of the road. ~ Paul Theroux, #NFDB
1381:We are now to rank among the nations of the world; but whether our Independence shall prove a blessing or a curse must depend upon our own wisdom or folly, virtue or wickedness.... Justice and virtue are the vital principles of republican government. ~ George Mason, #NFDB
1382:When we have done all that we have been commanded, we must keep in mind that any blessing we receive for our service is born purely of grace (Luke 17:7–10). There is no sense in which we merit a reward from the Lord; anything He gives us is a pure gift. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1383:I hope each of us realizes, at least in part, what a rich blessing it is to be at BYU. We are better prepared to receive and achieve the wonderful advantages and opportunities that life has yet to offer us because of what has happened to us here. ~ Cecil O Samuelson, #NFDB
1384:In the new covenant, God’s way is to bless you first, and the knowledge of His blessing gives you the power to labor more abundantly. In other words, we do not labor to be blessed, but rather we have the power to labor because we are already blessed. ~ Joseph Prince, #NFDB
1385:It is not the contented or the glowing who have left many of the profound testimonies of what it means to be alive. It seems that such knowledge has usually been the privileged preserve of, and the only blessing granted to, the violently miserable. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1386:May God give you . . . For every storm, a rainbow, For every tear, a smile, For every care, a promise, And a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, A faithful friend to share, For every sigh, a sweet song, And an answer for each prayer. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1387:Good human qualities-honesty, sincerity, a good heart-cannot be bought with money, nor can they be produced my machines, but only by the mind itself. We can call this the inner light, or God's blessing, or human qualitity. This is the essence of mankind. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1388:I am so blessed. I've been way over-blessed. At 64 years old, I look forward to going to bed every night so I can wake up in the morning and see what blessing is going to come my way that day. Because you never, ever know what God's got in store for you. ~ Paula Deen, #NFDB
1389:Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. — RALPH WALDO EMERSON ~ Michael J Gelb, #NFDB
1390:When I found out that I could carry a tune, well, I came to realize that I had a gift, that it was a kind of a blessing. And I think if you're given something special, you ought to try and give that something back. If you don't, it's a sin. No question. ~ Howard Keel, #NFDB
1391:Who would stick around to wrestle a dark angel all night long if there were any chance of escape? The only answer I can think of is this: someone in deep need of blessing; someone willing to limp forever for the blessing that follows the wound. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor, #NFDB
1392:all of you, u have unity of mind, sympathy, v brotherly love, w a tender heart, and x a humble mind. 9 y Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, z bless, for a to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1393:As some theologians have commented, if we’re convinced that the starting point for our individual lives, or for the human project in general, is marked “original sin” rather than “original blessing,” it’s going to be all the more difficult to move on. ~ Paul F Knitter, #NFDB
1394:is also a younger-generation version of evangelical talk, such as “The preacher really brought the word” and “It was a total God thing” and the overuse of the terms “passion” and “passionate” in the same way that older people use the term “blessing. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1395:I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, #NFDB
1396:Many believers keep their minds occupied only with the external Christ on the cross or in heaven, and wait for the blessing of His teaching and His working without understanding that the blessing of Pentecost brings Him into us, to work His life in us. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1397:The Bible is an inexhaustible fountain of all truths. The existence of the Bible is the greatest blessing which humanity ever experienced. Few tremble at the Word of God, Few, in reading it, hear the voice of Jehovah, which is full of majesty. ~ Robert Murray M Cheyne, #NFDB
1398:the simplest definition of the Abrahamic faith. It is not our task to conquer or convert the world or enforce uniformity of belief. It is our task to be a blessing to the world. The use of religion for political ends is not righteousness but idolatry. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
1399:Until you change a man's thinking, you cannot change his life, you cannot change his state and therefore cannot change his estate.
The extent of your vision is the boundary of your blessing. How far your vision can go is how much you can possess. ~ Chris Oyakhilome,#NFDB
1400:What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don't all have the courage to confront our own dream. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1401:What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1402:8 Finally, all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble. 9 Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing.d ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1403:All I know is that the stable is empty, and the horse is gone. The rest I don't know. Whether [in the future] it be a curse or a blessing, I can't say. All we can see is a fragment. Who can say what will come next [and what is good or bad in the long run]? ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1404:Bread plays a sacred role in Jewish life. Every loaf contains an element of mystery and hallowedness. Each bite provides a reminder of the privilege of food, not to be taken for granted, and of the hope of blessing the bread in the messianic future. ~ Margaret Feinberg, #NFDB
1405:I think not being a professional photographer was actually a blessing, because it allowed me to shoot things professional photographers wouldn't shoot, or wouldn't try or attempt to shoot without lights. So I did all my stuff natural and without lights. ~ Dennis Hopper, #NFDB
1406:Writing is a difficult question, since it is not only a blessing but also a bad temptation because it tickles the devil of self-importance. If you want to write something, you have to be quite sure that the whole of your being wants this kind of expression. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1407:If you get on a TV show that's successful, odds are that you're playing the same character for as many years as the show is running, which can be its own blessing, but it can also be a curse because you're playing the same thing and that can be tiresome. ~ Sarah Paulson, #NFDB
1408:Certainly it is a blessing to have three beautiful kids who are all healthy. God put them here for me to nurture and bring them up and try to keep as close to right as I can. So it's a blessing. It's a big responsibility, but at the same time it's an honor. ~ Faith Evans, #NFDB
1409:for behold, I know that if ye are brought up in the way ye should go ye will not depart from it. 6 Wherefore, if ye are cursed, behold, I leave my blessing upon you, that the cursing may be taken from you and be answered upon the heads of your parents. ~ Joseph Smith Jr, #NFDB
1410:Here I can become the blessing, a little life that multiplies joy, making the larger world a better place.
God can enter into me, even me, and use these hands, these feet, to be His love, a love that goes on and on and on forever, endless cycle of grace. ~ Ann Voskamp,#NFDB
1411:No one else can make you happy, and putting that expectation on the other will doom both of you. You don't look at someone and say, "You can make my life better." You look at someone and say, " I can make your life better." Be a blessing, not a burden. ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
1412:the real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me. To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1413:TO RETEACH A THING its loveliness” is the nature of metta. Through lovingkindness, everyone and everything can flower again from within. When we recover knowledge of our own loveliness and that of others, self-blessing happens naturally and beautifully. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
1414:When he eased, then finally broke that kiss, he then pressed his lips to the tip of her nose, each eye, and finally her forehead. To Eva, it felt almost like a blessing given by the pope and in a way it was, Connall was blessing her with his love. “Right! ~ Hannah Howell, #NFDB
1415:All the criticism is ultimately a blessing in disguise. Because now people know about Malawi [due to the child adoption]. And now people know about the orphans there. And hopefully it's gonna turn around. And a positive is gonna come out of the negative. ~ Madonna Ciccone, #NFDB
1416:Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1417:Everyone must live in harmony, be sympathetic, love each other, have compassion, and be humble. Don't pay people back with evil for the evil they do to you, or ridicule those who ridicule you. Instead, bless them, because you were called to inherit a blessing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1418:Our ability to look back on the past, our need or desire to make sense of it, is both a blessing and a curse; and our inability to see into the future with any degree of accuracy is, simultaneously, the thing that saves us and the thing that condemns us. ~ James Robertson, #NFDB
1419:Wait for me, Molly. I finally have my pa’s blessing. He’s even helping me find a position in Lockhart. As soon as I’m settled, I’ll come calling, but I can’t court you now. I can’t keep stepping out with you until we’re ready to wed. Will you wait?” With ~ Regina Jennings, #NFDB
1420:I enjoy being a student and learning. I don't think you should ever stop being a student. That's where the most creative ideas come from. Teaching is a blessing as well because I get to share what I've learned and my passion for creative movement with people. ~ Derek Hough, #NFDB
1421:It works like this. In surprising ways, suffering makes room in our spirit for us to know and experience the blessing of God’s peace and presence. Without suffering, we simply can’t know his comfort. In mourning, we experience the blessing of God’s presence. ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
1422:I wanted to say, "Hey, Pope Francis," but I cried like a baby. I was reduced to a very humble set of feelings, because it was not about what was said: There's a presence. That was a blessing for myself and my family and everyone there to be a part of that. ~ Joseph Fiennes, #NFDB
1423:Musalia [Mudavadi] has a much weaker character in person than [Musikari] Kombo, and you know the joke about humble Luhya servants as cooks and watchmen...Anyway, jokes aside, Luhya disunity is a blessing for us and I would never have wanted it any other way. ~ Raila Odinga, #NFDB
1424:Since our separation, although my heart, mind and body were screaming with despair, I’d had to find the strength within myself to still smile each day for Rose. Her obliviousness was her blessing; it sheltered her from pain. I needed to keep it that way. My ~ Bella Forrest, #NFDB
1425:A blessing is not something that one person gives another. A blessing is a moment of meeting, a certain kind of relationship in which both people involved remember and acknowledge their true nature and worth, and strengthen what is whole in one another. ~ Rachel Naomi Remen, #NFDB
1426:As long as you behave appropriately,” he continued, “you have nothing to fear. Father Gabriel often says that this arrangement is a blessing for wives. As a wife you don’t question. By doing as you’re told, you’re relieved of the responsibility of decisions. ~ Aleatha Romig, #NFDB
1427:If we are truly listeners and givers, we will try to help others receive what they need and be a blessing to them. But often our problem is that we spend far too much time trying to bless ourselves and not nearly enough time trying to bless someone else. Godly ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1428:Then go on as one who has long life, Go with blessing before you, Go with blessing behind you, Go with blessing below you, Go with blessing above you, Go with blessing around you, Go with blessing in your speech, Go with happiness and long life, Go mysteriously. ~ Tom Cowan, #NFDB
1429:When a pastor focuses on numbers, the numbers run away, but when he focuses on blessing the people, the people come.” People are pretty smart. They can sense when we want them to come enlarge our church idol or when we just want to help them get closer to Jesus. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1430:Father, help me today speak only words of excellence. Help me be a good listener and think before I speak. I want my words to glorify You and be a blessing to those who hear them. I need You, Lord. I am nothing without You. Strengthen me in all of my weaknesses ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1431:I always thought money was something just to make me happy. But I’ve learned that I feel better being able to help my folks, ’cause we never had nothing. So just to see them excited about my career is more of a blessing than me actually having it for myself. ~ Kendrick Lamar, #NFDB
1432:I tell you the truth, a man may not make himself king; only the blessing of him who holds the kingship can elevate a man to that high place. For sovereignty is a sacred trust that may not be bartered or sold; still less may it be stolen or taken by force. ~ Stephen R Lawhead, #NFDB
1433:It is in your power to secure this inestimable blessing for life—a worthy and excellent husband, who loves you tenderly, but not too fondly so as to blind him to your faults, and will be your guide throughout life’s pilgrimage, and your partner in eternal bliss. ~ Anne Bront, #NFDB
1434:I mean we're all guilty of getting sidetracked or getting taken away from our loved ones. Whether we believe it or not, or care to admit it or not, it's just a product of this lifestyle. That's a big reason why I've always called this the blessing and the curse. ~ Chuck Ragan, #NFDB
1435:It also reflects a tendency in our society to focus on negatives. Doctors, for instance, study illness, not health. Business leaders analyse failure, not success. Economists study cost, not value. Philosophers mostly debate original sin, not original blessing. ~ Robert Holden, #NFDB
1436:It was expected that men would marry, and it was assumed something was wrong if they didn't. Later rabbis often quoted the saying, “He who has no wife dwells without good, without help, without joy, without blessing, and without atonement” (Gen. Rab. 17.2)! ~ Craig L Blomberg, #NFDB
1437:Learning to trust yourself means focusing on the good you are, the good you have, and the good you desire so that the truth can heal all error thought and allow you to see the blessing hidden in all that you have been through, gone through, and grown through. ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
1438:Should one permit an infidel to continue in his role as a Corrupter of the Earth, the moral suffering of the infidel will be all the worse. Should one kill the infidel, and this stops him from perpetrating his misdeeds, his death will be a blessing to him. ~ Ruhollah Khomeini, #NFDB
1439:The experiences of men who walked with God in olden times agree to teach that the Lord cannot fully bless the a man until He has first conquered him. The degree of blessing enjoyed by any man will correspond exactly with the completeness of God's victory over him. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1440:Too many times we curse the rain in our lives—suffering, trials, hardships—but the truth is, without rain nothing grows. Without rain there’s no fruit—just dry, flaky, and nasty leaves. Sometimes suffering is actually God’s blessing rather than God’s curse. ~ Jefferson Bethke, #NFDB
1441:Because in running toward what I thought was better, safer, more pleasurable, more fulfilling, less painful, less complicated, or less confining, I've actually been running from God, from His will, and from His blessing. And I'm tired of running. Aren't you? ~ Priscilla Shirer, #NFDB
1442:If God’s mercies came to us unasked, they would not be half so useful as they now are, when they have to be sought for; for now we get a double blessing, a blessing in the obtaining, and a blessing in the seeking. The very act of prayer is a blessing. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1443:I’m not speaking defeat into my future. I’m not speaking failure over my life. I will turn it around and speak favor into my future. I will declare, “I’m blessed. I’m strong. I’m healthy. This will be a great year.” When you do that, you are blessing your future. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1444:It is not at all surprising that the disciples imagined that the law had been abrogated, when Jesus made promises like this. For these promises reversed all popular notions of right and wrong, and pronounced a blessing on all that was accounted worthless. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1445:am incredibly thankful to call America home. I have been privileged to travel the world and visit all of its major societies, but to be born in a land of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard is an unfathomable blessing that should never be taken for granted. ~ Ben Carson, #NFDB
1446:And because life isn't fair, God has been abundantly kind to the man by not only blessing him with wealth and charisma, he also has sex appeal the likes of which I've never experienced, which is why every time he walks by, I want to jump him like a cat in heat. ~ Sidney Halston, #NFDB
1447:Being the offspring of English teachers is a mixed blessing. When the film star says to you, on the air, 'It was a perfect script for she and I,' inside your head you hear, in the sarcastic voice of your late father, 'Perfect for she, eh? And perfect for I, also?' ~ Dick Cavett, #NFDB
1448:Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. our magic moment help us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will experience many disappointment- but all of this is transitory,; it leaves no permanent mark. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1449:She tugged at the little braids on each side of her head. Again, Jason thought how glad he was that she’d lost the Aphrodite blessing. With the makeup and the dress and the perfect hair, she’d looked about twenty-five, glamorous, and completely out of his league. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1450:The poor, who have nothing in themselves, to them comes the kingdom. The meek, who seek nothing in themselves, will inherit the earth. The blessings of heaven and earth are for the lowly. For the heavenly and the earthly life, humility is the secret of blessing. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1451:And now, dear Mr. Worthing, I will not intrude any longer into a house of sorrow. I would merely beg you not to be too much bowed down by grief. What seem to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. This seems to me a blessing of an extremely obvious kind. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1452:I try to enjoy what I do, and every moment of the life that I have is a blessing. What else can you do but to be happy and try to bring that joy to the other people around - especially in the tournaments. Everybody has bad days. I'm not always funny or laughing. ~ Novak Djokovic, #NFDB
1453:I've always competed in those shows. Like, I won 'Fear Factor', I did 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here', I did 'The Mole', 'Celebrity Apprentice' with Donald Trump. I've done a lot of those shows, all in the hope of being a blessing to my mom's organization. ~ Stephen Baldwin, #NFDB
1454:James Hudson Taylor
“I believe we are all in danger of accumulating—it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation—things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing. ~ James Hudson Taylor,#NFDB
1455:Let us reflect in this way, too, that there is good hope that death is a blessing, for it is one of two things: either the dead are nothing and have no perception of anything, or it is, as we are told, a change and a relocation for the soul from here to another place. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1456:Woods"
I part the out thrusting branches
and come in beneath
the blessed and the blessing trees.
Though I am silent
there is singing around me.
Though I am dark
there is vision around me.
Though I am heavy
there is flight around me. ~ Wendell Berry,#NFDB
1457:You can have sex with whomever you want to; you're not trapped with the person you had the baby with. You can pick the name, religion, schools, what they wear. There's no consulting - you call all the shots. Single motherhood is an amazing thing; it's a blessing. ~ Kelly Cutrone, #NFDB
1458:8Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1459:I am incredibly thankful to call America home. I have been privileged to travel the world and visit all of its major societies, but to be born in a land of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard is an unfathomable blessing that should never be taken for granted. ~ Ben Carson, #NFDB
1460:If you are of any account, stay at home and make your way by faithful diligence; but if you are “no account,” go away from home, and then you will have to work, whether you want to or not. Thus you become a blessing to your friends by ceasing to be a nuisance to them ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1461:One thing you think about when you do get nominated is that there is a coalition of people that think you performed okay in the role. You start to think about how much of a blessing it is to have your peers and then people outside of your peer group to say bravo. ~ Hosea Chanchez, #NFDB
1462:Such a divine profession is art! When everything else looks so stale and disgustingly vacuous, so enthralls even the littlest real effort of art our innermost and carries us from town, from country, from earth, as that it must be truely a blessing of the Gods. ~ Felix Mendelssohn, #NFDB
1463:Concern for man himself and his fate must always constitute the chief objective of all technological endeavors...in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1464:The Shamud had told him once that the Mother favoured him so much no woman could refuse him, not even the Mother Herself could refuse him – that was his gift – but he warned him to be wary. Gifts from the Mother were not an unmixed blessing, they put one in Her debt. ~ Jean M Auel, #NFDB
1465:This is the gospel of labour, ring it, ye bells of the kirk! The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who work. This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-curst soil: Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil. ~ Henry Van Dyke, #NFDB
1466:I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
1467:Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1468:the real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me.
To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort. ~ Henri J M Nouwen,#NFDB
1469:There is a Ruler above, and His Providence guides all things. He is our Friend and has plenty of work for all His people to do. It is such a blessing and a privilege to be led into His work instead of into the service of the hard taskmasters - the Devil and sin. ~ David Livingstone, #NFDB
1470:Betimes I have heard people bewail the fact that our destinies are shrouded in mystery; I think, though, that it is a blessing of sorts. Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted. ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
1471:The idea of a singular hero and a manifest destiny just makes us lazy. There is no destiny. There is choice, there is action, and any other narrative perpetuates a myth that someone else out there will fix our problems with a magic sword and a blessing from the gods. ~ Tade Thompson, #NFDB
1472:the real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me.
To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort. ~ Henri J M Nouwen,#NFDB
1473:We are in such a habit of evaluating God and His work in us by what we feel that it is very likely that on some occasions we will be discouraged because we do not feel any special blessing. Above everything, when you wait on God, you must do so in the spirit of hope. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1474:God too. This will be the biggest blessing of all. But to get to this place, we must trust him. So are we there yet? No, not yet. But just sit back and enjoy the ride. Our heavenly Father knows exactly what he’s doing, and he will keep his promise to be with us always. ~ Randy Frazee, #NFDB
1475:May God give you . . . For every storm, a rainbow, for every tear, a smile. For every care, a promise, and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share. For every sigh, a sweet song, and an answer for each prayer. Irish blessing ~ Janice Thompson, #NFDB
1476:There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. ~ Andrew Jackson, #NFDB
1477:I suggest that it really has not worked out like that; and that you are likely to find in the future that God will revive His work in the Church, and that it is those who attend regularly who are the ones who are going to participate most of all in the blessing. ~ D Martyn Lloyd Jones, #NFDB
1478:now believe addiction to be a calling. A blessing. I now hear a rhythm behind the beat, behind the scratching discordant sound of my constant thinking. A true pulse behind the bombastic thud of the ego drum. There, in the silence, the offbeat presence of another thing. ~ Russell Brand, #NFDB
1479:The miracle of unity is being granted to us as we pray and work for it in the Lord's way. Our hearts will be knit together in unity. God has promised that blessing to His faithful Saints whatever their differences in background and whatever conflict rages around them. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
1480:What sinners need (shall we say deserve?) is love and healing, not torture and death. We are worthy of God’s love and healing not on the basis of personal merit but because of the image we bear: the very image of God. Original blessing is more original than original sin! ~ Brian Zahnd, #NFDB
1481:Perhaps there were a few repetitions here and there. But I would like to confess that I consider nature and human life to be a lovely and charming flow of fleeting repetitions, and I would like further to confess that I regard this phenomenon as a beauty and a blessing. ~ Robert Walser, #NFDB
1482:Those were the years when I was truly happy. Knowing that is both a blessing and a curse. It's good to acknowledge that you found true happiness in your life - in that sense your life has not been wasted. But to admit that you will never be happy like that again is hard. ~ William Boyd, #NFDB
1483:We've all received our share of good fortune, so that's my definition of much. A single blessing is all the bounty in the world, and if you've been blessed at all you're meant to pass some of that on. You're meant to set a positive example. That's our responsibility ~ Denzel Washington, #NFDB
1484:10So then, while we [as individual believers] have the opportunity, let us do good to all people [not only being helpful, but also doing that which promotes their spiritual well-being], and especially [be a blessing] to those of the household of faith (born-again believers). ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1485:And for yourself, may the gods grant you your heart's desire, a husband and a home, and the blessing of a harmonious life. For nothing is greater or finer than this, when a man and woman live together with one hear and mind, bringing joy to their friends and grief to their foes. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1486:If there had been any unbelief in Mary, that could not prevent God from accomplishing his work in any other way which he might choose. But she is called blessed, because she received by faith the blessing offered to her, and opened up the way to God for its accomplishment. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1487:I’m trying to hard not to strip you naked, bend you over and fuck you stupid over the hood of this car right now. Those ridiculous legs. I want them wrapped around my fucking head while I eat your pussy.”
Having an exceptional imagination is both a blessing and a curse. ~ Callie Hart,#NFDB
1488:The idea of a singular hero and a manifest destiny just makes us all lazy. There is no destiny. There is choice, there is action, and any other narrative perpetuates a myth that someone else out there will fix our problems with a magic sword and a blessing from the gods. ~ Tade Thompson, #NFDB
1489:The millennium that is fast approaching is a transcultural event of epic proportions. It is a climax that occurs once every thousand years, a psychic convergence felt by every soul on earth who is living at the time. It is a moment of tremendous blessing for mankind. ~ Michael D O Brien, #NFDB
1490:When reflecting upon it today, that the Pearl Harbor attack should have succeeded in achieving surprise seems a blessing from Heaven. It was clear that a great American fleet had been concentrated in Pearl Harbor, and we supposed that the state of alert would be very high. ~ Hideki Tojo, #NFDB
1491:Actually, man is supposed to be god over the earth. God gave him dominion over it. He said, "There it is, Adam. It's yours. You can do what you want with it. But don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of blessing and calamity, for the day that you eat you will surely die. ~ Charles Capps, #NFDB
1492:As Christians refine their methods, develop Church Growth eyes, feel church growth responsibility, communicate the Gospel, and educate those who are won until they become responsible Christians, the church as a whole will receive the abundant blessing God wants to give. ~ Donald McGavran, #NFDB
1493:I just do not hang around anybody that I don't want to be with. Period. For me, that's been a blessing, and I can stay positive. I hang around people who are happy, who are growing, who want to learn, who don't mind saying sorry or thank you... and [are] having a fun time. ~ John Assaraf, #NFDB
1494:I think it's a blessing that the show [Dracula] is on a network because it forces everyone to use their imaginations and be creative. The power of suggestion comes back. So, in the sex scenes, no one is ever fully naked, but I feel the suggestion is so much sexier. ~ Oliver Jackson Cohen, #NFDB
1495:It hurt, remembering. Hurt because there was so much I'd done, so much I'd yet to do. In so many different ways, I now realized, not remembering had been a blessing. A brief respite in the twisted bloody mess that my life had become.
But at least I knew who I was. ~ Keri Arthur,#NFDB
1496:It's just a whole different thing, and it's just that my life has been a blessing, and I thank god every day for the gifts that he has given me and for my daughter and to be able to watch her grow and be a part of her joys and her excitement and what she wants to do in life. ~ Teena Marie, #NFDB
1497:I will tell you that what gives me a sense of joy is having work to do that justifies pouring every ounce of energy I have into it. That's really a blessing to have in your life. And it gives you energy back when you have the privilege of doing work that makes you feel that way. ~ Al Gore, #NFDB
1498:The challenge of course is in sobriety and that's been the blessing, to realize, to take accountability for the ways that your own thinking impacts your happiness, and your serenity, and your ability to be a productive and a loving, giving member of your family and society. ~ Bonnie Raitt, #NFDB
1499:You see how it is godlike to love the being of someone. Your existence is a delight to us. I hope you never have to long for a child as I did, but oh, what a splendid thing it has been that you came finally, and what a blessing to enjoy you now for almost seven years. ~ Marilynne Robinson, #NFDB
1500:I define joy as a spectrum of emotions, actions, and responses that includes gladness, cheer, happiness, merriment, delighting, dancing, shouting, exulting, rejoicing, laughing, playing, brightening, blessing and being blessed, taking pleasure in and being well pleased. ~ Margaret Feinberg, #NFDB
134 Integral Yoga
112 Poetry
38 Occultism
34 Christianity
21 Islam
20 Yoga
15 Philosophy
11 Fiction
8 Psychology
7 Education
6 Mysticism
5 Mythology
5 Hinduism
5 Buddhism
4 Baha i Faith
3 Philsophy
1 Sufism
1 Kabbalah
1 Alchemy
91 The Mother
63 Satprem
42 Sri Aurobindo
26 William Wordsworth
21 Muhammad
20 Nolini Kanta Gupta
20 James George Frazer
17 Sri Ramakrishna
17 Saint Augustine of Hippo
14 Saint Teresa of Avila
14 Anonymous
9 H P Lovecraft
8 Saint John of Climacus
8 Nirodbaran
8 John Keats
8 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
8 Aleister Crowley
6 Percy Bysshe Shelley
6 Friedrich Schiller
6 Carl Jung
5 Ovid
5 Jalaluddin Rumi
5 Friedrich Nietzsche
4 William Butler Yeats
4 Vyasa
4 Robert Browning
4 Plato
4 Bokar Rinpoche
4 Baha u llah
4 A B Purani
3 Walt Whitman
3 Swami Vivekananda
3 Sri Ramana Maharshi
3 Rudolf Steiner
3 Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 Thubten Chodron
2 Saint Francis of Assisi
2 Rabindranath Tagore
2 Ken Wilber
2 Jordan Peterson
2 Henry David Thoreau
2 Baba Sheikh Farid
26 Wordsworth - Poems
21 Quran
20 The Golden Bough
16 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
16 The Bible
13 Words Of The Mother II
13 City of God
12 The Way of Perfection
11 Agenda Vol 01
9 Lovecraft - Poems
8 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
8 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
8 On Education
8 Keats - Poems
8 Agenda Vol 10
7 Some Answers From The Mother
7 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
7 Agenda Vol 12
7 Agenda Vol 05
6 Words Of The Mother III
6 Talks
6 Shelley - Poems
6 Schiller - Poems
6 Liber ABA
6 Letters On Yoga IV
6 Agenda Vol 04
5 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
5 Metamorphoses
5 Faust
5 Collected Poems
5 5.1.01 - Ilion
4 Yeats - Poems
4 Vishnu Purana
4 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
4 Tara - The Feminine Divine
4 Magick Without Tears
4 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
4 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
4 Browning - Poems
4 Agenda Vol 13
4 Agenda Vol 09
4 Agenda Vol 07
4 Agenda Vol 02
3 Words Of Long Ago
3 Whitman - Poems
3 Vedic and Philological Studies
3 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
3 The Secret Doctrine
3 Questions And Answers 1954
3 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
3 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
3 Goethe - Poems
3 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
3 Emerson - Poems
3 Dark Night of the Soul
3 Anonymous - Poems
3 Agenda Vol 11
3 Agenda Vol 08
2 Words Of The Mother I
2 Walden
2 Twilight of the Idols
2 The Synthesis Of Yoga
2 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
2 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
2 The Book of Certitude
2 Tagore - Poems
2 Symposium
2 Sex Ecology Spirituality
2 Savitri
2 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
2 Maps of Meaning
2 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
2 Essays Divine And Human
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Ritualistically these four terms are the formulae for oblation to four Deities, Powers or Presences, whom the sacrificer wishes to please and propitiate in order to have their help and blessing and in order thereby to discharge his dharma or duty of life. Svh is the offering especially dedicated to Agni, the foremost of the Gods, for he is the divine messenger who carries men's offering to the Gods and brings their blessing to men. Vaatkr is the offering to the Gods generally. Hantakr is the offering to mankind, to our kin, an especial form of it being the worship of the guests,sarvadevamayo' tithi. Svadh is the offering to the departed Fathers (Pitris).
The duty of life consists, it is said, in the repaying of three debts which every man contracts as soon as he takes birth upon earth the debt to the Gods, to Men and to the Ancestors. This threefold debt or duty has, in other terms, reference to the three fields or domains wherein an embodied being lives and moves and to which he must adjust and react rightly -if he is to secure for his life an integral fulfilment. These are the family, society and the world and beyond-world. The Gods are the Powers that rule the world and beyond, they are the forms and forces of the One Spirit underlying the universe, the varied expressions of divine Truth and Reality: To worship the Gods, to do one's duty by them, means to come into contact and to be unitedin being, consciousness and activitywith the universal and spiritual existence, which is the supreme end and purpose of human life. The seconda more circumscribed fieldis the society to which one belongs, the particular group of humanity in which he functions as a limb. The service to society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity, of Man as a god. Lastly, man belongs to the family, which is the unit of society; and the backbone of the family is the continuous line of ancestors, who are its presiding deity and represent the norm of a living dharma, the ethic of an ideal life.
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit Dakshineswar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant, became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar who had been one of the first to proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in 1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Narayan Shastri, another great pundit, who had mastered the six systems of Hindu philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur, met the Master and recognized in him one who had realized in life those ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at his earnest request, into the life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for his scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore, a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived Viswanath Upadhyaya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I have read the Vedas and the other scriptures", he said. "I have also met a good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."
The Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi had convinced Sri Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed by human tongue. He understood that all religions lead their devotees by differing paths to one and the same goal. Now he became eager to explore some of the alien religions; for with him understanding meant actual experience.
--
Narendra now realized that he had a spiritual mission to fulfil. He resolved to renounce the world, as his grandfather had renounced it, and he came to Sri Ramakrishna for his blessing. But even before he had opened his mouth, the Master knew what was in his mind and wept bitterly at the thought of separation. "I know you cannot lead a worldly life," he said, "but for my sake live in the world as long as I live."
One day, soon after, Narendra requested Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the Divine Mother to remove his poverty. Sri Ramakrishna bade him pray to Her himself, for She would certainly listen to his prayer. Narendra entered the shrine of Kali. As he stood before the image of the Mother, he beheld Her as a living Goddess, ready to give wisdom and liberation. Unable to ask Her for petty worldly things, he prayed only for knowledge and renunciation, love and liberation. The Master rebuked him for his failure to ask the Divine Mother to remove his poverty and sent him back to the temple. But Narendra, standing in Her presence, again forgot the purpose of his coming. Thrice he went to the temple at the bidding of the Master, and thrice he returned, having forgotten in Her presence why he had come. He was wondering about it when it suddenly flashed in his mind that this was all the work of Sri Ramakrishna; so now he asked the Master himself to remove his poverty, and was assured that his family would not lack simple food and clothing.
--
In spite of the physician's efforts and the prayers and nursing of the devotees, the illness rapidly progressed. The pain sometimes appeared to be unbearable. The Master lived only on liquid food, and his frail body was becoming a mere skeleton. Yet his face always radiated joy, and he continued to welcome the visitors pouring in to receive his blessing. When certain zealous devotees tried to keep the visitors away, they were told by Girish, "You cannot succeed in it; he has been born for this very purpose — to sacrifice himself for the redemption of others."
The more the body was devastated by illness, the more it became the habitation of the Divine Spirit. Through its transparency the gods and goddesses began to shine with ever increasing luminosity. On the day of the Kali Puja the devotees clearly saw in him the manifestation of the Divine Mother.
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
The two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing.
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My blessings are with you.
16 July 1935
--
With my blessings.
1 April 1936
--
and you ought to have them since my blessings are with you.
10 October 1939
--
With my loving solicitude and my blessings.
5 March 1940
--
With my blessings.
5 June 1940
--
My blessings are with you.
15 October 1940
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With my most affectionate blessings.
1931
--
my blessings, my congratulations for the manner in which she
has passed her French test.
--
receiving Sri Aurobindo's blessing, it is better to remain concentrated and to keep one's joy locked inside oneself rather than to
throw it out by mixing and talking with others. The experiences
--
the sadhaks went before Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to receive their blessings.
Series Three - To "My little smile"
--
Such is my wish and my blessing.
1 February 1934
--
My blessings and my love are always with you.
10 December 1935
--
With my love and blessings that her aspiration may be
realised this year.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With love and blessings.
6 March 1934
--
With love and blessings.
9 March 1934
--
With your mother's blessings.
12 June 1934
--
our help and our blessings are always with you?
Keep your interest in the work - this too will help you to
--
My love and blessings are always with you.
Your mother who loves you.
--
My love, my help and my blessings will always be with you.
Your mother.
--
With my love and blessings.
10 April 1942
--
My love and blessings are with you to guide you on the way.
4 June 1946
--
With my blessings.
29 June 1946
--
With all my love and blessings.
25 September 1947
--
With my love and blessings.
12 December 1953
--
With my love and blessings.
23 March 1954
--
With my love and blessings.
26 January 1956
--
With my love and blessings.
Series Five - To a Child
--
With my love and blessings.
My mother,
--
My love and blessings.
My dear child,
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
presence. I add my blessings.
Beloved Mother, how shall I find the source of that
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Begins the exposition of the stanzas which treat of the way and manner which the soul follows upon the road of the union of love with God. Before we enter upon the exposition of these stanzas, it is well to understand here that the soul that utters them is now in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, having already passed through severe trials and straits, by means of spiritual exercise in the narrow way of eternal life whereof Our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order to reach this high and happy union with God. Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise) is so strait, and since there are so few that enter by it,19 the soul considers it a great happiness and good chance to have passed along it to the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza, calling this strait road with full propriety 'dark night,' as will be explained hereafter in the lines of the said stanza. The soul, then, rejoicing at having passed along this narrow road whence so many blessings have come to it, speaks after this manner.
BOOK THE FIRST
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Love and blessings to my dear child.
4 May 1938
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
9 October 1938
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
14 October 1938
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
20 October 1938
--
with my love and blessings.
22 October 1938
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
25 October 1938
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
4 November 1938
--
You send me your love and blessings every day of late,
dear Mother, and in rare blessed moments I do sense that
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
9 November 1938
I know your love and blessings are always with me and
I sometimes wish you had not been so invariably kind
--
With my love and blessings.
16 July 1939
--
With my love and blessings.
17 July 1939
--
My love and blessings to my dear (good) child.
27 July 1939
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
28 July 1939
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
6 August 1939
--
My love and blessings.
8 August 1939
--
my love and blessings are with you.
12 August 1939
--
My love and blessings will lead you to the goal.
13 August 1939
--
My love and blessings to you, dear child.
17 August 1939
--
sure of my love, you can be sure of my help, and our blessings
19 August 1939
--
all the peace of the divine love and also my loving blessings.
20 August 1939
--
My love and blessings.
27 August 1939
--
My love and blessings always.
28 August 1939
--
Love and blessings to my dear child.
9 September 1939
--
My love and blessings.
19 October 1939
--
with her love and blessings.
28 October 1939
--
With my blessings.
29 March 1940
--
My love and blessings to my dear child.
29 June 1940
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answered: "My dear child, you can be sure of my love and blessings."
so in words which I can understand and I will drop it.
--
my love is capable of understanding and that my blessings do
not depend on such surface movements.
--
With my love and blessings.
25 July 1940
--
With my love and blessings.
9 September 1941
--
With my love and blessings.
9 September 1942
--
With my love and blessings.
9 September 1943
--
With my love and blessings.
9 September 1944
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How are the messages that You give us on blessings
days chosen? How should we read them and what new
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With my blessings.
13 October 1954
--
to be eager to receive Your blessings, but why do I not
have that feeling?
--
saw the Mother and received Her blessings.
It is not a dream, but the result of the preceding meditation and
--
My blessings are always with you.
17 February 1964
--
with Your blessings, to keep with me when I am far from
Pondicherry?
--
my blessings." But sometimes You write various other
things, such as: "May he be born to the true life" or
0 1955-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In any event, my blessings will always be with you to help you find, at long last, this inner Presence which alone gives joy and stability.
Signed: Mother
0 1955-06-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
With my blessings.
Signed: Mother
0 1956-04-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
With all my affection and my blessings.
Signed: Mother
0 1956-09-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
All my affection is with you, and my blessings never leave you.
Signed: Mother
0 1958-08-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
My blessings never leave you.
Signed: Mother
0 1959-01-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The blessings of the Grace are upon you.
Signed: Mother
0 1959-01-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As for your arrival here, the day you mentioned is the Saraswati Puja I will go downstairs to give blessings. If you arrive on the previous day, the 11th I will arrange to see you at 10 oclock, and then you can begin your mantra on the 12th.
Simply send me word to let me know if this is all right. Tell me also if you need money for your return, and how much, in time for me to send it.
--
With my love and my blessings.
Signed: Mother
0 1959-06-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I was touched by your blessings for Sujata and myself. But there lies another impossibility.
These last days I have come to realize that to blame all my crises on the hostile forces is perhaps to oversimplify things. I understand better and better, for in my suffering, my soul is all I have and I rely on that alone; otherwise I could never bear all that I have borne, all that I still bear. I understand, too, that there was also a truth in the force which periodically impelled me to leave, the truth of that destiny in me which is not fulfilled in the Ashram.
0 1959-08-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
With all my love and blessings.
Signed: Mother
0 1960-06-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
blessings.
Signed: Mother
0 1960-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Certainly, we CAN be heard. So far I never said anything. It even surprised me, for I had never paid it any attention, I was quite away from all that: its raining?so what, its raining, it happens. Its not raining?so what, its not raining, its the same thing. And then gradually people started mentioning that should it continue, they wouldnt be able to do their exercises, and they wouldnt be ready for December 2.1 Then I started receiving desperate lettersone person even told me he was doing his puja underwater! So I answered by saying, Take it as the Lords blessing but Im not sure he appreciated it! And then I learned that 200 houses [in the Ashram]200!are leaking. Naturally, each one is in a great hurryits terribly urgent! So perhaps I shall file a complaint and ask them what they mean by this!
Actually, if communications are interrupted, it can be troublesome Let us see.
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This particular period was very bad last year too.6 There was a tremendous opposition because of February 29th [first anniversary of the supramental manifestation]. But always a little before Darshans7 or days for special blessings there is a new outbreak of adverse attacksalways.
Well, mon petit, we have done nothing but talk. Its time to go and we havent done anything!
0 1961-03-21, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But Z I dont know how to explain my relationship with him. He is sheltered by a light of benediction, so. When he was here I opened the doors for him to a realization he was incapable of having, something light years beyond him; and it gave him an appalling ambition, totally spoiling everything. From this point of view, its a great blessing for him; even if he becomes a dreadful Asura, it will come to a good end! It doesnt matter, its not important. Thats why this morning, even when I heard what X said about Z, it was the same thing: this great Light of the supreme Mother going out towards Z. His magic is not important, but if he indulges in it, too bad for him. It doesnt concern me: its Xs business and X is doing whats necessary and I believe (laughing) he hits hard!5
(silence)
0 1961-10-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is not surprising, therefore, that exegetes have seen the Vedas primarily as a collection of propitiatory rites centered around sacrificial fires and obscure incantations to Nature divinities (water, fire, dawn, the moon, the sun, etc.), for bringing rain and rich harvests to the tribes, male progeny, blessings upon their journeys or protection against the thieves of the sunas though these shepherds were barbarous enough to fear that one inauspicious day their sun might no longer rise, stolen away once and for all. Only here and there, in a few of the more modern hymns, was there the apparently inadvertent intrusion of a few luminous passages that might have justifiedjust barely the respect which the Upanishads, at the beginning of recorded history, accorded to the Veda. In Indian tradition, the Upanishads had become the real Veda, the Book of Knowledge, while the Veda, product of a still stammering humanity, was a Book of Worksacclaimed by everyone, to be sure, as the venerable Authority, but no longer listened to. With Sri Aurobindo we might ask why the Upanishads, whose depth of wisdom the whole world has acknowledged, could claim to take inspiration from the Veda if the latter contained no more than a tapestry of primitive rites; or how it happened that humanity could pass so abruptly from these so-called stammerings to the manifold richness of the Upanishadic Age; or how we in the West were able to evolve from the simplicity of Arcadian shepherds to the wisdom of Greek philosophers. We cannot assume that there was nothing between the early savage and Plato or the Upanishads.5
***
0 1961-12-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
'If the Lord wills that a calamity befall you, why should you protest? Take it as a blessing and in fact it will become one.'
Then Mother thought that this message might not be too comforting and she put it aside (after asking the opinion of two disciples). Finally she chose the text of the experience which is the subject of this conversation. But the coming year, 1962, would be marked by the first great turning-point in Mother's yoga and a rather calamitous ordeal for the body.
0 1962-03-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Listen, I told you onceit wasnt just wordsand I thought you understood and would remember: everything I write is absolutely dependent on your work, in the sense that if you werent here I wouldnt write another wordjust letters with I send you my blessings. Period. Not that I dont have time or cant do it, but I dont enjoy it. When we do something together, when we write, I get the feeling its complete and has a certain quality that makes it useful. When you arent here to write it, I feel something missing. So if you think its useless to do this for me, I am sorry that hurts!
No, of course not!
0 1963-02-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But then, they had brought a four-year-old with them. Today was his birthday. They sent me some money for the child and asked for a card of blessings. I refused to give the card and threw the money back at themquite bluntly. I said, Tell these people that they are selfish and stupid, and I want nothing from them. And I banged on the table. Oh, oh! Everyone was petrified. (Mother laughs) The doctor was there, and Nolini, Champaklal, Amrita. Something in me was laughing a lot! Oh, they thought I was in a terrible fit: Theyll see what will happen to them! And you know, those vibrations are familiar to metheyre terrifying, mon petit. Not human. When it comes, its fearsome, people are in a cold sweat. And I watch it all like a spectator!
Fairly often, its Sri Aurobindo. But this time it was entirely impersonal. It was something that WILL NO LONGER tolerate in the world a certain kind of selfish stupidityto trample this childs finer feelings just because she isnt stupidly attached to her family (who didnt even give her a single thought all the time she was here, she didnt exist for them).
0 1963-03-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A new thing, for example, before (before means before last year!), when I gave my blessings, the Will came and went through me into the personalways. It wasnt an act [by Mother]. But now, its visibly perceptible (Mother touches her fingertips), you can almost see the vibration going through the fingers and into the head [of Satprem]. Thats the difference: before, it was always the Consciousness, the Being working from abovenow the body participates. This is different.
Very small things, very small things.
0 1963-07-13, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I almost felt like sending my blessings to your publisher. If he began to understand, it would be fun!
Im not all that hopeful!
--
Just now, as I spoke to you. Thats why I told you I felt like sending him my blessings. With my blessings THAT YOU MAY UNDERSTAND!
Yes, suddenly a contact.
0 1963-07-17, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Nolini told me that every day since the Force has been on the increase, theres a shower of letters from people who cry out their misery, whether moral or material. Its a general cry for help, and, he told me, The remarkable thing is that no one asks for material help, they all ask for my blessings and say (because they have faith) it brings them relief. He said, Its the identical note in almost all the letters. Contacts with the outside have increased considerably; formerly, it was only with people who knew me, but now its with scores of absolutely unknown people.
During the part of the night reserved for the work (generally between 2 and 4:30 in the morning it varies a little), daily now I see people whom I dont know physicallyall the time, all the time, and with lots of work. The work I used to do with the people around me now seems to be spreading: I go to some places that I dont know at all. And always, always something under constructionalways under construction, always. Sometimes I am even testing some new constructions, I mean I try to go this way, that way, do something, try this, try that.1 And at the same time, I am working with people who, on the other hand, arent part of those constructions theyre on the sidelines. To such a point that when I woke up this morning I said to myself, But isnt this going to stop? Wont I get some rest! But it was always an answer (an answer not in words but in FACTS), an instantaneous answertaking no time, not gradual: instantaneous.2
0 1963-10-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The big difficulty is that tamasic stupidity. Yesterday, in this connection, I had the experience of a young couple who came to see me. (It has become a custom nowadays that young people who are going to marry and whose families I know, or who live here, come to receive my blessings before marrying! Thats the new fashion.) So they came. The girl was educated here and the boy stayed here for quite a long time, working here; anyway, they want to marry. The boy went searching for a job; he had trust [in Mother] and found one. He is I cant say conscious because it isnt like consciousness, I would call it rather superstition (!) but its a superstition on the right target! The movement is ignorant, but well directed, so it works; not that he has an enlightened faith, but he has faith. All right. Things are fine and he does very well. So they came yesterday to receive my blessings. Then they went. And they left behind in the room a vital formation, very bubbly, absolutely ignorant, very bubbly with a joie de vivre, a joie de vivre so blissfully ignorant of all possible difficulties, all possible miseries, and not only for oneself but for everyone! You know, that joie de vivre that says, Oh, it doesnt matter to me if we are born and dielife is short, well, let it be good, thats enough. No mental curiosity, no urge to know the why of the worldall that is nonsense, we neednt bother about it! Lets be happy, have some fun, and do as well as we can. Thats all. That formation was so strong, you know, in the room that I saw it and had to find a place for it. It put me in contact with a whole domain of the earth, of mankind, and I had to put it in its proper place, put it in order and organize it. It took me a little time (long enough, maybe three quarters of an hour or an hour), I had to order and organize everything. Then I saw how widespread it is on earth. (Note that these young people belong to the top of society, they are regarded as very intelligent, they are very well educated, in a word, its about the best you can find in mankind! Not the dregs, far from it.) And I wondered if it isnt even more widespread in Western countries than here I think it is. At that moment I came into contact with everywhere, and, well, the everywhere was really quite extensive.
Afterwards, I asked myself, But what the devil can be done with all this? Disturb these people? They are quite incapable of getting out of their condition in this life and will probably need many, many, many lives to awaken to the NEED TO KNOWas long as they can move about, you know (laughing), as long as they can move about and things arent too painful, theyre quite contented! And then, in addition, there is, all the way down, that whole inert mass, you know, of men who are very close to the animalwhat can be done with that? If that too has to be ready, it seems to me impossible. Because that young couple, according to human opinion, are very fine people!
0 1963-10-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With our love and blessings.
Ive put it into French, but its something Sri Aurobindo said for you!
0 1964-01-18, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the idea has been taken up again through Khrushchev and he continues to be quite enthusiastic.2 It seems (I dont know if its quite true, because its Z [a Russian disciple] who says so) but Z sent him my article A Dream,3 on the possibility of creating a small international center (I dont like the word international, but never mind), and Khrushchev answered, This idea is excellent, the entire world should make it a reality. Well, I dont know whether its correct, but anyway the gentleman seems to be well-disposed. And this S.G. is very intimate with the U.S. ambassador in Delhi. In brief, S.G. has sent me the new proposal the first one, I had approved it, I had even put my blessings on it, and he had gone to see Nehru: Nehru immediately called both ambassadors for a conference.4 At the time, I worked a good deal and things were moving. Now, it seems that the new president [Johnson] is, for the time being, continuing what the other did: he wont upset the apple cart. Well see.
If it succeeds, it will give some concrete expression to the effort of transformation without violence.
0 1964-01-22, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And always the same thing (the first vision was quite correct, I mean the vision of the cells was quite correct): it isnt something coming from outside, its the impulse that comes from outside, its the wrong vibration that comes from outside, and the difficulty is that you are unable to replace this wrong vibration or, rather, CANCEL it, with the True Vibration. Thats what I had already said: the proportion isnt sufficient, so it takes time. I can understand that with a sufficient proportion of cells remaining in the True Vibration, the cure should be instantaneous, that is, the effect of the wrong vibrations should be canceled automatically. But I had seen the thing and spent almost an hour, three quarters of an hour [in concentration], and the little bit that had been affected (it was in the throat) was canceledit didnt return. It was canceled. But after those three quarters of an hour, I had to resume my activities, see people, do things, take my bath, too (although the bath is always beneficial), and a sort of memory lingered. And then, from three oclock, a quarter to three, the invasion started: first one, then another, then two more, then a third, then So all at once, because my attention had been DIVERTED to what I had to do (scores of answers to be written, of blessings to be sent, of problems to be resolvedall of it dumped on me), as my attention was diverted to that, naturally all at once I started sneezing and so forththere was nothing to do but go through it.
Still, for actions in this domain, actions of transformation, I dont say solitude because thats sillythere is no such thing as solitude but peace is necessary, that is, the perfect control over the activity: the activity must be kept on a level where it doesnt interfere with the inner work thats the point. That was why, in fact, I was forced (apparently) to remain upstairs, because downstairs it had become it was infernalinfernal, no one can imagine! Its always the same principle: Why not me? And there are 1,300 of them, you understand let alone the visitors who come in their hundreds (some days, there are more than 200 or 300 of them at one time); they hear that there is someone worth seeing, and when I was downstairs and one of the circus showmen ([laughing] excuse me!) came, he would bring a troop along.
0 1964-02-26, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Maybe the work would go faster if instead of burdening me with such superficial choressending blessings, signing photographs
Yes! Oh yes, indeed!
0 1964-03-29, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With tenderness and blessings
Signed: Mother
0 1964-05-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With all my tenderness and blessings.
Tell your mother that I love her much, very much, because she is YOUR mother!
0 1964-08-19, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But what makes it worse is that there were too many people, and too many people asking to see mehundreds and hundreds of people who asked to see me. I said, Its not possible, its materially impossible. And a minuscule work consisting in signing and signing and giving blessings. So last night was difficult. This morning, it wasnt brilliant.
We just have to stay still and let the storm blow over.
0 1964-12-23, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
blessings
Signed: Mother
0 1966-06-29, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I want your blessing so I do my exams well.
You take my Pranams.1
0 1966-09-07, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother laughs) You know, there are lots of people who put money in their walls (they hide it with curtains or papers). Theres a fortune, several crores3 of rupees: millions hidden away in walls! And then they worry themselves sick, they constantly fear a police raid; while if they gave it away, they would become quite respectable people! They wouldnt be scared anymore, they would have a peaceful life. I have the possibility of saying that they are anonymous gifts, as in temples; so thats a way for them to turn honest, it would be all to their advantage, but they are more attached to their money than to their life! I said several times (I know some people who have money hidden in their walls), I let it be known through intermediaries that they only had to put it in a suitcase and come and leave it at my door. And Ill say its an anonymous gift, thats all. And they will be freenot only free, but (smiling) with a blessing, because its for the divine work. No, they are prisoners, prisoners of their money.
And the rather interesting thing is that (without any exception so far) all those who had an opportunity to give me money and didnt want towho didnt want to because of their attachment to their moneylost it. It was taken from them, either by the government or a financial catastrophe or an industrial catastrophe, or simply stolenlost.
0 1966-11-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I never think of anythingoh, thats a blessing, you know, mon petit! I never think of anything without good reason! I am like this (gesture of immobile contemplation, turned upward). The only thing thats formulated with words is: Lord, You what You will, what You know, what You do, there is only You. You. Like that (same gesture of immobility). And all of a sudden, without thinking about it, without looking for it, plop! a drop of lightah!
Its convenient.
0 1966-12-20, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With love and blessings,
Signed: Mother
0 1967-02-15, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With my blessings
Signed: Mother
0 1967-06-07, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He is a sincere man. While he was here, Sri Aurobindo (how can I explain?), the impression is that Sri Aurobindo concretizes (he is always there, but at certain times he seems to concretize, as though (Mother makes a gesture of gathering or condensing). Thats really the impression: he concretizes and starts speaking). So, first Sri Aurobindo said to him (but there was a whole WORLD in it), My blessings are with you.
The man was very touched (I didnt tell him it was Sri Aurobindo; I spoke, you understand, it was my mouth that spoke then, but it was Sri Aurobindo who spoke). Then I concentrated, and Sri Aurobindo said with great force:
0 1967-08-12, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But now theyre beginning to think that perhaps thats not the way! (Mother laughs) And that perhaps they should try another way. In a month I have already seen four ministers. One is from here, the Chief Minister; it seems I saw him when he was a child (I dont remember, but he remembers that I had caressed him), and when he came the other day he told me (I gave him a flower and a blessings packet), he said, There, I will wear it on me, and with it I will do your work in the government. And quite resolute. A young man, about forty, I think, and rather strong.2
From Madras?
0 1968-01-12, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its those so-called Tantrics who make a yoga out of sexuality. And he asked me all sorts of questions on the place of sexuality in yoga, adding that for a year, he and his wife have been trying to live on another level and in a different way. So I tried to tell him the true standpoint, and I gave him a letter I had written a year earlier on the subjecta letter I was really inspired to write1 on the problem of sexuality in yoga, at the end of which I gave two excerpts from Sri Aurobindo showing the vital error behind this so-called yoga. I sent him my letter, and three days later, I saw him come back with it. He was troubled. First he told me, Are you aware that there is in the Ashram an occult center working with Mothers blessings?
What? What on earth is that!
--
Then he said, I am very worried and shocked. I am a foreigner who came here four days ago, and I have already been solicited from several sides. What does it mean? Does it really have Mothers blessings? Then he gave me my letter back, saying, But what they do there, the way they see things, doesnt at all agree with what you write in this letter. And he gave me an example. He said, Look at this little R.2 They imagine they are creating a supramental being thats obviously not the way to create a supramental being, but at least they could try to create a nice little being. So their method is like this: they take the child, little R., and while he listens to music, they caress him, and caress his sex organ also.3 And he asked me, What does this mean? Is the transformation really worked out at this level? Here is a child that ought to be made into a nice little being, and they are corrupting him or drawing God knows what onto himdoes Mother approve of this?
Have you seen the child?
--
Yes, you see, it was this Italian who told me, In just four days that Ive been here, I have already been solicited, and from several sides. And its after he read my letter that he told me, Well, whats going on there is very different from this, it cant have Mothers blessings. And he questioned me.
No, I tell you, theyve gone one better: I am a disciple!
0 1968-04-10, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
P.L. has left. He had me asked for blessings packets to help him (laughing) through four different people, to make sure he got them! He said about the same thing to everyone that he was about to do something very hard and he needed my very active help. So I gave four packets!
It occurred to me to ask him to wire me as soon as he knows the date and time of his interview with the Pope.
0 1968-04-27, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yesterday P.L. wrote to F., saying, Tell Mother that I am ill and need help. So I gave a blessings packet for him. He made no mention of coming back, but he said, I absolutely need help.
He will find himself back in the same situation: he will come back here, will be very happy and contented, things will be fine, and then
0 1968-07-24, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He also says that Msgr. R. is likely to come here. Right now he has been called to Canada, but he does hope that in August hell be able to come and take Mothers blessings.
Thats fine.
0 1969-03-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was so obviously a miracle the captain stood almost terrorstricken, everyone. And then, those crates were intended for someone here, M. (of Aurofood), to whom I had given a blessings packet the day before the landing, and he had it on him. So he went to see the captain and told him (showing the small packet), See this, its what straightened up the cranes.
A very simple man.
0 1969-04-16, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Very well, here (Mother gives Franois B. a blessings packet), its to keep in your pocket, always. Its a good means of communication, in the sense that if you hold this and concentrate, I KNOWand I answer. There.
(All this time, F.B.s wife and their forty-day-old baby were quietly sitting in a corner. Mother looks at the baby.)
0 1969-04-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
1) When N.S. spoke of what Indira said about the troubles she is having and the difficulties she is facing and that she wanted the Mothers help, strength and guidance, the Mother said She knew very well about all this, and that she was constantly giving Her help and blessings to Indira.
2) Regarding the danger of Communism, the Mother said that Communism is a truth that has been distorted and that when the truth comes out, the distortion will fall off. The truth is that all ones efforts and all ones work should be turned not to the State, but to the Divine.
0 1969-08-16, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
From every side theyre asking me for blessings and I give blessings to everyone!1 (Mother laughs) But I warn them, I tell them, blessings TO DO THE WORK. Each of them is asking for himself to be victorious, but that doesnt budge. All that Ive done (because I have been dragged into it) is to ask for what happens to be the best for the countrys futureit has already had enough difficulties! I mean, there were two centuries of servitude under the British: that has left them com-plete-ly rotten. So its enough. They would need to pull through. Oh unimaginable, its unimaginable. The chief of the police here says, I cant intervene anymore, because now Ill be told that democratic rights allow you to do anything. If people enter your house (he says this personally), if rebellious servants enter your house and I intervene, Ill be reprimanded, Ill be told, You have interfered in their democratic rights.They have a democratic right to invade a house! Thats what theyve turned ideas into! Which means were in complete madness.
It was C. who was told that, and C. replied, All right, but if you no longer have a right to protect people, they have the right to defend themselves; as long as you have the power and the right to protect them, they dont have the right to defend themselves, but if you no longer have the right to protect people, they have the right to defend themselves. Then (laughing) the police chief said, In that case it would be better if its not the Ashram boys who defend, because2 And he said, All right, all right, Ill see to it! (Mother laughs)
--
Mother is referring to the candidates in the ongoing presidential elections. The strange and amusing part is that Mother gave her blessings to two candidates: V.V. Giri and Sanjiva Reddy; by some quirk of communications, Sanjiva Reddy was to receive them only... eight years later, on 13 July 1977, the very day on which he was elected president, after V. V. Giri's successor.
(See The Hindu of July 14, 1977.)
0 1969-08-23, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You know that the [presidential] elections have taken place, and that there were three candidates. Among the three, one1 had seemed to me the most apt to give India her true place among the nations of the earth I was immediately told that it was phantasmagoric and quite impossible. I didnt insist. They told me, Here are the three candidates (I told you last time), so I had only one solution, only one way, that was to concentrateconcentrate with an aspiration and ask for the best to happen for the country. Thats the message I sent to Delhi; I said to them, I have received the assurance that what would happen would be the best for the country (in the present conditions). Thus there was one man of worth and no chance; another man, very old,2 and a third man,3 upright and capable, with some qualities, but a little behind the times, that is to say, clinging to the past, and quite appalled by the decisions Indira had made.4 So officially, he was against her way of governing. That man sent me his photos, asking for my blessings; I wrote, blessings on one of the photos,5 gave it to L. and told him (you know that he left for Delhi), While you are there, if you see the possibility, meet that man and give him the photo, saying, Here, Mother sends you her blessings, but she warns you that she stands behind Indiras way of acting. I dont know what happened, but on the day of the election I was like that, with No active thought, simply, The best for the country, the best for the country and its the old one who made it!6 Not only did he make it, he also sent me a telegram to thank me! So you understand, it precisely shows where things stand. Thats how it is.
Actively, outwardly, I would never have been able to say, Choose this man. I only said, The best for the country. I dont know why or how, because because, mon petit, our human consciousness is SO SMALL! Even when we identify with the general Consciousness, we feel so small, so microscopic in comparison with the true, all-containing Consciousness. We cant contain all! Even, even when we identify with this Consciousness, we become like this (gesture showing emptiness at the forehead level), absolutely silent and still, with only a luminous Vibration, IMMENSE, you know, infinite, and an infinite power, too, but (same gesture to the forehead) no translation of any sort, nothing like a thought. So then, if we want to intervene between That and circumstances, we are OBLIGED to make mistakes, we cant do otherwise! So the only way is to stay like this (still gesture, turned upward). Thats why I am like this, silent. You told me, I dont understand your way of acting in Auroville: its nothing but that. Its because our thought limits, opposeseven, even the vastest consciousness, you understand, is only a TERRESTRIAL consciousness, a terrestrial consciousness, and its very small. Very small. And very small especially from the point of view of consequences, of the sequence of circumstances (Mother draws a curve), of how this will bring about thatwe dont see. So one must be like this (gesture turned upward), and simply let this Consciousness act. And there was the result: it is the third man who made it. I found it quite amusing. Quite amusing. I thought, There you are!
--
Deep gratitude for blessing. I am always at thy service.
V. V. Giri
0 1969-09-20, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This Consciousness is very interesting! Ill see how it behaves with our healer With the Persian, the Persian inventor who was here (hes leaving today), it behaved quite well. It wanted me to give him blessings, it was very active. With other people, nothingit ignores them. Its quite curious.
But to correctly perceive what That wants, one has to be very pure.
0 1969-10-11, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Give him this (Mother hands a blessings packet) and tell him its a symbol of my constant presence.
You told me that two bishops had resignedhave they been excommunicated?
0 1969-10-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Tenderness and blessings.
Mother
0 1970-03-13, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With all my tenderness and my blessings.
Signed: Mother
0 1970-03-14, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
386Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing. It has broken the force of epidemics and unveiled a marvellous surgery; but, also, it has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety and distasteful crutch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms.
Admirable!
0 1970-07-22, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With my blessings,
Signed: Mother
0 1971-04-11, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With all my affection and blessings
Signed: Mother
0 1971-05-15, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is where we are today. That which we want to avoid returns upon us with tenfold force. The hour for political calculation, for the pros and cons of our petty mathematics of expediency (which always goes awry) is past. The time has come to rediscover the Great Direction of India, which is really the Great Direction of the world, and to place our faith in the Spirit that guides her Destiny, rejecting petty fears of a phantom world opinion and doing away with the little supports which only lend support to the Enemy. Tomorrow America will perhaps resume her economic aid to Pakistan on the pretext of counteracting the Chinese presence. The Bangladesh slaughter will be honorably justified by a pseudoregime which will operate with the blessings of the international community. But one does not cheat the tide of history: for the third time our little compromises will crumble and we will find ourselves confronted with a terrible ordeal, its intensity nourished by our own successive failures in the past. The sooner not only India, but America and Russia too, understand the unreality of Pakistan and the magnitude of what is at stake at the borders of India, the sooner may the looming catastrophe be halted before it becomes totally and definitely irrevocable. One thing is certain, wrote Sri Aurobindo a few months before his passing, that if there is too much shilly-shallying and if America gives up now her defence of Korea [we could say even more: the defense of Bangladesh] she may be driven to yield position after position until it is too late: at one point or another she will have to stand and face the necessity of drastic action even if it leads to war.
For the battle of India is the battle of the world. This is where the worlds tragic destiny is brewing, or its last-minute burst of hope into a new world of Truth and Light, for it is said that the deepest darkness lies nearest the most luminous light.
0 1971-09-18, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Someone came here from the government, sent by a commission, and through him the General in comm and of the armies has communicated with me, and he asked for my blessings. They are all ready. Theyre waiting they are told tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, always tomorrow. I have news from up there.
(silence)
0 1971-10-16, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, certainly, Mother. What about sending him a blessing packet as a support to your words?
(Mother gives a packet)
0 1971-10-30, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Shall I look? [Satprem opens the card.] You said, With my affection and blessings.
Just that. Its better than a lot of words. I dont like big words.
0 1971-12-04, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Commander-in-chief of the eastern sector, who asked for Mother's blessings.
***
0 1971-12-29b, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Through these critical months I have thought constantly of you. I can find no words with which to express my gratitude for your support. Your blessings are a great source of strength. Our difficulties are not over.
(Mother nods her head)
--
With blessings.
India must be proud of your leadership. Let the country take its true place in the world for showing the way towards the supreme Truth.
0 1972-04-13, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It seems that you no longer see everyone on their birthdays. Is it because of a lack of time or for some occult reason? People say that seeing too many people every day tires you, but if such is the reason, twenty people coming to receive your blessings on their birthdays take perhaps less time together than one person who sees you every day! Besides, it is the only dayonce a yearwhen we can see you to receive your blessings and be near you. Of course, no one wants to disturb you, and I certainly dont.
But I was curious to know the reason for this new arrangement. I hope I am not being impertinent to write this way to you.
0 1972-05-27, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am myself still too much tied to [peoples thoughts]. Thank God (Mother sweeps her hand across her forehead), the mind is gone! Ah, you know, I am what an extraordinary blessing it is! But from the ordinary external standpoint, I seem to have become an utter imbecile.
!!!
0 1972-10-25, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Sujata:) Mother, you know, I saw you yesterday morning between 4:00 and 4:30, and you were giving your blessings to everybody. You were sitting on a very high seat, dressed in a white sari (if I recall correctly), and I was among the first to approach you for pranam. I knelt before you, brought my hands together, and bowed my head. Then you held my head, and suddenly I noticed I couldnt raise my head anymore! And I realized you were forcing my head downwards: you know, with your hands you were pressing, so my head kept going down and down and down. Finally I saw your feet I was very close to your feetand what lovely feet they were, Mother! All white and wonderful. Translucent almost.1
(Mother smiles and caresses Sujatas cheek)
0 1973-03-30, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(At the end of a long and distressing conversation that exposes the grudges of a particular individual against her neighbor, then angry remarks, then finally a request for blessings for a new trucking company, with a photo of the truck on the back of which Mother is asked to write something, one of the teachers announces that an epidemic of chickenpox and mumps has broken out at the school among the students and teachers, and that one of them has typhoid fever. Mother listens to all that. This will be the last meeting with the teachers.)
I hope youre not bringing any of that here?
03.07 - The Sunlit Path, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Like the individual, nations too have their sunlit path and the path of the doldrum as well. So long as a nation keeps to the truth of its inner being, follows its natural line of development, remains faithful to its secret godhead, it will have chosen that good part which will bring it divine blessings and fulfilment. But sometimes a nation has the stupidity to deny its self, to run after an ignis fatuus, a mymrga, then grief and sorrow and frustration lie ahead. We are afraid India did take such a wrong step when she refused to see the great purpose behind the present war and tried to avoid contri buting her mite to the evolutionary Force at work. On the other hand Britain in a moment of supreme crisis, that meant literally life or death, not only to herself or to other nations, but to humanity itself, had the good fortune to be led by the right Inspiration, the whole nation rose as one man and swore allegiance to the cause of humanity and the gods. That was how she was saved and that was how she acquired a new merit and a fresh lease of life. Unlike Britain, France bowed down and accepted what should not have been accepted and cut herself adrift from her inner life and truth, the result was five years of hell. Fortunately, the hell in the end proved to be a purgatory, but what a purgatory! For there were souls who were willing to pay the price and did pay it to the full cash and nett. So France has been given the chance again to turn round and take up the thread of her life where it snapped.
Once more another crisis seems to be looming before the nations, once more the choice has to be made and acted upon. In our weakness it is natural and easy to invoke God, to feel the presence of a higher Guidance, to trust in a heavenly light; but it is in our strength that we must know whose strength it is, and in whose strength it is that we conquer.
04.02 - Human Progress, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In other words, it can be said that the older humanity was intuitive and instinctive, while modern humanity is rationalistic. Now it has been questioned whether this change or reorientation is a sign of progress, whether it has not been at the most a mixed blessing. Many idealists and reformers frankly view the metamorphosis with anxiety. Gerald Heard vehemently declares that the rationalism of the modern age is a narrowing down of the consciousness to a superficial movement, a foreshortening, and a top-heavy specialisation which means stagnation, decay and death. He would rather release the tension in the strangulation of consciousness, even if it means a slight coming down to the anterior level of instinct and intuition, but of more plasticity and less specialisation: it is, he says, only in conditions of suppleness and variability, of life organised yet sufficiently free that the forces of evolution can act fruitfully. It has also been pointed out that homo sapiens is not a direct descendant of homo neanderthalis who was already a far too specialised being, but of a stock anterior to it which was still uncertain, wavering, groping towards a definite emergence.
Now, these two positionsof Jung and of Heardoffer us a good basis upon which we can try to estimate the nature of man's progress in historical times. Both refer to a crucial change in human consciousness, a far-reaching change having no parallel since it invented the metal tool. The change means the appearance of pure intelligence in man, a change, as we may say, in modern terms, in the system of reference, from biological co-ordinates to those of pure reason. Only Jung thinks that the reorganisation of the human consciousness is to happen precisely round the focus of pure reason, while Gerald Heard is doubtful about the efficacy of this facultyof directive thinking, as Jung puts it-if it is to lead to overspecialisation, which means the swelling of one member and atrophy of the rest; a greater and supreme direction he seeks elsewhere in a transcendence of intelligence and reason which, besides, is bound to happen in the course of evolution.
05.01 - Of Love and Aspiration, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Then shall you secure pure and perfect enjoyment -whose true name is Bliss; and then too can you become the instrumentto bring a bliss and blessing to the object of your love.
This is the secret of the sweetest and most exquisite and intimate relation possible with persons or things, that it should be made and established in and through the Divine.
05.03 - Satyavan and Savitri, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The sunlight's radiant blessing clasped my brow,
The moonbeams' silver ecstasy at night
06.01 - The Word of Fate, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And let thy blessing chant that this fair child
Shall pour the nectar of a sorrowless life
--
Then let thy blessing put the immortals' seal
On these bright lives' unstained felicity
06.30 - Sweet Holy Tears, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
At a supreme crisis of the soul when there seems to be no issue before you, if you come, in the naked simplicity of your whole being, pour yourself out in a flood of self-giving, to one who can be your refugein the end the Divine alone can be such a oneand who can respond fully to the intensity and ardent sincerity of your approach, you come holding your tearful soul as a complete self-offering, you do not know what tremendous response you call forth, the blessing divine you bring down in and around you.
I prepared the Feast1
07.37 - The Psychic Being, Some Mysteries, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The psychic will and psychic development are things that are completely outside the range of common notions. Ideas of justice and reward and punishment have no place here at all. Any people come to me and complain: What have I done in my past life that I have to be under such difficult conditions now, to suffer so much! I always reply: But don't you see it is a blessing for you, the divine grace upon you? In your past life perhaps you yourself asked for such conditions so that you may make greater progress through them! This way of looking at the thing may seem very novel. But truth lies that way.
How is it possible for a psychic being once living the life of intelligence and creativity to enter again into a life of stupidity and ordinariness?
08.38 - The Value of Money, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Over and above this, if such people possess a higher spiritual consciousness, then they can use the force to build slowly upon earth something that will be able to manifest the Divine Power and the Divine Grace. It is then that this force of money, of wealth, this power of Finance, instead of being a curse, as I have said, would be a blessing for the welfare of all. The saying goes that it is the worst people who become the best. I hope the best do not become the worst, for that would be sad indeed.
The greatest power, when used ill, can be a very great calamity; the same power used well can be a blessing.
All depends on the use that is made of a thing. Each object has a place, a function, a true use in the world. In the world as it is, however, very few things are used for their true purpose, very few things are in their right place. The world is in a frightful chaos. That is why there is all this misery, all this suffering. If each thing were in its own place, all in a harmonious poise, the whole world would progress without any necessity of falling into the state of misery and suffering in which it is now.
10.01 - A Dream, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But the next moment he saw to his dismay that the residents of the locality he was living in had neither mutual good-will nor any happiness; they considered the mechanical observance of social conventions the highest virtue. Instead of the ecstatic feeling that had been his in the beginning, he now had a feeling of suffering. It seemed to him as if he had been very thirsty but, lacking water, had been eating dust,only dust, infinite dust. He ran away from that place and went to another locality. There, in front of a grand mansion, a huge crowd had gathered; words of blessing were on every ones lips. Advancing he saw Tinkari Sheel seated on a verandah, distributing large amounts of money to the crowd; no one was going away empty-handed. Harimohon chuckled and thought, What is this dream? Tinkari Sheel is giving alms! Then he looked into Tinkaris mind. He saw that thousands of dissatisfactions and evil impulses such as greed, jealousy, passion, selfishness were all astir there. For the sake of virtuous appearance and fame, out of vanity, Tinkari had kept them suppressed, kept them starving, instead of driving them away from within.
In the meantime someone took Harimohon on a swift visit to the other world. He saw the hells and heavens of the Hindus, those of the Christians, the Muslims and the Greeks, and also many other hells and heavens. Then he found himself sitting once more in his own hut, on the same old torn and dirty mattress with Shyamsundar in front of him. The boy remarked, It is quite late in the night; now if I dont return home I shall get a scolding, everybody will start beating me. Let me therefore be brief. The hells and the heavens you have visited are nothing but a dream-world, a creation of your mind. After death man goes to hell or heaven and somewhere works out the tendencies that existed in him during his last birth. In your previous birth you were only virtuous, love found no way into your heart; you loved neither God nor man. After leaving your body you had to work out your old trend of nature, and so lived in imagination among middle-class people in a world of dreams; and as you went on leading that life you ceased to like it any more. You became restless and came away from there only to live in a hell made of dust; finally you enjoyed the fruits of your virtues and, having exhausted them, took birth again. In that life, except for your formal alms-giving and your soulless superficial dealings, you never cared to relieve anyones wantstherefore you have so many wants in this life. And the reason why you are still going on with this soulless virtue is that you cannot exhaust the karma of virtues and vices in the world of dream, it has to be worked out in this world. On the other hand, Tinkari was charity itself in his past life and so, blessed by thousands of people, he has in this life become a millionaire and knows no poverty; but as he was not completely purified in his nature, his unsatisfied desires have to feed on vice. Do you follow now the system of Karma? There is no reward or punishment, but evil creates evil, and good creates good. This is Natures law. Vice is evil, it produces misery; virtue is good, it leads to happiness. This procedure is meant for purification of nature, for the removal of evil. You see, Harimohon, this earth is only a minute part of my world of infinite variety, but even then you take birth here in order to get rid of evil by the help of Karma. When you are liberated from the hold of virtue and vice and enter the realm of Love, then only you are freed of this activity. In your next birth you too will get free. I shall send you my dear sister, Power, along with Knowledge, her companion; but on one condition,you should be my playmate, and must not ask for liberation. Are you ready to accept it? Harimohon replied, Well, Keshta, you have hypnotised me! I intensely feel like taking you on my lap and caressing you, as if I had no other desire in this life!
1.002 - The Heifer, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
40. O Children of Israel! Remember My blessings which I bestowed upon you, and fulfill your pledge to Me, and I will fulfill My pledge to you, and fear Me.
41. And believe in what I revealed, confirming what is with you; and do not be the first to deny it; and do not exchange My revelations for a small price; and be conscious of Me.
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122. O Children of Israel! Remember My blessing which I bestowed upon you, and that I have favored you over all people.
123. And beware of a Day when no soul will avail another soul in any way, and no ransom will be accepted from it, and no intercession will benefit it, and they will not be helped.
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150. And wherever you come from, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque. And wherever you may be, turn your faces towards it. So that the people may not have any argument against you—except those who do wrong among them. So do not fear them, but fear Me, that I may complete My blessings upon you, and that you may be guided.
151. Just as We sent to you a messenger from among you, who recites Our revelations to you, and purifies you, and teaches you the Book and wisdom, and teaches you what you did not know.
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157. Upon these are blessings and mercy from their Lord. These are the guided ones.
158. Safa and Marwa are among the rites of God. Whoever makes the Pilgrimage to the House, or performs the Umrah, commits no error by circulating between them. Whoever volunteers good—God is Appreciative and Cognizant.
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211. Ask the Children of Israel how many clear signs We have given them. Whoever alters the blessing of God after it has come to him—God is severe in retribution.
212. Beautified is the life of this world for those who disbelieve, and they ridicule those who believe. But the righteous will be above them on the Day of Resurrection. God provides to whomever He wills without measure.
1.003 - Family of Imran, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
103. And hold fast to the rope of God, altogether, and do not become divided. And remember God’s blessings upon you; how you were enemies, and He reconciled your hearts, and by His grace you became brethren. And you were on the brink of a pit of fire, and He saved you from it. God thus clarifies His revelations for you, so that you may be guided.
104. And let there be among you a community calling to virtue, and advocating righteousness, and deterring from evil. These are the successful.
1.004 - Women, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
83. When some news of security or alarm comes their way, they broadcast it. But had they referred it to the Messenger, and to those in authority among them, those who can draw conclusions from it would have comprehended it. Were it not for God’s blessing and mercy upon you, you would have followed the Devil, except for a few.
84. So fight in the cause of God; you are responsible only for yourself. And rouse the believers. Perhaps God will restrain the might of those who disbelieve. God is Stronger in Might, and More Punishing.
1.005 - The Table, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
2. O you who believe! Do not violate God’s sacraments, nor the Sacred Month, nor the offerings, nor the garlanded, nor those heading for the Sacred House seeking blessings from their Lord and approval. When you have left the pilgrim sanctity, you may hunt. And let not the hatred of people who barred you from the Sacred Mosque incite you to aggression. And cooperate with one another in virtuous conduct and conscience, and do not cooperate with one another in sin and hostility. And fear God. God is severe in punishment.
3. Prohibited for you are carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, and animals dedicated to other than God; also the flesh of animals strangled, killed violently, killed by a fall, gored to death, mangled by wild animals—except what you rescue, and animals sacrificed on altars; and the practice of drawing lots. For it is immoral. Today, those who disbelieve have despaired of your religion, so do not fear them, but fear Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you, and have completed My favor upon you, and have approved Islam as a religion for you. But whoever is compelled by hunger, with no intent of wrongdoing—God is Forgiving and Merciful.
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6. O you who believe! When you rise to pray, wash your faces and your hands and arms to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles. If you had intercourse, then purify yourselves. If you are ill, or travelling, or one of you returns from the toilet, or you had contact with women, and could not find water, then use some clean sand and wipe your faces and hands with it. God does not intend to burden you, but He intends to purify you, and to complete His blessing upon you, that you may be thankful.
7. And Remember God’s blessings upon you, and His covenant which He covenanted with you; when you said, “We hear and we obey.” And remain conscious of God, for God knows what the hearts contain.
8. O you who believe! Be upright to God, witnessing with justice; and let not the hatred of a certain people prevent you from acting justly. Adhere to justice, for that is nearer to piety; and fear God. God is informed of what you do.
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11. O you who believe! Remember God's blessings upon you; when certain people intended to extend their hands against you, and He restrained their hands from you. So reverence God, and in God let the believers put their trust.
12. God received a pledge from the Children of Israel, and We raised among them twelve chiefs. God said, “I am with you; if you perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and believe in My messengers and support them, and lend God a loan of righteousness; I will remit your sins, and admit you into Gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoever among you disbelieves afterwards has strayed from the right way.”
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20. When Moses said to his people, “O my people, remember God’s blessings upon you, when He placed prophets among you, and made you kings, and gave you what He never gave any other people.”
21. “O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned for you, and do not turn back, lest you return as losers.”
1.007 - The Elevations, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
69. “Are you surprised that a reminder has come to you from your Lord, through a man from among you, to warn you? Remember how He made you successors after the people of Noah, and increased you greatly in stature. And remember God’s blessings, so that you may prosper.”
70. They said, “Did you come to us to make us worship God alone, and abandon what our ancestors used to worship? Then bring us what you threaten us with, if you are truthful.”
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96. Had the people of the towns believed and turned righteous, We would have opened for them the blessings of the heaven and the earth; but they rejected the truth, so We seized them by what they were doing.
97. Do the people of the towns feel secure that Our might will not come upon them by night, while they sleep?
1.008 - The Spoils, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
53. That is because God would never change a blessing He has bestowed on a people unless they change what is within themselves, and because God is Hearing and Knowing.
54. Such was the case with the people of Pharaoh, and those before them. They denied the signs of their Lord, so We annihilated them for their wrongs, and We drowned the people of Pharaoh—they were all evildoers.
1.00 - Main, #The Book of Certitude, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
O people of Baha! It is incumbent upon each one of you to engage in some occupation-such as a craft, a trade or the like. We have exalted your engagement in such work to the rank of worship of the one true God. Reflect, O people, on the grace and blessings of your Lord, and yield Him thanks at eventide and dawn. Waste not your hours in idleness and sloth, but occupy yourselves with what will profit you and others. Thus hath it been decreed in this Tablet from whose horizon hath shone the day-star of wisdom and utterance. The most despised of men in the sight of God are they who sit and beg. Hold ye fast unto the cord of means and place your trust in God, the Provider of all means.
The kissing of hands hath been forbidden in the Book. This practice is prohibited by God, the Lord of glory and command. To none is it permitted to seek absolution from another soul; let repentance be between yourselves and God. He, verily, is the Pardoner, the Bounteous, the Gracious, the One Who absolveth the repentant.
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How great the blessedness that awaiteth the king who will arise to aid My Cause in My kingdom, who will detach himself from all else but Me! Such a king is numbered with the companions of the Crimson Ark-the Ark which God hath prepared for the people of Baha. All must glorify his name, must reverence his station, and aid him to unlock the cities with the keys of My Name, the omnipotent Protector of all that inhabit the visible and invisible kingdoms. Such a king is the very eye of mankind, the luminous ornament on the brow of creation, the fountainhead of blessings unto the whole world. Offer up, O people of Baha, your substance, nay your very lives, for his assistance.
O Emperor of Austria! He Who is the Dayspring of God's Light dwelt in the prison of Akka at the time when thou didst set forth to visit the Aqsa Mosque. Thou passed Him by, and inquired not about Him by Whom every house is exalted and every lofty gate unlocked. We, verily, made it a place whereunto the world should turn, that they might remember Me, and yet thou hast rejected Him Who is the Object of this remembrance, when He appeared with the Kingdom of God, thy Lord and the Lord of the worlds. We have been with thee at all times, and found thee clinging unto the Branch and heedless of the Root. Thy Lord, verily, is a witness unto what I say. We grieved to see thee circle round Our Name, whilst unaware of Us, though We were before thy face. Open thine eyes, that thou mayest behold this glorious Vision, and recognize Him Whom thou invokest in the daytime and in the night season, and gaze on the Light that shineth above this luminous Horizon.
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Should anyone acquire one hundred mithqals of gold, nineteen mithqals thereof are God's and to be rendered unto Him, the Fashioner of earth and heaven. Take heed, O people, lest ye deprive yourselves of so great a bounty. This We have commanded you, though We are well able to dispense with you and with all who are in the heavens and on earth; in it there are benefits and wisdoms beyond the ken of anyone but God, the Omniscient, the All-Informed. Say: By this means He hath desired to purify what ye possess and to enable you to draw nigh unto such stations as none can comprehend save those whom God hath willed. He, in truth, is the Beneficent, the Gracious, the Bountiful. O people! Deal not faithlessly with the Right of God, nor, without His leave, make free with its disposal. Thus hath His commandment been established in the holy Tablets, and in this exalted Book. He who dealeth faithlessly with God shall in justice meet with faithlessness himself; he, however, who acteth in accordance with God's bidding shall receive a blessing from the heaven of the bounty of his Lord, the Gracious, the Bestower, the Generous, the Ancient of Days. He, verily, hath willed for you that which is yet beyond your knowledge, but which shall be known to you when, after this fleeting life, your souls soar heavenwards and the trappings of your earthly joys are folded up. Thus admonisheth you He in Whose possession is the Guarded Tablet.
Various petitions have come before Our throne from the believers, concerning laws from God, the Lord of the seen and the unseen, the Lord of all worlds. We have, in consequence, revealed this Holy Tablet and arrayed it with the mantle of His Law that haply the people may keep the commandments of their Lord.
1.011 - Hud, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
48. It was said, “O Noah, disembark with peace from Us; and with blessings upon you, and upon communities from those with you. And other communities We will grant prosperity, and then a painful torment from Us will befall them.”
49. These are some stories from the past that we reveal to you. Neither you, nor your people knew them before this. So be patient. The future belongs to the pious.
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73. They said, “Do you marvel at the decree of God? The mercy and blessings of God are upon you, O people of the house. He is Praiseworthy and Glorious.”
74. When Abraham's fear subsided, and the good news had reached him, he started pleading with Us concerning the people of Lot.
1.012 - Joseph, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
6. And thus your Lord will choose you, and will teach you the interpretation of events, and will complete His blessing upon you and upon the family of Jacob, as He has completed it before upon your forefathers Abraham and Isaac. Your Lord is Knowing and Wise.
7. In Joseph and his brothers are lessons for the seekers.
1.014 - Abraham, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
6. Moses said to his people, “Remember God’s blessings upon you, as He delivered you from the people of Pharaoh, who inflicted on you terrible suffering, slaughtering your sons while sparing your daughters. In that was a serious trial from your Lord.”
7. And when your Lord proclaimed: “If you give thanks, I will grant you increase; but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is severe.”
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28. Have you not seen those who exchanged the blessing of God with blasphemy, and landed their people into the house of perdition?
29. Hell—they will roast in it. What a miserable settlement.
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34. And He has given you something of all what you asked. And if you were to count God’s blessings, you would not be able to enumerate them. The human being is unfair and ungrateful.
35. Recall that Abraham said, “O my Lord, make this land peaceful, and keep me and my sons from worshiping idols.”
1.016 - The Bee, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
53. Whatever blessing you have is from God. And when harm touches you, it is to Him that you groan.
54. But when He lifts the harm from you, some of you associate others with their Lord.
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71. God has favored some of you over others in livelihood. Those who are favored would not give their properties to their servants, to the extent of making them partners in it. Will they then renounce God’s blessings?
72. God has given you mates from among yourselves; and has produced for you, from your mates, children and grandchildren; and has provided you with good things. Will they then believe in falsehood, and refuse God’s favors?
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81. And God has made for you shade out of what He has created, and has given you resorts in the mountains, and has given you garments to protect you from the heat, and garments to protect you from your violence. Thus He completes His blessings upon you, so that you may submit.
82. But if they turn away, your only duty is clear communication.
83. They recognize God’s blessing, but then deny it, as most of them are ungrateful.
84. On the Day when We raise up a witness from every community—those who disbelieved will not be permitted, nor will they be excused.
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112. And God cites the example of a town that was secure and peaceful, with its livelihood coming to it abundantly from every direction. But then it turned unappreciative of God’s blessings, so God made it taste the robe of hunger and fear, because of what they used to craft.
113. A messenger from among them had come to them, but they denounced him, so the punishment seized them in the midst of their wrongdoing.
114. Eat of the lawful and good things God has provided for you, and be thankful for God’s blessings, if it is Him that you serve.
115. He has forbidden you carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and anything consecrated to other than God. But if anyone is compelled by necessity, without being deliberate or malicious, then God is Forgiving and Merciful.
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121. Thankful for His blessings. He chose him, and guided him to a straight path.
122. And We gave him goodness in this world, and in the Hereafter he will be among the righteous.
1.01 - Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
adds its blessing. But to have soul is the whole venture of life,
for soul is a life-giving daemon who plays his elfin game above
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ishments and blessings that go far beyond the possible deserts of
human beings. Heaven and hell are the fates meted out to the
1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side. They did not provide them houses, says he, till the earth, by the Lords blessing, brought forth bread to feed them, and the first years crop was so light that
they were forced to cut their bread very thin for a long season. The secretary of the Province of New Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that those in New Netherland, and especially in New
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Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention and industry of mankind offer. In such a neighborhood as this, boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones. I speak understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted with it both theoretically and practically. With a little more wit we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest now are, and make our civilization a blessing. The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.
But to make haste to my own experiment.
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I would not subtract any thing from the praise that is due to philanthropy, but merely demand justice for all who by their lives and works are a blessing to mankind. I do not value chiefly a mans uprightness and benevolence, which are, as it were, his stem and leaves. Those plants of whose greenness withered we make herb tea for the sick, serve but a humble use, and are most employed by quacks. I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse. His goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he is unconscious. This is a charity that hides a multitude of sins. The philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance of his own cast-off griefs as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy. We should impart our courage, and not our despair, our health and ease, and not our disease, and take care that this does not spread by contagion. From what southern plains comes up the voice of wailing? Under what latitudes reside the hea then to whom we would send light? Who is that intemperate and brutal man whom we would redeem? If any thing ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,for that is the seat of sympathy,he forthwith sets about reforming the world.
Being a microcosm himself, he discovers, and it is a true discovery, and he is the man to make it,that the world has been eating green apples; to his eyes, in fact, the globe itself is a great green apple, which there is danger awful to think of that the children of men will nibble before it is ripe; and straightway his drastic philanthropy seeks out the Esquimaux and the Patagonian, and embraces the populous
1.01 - How is Knowledge Of The Higher Worlds Attained?, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
shown in their childhood by subsequent students of higher knowledge is well known to the experienced in these matters. There are children who look up with religious awe to those whom they venerate. For such people they have a respect which forbids them, even in the deepest recess of their heart, to harbor any thought of criticism or opposition. Such children grow up into young men and women who feel happy when they are able to look up to anything that fills them with veneration. From the ranks of such children are recruited many students of higher knowledge. Have you ever paused outside the door of some venerated person, and have you, on this your first visit, felt a religious awe as you pressed on the handle to enter the room which for you is a holy place? If so, a feeling has been manifested within you which may be the germ of your future adherence to the path of knowledge. It is a blessing for every human being in process of development to have such feelings upon which to build. Only it must not be thought that this disposition leads to submissiveness and slavery. What was once a childlike veneration for persons becomes, later, a veneration for truth and knowledge.
p. 7
1.01 - MAPS OF EXPERIENCE - OBJECT AND MEANING, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of
bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to
1.01 - NIGHT, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
With wings that winnow blessing
From Heaven through Earth I see them pressing,
1.01 - Sets down the first line and begins to treat of the imperfections of beginners., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
In the which things spiritual persons (though taking part in them with great efficacy and persistence and using and treating them with great care) often find themselves, spiritually speaking, very weak and imperfect. For since they are moved to these things and to these spiritual exercises by the consolation and pleasure that they find in them, and since, too, they have not been prepared for them by the practice of earnest striving in the virtues, they have many faults and imperfections with respect to these spiritual actions of theirs; for, after all, any man's actions correspond to the habit of perfection attained by him. And, as these persons have not had the opportunity of acquiring the said habits of strength, they have necessarily to work like feebler children, feebly. In order that this may be seen more clearly, and likewise how much these beginners in the virtues lacks with respect to the works in which they so readily engage with the pleasure aforementioned, we shall describe it by reference to the seven capital sins, each in its turn, indicating some of the many imperfections which they have under each heading; wherein it will be clearly seen how like to children are these persons in all they do. And it will also be seen how many blessings the dark night of which we shall afterwards treat brings with it, since it cleanses the soul and purifies it from all these imperfections.
1.01 - Tara the Divine, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
is a small probability that Tara's blessing and
protection will come to us, where as a trust witho ut
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heart, she received Tara's blessing, and her mind
changed little by little. Toward the end of her life, she
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Such is Tara's blessing, that it turns her devotees
toward their own good beyond their limited wishes.
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snowstorm could only be Tara's blessing; Tara, whose
help we did not cease to invoke.
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Tara being certain to be heard. Tara's blessings do not
know any borders.
1.01 - The King of the Wood, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
and further as blessing men and women with offspring, and granting
expectant mothers an easy delivery. Again, fire seems to have played
1.01 - The Unexpected, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
In this mood of expectation we arrived at the eve of the Darshan, November 24th. The Mother gave her blessings to all in the morning. Embodiment of the Mahalakshmi Grace and Beauty, she poured her smile and filled our hearts with love and adoration, an ideal condition in which to present ourselves to the Lord. Each Darshan is an occasion for him to survey the progress we have made after the last one and to give us a fresh push towards a further advance.
Visitors had swollen the even flow of our life; among them, Miss Wilson, daughter of President Wilson, had come from far-off America for the Master's Darshan. His book Essays on the Gita had cast an unearthly spell upon her. That there could be someone who could write such a wonderful book in this materialistic age was beyond her imagination. She could hear the Voice of the Lord saying to man, "Abandon all dharmas. Take refuge in me alone. I shall deliver thee from all Sin." The book was her Bible. She decided she must have the Darshan of such a unique person.
1.027 - The Ant, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
16. And Solomon succeeded David. He said, “O people, we were taught the language of birds, and we were given from everything. This is indeed a real blessing.”
17. To the service of Solomon were mobilized his troops of sprites, and men, and birds—all held in strict order.
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19. He smiled and laughed at her words, and said, “My Lord, direct me to be thankful for the blessings you have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do good works that please You. And admit me, by Your grace, into the company of Your virtuous servants.”
20. Then he inspected the birds, and said, “Why do I not see the hoopoe? Or is he among the absentees?
1.029 - The Spider, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
67. Do they not see that We established a Secure Sanctuary, while all around them the people are being carried away? Do they believe in falsehood, and reject the blessings of God?
68. And who does greater wrong than he who fabricates lies and attributes them to God, or calls the truth a lie when it has come to him? Is there not in Hell a dwelling for the blasphemers?
1.02 - Meditating on Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
spoken by the Buddha. They just want to receive blessings and initiations
from high lamas. They think some external force or realized being will tap
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offerings to them. These offerings generate in their minds bliss uncontaminated by attachment. Then all these Taras fall like snowakes into us, blessing and inspiring our mind.
Like a child who dresses up and pretends to be a reman, thereby developing the condence to become one, we imagine ourselves to be a Buddha
1.02 - Priestly Kings, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
bestow upon their subjects and worshippers those blessings which are
commonly supposed to be beyond the reach of mortals, and are sought,
1.02 - Taras Tantra, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
Vajrayana practice and the Lama's blessing are
necessary.
1.02 - The Concept of the Collective Unconscious, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
at birth with blessings or curses, are given sponsors a "god-
father" and a "godmother."
1.02 - The Philosophy of Ishvara, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
We shall now try to understand what the great representative of the Advaita School has to say on the point. We shall see how the Advaita system maintains all the hopes and aspirations of the dualist intact, and at the same time propounds its own solution of the problem in consonance with the high destiny of divine humanity. Those who aspire to retain their individual mind even after liberation and to remain distinct will have ample opportunity of realising their aspirations and enjoying the blessing of the qualified Brahman. These are they who have been spoken of in the Bhgavata Purna thus: "O king, such are the, glorious qualities of the Lord that the sages whose only pleasure is in the Self, and from whom all fetters have fallen off, even they love the Omnipresent with the love that is for love's sake." These are they who are spoken of by the Snkhyas as getting merged in nature in this cycle, so that, after attaining perfection, they may come out in the next as lords of world-systems. But none of these ever becomes equal to God (Ishvara). Those who attain to that state where there is neither creation, nor created, nor creator, where there is neither knower, nor knowable, nor knowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where there is neither subject, nor object, nor relation, "there, who is seen by whom?" such persons have gone beyond everything to "where words cannot go nor mind", gone to that which the Shrutis declare as "Not this, not this"; but for those who cannot, or will not reach this state, there will inevitably remain the triune vision of the one undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul, and the interpenetrating sustainer of both Ishvara. So, when Prahlda forgot himself, he found neither the universe nor its cause; all was to him one Infinite, undifferentiated by name and form; but as soon as he remembered that he was Prahlada, there was the universe before him and with it the Lord of the universe "the Repository of an infinite number of blessed qualities". So it was with the blessed Gopis. So long as they had lost sense of their own personal identity and individuality, they were all Krishnas, and when they began again to think of Him as the One to be worshipped, then they were Gopis again, and immediately Bhakti, then, can be directed towards Brahman, only in His personal aspect.
"The way is more difficult for those whose mind is attached to the Absolute!" Bhakti has to float on smoothly with the current of our nature. True it is that we cannot have; any idea of the Brahman which is not anthropomorphic, but is it not equally true of everything we know? The greatest psychologist the world has ever known, Bhagavan Kapila, demonstrated ages ago that human consciousness is one of the elements in the make-up of all the objects of our perception and conception, internal as well as external. Beginning with our bodies and going up to Ishvara, we may see that every object of our perception is this consciousness plus something else, whatever that may be; and this unavoidable mixture is what we ordinarily think of as reality. Indeed it is, and ever will be, all of the reality that is possible for the human mind to know. Therefore to say that Ishvara is unreal, because He is anthropomorphic, is sheer nonsense. It sounds very much like the occidentals squabble on idealism and realism, which fearful-looking quarrel has for its foundation a mere play on the word "real". The idea of Ishvara covers all the ground ever denoted and connoted by the word real, and Ishvara is as real as anything else in the universe; and after all, the word real means nothing more than what has now been pointed out. Such is our philosophical conception of Ishvara.
1.02 - The Recovery, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
The Darshan day at last! In the morning, the Mother arrived in his room with a flower, probably a red lotus, knelt before the Lord, placed the lotus on his bed and bowed down to receive his blessings and his sweet smile. This was the second time I saw her doing pranam to him. The first time was on her birthday, February 21. It was a revelation to me, for I did not expect her to bow down in the Indian way. On every Darshan day since then I enjoyed the sight. On other days she used to take his hand and lightly kiss it. With her customary drive, she chalked out the Darshan programme, the time for Sri Aurobindo's lunch and of her coming for the Darshan. We had to be ready and keep the Master ready too. From the early morning time began to move fast, the Mother was seen rushing about, she had so many things to attend to! Everything finished, clad in a lovely sari, a crown adorning her shapely head, looking like a veritable Goddess, she entered Sri Aurobindo's room with brisk steps, earlier than the appointed time, as was her wont. She gave a quick glance at us. We were all attention. The entire group was present, it being the first Darshan after the accident. She was pleased to find us ready. Sri Aurobindo was dressed in an immaculate white dhoti, its border daintily creased, as is the custom in Bengal; a silk chaddar across his chest and his long shining hair flowing down a picture that reminded us of Shiva and Shakti going out to give darshan to their bhaktas; Sri Aurobindo was in front and the Mother behind. They sat together as on other Darshan days, she on his right, a glorious view, and the ceremony began.
It was, however, a simple Darshan. One by one the sadhaks stood for a brief moment before the One-in-Two, and passed on quietly thrilled and exalted by their silent look and gracious smile. The feelings of the sadhaks can be imagined when they saw their beloved Master restored to his normal health! The Darshan was over within an hour, and when Sri Aurobindo was back in his room Dr. Rao remarked in his childlike manner, "Sir, you looked grand at the Darshan!" Sri Aurobindo smiled and we retorted, just to tease him, "At other times he doesn't?" Rao, nonplussed, replied, "No, no, I did not mean that." Truly, Rao had expressed the sentiments of hundreds of devotees who had a glimpse of him during the Darshan. What a grandeur and majesty in his simple silent pose! What a power, as if he held the whole world in the palm of his hand! If ever a human being could attain the stature of a god, he was there for all to see and be blessed by. Many have had a deep change after just one touch of his God-like magnificence. "A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate." Many had visions and boons they had long been seeking for, and for the sadhaks each Darshan was a step to a further milestone towards the Eternal. Sri Aurobindo had said: "Darshans are periods of great descents!" It was not for nothing that Hitler chose the 15th of August for his royal ascension in Buckingham Palace and got the first heavy blow. Nor was it for nothing that India gained her independence on that immortal day.
--
There was a rush to buy the book and get Sri Aurobindo's autograph in the bargain! For a divine policy was announced whose brain-wave it was, I do not know that all buyers would be favoured with the autograph of the Master. Volume after volume began to pour in with the names of the buyers appended to them. The names were sometimes quite long, such as Purushottamdas Thakurdas Chintamani Patil, and he would ask, "Am I to write all that?" And there were fanciful spellings to boot! Dates as well! At times the names of the husband and his wife together! If sometimes a name struck his fancy he would ask, "Who the devil is he?" or "Who is this Lord Shiva?" or we, would ourselves say that he was so and so. Many were the bhaktas who could not understand a word of the book but bought it for the sake of his blessings. For us sadhaks who could not afford to buy it, the book was given free on our birthday, with the autograph added to it. Later all the books of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo when published, were given to us according to our needs, on our birthdays. The Mother would ask, "Do you want any book? Have you got this book?" One wonders how much money was spent on this; and the custom continues even now, though in a modified form.
When Vol. III came out, it being the bulkiest, Sri Aurobindo remarked, "What a fat elephant!" And when they entered the room in packs and were heaped on the side-couch waiting for the autograph, they made an impressive herd and thrilled us with joy that The Life Divine had at last been delivered on this woe-begone planet of ours! But with the encroaching dimness of his eye-sight, the Mother stopped the practice of giving autographs altogether.
1.02 - The Stages of Initiation, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
Yet it must be emphasized that there are people unconsciously gifted with the ability and faculty of performing such actions, though they have never undergone an esoteric training. Such helpers of the world and of humanity pass through life bestowing blessings and performing good deeds. For reasons here not to be discussed, gifts have been bestowed on them which appear supernatural. What distinguishes them from the
p. 85
1.031 - Luqman, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
20. Do you not see how God placed at your service everything in the heavens and the earth? How He showered you with His blessings, both outward and inward? Yet among the people is he who argues about God without knowledge, without guidance, and without an enlightening Scripture.
21. And when it is said to them, “Follow what God has revealed,” they say, “Rather, we follow what we found our parents devoted to.” Even if Satan is calling them to the suffering of the Blaze?
1.033 - The Confederates, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
9. O you who believe! Remember God’s blessings upon you, when forces came against you, and We sent against them a wind, and forces you did not see. God is Observant of what you do.
10. When they came upon you, from above you, and from beneath you; and the eyes became dazed, and the hearts reached the throats, and you harbored doubts about God.
--
56. God and His angels give blessings to the Prophet. O you who believe, call for blessings on him, and greet him with a prayer of peace.
57. Those who insult God and His Messenger, God has cursed them in this life and in the Hereafter, and has prepared for them a demeaning punishment.
1.035 - Originator, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
3. O people! Remember God’s blessings upon you. Is there a creator other than God who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? There is no god but He. So how are you misled?
4. If they reject you, messengers before you were also rejected. To God all matters are returned.
--
32. Then We passed the Book to those of Our servants whom We chose. Some of them wrong their souls, and some follow a middle course, and some are in the foremost in good deeds by God’s leave; that is the greatest blessing.
33. The Gardens of Eden, which they will enter. They will be adorned therein with gold bracelets and pearls, and their garments therein will be of silk.
1.039 - Throngs, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
38. And if you asked them, “Who created the heavens and the earth?” they would say, “God.” Say, “Have you seen those you pray to instead of God? If God willed any harm for me, can they lift His harm? And if He willed a blessing for me, can they hold back His mercy?” Say, “God suffices for me. On Him the reliant rely.”
39. Say: “O my people, work according to your ability; and so will I. Then you will know.
--
49. When adversity touches the human being, he calls on Us. But then, when We favor him with a blessing from Us, he says, “I have attained this by virtue of my knowledge.” However, it is a test, but most of them do not know.
50. Those before them said it, but what they had earned did not avail them.
1.03 - A Sapphire Tale, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
"Your wish is wise, my son. Go - and your father's blessing be with you."
Amid the western ocean lies a little island valued for its valuable forests.
1.03 - Bloodstream Sermon, #The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, #Bodhidharma, #Buddhism
good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings-but
no buddha.
--
good deeds result in blessings. Angry people go to hell and happy
people go to heaven. But once you know that the nature of anger
1.03 - Hymns of Gritsamada, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
2. The Nights and the Dawns have lowed to thee as the milchcows low towards a calf in their lairs of rest. O Fire of many blessings, thou art the traveller of Heaven through the ages of man and thou shinest self-gathered through his nights.5
3. The Gods have sent into the foundation of the middle world this great worker and pilgrim of earth and of heaven, whom we must know, like our chariot of white-flaming light, Fire whom we must voice with our lauds like a friend in the peoples.
1.03 - Invocation of Tara, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
presence and blessing.
In buddhism, there are many types of rituals
--
utterance of the deity was the blessing that opened
Chogyur Lingpa's mind to the inner revelation of
--
,from their hearts. The blessing and protection are the
same.
--
realization to be revealed, will also receive a blessing
in accordance with his or her wishes.
--
the deity's blessing. This blessing, in the long term,
will end by making us enter the path of true
1.03 - Sympathetic Magic, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
plants and animals, may diffuse blessing or bane around them,
according to their own intrinsic nature and the skill of the wizard
1.03 - The Gods, Superior Beings and Adverse Forces, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My blessings.
12 September 1950
--
With my blessings.
5 September 1964
1.03 - The House Of The Lord, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Let us then begin from the very break of day. The sun's rays came in by the eastern window; he was awake and the exercises started in bed, prescribed by Manilal. By 6.30 a.m. he sat up to receive the Mother who on her way to the Balcony Darshan visited him to have his darshan. Sri Aurobindo gave us definite instructions to wake him up before the Mother's arrival. On the other hand, the Mother wanted us not to disturb his sleep. So at times we found ourselves in a quandary. Champaklal's devotional nature would not interrupt his sweet nap after the exercises, while I, when alone, would try by all sorts of devices to wake him up. Sometimes he himself would wake up only to learn that the Mother had come and gone! Then she would come back after the darshan and begin her day with his blessings, just as we did after her darshan. This was followed by his reading The Hindu. Between 9.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. the Mother came to comb his hair, apply a lotion and plait it. Most often she finished some business during this period. When a sadhak translated the Mother's Prayers and Meditations into English and wanted her approval, she had it read out before Sri Aurobindo and both of them made the necessary changes. She sometimes talked of private matters, and when her voice sank low, we took the hint and withdrew discreetly. She believed more in subtle methods than in open expressions. The gesture, the look, the smile, the fugitive glance, the silence, a thousand are her ways of communication to the soul! After the Mother had left, there started the routine of washing the face and mouth. Here a small detail calls for mention by its unusualness. When he had finished using Neem paste for his teeth and the mouth-wash (Vademecum), he massaged his gums with a little bit of Oriental Balm.
After this, till 3 or 4 p.m. Sri Aurobindo was all alone. Then his first meal would come; in between he sometimes took a glass of plain water. Now, what could he be doing at this time wrapped in a most mysterious silence? None except the Mother could throw any precise light on it. We were only told that he had a special work to do and must be left alone unless, of course, some very urgent business needed his attention. All that was visible to our naked eye was that he sat silently in his bed, afterwards in the capacious armchair, with his eyes wide open just as any other person would. Only he passed hours and hours thus, changing his position at times and making himself comfortable; the yes moving a little, and though usually gazing at the wall in front, never fixed trak-like at any particular point. Sometimes the face would beam with a bright mile without any apparent reason, much to our amusement, as a child smiles in sleep. Only it was a waking sleep, for as we passed across the room, there was a dim recognition of our shadow-like movements. Occasionally he would look towards the door. That was when he heard some sound which might indicate the Mother's coming. But his external consciousness would certainly not be obliterated. When he wanted something, his voice seemed to come from a distant cave; rarely did we find him plunged within, with his eyes closed. If at that time, the Mother happened to come for some urgent work or with a glass of water, finding him thus indrawn, she would wait, usually by the bedside till he opened his eyes. Then seeing her waiting, he would exclaim "Oh!" and the Mother's lips would part into an exquisite smile. He had told us that he was in the habit of meditating with open eyes. We kept ourselves ready for the call, sitting behind the bed at our assigned places or someone cleaning the furniture or doing other work in the room. One regular call was for a peppermint lozenge which he took some time before his meal. If the meal was late in coming he would ask for a second one. When our chatting became too animated and made us feel uneasy, one better informed would exclaim, "Do you think he is disturbed by such petty bubbles? He must be soaring in a consciousness where I wonder if even a bomb explosion would make any impression." At other relaxed moments he would take cognizance of incidental noises.
--
At the beginning all of us would make it a point to be present during his meal and watch the function as well as the Mother's part in it. When the time was announced, water was brought for Sri Aurobindo to wash his hands, then he started eating with a spoon and rarely with knife and fork. He would take off his ring, place it in Champaklal's hand and wash. Champakal would put it back on his finger afterwards. Sometimes when he forgot to take off the ring, Champaklal caught hold of the hand before it was dipped in the water. Then the Mother would come, prepare and lay the table, push it herself up to Sri Aurobindo and arrange the various foods in bowls or glass tumblers, in the order of savouries, sweets and fruit juices everything having an atmosphere of cleanliness, purity and beauty. Then she would offer, one by one, the dishes to the silent Deity who would take them slowly and silently as if the eating was not for the satisfaction of the palate but an act of self-offering. Steadiness and silence were the characteristic stamps of Sri Aurobindo. Dhra, according to him, was the ideal of Aryan culture. Hurry and hustle were words not found in his dictionary. Be it eating, drinking, walking or talking he did it always in a slow and measured rhythm, giving the impression that every movement was conscious and consecrated. The Mother would punctuate the silence with queries like, "How do you like that dish?" or such remarks as, "This mushroom is grown here, this is special brinjal sent from Benares, this is butterfruit." To all, Sri Aurobindo's reply would be, "Oh, I see! Quite good!" Typically English in manner and tone! His silence or laconic praise made us wonder if he had not lost all distinction in taste! Did rasagolla, bread and brinjal have the same taste in the Divine sense-experience? Making this vital point clear, he wrote in a letter: "Distinction is never lost, bread cannot be as tasty as a luchi, but a yogi can enjoy bread with as much rasa as a luchi which is quite a different thing." He had a liking for sweets, particularly for rasagolla, sandesh and pantua. We could see that clearly: after the Mother had banned all sweets from his menu for medical reasons, one day some pantuas found their way in by chance. The Mother could not send them back from the table. She asked him if he would take some. He replied, "If it is pantua, I can try." Since then this became a spicy joke with all of us. He enjoyed, as a matter of fact, all kinds of good dishes, European or Indian. But whatever was not to his taste, he would just touch and put away. The pungent preparations of the South could not, however, receive his blessings, except the rasam[1]. When on his arrival in Pondicherry he was given rasam, he enjoyed it very much and said in our talks, "It has a celestial taste!" He was neither a puritan god nor an epicure; only, he had no hankering or attachment for anything. His meal ended with a big tumbler of orange juice which he sipped slowly, looking after each sip to see how much was left, and keeping a small quantity as prasd. Once the entire juice had slightly fermented and after one or two sips he left it at the Mother's prompting. We conspired to make good use of it as prasd, but Sri Aurobindo got the scent of our secret design and forewarned us! We had to check our temptation.
One thing that we noticed was that unless the Mother served him in this way, he would lose all distinction between different preparations and would not know which to take first and in which order. Very probably he would have gone half-fed. On one occasion we saw him eating a whole cooked green chilly before we could cry halt! Of course, what was one chilly for him who is said in the old days to have taken a lump of opium with impunity! We have also seen him finishing his meal somehow, if for some reason the Mother could not be present and Champaklal had to serve instead. The story goes that once Mridu's dish went back without being touched by Sri Aurobindo, and she raised a storm. Sri Aurobindo had to quiet her with the plea that the Mother being absent he did not know what he had taken or what he had not. On another occasion Sri Aurobindo's meal being over earlier than usual, Mridu's dish arrived late and was left untouched. As soon as she heard about it she began to wail "like a new-born babe" as if she would bring down the whole Ashram by her lamentations. Dr. Manilal reported the fact to Sri Aurobindo and he asked, "How did she know about it?" I replied apologetically, "I told her." He said softly, "These things should not be said;" then he added with a smile, "but it is I who ought to lament for having missed her fine dish." We all had a good laugh.
One regular interlude during his meal was the arrival of our rampageous _luchi-_maker, Mridu. I do not know how she obtained this exceptional privilege. She would come like an innocent lamb with incense and flowers, kneel down in front of the door and wait with folded hands for her "father's blessings". On our drawing Sri Aurobindo's attention to her presence, he would stop eating and cast a quiet glance at her. Her boisterous, unruly nature, would become humble for a while before Sri Aurobindo! Whenever it was reported that she had manifested her violent temper, which was not infrequent, she was threatened with the loss of this darshan! (I may add here the name of another recipient of Sri Aurobindo's special favour Bansidhar, Champaklal's brother. He used to bring, for Sri Aurobindo's sponge-bath, two buckets of hot water at a fixed time. While going, he would do pranam to him from a distance and Sri Aurobindo would stop whatever work he was doing and bless him with a glance.)
We were rather surprised to notice that milk was excluded from his menu; so was it, we gathered, from the Mother's la Japonaise! There was before the accident, however, a cow popularly called "Sri Aurobindo's cow". It was specially taken care of and brought with its calf during the Balcony Darshan for the Mother's blessings. While Sri Aurobindo was eating in silence the Mother would speak with him about some general matters or give him reports about people's illnesses, visitors for Darshan or even minor problems regarding the Ashram life. Sometimes he would also ask the Mother's opinion concerning medical or other points. If at any time we pressed our own opinion against the Mother's, Sri Aurobindo would pull us up saying, "You think Mother does not know?" or "You know more than the Mother?" Similarly, if Sri Aurobindo passed some remark, the Mother would accept it as the last Word. Very often sadhaks used to hear her remark, "Sri Aurobindo said so." And Sri Aurobindo would quote the Mother's authority. Once a sadhak wanted to do something in a particular way; the Mother almost consented, but on hearing Sri Aurobindo's objection, she said, "Oh, you think so? Then it can't be done!" To both of them, the other's word was the law. One of us observed that only two persons have realised and put into practice Sri Aurobindo's Yoga of surrender: the Mother surrendering to Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo to the Mother.
About an hour after food, came the bath. I have described the sponge-bath. Now I shall speak of the shower-bath, given with a spraying arrangement. For this kind of bath to be possible we had to wait for over two years. He would take some rest after his meal, then get up and sit on the edge of the bed waiting for the Mother's arrival. In the interval he would do the leg exercises prescribed by Dr. Manilal. Sometimes if she was late in coming, we used to fidget but Sri Aurobindo was an image of patience. Now and then if he felt drowsy, Champaklal would put a few pillows as back-rest and support them from behind till the Mother came. Then he would start walking in her presence for about half an hour. One may be tempted to ask, "Why should he walk in her presence?" It was certainly not for any physical reason. As Sri Aurobindo's walking had not yet become steady, the Mother's presence was necessary to protect him from any harm that could be caused by occult forces that is how I understand it. Just as Sri Aurobindo used to protect the Mother, she protected him, when needed: it was the role of the Lord and the Shakti. These are occult phenomena beyond our human intelligence. After her departure, he would go to the adjacent room which had been turned into a small bathroom, with walls of glazed tiles, the floor of mosaic and there was constant supply of hot and cold water. After long years of austerity, affluence and luxury indeed! The Divine also passes through hardships, though with a smile! The bath itself was simple enough, not taking more than half an hour. This again was like the bath of the temple Deity in a shrine, except that here the Deity was in a human body one of the most sensitive. The Deity, entirely passive, submitted himself to the care of the attendants, the sevaks who did what they thought best. In this priestly act of ablution, we felt a thrill as we touched and cleansed his body, part by part. As the face was rubbed, he closed his eyes, leaned in front or back when these parts were done respectively, and when one arm was lifted for cleaning, his hand gently pressed the fingers of the operator. Finally came the turn of the two small and dainty feet all the activities going on silently and in mutual understanding, while the conversation proceeded simultaneously. Another operation that we, following the ancient traditional practice, undertook during the bath for a short time, at the earnest request of some devotees, was what we call "sipping of water touched by the feet of the Deity". Sri Aurobindo granted the boon and even put forward his feet so that we could wash them and collect the water in a bowl.
1.042 - Consultation, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
22. You will see the unjust terrified of what they have earned, and it will befall them. As for those who believe and do good deeds, they will be in the Meadows of the Gardens; they will have whatever they please in the presence of their Lord; that is the supreme blessing.
23. That is the good news God gives to His servants who believe and do good deeds. Say, “I ask of you no wage for it, except affection among the near of kin.” Whoever does a good deed, We will increase its goodness for him. God is Forgiving and Appreciative.
1.046 - The Dunes, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
15. We have enjoined upon man kindness to his parents. His mother carried him with difficulty, and delivered him with difficulty. His bearing and weaning takes thirty months. Until, when he has attained his maturity, and has reached forty years, he says, “Lord, enable me to appreciate the blessings You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to act with righteousness, pleasing You. And improve my children for me. I have sincerely repented to You, and I am of those who have surrendered.”
16. Those are they from whom We accept the best of their deeds, and We overlook their misdeeds, among the dwellers of Paradise—the promise of truth which they are promised.
1.048 - Victory, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
29. Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those with him are stern against the disbelievers, yet compassionate amongst themselves. You see them kneeling, prostrating, seeking blessings from God and approval. Their marks are on their faces from the effects of prostration. Such is their description in the Torah, and their description in the Gospel: like a plant that sprouts, becomes strong, grows thick, and rests on its stem, impressing the farmers. Through them He enrages the disbelievers. God has promised those among them who believe and do good deeds forgiveness and a great reward.
1.04 - Descent into Future Hell, #The Red Book Liber Novus, #unset, #Zen
89. The theme of divine madness has a long history. Its 10c1. .\s Classicus was Socrates's discussion of it in the Phaedrus: madness, provided it comes as a gift of heaven, is the channel by which we receive the greatest blessings (Plato, Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII, tr. W Hamilton
[London: Penguin, 1986], p. 46, line 244). Socrates distinguished four types of divine madness: (I) inspired divination, such as by the prophetess at Delphi; (2) instances in which individuals, when ancient sins have given rise to troubles, have prophesied and incited to prayer and worship; (3) possession by the Muses, since the technically skilled untouched by the madness of the Muses will never be a good poet; and (4) the lover. In the Renaissance, the theme of divine madness was talcen up by the Neoplatonists such as Ecino and by humanists such as Erasmus. Erasmus's discussion is particularly important, as it fuses the classical Platonic conception with Christianity.
1.04 - KAI VALYA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
their blessings be on us all!
142
1.04 - On blessed and ever-memorable obedience, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Once as we were sitting together in the refectory, this great superior put his holy mouth to my ear and said: Do you want me to show you divine prudence in extreme old age? And when I begged him to do so, the righteous man called from the second table one named Laurence, who had been about forty-eight years in the community and was second priest in the monastery. He came and made a prostration to the abbot, and took his blessing. But when he stood up, the abbot said nothing whatever to him, but left him standing by the table without eating. Breakfast had only just begun, and so he was standing for a good hour, or even two. I was ashamed to look this toiler in the face, for his hair was quite white and he was eighty years old. And when we got up, the saint sent him to the great Isidore whom we mentioned above to recite to him the beginning of the 39th Psalm.2
And I, like a most worthless person, did not miss the chance of tempting the old man. And when I asked him what he was thinking of when he was standing by the table, he said: I thought of the shepherd as the image of Christ, and I considered that I had not received the comm and from him at all, but from God. And so I stood praying, Father John, not as before a table of men, but as before the altar of God; and because of my faith and love for the shepherd, no evil thought of him entered my mind, for Love does not resent an injury.3 But know this, Father, that if anyone surrenders himself to simplicity and voluntary innocence, then he no longer gives the devil either time or place to attack him.
--
The devil battles with those in obedience, sometimes to defile them with bodily pollutions and make them hard-hearted, and sometimes to provoke more than usual restlessness. At other times he makes them dry and barren, sluggish in prayer, drowsy and confused by spiritual darkness, in order to tear them away from their struggle by making them think they have gained nothing by their obedience but are only backsliding. For he does not allow them time to reflect that often the providential withdrawal of our imagined goods or blessings leads us to the deepest humility.
However, some have often repelled that deceiver by patience; but while he is still speaking, another angel2 stands by us and after a little while tries to hoodwink us in another way.
--
From obedience comes humility, as we have already said earlier. From humility comes discernment as the great Cassian has said with beautiful and sublime philosophy in his chapter on discernment.2 From discernment comes insight, and from insight comes foresight. And who would not follow this fair way of obedience, seeing such blessings in store for him? It was of this great virtue of obedience that the good Psalmist said: Thou hast in Thy goodness prepared for the poor3 obedient soul, O God, Thy presence in his heart.
Throughout your life remember that great athlete who for eighteen whole years never heard with his outward ears his superior say the words, May you be saved, but inwardly heard daily from the Lord, not merely, May you be saved (which is an uncertain wish), but You are saved (which is definite and sure).
1.04 - Relationship with the Divine, #Words Of The Mother II, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Be in peace my blessings are with you.
13 July 1966
1.04 - Religion and Occultism, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With blessings.
Religious thought cannot be used unless it is liberated from the influence of religions.
1.04 - The Divine Mother - This Is She, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
I shall now give an example of the Mother's considerable courage in taking up the charge of a patient suffering from throat cancer. This man, a devotee, arrived from outside. He had refused all medical aid and turned down all entreaties of his relatives for the accepted treatment. He wanted only to be cured by the Mother or to die here. He was very thin, of a nervous type and his general health was poor. I was asked to supervise the case and give daily reports to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. We shall see in the chapter 'God Departs' another devotee seeking entire refuge in them and being cured of a mysterious illness that endangered her life. I must admit frankly that I was stunned by the Mother's boldness and could not have an unreserved faith. Either in this context or another, I had asked the Mother and Sri Aurobindo if they had cured cancer by their Force. The Mother replied firmly, "Not only cancer, other diseases too, pronounced incurable by the doctors. Isn't it so?" She asked Sri Aurobindo, as if looking for confirmation; he nodded. The Mother once said that there is hardly a disease that Yoga cannot cure. Sri Aurobindo also wrote, "Of course it [Yoga] can, but on condition of faith or openness or both. Even a mental suggestion can cure cancer with luck of course, as is shown by the case of the woman operated on unsuccessfully for cancer, but the doctors lied and told her it had succeeded. Result, cancer symptoms all ceased and she died many years afterwards of another illness altogether," Here was a patient, then, who came with faith in the Mother. I began to do my duty regularly. At first the patient came for Pranam to the Mother. I witnessed her intense concentration and preoccupation with the case. While listening to the report, she would suddenly go into a trance and Sri Aurobindo would intently watch over her. Once she was on the point of falling down. Sri Aurobindo stretched both his arms, exclaiming "Ah!" The Mother regained her control. Things seemed to be moving at a slow pace. If some symptoms improved, new ones appeared; the condition fluctuated from day to day. Some days passed in a comparative restfulness. Our help was mostly psychological: to give courage and instil faith. If some progress was noticed, I would with a cheerful face report it to the Mother. She would just listen quietly. Meanwhile letters from the relatives urged the patient to return. When the Mother heard about it, she replied, "If I can't cure it, there is none who can." The fight continued, it was a grim encounter, indeed. As a result of the Mother's steady Force, things looked bright and I felt we had turned the corner. The Mother kept her vigil and wasted no words. After the February Darshan, however, the picture changed for no apparent reason. The patient went gradually down-hill and in a month or two, life petered out. The patient was brought before the Mother to have her last blessings. She came down and with her soothing touch and the balm of her divine smile wiped away all his distress and made his passage peaceful. Later when I asked Sri Aurobindo the reason for this unaccountable reversal, he replied, "After the Darshan his faith got shaken and he could not get it back." Cancer of the throat is a scourge; one cannot eat, drink or speak; breathing becomes difficult. Let us remember Sri Ramakrishna's classical example. To keep a steady faith needs a heroic will which how many can have? Besides, the family surroundings also were not very congenial.
I remember Nishikanto, a sadhak-poet, who fell seriously ill after being cured of an equally serious illness. The Mother giving the occult reason told me that when he came to her on his birthday, she saw a definite crack in his faith. But a man of quite a different temperament, he pulled himself up, while the cancer-patient could not. "Why take up such a case at all?" one may ask. Well, it was the patient who made the choice; he had no faith in the usual medico-surgical treatment whose efficacy is at best doubtful. Here, he had at least the unique opportunity to live under the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's direct care and supervision. For a bhakta, there cannot be a greater boon. If he lives, it will be glorious; if he dies, he will have a better life in the next birth.
--
The next day, there was a sudden good turn putting the patient beyond the danger zone. Synchronous with the Mother's coming down to give general blessings, he went into a sound sleep with the temporary cessation of the hiccough. It was at this time that I felt that he had crossed the danger line. Sri Aurobindo, confirming my feelings, wrote, "There was something a sense of a danger passed and a Force put out.... There is a change in so far as S's physical has begun to respond while before it was not responsive at all. There is no longer the predominance of the dark forces that there was before. But the response has to increase before one can be absolutely sure of the result. The obstinacy of the hiccough is a dark point that ought to disappear."
After a long and strenuous vigil, the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's unflagging concentration, daily reports of the progress, the homeopath's blunders and effective medicines, the patient recovered. I did not know really to whom the credit went to the Force or the homeopath. There was a supposition also that the patient's complete surrender to the Mother had made this miracle possible. I had given up all hope of recovery when I saw him vomiting such a lot of blood. Surgical intervention was out of the question, for the local hospital surgeon was not very competent. Sri Aurobindo suggested it by way of keeping ourselves on the safe side of the law, since we had no legal authority to practise. Neither had I much faith in the homeopath when the case was handed over to him, though he had made a big name in the town. One thing I must say in favour of the patient, that he never lost hope and was throughout conscious. If I was in an anxiety he would give me hope saying, "Doctor, don't think that I am going to die." Sri Aurobindo wrote to me, "The man has a belief in yoga-force and that helps." In this predicament I wanted a straight answer from Sri Aurobindo as to which factor played the dominant part in the cure the Force or the doctor. I was doubtful about the latter because he had committed many blunders which were recognised by Sri Aurobindo and they had to be counter acted by the Force. The illuminating answer I received from him is as follows, "It was only when the heart began to misbehave seriously, that, as often happens, in response to the danger a big Force began to come down and S's body also responded it was that response that saved him, not any surrender... I think the Force can take more credit than R's medicines, although the latter were very useful, one might say an indispensable assistance. Yet it was whenever a big Force came in that S made a bound forward and each time on the lines indicated by the Force, first the heart's recovery, next the deliverance of the liver, third the overcoming of the hyperacid excesses. R was an obstacle as well as a help, twice. First, in his confounded decision to encourage 'yellow fever' the bile had to be cleared out of course, but not in that dangerous way; next in his "lime juice" excesses, the orange-juice was useful, but frantically overdone. As soon as he dropped his first mistake, the bile set itself right as soon as he dropped his second to some extent and administered orange juice + medicine reasonably, the rest ameliorated.... If so, it was because the Force got a chance to work straight helped and not impeded."
--
We have seen her coming drenched in perspiration from her game of tennis and taking French translation classes soon after, or going to the sports ground to watch our tournaments, herself taking down the names and scores of each participant, her spiritual force acting simultaneously, protecting, sustaining and inspiring all, her very Presence electrifying the atmosphere with a divine energy and quietude. She would hold one end of the tape at the terminus in the running competitions. She had even gone out to watch our team playing friendly matches with outside clubs. Twice she witnessed the Calcutta Mohan Bagan football team's display and was so impressed by it that she changed her opinion of the game. She had considered it a rough, vital play where one was bound to get some injury; in fact, that was what happened with our young players. But the spectacular display by the Calcutta team playing such a clean game made her remark, "I didn't know that football could be played in such a clean manner!" All the players came for the Mother's blessings and presented to her the new football they had won. Then returning from all these functions to the Playground, she continued her daily round of interviews, watching the marching, taking classes or distributing sweets to all the Ashramites, till about 9.00 p.m.! This was her programme throughout the year; one activity or another filled up every moment and, mind you, this continued till her 80th year!
Where did she get all this energy from? Her body was frail, food and sleep were medically quite inadequate to copewith her super-abundant vitality. "Do you think I live on these frugal meals alone? One can draw any amount of energy from universal Nature," she once said. Here we are face to face with the Divine Energy, the Shakti incarnate. Like Sri Aurobindo with regard to his massive correspondence, she could say, "If for nothing else, at least for my interminable activity, I should be called an Avatar!"
1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Indra and Varuna are called to give victory, because both of them are samrat. The words samrat & swarat have in Veda an ascertained philosophical sense.One is swarat when, having self-mastery & self-knowledge, & being king over his whole system, physical, vital, mental & spiritual, free in his being, [one] is able to guide entirely the harmonious action of that being. Swarajya is spiritual Freedom. One is Samrat when one is master of the laws of being, ritam, rituh, vratani, and can therefore control all forces & creatures. Samrajya is divine Rule resembling the power of God over his world. Varuna especially is Samrat, master of the Law which he follows, governor of the heavens & all they contain, Raja Varuna, Varuna the King as he is often styled by Sunahshepa and other Rishis. He too, like Indra & Agni & the Visvadevas, is an upholder & supporter of mens actions, dharta charshaninam. Finally in the fifth sloka a distinction is drawn between Indra and Varuna of great importance for our purpose. The Rishi wishes, by their protection, to rise to the height of the inner Energies (yuvaku shachinam) and have the full vigour of right thoughts (yuvaku sumatinam) because they give then that fullness of inner plenty (vajadavnam) which is the first condition of enduring calm & perfection & then he says, Indrah sahasradavnam, Varunah shansyanam kratur bhavati ukthyah. Indra is the master-strength, desirable indeed, (ukthya, an object of prayer, of longing and aspiration) of one class of those boons (vara, varyani) for which the Rishis praise him, Varuna is the master-strength, equally desirable, of another class of these Vedic blessings. Those which Indra brings, give force, sahasram, the forceful being that is strong to endure & strong to overcome; those that attend the grace of Varuna are of a loftier & more ample description, they are shansya. The word shansa is frequently used; it is one of the fixed terms of Veda. Shall we translate it praise, the sense most suitable to the ritual explanation, the sense which the finally dominant ritualistic school gave to so many of the fixed terms of Veda? In that case Varuna must be urushansa, because he is widely praised, Agni narashansa because he is strongly praised or praised by men,ought not a wicked or cruel man to be nrishansa because he is praised by men?the Rishis call repeatedly on the gods to protect their praise, & Varuna here must be master of things that are praiseworthy. But these renderings can only be accepted, if we consent to the theory of the Rishis as semi-savage poets, feeble of brain, vague in speech, pointless in their style, using language for barbaric ornament rather than to express ideas. Here for instance there is a very powerful indicated contrast, indicated by the grammatical structure, the order & the rhythm, by the singular kratur bhavati, by the separation of Indra & Varuna who have hitherto been coupled, by the assignment of each governing nominative to its governed genitive and a careful balanced order of words, first giving the master Indra then his province sahasradavnam, exactly balancing them in the second half of the first line the master Varuna & then his province shansyanam, and the contrast thus pointed, in the closing pada of the Gayatri all the words that in their application are common at once to all these four separated & contrasted words in the first line. Here is no careless writer, but a style careful, full of economy, reserve, point, force, and the thought must surely correspond. But what is the contrast forced on us with such a marshalling of the stylists resources? That Indras boons are force-giving, Varunas praiseworthy, excellent, auspicious, what you will? There is not only a pointless contrast, but no contrast at all. No, shansa & shansya must be important, definite, pregnant Vedic terms expressing some prominent idea of the Vedic system. I shall show elsewhere that shansa is in its essential meaning self-expression, the bringing out of our sat or being that which is latent in it and manifesting it in our nature, in speech, in our general impulse & action. It has the connotation of self-expression, aspiration, temperament, expression of our ideas in speech; then divulgation, publication, praiseor in another direction, cursing. Varuna is urushansa because he is the master of wide self-expression, wide aspirations, a wide, calm & spacious temperament, Agni narashansa because he is master of strong self-expression, strong aspirations, a prevailing, forceful & masterful temperament;nrishansa had originally the same sense, but was afterwards diverted to express the fault to which such a temper is prone,tyranny, wrath & cruelty; the Rishis call to the gods to protect their shansa, that which by their yoga & yajna they have been able to bring out in themselves of being, faculty, power, joy,their self-expression. Similarly, shansya here means all that belongs to self-expression, all that is wide, noble, ample in the growth of a soul. It will follow from this rendering that Indra is a god of force, Varuna rather a god of being and as it appears from other epithets, of being when it is calm, noble, wide, self-knowing, self-mastering, moving freely in harmony with the Law of things because it is aware of that Law and accepts it. In that acceptance is his mighty strength; therefore is he even more than the gods of force the king, the giver of internal & external victory, rule, empire, samrajya to his votaries. This is Varuna.
We see the results & the conditions of the action ofVaruna in the four remaining verses. By their protection we have safety from attack, sanema, safety for our shansa, our rayah, our radhas, by the force of Indra, by the protecting greatness of Varuna against which passion & disturbance cast themselves in vain, only to be destroyed. This safety & this settled ananda or delight, we use for deep meditation, ni dhimahi, we go deep into ourselves and the object we have in view in our meditation is prarechanam, the Greek katharsis, the cleansing of the system mental, bodily, vital, of all that is impure, defective, disturbing, inharmonious. Syad uta prarechanam! In this work of purification we are sure to be obstructed by the powers that oppose all healthful change; but Indra & Varuna are to give us victory, jigyushas kritam. The final result of the successful purification is described in the eighth sloka. The powers of the understanding, its various faculties & movements, dhiyah, delivered from self-will & rebellion, become obedient to Indra & Varuna; obedient to Varuna, they move according to the truth & law, the ritam; obedient to Indra they fulfil with that passivity in activity, which we seek by Yoga, all the works to which mental force can apply itself when it is in harmony with Varuna & the ritam. The result is sharma, peace. Nothing is more remarkable in the Veda than the exactness with which hymn after hymn describes with a marvellous simplicity & lucidity the physical & psychological processes through which Indian Yoga proceeds. The process, the progression, the successive movements of the soul here described are exactly what the Yogin experiences today so many thousands of years after the Veda was revealed. No wonder, it is regarded as eternal truth, not the expression of any particular mind, not paurusheya but impersonal, divine & revealed.
1.04 - The Paths, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Msenads of poetry and mythology, among more beautiful proofs of their superhuman character, have always to tear bulls in pieces and taste of the blood. The reader will also recall to mind the fair promise of Lord Dunsany's most interesting story, The blessing of Pan.
In India we see the sacred bull revered as typifying Shiva in his creative aspect ; also as glyphed in their temples by an erect Lingam. Here, the Goddess of Marriage, and
1.04 - The Praise, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
We receive thus the blessing that purifies us,
makes us accumulate merit, protects us, and helps us
1.054 - The Moon, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
35. A blessing from Us. Thus We reward the thankful.
36. He had warned them of Our onslaught, but they dismissed the warnings.
1.05 - BOOK THE FIFTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
That blessing on the rocks, where fix'd she lay:
But now let Perseus bear his prize away,
--
These gifts, the greatest of all blessings, sends.
The grain she gives if in your soil you sow,
1.05 - Hymns of Bharadwaja, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
13. O King, O Fire, let me enjoy by thee and thy princehood of the riches many riches in many ways; for, O Fire of many blessings, there are many treasures for thy worshipper in thee, the King.
SUKTA 2
--
harmless, rich with many blessings, the Seer who knows all
births that are.
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
enjoying for the present the blessings that we do have without looking at the dragon or the mice; it lies
in licking the honey as best we can, especially in those places where there is the most honey on the bush.
1.05 - War And Politics, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo also sent messages through Mr. Shiva Rao to Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru that Cripps' offer should be accepted unconditionally. Lastly, he sent his envoy to Delhi to appeal to the Congress leaders for its acceptance, for sanity and wisdom to prevail. At this crucial moment Sri Aurobindo could not remain a passive witness to the folly that was about to be committed. His seer-vision saw that the Proposals had come on a wave of divine inspiration. The scene is still fresh in our memory. It was the evening hour. Sri Aurobindo was sitting on the edge of his bed just before his daily walking exercise. All of us were present; Duraiswamy, the distinguished Madras lawyer and disciple, was selected as the envoy, perhaps because he was a friend of Rajagopalachari, one of the prominent Congress leaders. He was to start for Delhi that very night. He came for Sri Aurobindo's blessings, lay prostrate before him, got up and stood looking at the Master with folded hands and then departed.
He was carrying with him an urgent appeal by Sri Aurobindo to the Congress Working Committee. Sisir Kumar Mitra reports in The Liberator, "the viewpoints which Sri Aurobindo instructed his envoy to place before the Congress leaders...(1) Japan's imperialism being young and based on industrial and military power and moving westward, was a greater menace to India than the British imperialism which was old, which the country had learnt to deal with and which was on the way to elimination. (2) It would be better to get into the saddle and not be particular about the legal basis of the power. Once the power came into our hands and we occupied seats of power, we could establish our positions and assert ourselves. (3) The proposed Cabinet would provide opportunities for the Congress and the Muslims to understand each other and pull together for the country's good, especially at that time of the crisis. (4) The Hindu Mahasabha also being represented, the Hindus, as such would have a chance of proving their capacity to govern India not only for the benefit of the Hindus but for the whole country. (5) The main problem was to organise the strength of India in order to repel the threatened aggression."
1.06 - BOOK THE SIXTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
A seeming blessing, which a curse compleats.
Tereus surveys her with a luscious eye,
--
And by their mouth a blessing recommends;
While, in a voice with dire forebodings broke,
1.06 - Magicians as Kings, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
generally to procure any blessing or curse for which the applicant
was willing to pay a sufficient price."
--
the blessings that attend the reign of a just king "fine weather,
calm seas, crops abundant, and trees laden with fruit." On the other
1.06 - On remembrance of death., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Let us rest assured that the remembrance of death, like all other blessings, is a gift of God; since how is it that often when we are at the very tombs we are left tearless and hard; and frequently when we have no such sight, we are full of compunction?
He who has died to all things remembers death, but who ever is still tied to the world does not cease plotting against himself.
1.06 - Wealth and Government, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With blessings.
April 1964
1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
Please grant me blessings and inspire me?
My friend replied, When you want a snack, do you ask your mother or
--
The Tibetan word that is usually translated as blessing or inspiration
can more literally be translated as to transform into magnicence. We are
--
get blessings, They seem to think that the less they understand, the more
blessing they receive; that the more exotic and incomprehensible a ceremony
is, the bigger the blessing. The more bells are rung, the more blessed water
they drink, the more rice is thrown, the greater the blessing. This is how spiritually uneducated people think.
In San Jose in 2001, His Holiness taught the Heart Sutra for three days and
1.07 - Incarnate Human Gods, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
rise; and his presence diffuses heavenly blessings.
But he is by no means the only man who poses as a god in these
1.07 - Past, Present and Future, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My blessings and help are always with you.
With love.
--
Our blessings are always with you.
Let the past be past.
1.07 - The Continuity of Consciousness, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
It is easy to see that this higher perceptive faculty can prove a blessing only if the opened soul-senses are in perfect order, just as the ordinary senses can only be used for a true observation of the world if their equipment is regular and normal. Now man himself forms these higher senses through the exercises indicated by spiritual science. The latter include concentration, in which the attention is directed to certain definite ideas and concepts connected with the secrets of the universe; and meditation, which is a life in such ideas, a complete submersion in them, in the right way. By concentration and meditation the student works upon his soul and develops within it the soul-organs of perception. While thus applying himself to the task of concentration and meditation his soul grows within his body, just as the embryo child grows in the body of the mother. When the isolated experiences during sleep begin, as described, the moment of birth is approaching for the liberated soul; for she has literally become a new being, developed by the individual within
p. 211
1.07 - The Magic Wand, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
The experienced magician need not be told again that the power then dwelling in the wand will radiate to the furthest distances. If he introduces the Akasha-principle between himself and his object, he will be able to bridge time and space, and the power in question will immediately, by using the wand, work on the person concerned with the same kind of influence, intensity and success as it would be if the person were standing right in front of him. Charged with life-force or magnetism, with the right idea of setting limits or conditions (that is, in this case, with the idea that the life-force or magnetism in the wand will be automatically intensified from one day to the other) the wand will easily enable the magician to call into existence any phenomena that can be effected by life-force. With a rod charged in this way, even an unexperienced person could work miracles, providing he knew how to use it. Therefore it is in the magician's own interest to keep well the secret of his magic wand. He may also charge his wand in a manner that it will automatically, without any effort on part of the will-power of the magician, bring to him a piece of life-force from the universe, which will then radiate from the wand. This kind of charging the wand with magnetism - biomagnetism - is preferred for curative operations. A magician working in the medical field may like to make use of this method and heal people far away from him by force of his wand charged in the above mentioned manner. In the hands of a magician, a wand charged in this manner, which can heal people miraculously over the widest distances, is, no doubt, a blessing for the suffering man.
The charge of a magic wand with an electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic fluid is always the same, with the only exception that the transfer of the magician's consciousness may be omitted. If only one wand is to be charged, the procedure is a little more complicated. For the wand to be charged with one fluid only, be it electric or magnetic, that fluid has to be drawn from the 50 universe with the help of the imagination und must be impelled into the rod, to which end the magician has to concentrate on the wish that whenever he desires something, the fluid inside the rod will realize at once what he wishes, even though it be directed to the furthest possible sphere or the Akasha-principle. If you terminate the accumulation so that the fluid accumulated in the rod will intensify itself automatically from the universe, that it will, in other words, work by itself bioelectrically and biomagnetically, the rod will grow into an enormously strong battery. The magician is recommended to accumulate in his own body, prior to every use, the revelant fluid in order to be strong enough for the work with the accumulated fluid of the wand. If he is not willing to do this, he should at least insulate himself before he starts work by putting on a pair of pure silk-gloves, preferably manufactured by himself. Not before he has thus insulated himself should he take the wand into his hands. Since the magician usually works with both fluids, he should take the wand charged with the electrical fluid into his right hand, and the wand charged with the magnetic fluid into his left. It is always better to charge two rods; one with the electric the other with the magnetic fluid, especially if simple twigs or wooden wands, which are not impregnated with a fluid condenser, are used. This is not absolutely necessary, but it will make work easier. The magician who has a wand filled with a fluid condenser, without the wand being parted in the middle, will find it more advantagious to have the wand filled with only one fluid, as this also will make the work easier for him. If the rod is to be charged electromagnetically, that is if both fluids should be prevalent in the wand, the magician must use a rod which has no hole in its middle. Either end of the rod has to be pierced instead, and each half of it has to be provided with a fluid condenser. The magician must, however, put a mark on either end to remind him where the electrical and where the magnetic fluid is. To give the magician a better view, the half provided for the electrical fluid is usually painted red, the half provided for the magnetic fluid is usually painted blue. The rod must then be charged in such a manner that the largest intensity of the fluids rest at the ends of the rod and that the middle, insulated with silk, remains neutral. Charging of either half has to be carried out separately, that means that you may draw from the universe first the electric fluid, accumulating it in the one end of the rod until that end is sufficiently loaded, and immediately after that the magnetic fluid, or vice versa. The magician should never try to accumulate the electric fluid several times and then the magnetic fluid several times; for the equilibrium of the fluids inside the wand must be maintained. The magician must therefore accumulate the electrical fluid on one day and the magnetic fluid the next day. When charging the wand again, he has to go about in the other way.
1.07 - THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
They said to the messenger, 'Ask the king to come to see us.' After consultation, the king and his ministers arranged marriages for them. From then on the king didn't have to send for them. They would come to him of themselves and say: 'Your Majesty, we have come with our blessings. Here are the sacred flowers of the temple. Deign to accept them.' They came to the palace, for now they always wanted money for one thing or another: the building of a house, the rice-taking ceremony of their babies, or the rituals connected with the beginning of their children's education.
Story of twelve hundred nedas
1.08 - Attendants, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
We were six regular attendants: Purani, Dr. Becharlal, Dr. Satyendra, Champaklal, Mulshankar and myself. Dr. Manilal was an occasional visitor; he used to come, twice or thrice a year and after some weeks' stay he would go back to Baroda. About Dr. Rao and Dr. Savoor I need not mention more than I have done in their proper context. Three of us had the opportunity to serve the Master in our medical capacity. Champaklal had been in the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's personal service since his arrival in 1923, and about Purani and Satyendra, I will state later what relates to them. Though collected from different fields, we made a harmonious bouquet tied together by the thread of Divine Grace. Four of our number have passed away, one in a most tragic manner during the Master's lifetime, and the other three at a fairly advanced age. As for the rest of us, we are engaged in our individual activities, each serving the Divine Mother in his own way. There is no longer the common centre of union, and each being busy with his sadhana, we meet rarely, but, the memory kindles up of our old, far off days whenever we join for a talk, and even when we exchange looks or smiles, the Master seems to be still with us holding us as before by the magnet of his gracious personality. Some of us were not able to give of our best, human as we are; even our worst surged up now and then, for to be constantly in the physical nearness of the Divine Sun with the unregenerated human body is to feel the heat that burns as well as purifies. Nevertheless, each offered, as far as he could, his mite and received the royal blessings.
Purani was already known to Sri Aurobindo from the twenties and had enjoyed his closeness during those years. It was thus with him a resumption or the old relation after a lapse of many years. Compared with him, we were youngsters and had the passport of entry by virtue of our medical profession, but some individual contact was established with the Master through correspondence so that he knew each one of us by name at least. In my own case, perhaps, I can go a little further. Had our written contact not been so intimate and various, I do not know if I could have been so free with him and of use to him in diverse ways. I have always wondered at and failed to probe the mystery of that intimacy. I have even imagined that Sri Aurobindo must have seen in his timeless vision that one day this humble self might be physically of some service to him. He prepared me for that eventual day, initiated me into love for poetry that I might at least transcribe his epic Savitri from his dictation, gave some intellectual training that I might be useful to him in his literary work. He even made me familiar with his often baffling handwriting so that I could read his manuscripts and decipher them. These may be all weavings of fancy, but if I have been of any help in his intellectual pursuits, most of it was undoubtedly due to his previous coaching through voluminous letters, literary training and above all, his patient and persuasive manner. This long preparation had put out all fear of his awe-inspiring personality and made my approach to him free and almost unconventional, sometimes leading to an unpardonable abuse of that unstinted freedom. Things went on like a song and life would have made itself a transformed vision of the Supreme, but alas, after the novelty of the soul-contact had worn off, the other face of our nature, the subconscient, came to light and the pressure of the physical nearness began to tell. Work was no longer a joyous offering, but a duty; service alone was not a sufficient reward, it needed more concrete spiritual touches, failing which other lesser joys and satisfactions were regarded as legitimate recompense. My old maladies doubt and depression renewed their hold and transfused into the act of service their bitter stuff. The Master could at once feel the vibration, even though no word was uttered by the lips. Quite often by a look, by a quiet pressure of hands, he would communicate his understanding sympathy and the affliction would withdraw for a time. Never have I seen any displeasure or loss of temper at my delinquency, no harsh word of disapproval though he was quite aware of all inner and outer movements. A largeness, compassionate forgiveness and divine consideration have made life's stream flow through an apparently trackless solitary journey towards the ultimate vastness.
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I am firmly convinced that through the ages he has been closely connected with the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, otherwise how could he have been selected as Sri Aurobindo's personal attendant, even as a young man, as soon as he arrived? When he came to see Sri Aurobindo for the first time, he lay prostrate at his feet for an hour, all bathed in happy tears! And when he was leaving, Sri Aurobindo asked one of his older companions to bring him back with him! It is he who first accepted Sri Aurobindo as the Divine Father and called him Father, accepted the Mother as the Divine Mother and began to call her Mother. When he offered to wash the 'Father's' clothes, Sri Aurobindo warned him that he would be mocked at, but that did not deter him. He had gone without food and sleep, had not moved from his place lest the Master should need something or should even have to wait a minute more. To serve Sri Aurobindo was in one way quite easy, for he would never make any demands on us, was content with the main necessities being met and would never express any displeasure if we failed him. This very easiness kept us alert, for one who didn't ask for more than the bare minimum, needed a careful, vigilant watch so that he could be given a little more comfort and ease. Champaklal kept that vigilant eye always. He was more familiar with Sri Aurobindo's nature and temperament by love and long experience and felt his needs on his very pulse. If he saw that Sri Aurobindo needed some side pillows, he got them made; if his footstool was a bit high or low, he adjusted it to the required height. He put a time-piece by his side, for he knew that Sri Aurobindo was in the habit of frequently seeing the time. Such small things that would pass unnoticed because our imaginative perception was perhaps dull, were caught by his sensitive insight and he tried to make "happy and comfortable" the life of the impersonal Brahman. Sri Aurobindo, when he sat on the edge of the bed and had to wait long for the Mother's arrival, seemed to feel drowsy; his body would lean backwards and would then right itself. Still, he would not ask for any assistance but this, not from any sense of egoism. He would put up with any inconvenience but if we offered him some help, he did not refuse it. We simply looked on without knowing how to meet the situation, but Champaklal rose to the occasion: he made a pile of pillows to serve as his back-rest and to prevent them from tumbling down, supported them from behind. To observe economy due to the War, the Mother advised us not to change Sri Aurobindo's bed-sheets too often, but if there was a tiny stain on an otherwise clean white sheet, Champaklal would hesitate to use it, saying, "How can we use anything unclean for the Lord?" His making the bed was a sight worth seeing. I wonder if even an expert housewife would do it so perfectly! The bed-sheet had not the slightest crease anywhere, it shone with a marble smoothness. In everything his aim was to be flawless. Thus it put others who had to work with him into a very difficult corner. He claimed to have acquired this thoroughness under the apprenticeship of the Mother. I sometimes got my share of rebuke from him if I was not tidy or clean enough: "You are a doctor and you still don't wash your hands?" he would say. The fact in his case was that over and above his own training he belonged to a very orthodox Brahmin family and had meticulously observed all the practices ordained by the Shastras and enjoined upon the children by his orthodox priest-father. We were quite modern people having our own ideas of things, so sometimes clash and conflict would arise. Besides, he was in some parts sensitive like a child. We had to be very careful not to upset him and to spare his feelings as much as we could. He could not understand jokes or any round-about manner. He told me that Sri Aurobindo had once spoken about this to the Mother. It was just after he had settled here. His father wrote a letter to Sri Aurobindo saying that Champaklal's marriage had been fixed; he had only to go, undergo the marriage ceremony and then come back. Sri Aurobindo gravely said, "I suppose we have to send back Champaklal." He was much perturbed to hear it. Then Sri Aurobindo added, "He doesn't understand jokes." He knew, however, how to get things done by the Divine, blessings written on a book, for instance, an autograph on a photo. If asked by Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo would not refuse. The Mother too has to accede to the wishes of her bhakta, her "most faithful child".
One day he conceived the idea of getting Sri Aurobindo's footprints; but how was he to do it without troubling him in any way or without informing him in advance? He had a brain-wave. He kept a white sheet of paper and pencil ready. As soon as Sri Aurobindo sat on the chair, he pushed the sheet of paper under his feet and asked, "May I draw your footprint?" Sri Aurobindo not only consented but later wrote "Love and blessings" on the drawing. Let us not forget, by the way, that Champaklal is an artist. Whenever he saw Sri Aurobindo in what seemed to him statuesque poses his heart would go into rapture and he would call us to share his joy. He would exclaim, "Ah, if a photograph could be taken of this marvellous pose!" The Mother has said that he has "a natural talent already developed to an unusual degree". On one of his birthdays he painted two lotuses, white and red, and offered the pictures to the Mother. She was very pleased and said she would take them to Sri Aurobindo and ask him to write something. He wrote under the painting of the white lotus: Aditi, The Divine Mother. And the Mother wrote on the other: The Avatar. But she forbade Champaklal to show them to anyone, for people would not understand what they meant.
Champaklal is the custodian of all their relics such as hair, nails and teeth. He has even stored up all the ashes of the burnt mosquito-coils. Here is a humorous incident in connection with the ashes. Once during our evening talks, the Mother came in with a telegram asking Sri Aurobindo to send "ashes" for someone's marriage. We were perplexed for we could not make out the meaning. Purani had an intuitive flash and said, "It may be the Indian word ss for benediction." "Oh, I see!" exclaimed Sri Aurobindo, "I was wondering how I was supposed to carry ashes with me, perhaps on my head! Of course I can give them some from Champaklal's mosquito-coils. If I had not given up smoking, I could have given some cigar-ash."
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To make the path easy to Heaven, or at least to get Heaven's blessings more easily, is also possible by his intervention. If the Mother is at times reluctant for some reason to give a birthday card to someone or write a person's name or "love and blessings" on it, if she refuses to see another on his birthday, Champaklal appeals to her divine compassion and makes her rescind her decision. The Mother sometimes asks him, "What shall I write?" "Why, love and blessings, Mother!" is his reply. He says that he suffered a lot in his childhood because people could not understand his nature. He now wants to distribute the Divine's largesse whenever and wherever he can. Many people are grateful to him for procuring the Mother's blessings for them, especially her physical touch. Only one must be frank and straightforward. Sometimes he has gone out of his way to help even an unknown and unpresuming person to get the Mother's touch if he thought that he had been overlooked. To sum up, his soul's mission is to serve the Mother, to look after her and to make her love and compassion available to all, rich or poor, worthy or unworthy, young or old, without any distinction. I shall now conclude my "rosy picture" of Champaklal by quoting Sri Aurobindo's estimate of him: "All have their defects, but Champaklal has great qualities to atone for them."
Mulshankar, youngest of the group, was the brother of Esculape, alias Dayashankar, at one time in charge of the Ashram Dispensary. He also worked as an assistant in the Dispensary after Esculape's retirement and came to serve Sri Aurobindo as a medical aid. An excellent worker, he had the privilege of massaging Sri Aurobindo's body for a certain period. He was no masseur and in fact knew nothing about it, but he picked it up from some casual lessons and was gifted with the natural lightness and suppleness of finger movements. During the short interval that Sri Aurobindo had to wait for the Mother to come, before he started walking, Mulshankar would sit behind and apply a good massage to his back. It was really as if an expert masseur was at work; his hands moved so lightly and fast, up and down the back and spine; sometimes using delicate finger strokes or the edge of the palms and swinging and bending the body as the various movements demanded and then finishing off with very gentle touches of the fingertips. One was tempted to take a photograph of his agile figure and beaming face visibly moved beyond measure by the unique privilege of touching the Lord's body, while Sri Aurobindo kept on sitting like a statue looking downwards as the massage proceeded, or in front, sometimes smiling by himself, perhaps oblivious of all the hundred kinds of fleeting, fluttering, striking movements being made on his back. Both the figures supplied us food for a good deal of merriment, the Guru sitting on the edge of the bed, the shishya briskly massaging his back. But the poor fellow had to miss his service because of an intractable headache that crippled him often. And every time that happened we would report to Sri Aurobindo; his comment would be: "Again?", or an exclamatory expression; we could feel at the same time that the inner help was being given.
1.08 - Origin of Rudra: his becoming eight Rudras, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
kara (Śiva); and Śrī is the bride of Śiva (Gaurī). Keśava, oh Maitreya, is the sun; and his radiance is the lotus-seated goddess. Viṣṇu is the tribe of progenitors (Pitrigana); Padma. is their bride (Swadhā), the eternal bestower of nutriment. Śrī is the heavens; Viṣṇu, who is one with all things, is wide extended space. The lord of Śrī is the moon; she is his unfading light. She is called the moving principle of the world; he, the wind which bloweth every where. Govinda is the ocean; Lakṣmī its shore. Lakṣmī is the consort of Indra (Indrānī); Madhusūdana is Devendra. The holder of the discus (Viṣṇu) is Yama (the regent of Tartarus); the lotus-throned goddess is his dusky spouse (Dhūmornā). Śrī is wealth; Śridhara (Viṣṇu) is himself the god of riches (Kuvera). Lakṣmī, illustrious Brahman, is Gaurī; and Keśava, is the deity of ocean (Varuna). Śrī is the host of heaven (Devasenā); the deity of war, her lord, is Hari. The wielder of the mace is resistance; the power to oppose is Śrī. Lakṣmī is the Kāṣṭhā and the Kalā; Hari the Nimeṣa and the Muhūrtta. Lakṣmī is the light; and Hari, who is all, and lord of all, the lamp. She, the mother of the world, is the creeping vine; and Viṣṇu the tree round which she clings. She is the night; the god who is armed with the mace and discus is the day. He, the bestower of blessings, is the bridegroom; the lotus-throned goddess is the bride.
The god is one with all male-the goddess one with all female, rivers. The lotus-eyed deity is the standard; the goddess seated on a lotus the banner. Lakṣmī is cupidity; Nārāyaṇa, the master of the world, is covetousness. Oh thou who knowest what righteousness is, Govinda is love; and Lakṣmī, his gentle spouse, is pleasure. But why thus diffusely enumerate their presence: it is enough to say, in a word, that of gods, animals, and men, Hari is all that is called male; Lakṣmī is all that is termed female: there is nothing else than they.
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"Then from the gloom emerged fearful and numerous forms, shouting the cry of battle; who instantly broke or overturned the sacrificial columns, trampled upon the altars, and danced amidst the oblations. Running wildly hither and thither, with the speed of wind, they tossed about the implements and vessels of sacrifice, which looked like stars precipitated from the heavens. The piles of food and beverage for the gods, which had been heaped up like mountains; the rivers of milk; the banks of curds and butter; the sands of honey and butter-milk and sugar; the mounds of condiments and spices of every flavour; the undulating knolls of flesh and other viands; the celestial liquors, pastes, and confections, which had been prepared; these the spirits of wrath devoured or defiled or scattered abroad. Then falling upon the host of the gods, these vast and resistless Rudras beat or terrified them, mocked and insulted the nymphs and goddesses, and quickly put an end to the rite, although defended by all the gods; being the ministers of Rudra's wrath, and similar to himself[6]. Some then made a hideous clamour, whilst others fearfully shouted, when Yajña was decapitated. For the divine Yajña, the lord of sacrifice, then began to fly up to heaven, in the shape of a deer; and Vīrabhadra, of immeasurable spirit, apprehending his power, cut off his vast head, after he had mounted into the sky[7]. Dakṣa the patriarch, his sacrifice being destroyed, overcome with terror, and utterly broken in spirit, fell then upon the ground, where his head was spurned by the feet of the cruel Vīrabhadra[8]. The thirty scores of sacred divinities were all presently bound, with a band of fire, by their lion-like foe; and they all then addressed him, crying, 'Oh Rudra, have mercy upon thy servants: oh lord, dismiss thine anger.' Thus spake Brahmā and the other gods, and the patriarch Dakṣa; and raising their hands, they said, 'Declare, mighty being, who thou art.' Vīrabhadra said, 'I am not a god, nor an Āditya; nor am I come hither for enjoyment, nor curious to behold the chiefs of the divinities: know that I am come to destroy the sacrifice of Dakṣa, and that I am called Vīrabhadra, the issue of the wrath of Rudra. Bhadrakālī also, who has sprung from the anger of Devī, is sent here by the god of gods to destroy this rite. Take refuge, king of kings, with him who is the lord of Umā; for better is the anger of Rudra than the blessings of other gods.'
"Having heard the words of Vīrabhadra, the righteous Dakṣa propitiated the mighty god, the holder of the trident, Maheśvara. The hearth of sacrifice, deserted by the Brahmans, had been consumed; Yajña had been metamorphosed to an antelope; the fires of Rudra's wrath had been kindled; the attendants, wounded by the tridents of the servants of the god, were groaning with pain; the pieces of the uprooted sacrificial posts were scattered here and there; and the fragments of the meat-offerings were carried off by flights of hungry vultures, and herds of howling jackals. Suppressing his vital airs, and taking up a posture of meditation, the many-sighted victor of his foes, Dakṣa fixed his eyes every where upon his thoughts. Then the god of gods appeared from the altar, resplendent as a thousand suns, and smiled upon him, and said, 'Dakṣa, thy sacrifice has been destroyed through sacred knowledge: I am well pleased with thee:' and then he smiled again, and said, 'What shall I do for thee; declare, together with the preceptor of the gods.'
"Then Dakṣa, frightened, alarmed, and agitated, his eyes suffused with tears, raised his hands reverentially to his brow, and said, 'If, lord, thou art pleased; if I have found favour in thy sight; if I am to be the object of thy benevolence; if thou wilt confer upon me a boon, this is the blessing I solicit, that all these provisions for the solemn sacrifice, which have been collected with much trouble and during a long time, and which have now been eaten, drunk, devoured, burnt, broken, scattered abroad, may not have been prepared in vain.' 'So let it be,' replied Hara, the subduer of Indra. And thereupon Dakṣa knelt down upon the earth, and praised gratefully the author of righteousness, the three-eyed god Mahādeva, repeating the eight thousand names of the deity whose emblem is a bull."
Footnotes and references:
1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
And, friendly spirit, just as from your serenely contemplative brow your ray descends, securely blessing, among mortals, so you witness to me, and tell me, that I might repeat it to others, for others too do not believe it. . . .
-FRIEDRICH HLDERLIN
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And now let us see what becomes of this silkworm. When it is in this state of [cessation/absorption], and quite dead to the world, it comes out a little white butterfly. Oh, greatness of God, that a soul should come out like this after being closely united for so short a time-never, I think, for as long as half an hour [in cessation]. For think of the difference between an ugly worm and a white butterfly; it is just the same here. The soul cannot think how it can have merited such a blessing-whence such a blessing could have come to it, I meant to say, for it knows quite well that it has not merited it at all.29
One taste, and the butterfly is born, the soul is born (or emerges from its slumber in ego, its lostness in the exterior cocoon of form; and, of course, the butterfly is the omega point of the silkworm). The rest of Interior Castle describes the extraordinary journey of this little butterfly toward that primordial Flame in which, at last, it will happily die (to be, once again, reborn on yet a deeper level, that of union with Uncreate Spirit).
1.08 - The Supreme Discovery, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If ordeal or fault has cast you down, if you have sunk into the nether depths of suffering, do not grieve for there indeed the divine love and the supreme blessing can reach you! Because you have passed through the crucible of purifying sorrows, the glorious ascents are yours.
You are in the wilderness: then listen to the voices of the silence. The clamour of flattering words and outer applause has gladdened your ears, but the voices of the silence will gladden your soul and awaken within you the echo of the depths, the chant of divine harmonies!
1.093 - Morning Light, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
11. But proclaim the blessings of your Lord.
1.098 - The Transformation from Human to Divine, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
This is a great blessing if it comes; and unless this understanding arises in us, we will not be able to progress in yoga. We should not be muffs when we begin to seek the fruits of yoga earnestly. We must understand that we are going to face problems of a cosmic character. They are not problems of our country, or problems of human nature, merely. They are problems of the universal situation on every level, for the matter of that. Everything will be stirred into action. And, as it was mentioned, the way in which it will be stirred, and the extent to which it will be stirred into action, will depend upon the intensity of our practice.
Thus, great caution is given by Patanjali himself that one who is not sufficiently equipped with the requisites of vairagya will not be able to go even one step in yoga. When we open the eyes of yogic perception even as a student of yoga, and not necessarily as an adept we will begin to see new meanings in things. When we talk to our friends, they will not be friends with whom we are talking. They will be some significances which we are encountering and facing. We will begin to see the meaning within the forms of the world, which we missed in the forms commonly encountered by the senses in ordinary life. There are no such things as friends and enemies in this world. They do not exist. For yogic vision, there are no such things as humans, animals, trees, stones, etc. They do not exist. They are something extraordinary in this world. Even the things that we see with our eyes, even just now, are extraordinary things. We miss their meaning due to a habituation of the mind through this gross perception of personalities.
1.09 - BOOK THE NINTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
We gain one blessing from our hated kin,
Since our paternal freedom hides the sin;
1.09 - Of the signs by which it will be known that the spiritual person is walking along the way of this night and purgation of sense., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
5. These souls whom God is beginning to lead through these solitary places of the wilderness are like to the children of Israel, to whom in the wilderness God began to give food from Heaven, containing within itself all sweetness, and, as is there said, it turned to the savour which each one of them desired. But withal the children of Israel felt the lack of the pleasures and delights of the flesh and the onions which they had eaten aforetime in Egypt, the more so because their palate was accustomed to these and took delight in them, rather than in the delicate sweetness of the angelic manna; and they wept and sighed for the fleshpots even in the midst of the food of Heaven.64 To such depths does the vileness of our desires descend that it makes us to long for our own wretched food65 and to be nauseated by the indescribable66 blessings of Heaven.
6. But, as I say, when these aridities proceed from the way of the purgation of sensual desire, although at first the spirit feels no sweetness, for the reasons that we have just given, it feels that it is deriving strength and energy to act from the substance which this inward food gives it, the which food is the beginning of a contemplation that is dark and arid to the senses; which contemplation is secret and hidden from the very person that experiences it; and ordinarily, together with the aridity and emptiness which it causes in the senses, it gives the soul an inclination and desire to be alone and in quietness, without being able to think of any particular thing or having the desire to do so. If those souls to whom this comes to pass knew how to be quiet at this time, and troubled not about performing any kind of action, whether inward or outward, neither had any anxiety about doing anything, then they would delicately experience this inward refreshment in that ease and freedom from care. So delicate is this refreshment that ordinarily, if a man have desire or care to experience it, he experiences it not; for, as I say, it does its work when the soul is most at ease and freest from care; it is like the air which, if one would close one's hand upon it, escapes.
1.09 - PROMENADE, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
That not much blessing came with them.
"My child," she said, "ill-gotten good
1.10 - BOOK THE TENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
And must, he said, the blessing of a wife
Be dearly purchas'd by a risk of life?
1.10 - Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
the village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit
has in its power to bestow. Hence the custom in some places of
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share of the blessing. Out of the mass of evidence on this subject a
few examples may be selected.
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weather, a plentiful harvest, and worldly and spiritual blessings.
One of them carries a basket in which he collects gifts of eggs and
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eggs, bacon, and so forth, may have no share in the blessings which
it is in the power of the itinerant spirit to bestow. We may
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his blessing. The names May, Father May, May Lady, Queen of the May,
by which the anthropomorphic spirit of vegetation is often denoted,
1.10 - THE NEIGHBORS HOUSE, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
It is the greatest heavenly blessing,
To have a dear thing for one's caressing.
11.11 - The Ideal Centre, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Once when the Mother was asked by a group of disciples to give permission and blessings for opening a centre, She said in answer: "To open a centre is not sufficient in itself. It must be the pure hearth of perfect sincerity, in a total consecration to the Divine." This is the first motto or mantra that should be inscribed on the tablet of the inner constitution of every group organisation. It states the basic spirit, the true inspiration that should initiate the work and guide it through. The second mantra is embodied in these words of Sri Aurobindo: "Love the Mother: Always behave as if She was looking at you, for indeed She is always present." These are words that should be kept always bright and blazing in the heart of each and every one. It gives the source and origin of the inspiration, the single fount of all movements collective and individual. And a third mantra not less living or less urgent has been given by the Mother: "Let us work as we pray, for indeed work is the body's best prayer to the Divine." Here we learn of the way, the process that is to be followed, the skill as it were, for realising the goal.
And for a final comprehension and direction we are to remember these words of Sri Aurobindo: "All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony."
1.11 - BOOK THE ELEVENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Could blessings such as these e'er prove a curse?
To her they did, who with audacious pride,
1.11 - Correspondence and Interviews, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
There was another interview in 1950 with the Maharaja of Bhavanagar who was then Governor of Madras. Sri Aurobindo was not well at that time. Still, he did not cancel the interview. I had the impression that he would have been willing to see other people too if they had so desired and would have conferred his blessings on them.
Then there were the long series of regular interviews with Surendra Mohan Ghose extending over some years up to even a few months before Sri Aurobindo's withdrawal. I should not call them interviews, for he was Sri Aurobindo's political follower in the early days, and later his disciple, and a prominent political leader of Bengal. Whenever he visited the Ashram, he had meetings with the Master to get guidance in his political work which he had accepted as his work. Sri Aurobindo used him as his instrument and said to us, "He is my man." In the talks he gave to the students of our Centre of Education, Surendra Mohan partially disclosed the various issues he had discussed with him. They were mostly international, national and provincial situations as well as spiritual matters. They constitute a very illuminating document testifying to Sri Aurobindo's external intervention in politics, besides his occult action. I often used to see Surendra Mohan in advance to get current news and Sri Aurobindo would ask, "What does Surendra Mohan say?"
1.11 - Higher Laws, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
Yet, for my part, I was never unusually squeamish; I could sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it were necessary. I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that I prefer the natural sky to an opium-eaters heaven. I would fain keep sober always; and there are infinite degrees of drunkenness. I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America. Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also. But to tell the truth, I find myself at present somewhat less particular in these respects. I carry less religion to the table, ask no blessing; not because I am wiser than I was, but, I am obliged to confess, because, however much it is to be regretted, with years I have grown more coarse and indifferent. Perhaps these questions are entertained only in youth, as most believe of poetry. My practice is
nowhere, my opinion is here. Nevertheless I am far from regarding myself as one of those privileged ones to whom the Ved refers when it says, that he who has true faith in the Omnipresent Supreme Being may eat all that exists, that is, is not bound to inquire what is his food, or who prepares it; and even in their case it is to be observed, as a Hindoo commentator has remarked, that the Vedant limits this privilege to the time of distress.
1.11 - Oneness, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Perhaps it is a blessing after all that the Lord did not make the world according to our idea of perfection, because we have so many ideas about what is "perfect," about what God should be, and especially about what He should not be, that there would be nothing left in our world after we had whittled away everything that protrudes, except for one big Zero that would not tolerate even the impurity of our own existence or perhaps a military camp. Virtue, the Mother observed,
has always suppressed elements of life; if all the virtues of the different countries in the world were joined together, there would be hardly anything left of life. Indeed, we still know only one kind of perfection, that which eliminates, not that which embraces all; yet perfection is totality. Because we see only one instant of Eternity at a time, and because that instant fails to contain what we wanted to see or to have, we complain and declare this world erroneously built; but when we emerge from our instantaneity and enter the Totality,
1.11 - The Influence of the Sexes on Vegetation, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
distant ages, the blessings of freedom and truth.
1.11 - Woolly Pomposities of the Pious Teacher, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
The vision and the Voice again, please! That frightful Curse how every phrase turns out to be a blessing![22]
I shall break off this brief note at this point, so that you may have time to tell me if what I have so far said covers the whole ground of your enquiry.
1.12 - Dhruva commences a course of religious austerities, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Thus the sage Dhruva, having received a boon from Janārddana, the god of gods, and lord of the world, resides in an exalted station. Beholding his glory, Uśanas, the preceptor of the gods and demons, repeated these verses: "Wonderful is the efficacy of this penance, marvellous is its reward, that the seven Ṛṣis should be preceded by Dhruva. This too is the pious Sunīti, his parent, who is called Sūnritā[10]." Who can celebrate her greatness, who, having given birth to Dhruva, has become the asylum of the three worlds, enjoying to all future time an elevated station, a station eminent above all? He who shall worthily describe the ascent into the sky of Dhruva, for ever shall be freed from all sin, and enjoy the heaven of Indra. Whatever be his dignity, whether upon earth or in heaven, he shall never fall from it, but shall long enjoy life, possessed of every blessing[11].
Footnotes and references:
1.12 - God Departs, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
The Darshan was on. A vast crowd had gathered. Unaware that it would be the last Darshan, some people were drawn in by an unknown force and later thought themselves specially blessed. There were others who missed it and nourished a lifelong regret. It was mooted at one time whether the Darshan should not be postponed, since it might cause a considerable strain and exhaustion leading to further aggravation of the disease; But the proposal was brushed aside out of compassion for the devotees. Everybody, even persons quite ill, was given permission. Everything went off well, the atmosphere was charged with a solemn silence. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were love and compassion incarnate; light, joy, peace, sweetness and strength emanated from them as from the sun and moon. After about two hour's an uneasy stir, a nervous tension was felt in the crowd. A whisper had gone round that the Master would like the Darshan to finish as soon as possible. Then in quick steps the long queue passed and everyone received the last memorable blessings from him.
He came back to his room somewhat tired. It was about 5 p.m. He had eaten practically nothing the whole day. The first utterance he made was, "I am very hungry." We had never heard such a frank personal note from him before. The meal was quickly served by the Mother and taken in grave silence.
1.12 - Independence, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
Glory unto those who have realised their own nature. May their blessings be on us all!
1.12 - On lying., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
The twelfth step. He who has mounted it has obtained the root of all blessings
1.12 - Sleep and Dreams, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My blessings are always with you.
Sleep is the school one must pass through if one knows how to learn ones lesson there, so that the inner being may become independent of the physical form, conscious in its own right and master of its own life. There are entire parts of the being that need this immobility and semi-consciousness of the outer being, of the body, in order to be able to lead their own life independently.
--
My blessings are always with you.
Proper rest is a very important thing for the sadhana.
1.13 - Dawn and the Truth, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Nothing, it would seem, could be more matter-of-fact, earthy, material; these are indeed the blessings for which a race of lusty barbarians full of vigorous appetite, avid of earth's goods would pray to their primitive gods. But we have seen that hiran.ya is used in another sense than that of earthly gold. We have seen that the "cows" return constantly in connection with the Dawn as a figure for the Light and we have seen that this light is connected with mental vision and with the truth that brings the bliss. And asva, the horse, is always in these concrete images of psychological suggestions coupled with the symbolic figure of the cow: Dawn is gomat asvavat. Vasishtha has a verse
(VII.77.3) in which the symbolic sense of the Vedic Horse comes out with great power and clearness, -
1.13 - On despondency., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
2. Despondency is a slackness of soul, a weakening of the mind, neglect of asceticism, hatred of the vow made. It is the blessing of worldlings. It accuses God of being merciless and without love for men. It is being languid in singing psalms, weak in prayer, stubbornly bent on service, resolute in manual labour, indifferent in obedience.
3. A person under obedience does not know despondency, having achieved spiritual things by means of sensory things.
--
15. Let this tyrant be bound by the remembrance of your sins. Let us buffet him by manual labour. He should be brought into court by the thought of blessings to come. And when brought as before a tribunal let him be duly questioned:
16. Tell me, you nerveless, shuffling fellow, who viciously spawned you? Who are your offspring? Who are your foes? Who is your destroyer? And despondency, under compulsion, may be thought to reply: Among those who are truly obedient I have nowhere to lay my head; but with those amongst whom I have a place for myself, I live quietly. I have many mothers: sometimes insensibility of soul, sometimes forgetfulness of the things above, sometimes excessive troubles. My offspring who abide with me are: changing from place to place, disobedience to ones spiritual father, forgetfulness of the judgement, and sometimes breach of the vow. And my opponents, by whom I am now bound, are psalmody and manual labour. My enemy is the thought of death. What completely mortifies me is prayer with firm hope of future blessings. And who gave birth to prayer? Ask her.
1 Lit. the violent. St. Matthew xi, 12.
1.14 - FOREST AND CAVERN, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
Thou wouldst be devil enough to grudge my soul the blessing.
MEPHISTOPHELES
A blessing drawn from supernatural fountains!
In night and dew to lie upon the mountains;
1.14 - INSTRUCTION TO VAISHNAVS AND BRHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
M. had been visiting the Master for the past two years and, had received his grace and blessings. He had been told that God was both with form and without form, that He assumed forms for the sake of His devotees. To the worshipper of the formless God, the Master said: "Hold to your conviction, but remember that all is possible with God. He has form, and again, He is formless. He can be many things more."
MASTER (to M.): "You have accepted an ideal, that of God without form-isn't that so?"
1.14 - On the clamorous, yet wicked master-the stomach., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
11. I have seen aged priests bewitched by the demons; and on the feasts they gave their blessing to young men not under their direction to use wine and all the rest. If those who give permission have a good witness in the Lord (i.e. are spiritual), then let us also permit ourselves within limits. But if they are negligent, let us not give a thought to their blessing, especially when we are in the actual heat of the struggle with our flesh.
12. Evagrius,1 afflicted by an evil spirit, imagined himself to be the wisest of the wise both in thought and expression. But he was deceived, poor man, and proved to be the most foolish of fools in this among other things. For he says: When our soul desires different foods, then confine it to bread and water. To prescribe this is like saying to a child: Go up the whole ladder in one stride. And so, rejecting his rule, let us say: When our soul desires different foods, it is demanding what is proper to its nature. Therefore, let us also use cunning against our unscrupulous foe. And unless a very severe conflict is on us, or amends for falls, let us for a while only deny ourselves fattening foods, then heating foods, and only then what makes our food pleasant. If possible, give your stomach satisfying and digestible food, so as to satisfy its insatiable hunger by sufficiency, and so that we may be delivered from excessive desire, as from a scourge, by quick assimilation. If we look into the matter, we shall find that most of the foods which inflate the stomach also excite the body.
1.15 - On incorruptible purity and chastity to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
I think that our wretched murderers have the habit of besetting and seducing us poor creatures with sins contrary to nature for the following two reasons: that we may have everywhere plenty of opportunity to fall, and that we may receive greater punishment. What we have just said, was learnt by personal experience by him who had previously commanded asses and had afterwards been given over to wild asses and pitifully disgraced; and though he had previously been nourished with heavenly bread he was afterwards deprived of this blessing. And what is most astonishing is that even after his repentance, our founder Antony, grieving bitterly, said of him: A great pillar has fallen. But that wise man hid the manner of the fall, for he knew that bodily fornication is possible without intercourse with another body. There is in us a kind of death; there is in us a devastating sin, which is ever borne about with us, but especially in youth. But I have not dared to write about it because my hand is restrained by him who said: the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of, or to write or to hear.4
This my beloved adversary (and yet not mine)the flesh was called death by Paul: Who, says he, will deliver me from this body of death?5 And another theologian6 calls it a passionate, slavish and nocturnal enemy. I used to long to know why it was given such names. If the flesh, as was said above, is death, who ever has conquered it undoubtedly does not die. But who is the man who will live and not see death7 in the impurity of his flesh ?8
1.15 - Prayers, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Lord, give me Thy blessings that I may become more and more sincere.
18 July 1967
--
You are always with me with your blessings and your grace.
Your Presence is the supreme protection.
1.15 - The world overrun with trees; they are destroyed by the Pracetasas, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
"Who Māṛṣā was of old I will also relate to you, as the recital of her meritorious acts will be beneficial to you. She was the widow of a prince, and left childless at her husband's death: she therefore zealously worshipped Viṣṇu, who, being gratified by her adoration, appeared to her, and desired her to demand a boon; on which she revealed to him the wishes of her heart. 'I have been a widow, lord,' she exclaimed, 'even from my infancy, and my birth has been in vain: unfortunate have I been, and of little use, oh sovereign of the world. Now therefore I pray thee that in succeeding births I may have honourable husbands, and a son equal to a patriarch amongst men: may I be possessed of affluence and beauty: may I he pleasing in the sight of all: and may I be born out of the ordinary course. Grant these prayers, oh thou who art propitious to the devout.' Hṛṣikeśa, the god of gods, the supreme giver of all blessings, thus prayed to, raised her from her prostrate attitude, and said, 'In another life you shall have ten husbands of mighty prowess, and renowned for glorious acts; and you shall have a son magnanimous and valiant, distinguished by the rank of a patriarch, from whom the various races of men shall multiply, and by whose posterity the universe shall be filled. You, virtuous lady, shall be of marvellous birth, and you shall be endowed with grace and loveliness, delighting the hearts of men.' Thus having spoken, the deity disappeared, and the princess was accordingly afterwards born as Māṛṣā, who is given to you for a wife[4]."
Soma having concluded, the Pracetasas took Māṛṣā, as he had enjoined them, righteously to wife, relinquishing their indignation against the trees: and upon her they begot the eminent patriarch Dakṣa, who had (in a former life) been born as the son of Brahmā[5]. This great sage, for the furtherance of creation, and the increase of mankind, created progeny. Obeying the command of Brahmā, he made movable and immovable things, bipeds and quadrupeds; and subsequently, by his will, gave birth to females, ten of whom he bestowed on Dharma, thirteen on Kaśyapa, and twenty-seven, who regulate the course of time, on the moon[6]. Of these, the gods, the Titans, the snake-gods, cattle, and birds, the singers and dancers of the courts of heaven, the spirits of evil, and other beings, were born. From that period forwards living creatures were engendered by sexual intercourse: before the time of Dakṣa they were variously propagated, by the will, by sight, by touch, and by the influence of religious austerities practised by devout sages and holy saints.
1.16 - Dianus and Diana, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
subjects in return for the manifold blessings which they were
supposed to dispense. What little we know of the functions of Diana
1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Jayamal then realized it had been none other than Syamalasundara that had appeared on the battlefield. The enemy king understood too. He worshipped Jayamal and through his blessings received Krishna's grace.
MASTER: "Do you believe all that? Do you believe Krishna rode on that horse and killed Jayamal's enemies?"
--
Through the blessing of your name
The sinner is set free, they say;
1.17 - The Burden of Royalty, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
his subjects as a source both of infinite blessing and of infinite
danger. On the one hand, the people have to thank him for the rain
1.201 - Socrates, #Symposium, #Plato, #Philosophy
But in fact the one which is really beautiful and delicate, flawless and endowed with every blessing, is the beloved object, while the one which loves is by contrast of an entirely different character, such as I have just described.
All right, Diotima, I replied. You are very persuasive. If Love is as you say, what need does he supply in the lives of people?
1.20 - Tabooed Persons, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
of blessing; he must not only be guarded, he must also be guarded
against. His sacred organism, so delicate that a touch may disorder
--
restraints, confers endless blessings, but, if rashly touched or
allowed to break bounds, burns and destroys what it touches. Hence
1.20 - The Fourth Bolgia Soothsayers. Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eryphylus, Michael Scott, Guido Bonatti, and Asdente. Virgil reproaches Dante's Pity., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Might give his blessing, if he passed that way.
Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong,
1.20 - Visnu appears to Prahlada, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Whilst with mind intent on Viṣṇu, he thus pronounced his praises, the divinity, clad in yellow robes, suddenly appeared before him. Startled at the sight, with hesitating speech Prahlāda pronounced repeated salutations to Viṣṇu, and said, "Oh thou who removest all worldly grief, Keśava, be propitious unto me; again sanctify me, Achyuta, by thy sight." The deity replied, "I am pleased with the faithful attachment thou hast shown to me: demand from me, Prahlāda, whatever thou desirest." Prahlāda replied, "In all the thousand births through which I may be doomed to pass, may my faith in thee, Achyuta, never know decay; may passion, as fixed as that which the worldly-minded feel for sensual pleasures, ever animate my heart, always devoted unto thee." Bhagavān answered, "Thou hast already devotion unto me, and ever shalt have it: now choose some boon, whatever is in thy wish." Prahlāda then said, "I have been hated, for that I assiduously proclaimed thy praise: do thou, oh lord, pardon in my father this sin that he Bath committed. Weapons have been hurled against me; I have been thrown into the flames; I have been bitten by venomous snakes; and poison has been mixed with my food; I have been bound and cast into the sea; and heavy rocks have been heaped upon me: but all this, and whatever ill beside has been wrought against me; whatever wickedness has been done to me, because I put my faith in thee; all, through thy mercy, has been suffered by me unharmed: and do thou therefore free my father from this iniquity." To this application Viṣṇu replied, "All this shall be unto thee, through my favour: but I give thee another boon: demand it, son of the Asura." Prahlāda answered and said, "All my desires, oh lord, have been fulfilled by the boon that thou hast granted, that my faith in thee shall never know decay. Wealth, virtue, love, are as nothing; for even liberation is in his reach whose faith is firm in thee, root of the universal world." Viṣṇu said, "Since thy heart is filled immovably with trust in me, thou shalt, through my blessing, attain freedom from existence." Thus saying, Viṣṇu vanished from his sight; and Prahlāda repaired to his father, and bowed down before him. His father kissed him on the forehead[1], and embraced him, and shed tears, and said, "Dost thou live, my son?" And the great Asura repented of his former cruelty, and treated him with kindness: and Prahlāda, fulfilling his duties like any other youth, continued diligent in the service of his preceptor and his father. After his father had been put to death by Viṣṇu in the form of the man-lion[2], Prahlāda became the sovereign of the Daityas; and possessing the splendours of royalty consequent upon his piety, exercised extensive sway, and was blessed with a numerous progeny. At the expiration of an authority which was the reward of his meritorious acts, he was freed from the consequences of moral merit or demerit, and obtained, through meditation on the deity, final exemption from existence.
Such, Maitreya, was the Daitya Prahlāda, the wise and faithful worshipper of Viṣṇu, of whom you wished to hear; and such was his miraculous power. Whoever listens to the history of Prahlāda is immediately cleansed from his sins: the iniquities that he commits, by night or by day, shall be expiated by once hearing, or once reading, the history of Prahlāda. The perusal of this history on the day of full moon, of new moon, or on the eighth or twelfth day of the lunation[3], shall yield fruit equal to the donation of a cow[4]. As Viṣṇu protected Prahlāda in all the calamities to which he was exposed, so shall the deity protect him who listens constantly to the tale[5].
1.22 - On the many forms of vainglory., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
obtain the supernatural blessings, because he who is unfaithful in a little is also unfaithful and vainglorious in much.1
For the sake of extreme dispassion, rich gifts, miracle-working and prophetic powers, many exhaust their bodies in vain. They do not know, poor wretches, that it is not toil so much as humility that is the mother of such perfections.
1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The man then requested that the stick might first be taken and then given to him by Sri Bhagavan with blessings. Sri Bhagavan received it, smelled it, said it was fine, nodded, and handed it back to the man, saying, "Keep it. It will make you always remember me."
Talk 244.
--
"We had heard of you, Maharajji, as the kindest and noblest soul. We had long desired to have your darsan. I came here once before, on the 14th of last month, but could not remain in your holy presence as long as I wished. Being a woman and also young, I could not stand the people around, and so broke away hurriedly after asking one or two simple questions. There are no holy men like you in our part of the country. I am happy as I have everything I want. But I do not have that peace of mind which brings happiness. I now come here seeking your blessing so that I may gain it."
M.: Bhakti fulfils your desire.
--
Maharshi smiled and said "Um! Um!" With blessings and salutation, the interview came to a close and the party departed directly.
30th September, 1936
--
His blessings.
Maharshi said: A Higher Power is leading you. Be led by the same.
--
The questioner said, "I request your blessings for the good of myself".
Bhagavan said: "Yes - yes."
1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The man then requested that the stick might first be taken and then given to him by Sri Bhagavan with blessings. Sri Bhagavan received it, smelled it, said it was fine, nodded, and handed it back to the man, saying, Keep it. It will make you always remember me.
Talk 244.
--
We had heard of you, Maharajji, as the kindest and noblest soul. We had long desired to have your darsan. I came here once before, on the 14th of last month, but could not remain in your holy presence as long as I wished. Being a woman and also young, I could not stand the people around, and so broke away hurriedly after asking one or two simple questions. There are no holy men like you in our part of the country. I am happy as I have everything I want. But I do not have that peace of mind which brings happiness. I now come here seeking your blessing so that I may gain it.
M.: Bhakti fulfils your desire.
--
Maharshi smiled and said Um! Um! With blessings and salutation, the interview came to a close and the party departed directly.
30th September, 1936
--
His blessings.
Maharshi said: A Higher Power is leading you. Be led by the same.
--
The questioner said, I request your blessings for the good of myself.
Bhagavan said: Yes - yes.
--
So Vishnu awakened Prahlada, blessing him with eternal life and jivanmukti. Deva-asura fight was resumed and the old order of things was restored so that the universe continues in its eternal nature.
D.: How could God Himself wake up the asura element and bring about constant warfare? Is not Pure Goodness the nature of God?
--
D.: May I come near, Sir? (for blessing).
M.: Such doubts should not arise in you. They contradict your statement of surrender. Sadguru is always on your head.
1.24 - RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
We have seen that, when they are promoted to be the central core of organized religious worship, ritualism and sacramentalism are by no means unmixed blessings. But that the whole of a mans workaday life should be transformed by him into a kind of continuous ritual, that every object in the world around him should be regarded as a symbol of the worlds eternal Ground, that all his actions should be performed sacramentallythis would seem to be wholly desirable. All the masters of the spiritual life, from the authors of the Upanishads to Socrates, from Buddha to St. Bernard are agreed that, without self-knowledge there cannot be adequate knowledge of God, that without a constant recollectedness there can be no complete deliverance. The man who has learnt to regard things as symbols, persons as temples of the Holy Spirit and actions as sacraments, is a man who has learned constantly to remind himself who he is, where he stands in relation to the universe and its Ground, how he should behave towards his fellows and what he must do to come to his final end.
Because of this indwelling of the Logos, writes Mr. Kenneth Saunders in his valuable study of the Fourth Gospel, the Gita and the Lotus Sutra, all things have a reality. They are sacraments, not illusions like the phenomenal word of the Vedanta. That the Logos is in things, lives and conscious minds, and they in the Logos, was taught much more emphatically and explicitly by the Vedantists than by the author of the Fourth Gospel; and the same idea is, of course, basic in the theology of Taoism. But though all things in fact exist at the intersection between a divine manifestation and a ray of the unmanifest Godhead, it by no means follows that everyone always knows that this is so. On the contrary, the vast majority of human beings believe that their own selfness and the objects around them possess a reality in themselves, wholly independent of the Logos. This belief leads them to identify their being with their sensations, cravings and private notions and in its turn this self-identification with what they are not effectively walls them off from divine influence and the very possibility of deliverance. To most of us on most occasions things are not symbols and actions are not sacramental; and we have to teach ourselves, consciously and deliberately, to remember that they are.
1.24 - The Killing of the Divine King, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
of their last meal on earth, and they now receive the last blessings
and farewells of their friends. A moment more and they are coming
1.25 - Describes the great gain which comes to a soul when it practises vocal prayer perfectly. Shows how God may raise it thence to things supernatural., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
understand anything, it perceives that this is a blessing which could not be gained by the merits of
all the trials suffered on earth put together. It is a gift of the Lord of earth and Heaven, Who gives
1.25 - DUNGEON, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
Ah, those were the days of blessing!
FAUST
1.26 - Continues the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts. Describes means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for those who are beginning prayer., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
imitate Thee I will suffer all trials that come to me and count them as a great blessing. Let us go
both together, Lord: whither Thou goest, I must go; through whatsoever Thou passest, I must pass."
--
for you, and it is no small blessing and joy for the pupil to see that his Master loves Him.
1.26 - FESTIVAL AT ADHARS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Without the blessing of His feet
You cannot know the final Truth.
1.26 - On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
On account of self-will many have not accepted the perfect and easy blessing mentioned above, and having tried to discover what was pleasing to the Lord of themselves and in themselves, have handed on to us many and various judgments concerning this matter.
Some of those who were seeking the will of God laid aside all attachments; they submitted to the Lord their own thought about this or that inclination of the soul, I mean whether to perform an action or to resist it; they submitted their mind stripped of its own will to Him, offering fervent prayer for a set number of days. In this way they attained to a knowledge of His will, either through the spiritual Mind spiritually communicating with their mind or through the complete disappearance from their soul of their cherished intention.
1.27 - Describes the great love shown us by the Lord in the first words of the Paternoster and the great importance of our making no account of good birth if we truly desire to be the daughters of God., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
be a very great blessing if our understanding could be filled with it so that the will would be occupied
and we should be unable to say another word. Oh, how appropriate, daughters, would perfect
1.28 - Describes the nature of the Prayer of Recollection and sets down some of the means by which we can make it a habit., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
sooner; and this is a prayer which brings with it many blessings. It is called recollection because
the soul collects together all the faculties and enters within itself to be with its God. Its Divine
1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
So Vishnu awakened Prahlada, blessing him with eternal life and jivanmukti. Deva-asura fight was resumed and the old order of things was restored so that the universe continues in its eternal nature.
D.: How could God Himself wake up the asura element and bring about constant warfare? Is not Pure Goodness the nature of God?
13.07 - The Inter-Zone, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
So they come down, Satyavan and Savitri, from the Supreme heavens, rushing down as heaven's blessing as it were, through ethereal atmospheres, gradually re-assuming the texture of earthly form till they found their material body again upon this concrete earth.
A power leaned down, a happiness found its home.||156.18||
1.30 - Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in prayer. Treats of these words in the Paternoster: Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum. Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and begins the explanation of them., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
which will come to us when we see that all are hallowing and praising the Lord, and are blessing
His name, and that none is offending Him. For all love Him there and the soul's one concern is
1.33 - The Gardens of Adonis, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
round it hand in hand, invoking the blessing of Gouri on their
husbands. After that the young corn is taken up and distributed by
--
of a blessing on their husbands by the wives, point clearly to the
desire of offspring as one motive for observing the custom. The same
1.33 - Treats of our great need that the Lord should give us what we ask in these words of the Paternoster Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
obstacle to stand in His way. Why must all the blessings that we receive be at His cost? How is it
that He is silent in face of all, and cannot speak for Himself, but only for us? Is there none who
1.34 - Continues the same subject. This is very suitable for reading after the reception of the Most Holy Sacrament., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
this great blessing, or rather, so that they should not hinder the soul from becoming conscious of
it. She imagined herself at His feet and wept with the Magdalen exactly as if she had seen Him
1.37 - Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the many ways in which we shall find consolation in it., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
and prudent Master who foresees our perils! This is the greatest blessing that the spiritual soul still
on earth can desire, because it brings complete security. No words could ever exaggerate the
1.38 - The Myth of Osiris, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
Isis, and travelled over the world, diffusing the blessings of
civilisation and agriculture wherever he went. In countries where a
1.38 - Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal Father to grant us what we ask in these words: Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Explains certain temptations. This chapter is noteworthy., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
grace, we must understand that it is a blessing which we have received but which He may take
123
1.39 - The Ritual of Osiris, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
religious rites designed to secure the blessing of the gods upon his
labours. These rustic ceremonies he would continue to perform year
1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: May I come near, Sir? (for blessing).
M.: Such doubts should not arise in you. They contradict your statement of surrender. Sadguru is always on your head.
1.40 - Describes how, by striving always to walk in the love and fear of God, we shall travel safely amid all these temptations., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
from enjoying these great blessings, the devil will suggest to it a thousand false fears and will
persuade other people to do the same; for if he cannot win souls he will at least try to make them
1.41 - Are we Reincarnations of the Ancient Egyptians?, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Well, I must hope for the best, and leave you with my blessing.
Love is the law, love under will.
1.41 - Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
fade, for if you do that you may lose many blessings. As I have said, let your intention be upright
and your will determined not to offend God. But do not let your soul dwell in seclusion, or, instead
1.42 - Treats of these last words of the Paternoster Sed libera nos a malo. Amen. But deliver us from evil. Amen., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
many hindrances to the enjoyment of so many blessings; nor that they should desire to be where
the Sun of justice never sets. Henceforward all the things they see on earth seem dim to them and
1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: I do not approve of the caste system. Mahatmas opinion is valuable as a guidance. I want your blessings in my attempts.
M.: Mahatma has told you to seek and find your Self. You will not do it but require his blessings.
D.: I am trying to follow the instructions. But caste-distinction is painful. It must go.
--
Both the ladies kneeled before Sri Bhagavan one after another and asked for blessings. Then they left for Pondicherry on their way to Colombo.
25th November, 1938
1.48 - The Corn-Spirit as an Animal, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
bringing them a blessing, and even set tit-bits before him. But if
he carried his tail high, they cursed him and tried to kill him.
--
secure a continuance of the corn-spirit's blessing, so in some
places the Harvest-cock and in others the flesh of the goat is kept
1.49 - Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
at ensuring the blessing of the corn-spirit on the homestead and its
inmates and storing it up for another year.
--
in the Highlands of Scotland. Thus the blessing of the corn-spirit
was brought to the king's house and hearth and, through them, to the
1.50 - Eating the God, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
The ceremony of blessing it is as follows. The half-ripe husk is
washed and placed before the medicine-man, who by dancing and
1.52 - Killing the Divine Animal, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
a blessing. Nevertheless they tease and worry, poke and tickle the
animal continually, so that he is surly and snappish. After being
--
receive his blessing, just as in Europe a May-tree or a personal
representative of the tree-spirit used to be taken from door to door
--
diffuses blessings, especially by keeping at bay the swarms of evil
spirits who are constantly lying in wait for people, stealing their
1.54 - Types of Animal Sacrament, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
the threshold, pronounced a blessing on the family in these words:
"May God bless the house and all that belongs to it, cattle, stones,
1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Both the ladies kneeled before Sri Bhagavan one after another and asked for blessings. Then they left for Pondicherry on their way to Colombo.
25th November, 1938
1.64 - The Burning of Human Beings in the Fires, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
her fruitful. But, as we have seen, the power of blessing women with
offspring is a special attribute of tree-spirits; it is therefore a
1.74 - Obstacles on the Path, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
A century ago, very nearly, there lived in Bristol and "Open Brother" names Muller, who was a wizard at this; Grace before breakfast, the usual palaver about the Lord and His blessings and His bounty et cetera, da capo; to conclude "and, Blessed Lord, we would humbly venture to remind Thee that this morning Thou art 3 4s. 6 1/2d. short in the accounts; trusting that Thou wilt give this small matter Thine immediate attention, for Jesus' Christ's sake, Amen." Sure enough, when he came to open his post, there would be just enough, sometimes exactly enough, to cover that amount.
This story was told me by an enemy, who thought quite seriously that he would go to Hell for being "Open." ("Open" Brethren were lax about the Lord's Supper, let people partake who were not sound upon the Ramsgate Question; and other Theological Atrocities!) It meant that the facts were so undeniable that the "advertisement for Answer to Prayer" outweighed the "miracle by a heretic."
1.78 - Sore Spots, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
The worst of this correspondence-form is that you are always asking simple elementary questions which require half a dozen treatises to answer: so, take this, with my blessing!
Love is the law, love under will.
18.05 - Ashram Poets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Thy touch pours abroad thy supreme blessings,
thy face irradiates thy overflowing grace.
--
Her blessings,
the blessings of Immortality.
That is why
1913 02 08p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
O Lord, Thou art my refuge and my blessing, my strength, my health, my hope, and my courage. Thou art supreme Peace, unalloyed Joy, perfect Serenity. My whole being prostrates before Thee in a gratitude beyond measure and a ceaseless worship; and that worship goes up from my heart and my mind towards Thee like the pure smoke of incense of the perfumes of India.
Let me be Thy herald among men, so that all who are ready may taste the beatitude that Thou grantest me in Thy infinite Mercy, and let Thy Peace reign upon earth.
1951-02-17 - False visions - Offering ones will - Equilibrium - progress - maturity - Ardent self-giving- perfecting the instrument - Difficulties, a help in total realisation - paradoxes - Sincerity - spontaneous meditation, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Each time you receive a blow from life, tell yourself immediately, Ah, I have to make a progress; then the blow becomes a blessing. Instead of tucking your head between your shoulders, you lift it up with joy and you say, What is it I have to learn? I want to know. What is it I have to change? I want to know. This is what you should do.
The concentration we have here and the meditation we used to have in the past, are they the same?1
1953-08-05, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A large number of people come and tell me: What then have I done in my previous life to be now in such difficult conditions, with such misfortunes happening to me? And most often I am obliged to tell them: But dont you see that it is a blessing upon you, a grace! And perhaps in your previous life you have asked for it so that you could make a greater progress. These ideas are quite current: Oh! I am ill. Oh! my body is in a bad condition, what have I done? What crimes have I committed in the other life so that in this one This is all childishness.
So there you are. Au revoir, my children.
1954-05-26 - Symbolic dreams - Psychic sorrow - Dreams, one is rarely conscious, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One day, when you were giving blessings, I went to you, you took me in your arms and embraced me for quite some time.
And then? Thats all?
--
In your experience of the night which produced the dream, you entered into contact with these Forces which always envelop, help, sustain, and you understand, dont you?which are full of love and tenderness, which help and welcome all those who comewhich, in fact, are there, everywhere at work all the time. So you became aware of that. When you woke up, this was translated through images you know, that is, that you come to see me, receive blessings, and then as there was a new feeling that of contact with this Force which envelops and helpsthis gave you the impression that I was taking you in my arms and embracing you. It was translated in this way. The fact is there; the translation is that of your brain.
Some people make me do very funny things at night! I have heard all kinds of extraordinary stories. But it is always the same thing: there is a fact behind, they entered into contact either with an emanation or with a force or an action, as I was saying just now, but then, in their brain it was translated by images which at times are very astonishing! But that, of course, is their translation. As for me, when they tell me all that, it gives me the exact picture of the state of their mental, vital and physical consciousness. Just the deformations in the translation suffices for me to know what the state of their mind is. And I cannot tell them, It was not I, for it was I! Only they have changed this in their own way, which is at times quite surprising! Still, in the present instance, the image is very fine.
--
(Another child) I had a dream in which I went for blessings and you gave me three flowers: mental honesty, next surrender, and last, I think, quiet mind.
It is very good. It is very necessary! (Laughter)
1954-06-16 - Influences, Divine and other - Adverse forces - The four great Asuras - Aspiration arranges circumstances - Wanting only the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh yes, oh yes! Just like men who are under asuric influences. They are the worst enemies among themselves. We must say it is a blessing, for if they had an understanding, things would be much more difficult. Perhaps it is so just because it is a law of equilibrium that governs the world. It is in order to lessen the strength of their influence. But still
That Lord of Falsehood has truly a lot of influence. This is what catches you with a contagion as strong as that of contagious diseases. Stronger still!
1954-06-30 - Occultism - Religion and vital beings - Mothers knowledge of what happens in the Ashram - Asking questions to Mother - Drawing on Mother, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But on these days you give us blessings also!
Yes, because that amuses you! (Laughter) Eh?
You give us blessings only to amuse us?
Come now! It pleases you; I said amuses; its I was disrespectful; but its because it pleases you.
1955-02-16 - Losing something given by Mother - Using things well - Sadhak collecting soap-pieces - What things are truly indispensable - Natures harmonious arrangement - Riches a curse, philanthropy - Misuse of things creates misery, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If, besides this, these beings have a higher spiritual knowledge, then they can utilise this force to construct gradually upon the earth what will be capable of manifesting the divine Power, Force and Grace. And then this power of money, wealth, this financial force, of which I just said that it was like a curse, would become a supreme blessing for the good of all.
For I think that it is the best things which become the worst. Perhaps the worst also can become the best. Some people also say that it is the worst men who become the best. I hope the best dont become the worst, for that indeed would be sad.
But still, certainly, the greatest power, if badly used, can be a very great calamity; whereas this same very great power if well utilised can be a blessing. All depends on the use thats made of things. Each thing in the world has its place, its work, a real use; and if used for something else it creates a disorder, confusion, chaos. And thats because in the world as it is, very few things are utilised for their true work, very few things are really in their place, and it is because the world is in a frightful chaos that there is all this misery and suffering. If each thing was in its place, in a harmonious balance, the whole world could progress without needing to be in the state of misery and suffering in which it is. There!
So there is nothing thats bad in itself, but there are many thingsalmost allwhich are not in their place.
1957-04-10 - Sports and yoga - Organising ones life, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is only the question of time to be considered, but this question may be resolved by two things: first by an enlightened and methodical organisation of ones life, then by doing away with the wastage of time which most people spend in useless activitiesif these were to disappear it would be a blessing for everyone and first among them I put chattering, that is, speaking uselessly, among friends, colleagues in all activities. The time one can waste in talking is tremendous! When one word would be enough, one says fifty. And that is not the only loss of time. Actually, when one is short of time, it means one does not know how to organise ones life. Of course, there are people who do too many things, but that too shows a lack of organisation in life.
A true organisation gives a place to each thing to the extent that it is required. You all know very well that with ten to fifteen minutes of well-coordinated exercises, you can give your body all the necessary training. This you have been taught here and it has been proved to you. For the balance of the body this is enough. Naturally there are all sorts of other qualities given by games, but you dont play for more than an hour each day at the most, as far as I know, and that is not much time spent in the day.
1958-03-19 - General tension in humanity - Peace and progress - Perversion and vision of transformation, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I shall tell you about an experience I had which will help you to understand better. It was shortly after the supramental experience of the third of February,1 and I was still in the state in which things of the physical world seemed so far off, so absurd. A group of visitors had asked permission to come to me and one evening they came to the Playground. They were rich people, that is, they had more money than they needed to live on. Among them there was a woman in a sari; she was very fat, her sari was arranged so as to hide her body. As she was bending down to receive my blessings, one corner of the sari came open, uncovering a part of her body, a naked bellyan enormous one. I felt a real shock. There are corpulent people who have nothing repugnant about them, but I suddenly saw the perversion, the rottenness that this belly concealed, it was like a huge abscess, expressing greed, vice, depraved taste, sordid desire, which finds its satisfaction as no animal would, in grossness and especially in perversity. I saw the perversion of a depraved mind at the service of the lowest appetites. Then, all of a sudden, something sprang up from me, a prayer, like a Veda: O Lord, this is what must disappear!
One understands very well that physical misery, the unequal distribution of the goods of this world could be changed, one can imagine economic and social solutions which could remedy this, but it is that misery, the mental misery, the vital perversion, it is that which cannot change, doesnt want to change. And those who belong to this type of humanity are condemned in advance to disintegration.
1960 05 25, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Obviously, far from being a misfortune, it is a blessing. And this is precisely what Sri Aurobindo means.
When things happen which are not what we expect, what we hope for, what we want, which are contrary to our desires, in our ignorance we call them misfortunes and lament. But if we were to become a little wiser and observe the deeper consequences of these very same events, we would find that they are leading us rapidly towards the Divine, the Beloved; whereas easy and pleasant circumstances encourage us to dally on the path, to stop along the way to pluck the flowers of pleasure which present themselves to us and which we are too weak or not sincere enough to reject resolutely, so that our march forward is not delayed.
1969 10 18, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
176When I look back on my past life, I see that if I had not failed and suffered, I would have lost my lifes supreme blessings; yet at the time of the suffering and failure, I was vexed with the sense of calamity. Because we cannot see anything but the one fact under our noses, therefore we indulge in all these snifflings and clamours. Be silent, ye foolish hearts! Slay the ego, learn to see and feel vastly and universally.
177The perfect cosmic vision and cosmic sentiment is the cure of all error and suffering; but most men succeed only in enlarging the range of their ego.
1970 03 13, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
387Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing. It has broken the force of epidemics and unveiled a marvellous surgery; but, also, it has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety and distasteful crutch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms.
388The doctor aims a drug at a disease; sometimes it hits, sometimes misses. The misses are left out of account, the hits treasured up, reckoned and systematised into a science.
1.ami - The secret divine my ecstasy has taught (from Baal-i-Jibreel), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Naeem Siddiqui Original Language Urdu The secret divine my ecstasy has taught I may convey if I have Gabriel's breath. What can these stars tell me of my fate? They are lost themselves in the boundless firmament. The total absorption of thought and vision is life, Scattered thought is selfhood's total death. Pleasures of selfhood are a blessing of God, Who makes me lose my awareness of myself. With a pure heart, a noble aim, a poignant soul. I care not for Solomon's wealth or Plato's thought. The Prophet's 'Mairaj' has taught me that heaven Lies within the bounds of human reach. This universe, perhaps, is yet incomplete, For I hear repeated sounds of "Be, And It Was." Thy mind is ruled by the magic of the West, Thy cure lies in the Fire of Rumi's faith. It is he who has given my eyes a blissful vision, It is he who has blessed my soul with light. <
1.anon - The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet II, #Anonymous - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Give me your blessings!
I will enter the city gate of Uruk
1.anon - The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet VIII, #Anonymous - Poems, #unset, #Zen
May the peoples who gave their blessing after us
mourn you.
1.anon - The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet X, #Anonymous - Poems, #unset, #Zen
After Enlil had pronounced the blessing,'"
the Anunnaki, the Great Gods, assembled.
1.ap - The Universal Prayer, #Pope - Poems, #unset, #Zen
What blessings thy free bounty gives,
Let me not cast away;
1.bsf - Raga Asa, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Nirmal Dass Original Language Punjabi 1. True lovers are those who love with all their hearts. Those who think of another, speak of another are called false lovers. Those steeped in the color of God's love abide in His care. Those who forget His name are a burden upon earth. Those whom He gathers become dervishes at His door. Exalted are the mothers of such men who gave them birth, blessed is their coming into the world. You are caring, infinite, boundless, endless. Those who have discerned this truth, their feet, their mouths I kiss. You are my protection O Lord, my salvation. Grant to Sheikh Farid the blessing of Your adoration. 2. Sheikh Farid speaks: dear friend, turn to Allah. This body shall become dust in the miserable, dark house of the grave. Today is the day of union, O Sheikh Farid, so tame these wild cranes of desire that inflame and incite the heart. We all know that we shall die and never again return. Then why do we love this false world and sell ourselves? We must ever speak of the true path; let us not speak lies. Let us walk the guru's course like humble disciples. Seeing strong, handsome youths swim across to the other side, a weak woman takes heart. Those who pursue only gold should be sawn in half. O Sheikh, no one in this world can stay alive forever. The place upon which I now sit, many have sat before and gone on their way. Cranes come to Katak, forest fires in Chet, lightning in Savan. In winter, fair arms of women adorn lovers' necks. All ephemeral things pass on. Think of this, O heart. That which takes six months to form is destroyed in an instant. The earth asks the sky, O Farid: how many boatmen have come and gone? The body merely rots in the grave, but it is the soul that must suffer the consequences. [2184.jpg] -- from Songs of the Saints from the Adi Granth, Translated by Nirmal Dass <
1.bsf - You are my protection O Lord, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Paul Smith Original Language Punjabi You are my protection O Lord, my salvation: grant to Farid the blessing of Your adoration. [2667.jpg] -- from Anthology of Great Sufi & Mystical Poets of Pakistan, by Paul Smith <
1.bs - He Who is Stricken by Love, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Mahmood Jamal Original Language Punjabi He who is stricken by Love Sings and dances out of tune. He who wears the garb of Love Gets blessings from above. Soon as he drinks from this cup No questions and no answers remain. He who is stricken by Love Sings and dances out of tune. He who has the Beloved in his heart, He is fulfilled with his Love. No need he has for formality, He just enjoys his ecstasy. He who is stricken by Love Sings and dances out of tune. [2469.jpg] -- from Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi, Translated by Mahmood Jamal <
1f.lovecraft - Discarded Draft of, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
these occurrences, even the first of which seems to me a blessing
rather than a disaster. Especially am I glad that the old brick
1f.lovecraft - Out of the Aeons, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
with King Thabons blessing on his head, started up the dreaded
mountain with a staff of tlath-wood in his right hand. Within his robe
1f.lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
sailed for Liverpool with the farewell blessings of his father and
mother, who accompanied him to Boston and waved him out of sight from
1f.lovecraft - The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
asking a farewell blessing of the priests and thinking shrewdly on his
course, he boldly descended the seven hundred steps to the Gate of
--
older men gave him blessings and warnings, and told him he had better
not climb too high on Ngranek, but while he thanked them heartily he
--
well of the gods, and to praise all the blessings they had ever
accorded him.
1f.lovecraft - The Last Test, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Alf, I want to marry Georgina. Have we your blessing?
Keenly watching his old friend, Dalton saw a shadow steal over his
1.fs - Elegy On The Death Of A Young Man, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
By our blessings lulled to slumbers sweet!
Sleep on calmly in thy prison drear,
1.fs - Hymn To Joy, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
He whom woman's love is blessing,
Let him join the chorus too!
1.fs - Light And Warmth, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
For warmth and light a blessing both to be,
Feel as the enthusiastas the world-wise see.
1.fs - The Eleusinian Festival, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
blessing their love's sacred fires.
Guided by the deities,
1.fs - The Lay Of The Bell, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
But the blessing withal must descend from on high!
And well an earnest word beseems
--
Or the curse or the blessing may fall!
Benignantly out from the cloud
--
One blessing more than all it reftit leaves,
The faces that he loves!He counts them o'er,
--
And turn to blessings watched by heaven!
Ah, seeds, how dearer far than they,
--
Who worksgives blessings and commands;
Kings glory in the orb and crown
1.fs - The Maiden From Afar, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
Each bore a blessing back to home.
Though every guest was welcome there,
1.ia - Modification Of The R Poem, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
and through it you attain what you hope for of his blessing
and improve your assumption of him, and realize his sanctity
1.jk - Asleep! O Sleep A Little While, White Pearl!, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
And let me call Heavens blessing on thine eyes,
And let me breathe into the happy air,
1.jk - Endymion - Book II, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
And suffocate true blessings in a curse.
Half-happy, by comparison of bliss,
1.jk - Endymion - Book III, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
And speak a blessing: Mark me! thou hast thews
Immortal, for thou art of heavenly race:
--
And over Glaucus held his blessing hands.
"Endymion! Ah! still wandering in the bands
1.jk - Extracts From An Opera, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
And let me call Heavens blessing on thine eyes,
And let me breathe into the happy air,
1.jk - Otho The Great - Act II, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
Ethelbert. blessings upon you, daughter! Sure you look
Too cheerful for these foul pernicious days.
--
Your blessing, father! Sweet Erminia,
Believe me, I am well nigh sure
1.jk - Otho The Great - Act III, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
A young man's heart, by Heaven's blessing, is
A wide world, where a thousand new-born hopes
1.jk - Otho The Great - Act V, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
Ludolph. I say I quarreled with you ; We did not tilt each other, that's a blessing,
Good gods! no innocent blood upon my head!
1.jk - To Some Ladies, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
The blessings of Tighe had melodiously given;
It had not created a warmer emotion
1.jm - Upon this earth, the land of the Victorious Ones, #Milarepa - Poems, #Jetsun Milarepa, #Buddhism
Now, through the Holy Ones grace and blessing
I realize that both Samsara and Nirvana
1.jr - come, #Rumi - Poems, #Jalaluddin Rumi, #Poetry
English version by Nader Khalili Original Language Persian/Farsi & Turkish come let's fall in love again let's turn all the dirt in this world to shiny gold come let's be a new spring a love reborn find our aroma from the essence of all who emit heavenly fragrance like a fresh tree bloom and spread all the blessings right from inside [2079.jpg] -- from Rumi: Fountain of Fire, Translated by Nader Khalili <
1.jr - If continually you keep your hope, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Camille and Kabir Helminski Original Language Persian/Farsi & Turkish If continually you keep your hope quivering like the willow in longing for Heaven, spiritual water and fire will continually arrive and increase your subsistence. And if your longing carries you there, it will be no wonder. Don't pay attention to your weakness, but to the intensity of your longing. For this search is God's pledge within you, because every seeker deserves to find something of which she seeks. Increase this search, that your heart may escape from this bodily prison. If your spirit shall not live without the body, for whom is the blessing promised in the words: in Heaven is your provision? [2306.jpg] -- from Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance , Edited by Camille Helmiski / Edited by Kabir Helminski <
1.jr - I Will Beguile Him With The Tongue, #Rumi - Poems, #Jalaluddin Rumi, #Poetry
with blessing or Paradise.
Shams-e Tabriz, who is his chosen and belovedperchance I
1.jr - Shall I tell you our secret?, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi Original Language Persian/Farsi & Turkish Shall I tell you our secret? We are charming thieves who steal hearts and never fail because we are the friends of the One. The time for old preaching is over we aim straight at the heart. If the mind tries to sneak in and take over we will string it up without delay. We turn poison into medicine and our sorrows into blessings. All that was familiar, our loved ones and ourselves, we had to leave behind. Blessed is the poem that comes through me but not of me because the sound of my own music will drown the song of Love. [2296.jpg] -- from Rumi: Hidden Music, Translated by Azima Melita Kolin / Translated by Maryam Mafi <
1.jr - The Sun Must Come, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Andrew Harvey Original Language Persian/Farsi & Turkish Since Love has made ruins of my heart The sun must come and illumine them. Such generosity has broken me with shame: The King prayed for me, and granted me His prayer: How many times, just to calm me, did He show His face? I said, "I saw His Face," but it was only a veil. He charred a universe through the flaming-out of this veil. O my God! How could such a King ever be unveiled? Love reared in front of me, and I followed Him. He turned and seized me like an eagle -- What a blessing it was to be His prey! I plunged into a sea of ecstasy, and fled all pain. If anguish is not delicious meat for you, It is because you have never tasted this wine. The Prophets accept all agony and trust it For the water has never feared the fire. [1722.jpg] -- from Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations from Sufi Wisdom, by Andrew Harvey / Eryk Hanut <
1.jwvg - Answers In A Game Of Questions, #Goethe - Poems, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
Many a blessing yet is rife,
Many pleasures still remain.
1.jwvg - The Drops Of Nectar, #Goethe - Poems, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
As a blessing for his creatures,
And to pour into their bosoms
1.jwvg - True Enjoyment, #Goethe - Poems, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
The blessing of the priest alone
Is wanting to complete our bliss.
1.kt - A Song on the View of Voidness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Thupten Jinpa & Jas Elsner Original Language Tibetan Homage to the Adamantine Mind! Dharma king, you who have realized the essence; you who expound the way of being, out of compassion: king Buddha Samdrup, I bow to you in my heart, pray listen to me. Through your kind and skillful means, by a habit long formed, and as a fruit of long practice in this life, I have realized the nature of ever-presence. When the secret of appearance is revealed, everything arises in a tone of voidness, undefined by the marks of identity. Like a sky that is nothing but an image. When the secret of thoughts is revealed, though active, they are but mind's sport, naked reflections of transcendent mind unsullied by deliberation and correction. When the secret of recollection is revealed, every memory is but an illumination of self-knowledge in the ever-present state, untainted by ego consciousness. When the secret of illusions is revealed, they seem nothing but the primordial state, appearing in the visual field of rikpa, untouched by the dualism of mind and things. When the secret of abiding is revealed, you are in the state of self-cognition, however long you remain, free of elaboration, the expanse unstained by laxity and torpor. When the secret of mobility is revealed, however much you move, you remain within clear light, unstained by distraction, excitement, and so on, a true self-recognizer. When the secret of samsara is revealed, however often one may circle, the cycles are illusion unaffected by joy and pain. This is the realization of Buddha's four bodies. When the secret of peace is revealed, however tranquil one's attainments, they are but an image; this is the natural pure space, free of the signs of being and nonbeing. When the secret of birth is revealed, however one's reborn, it's but an emanation; meditation's vision of pure self-generation free of clinging and apprehensions. When the secret of death is revealed, however often one may die, it's but the vision of the ultimate, the stages of completion perfect, free of any karmic deeds. When the secret of bliss is revealed, its intensity cannot be bettered; this is the state of spontaneous bliss, free of all traces of contamination. When the secret of luminosity is revealed, however bright, it's but an empty form -- mother image of the void in space, free of every multiplicity. When the secret of emptiness is revealed, though empty, it is the unsurpassed, devoid of every contingent stain, and free from every deception. When the secret of the view is revealed, however much one looks and sees, the world remains beyond thought and word -- the expanse beyond dichotomies. When the secret of meditation is revealed, however much one meditates, it's but a state -- undistracted, and in natural restfulness, free of exertion and constraint. When the secret of action is revealed, whatever one does are the six perfections -- spontaneous, free, and to the point, uncolored by strictures and moral codes. When the secret of fruition is revealed, achievements are but the cognition of mind as dharmakaya, the mind itself free of hope and fear. This is the profound innermost secret; guru's blessings have entered my heart; naked nonduality dawns within; the secret of samsara and nirvana is revealed! I have beheld the face of the ordinary mind; I have arrived at the view that is free of extremes; even if the Buddha came in person now, I have no queries that require his advice! This song on the view of voidness expounding the nature of the being of all, spoken in words inspired by conviction, was sung in a voice echoing itself, unobstructed, in between meditation sessions. [1585.jpg] -- from Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight & Awakening, Translated by Thupten Jinpa / Translated by Jas Elsner
1.lovecraft - Christmas Blessings, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
object:1.lovecraft - Christmas blessings
author class:H P Lovecraft
--
So speed my blessings from a barb'rous clime
To thee and Providence at Christmas time!
1.lovecraft - Good Saint Nick, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Bring thee rich blessings in his annual flight;
Long by thy chimney rest his pond'rous pack,
1.lovecraft - March, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Summer brings blessings of enervate kind;
Thy joys, O March, are ecstasies of mind.
1.lovecraft - St. John, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Feel ev'ry blessing of the day!
1.mbn - Prayers for the Protection and Opening of the Heart, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Peter Cole Original Language Hebrew 1 May the Name send its hidden radiance to open the gates of deliverance to His servants -- and shine in their hearts, which now are shut in silent darkness. May the great King be moved to act in perfection and righteousness -- to open the gates of wisdom for us and waken the love of old, the love of ancient days. 2 By the power of the hidden name I-Am-That-I-Am, and by the dew of Desire and blessing, the dead will live again.... 3 I-am is the power of your Name in concealment, and one who knows its mystery dwells in eternity's instant. Over the world, it pours forth abundance and favor, and on it all worlds hang, like grapes in a cluster. Send the dew of blessing, the dew of grace; renew my dispensation, and grant me length of days. Bring light to my eyes with your teaching, and let not the husks that surround your hosts obstruct me. May Heaven and Adam's children judge me with mercy. Sustain me with their strength and fortune -- but do not leave me in need of the gifts of men. [2610.jpg] -- from The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, Edited by Peter Cole
1.okym - 46 - later edition - Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Edward FitzGerald Original Language Persian/Farsi Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare Blaspheme the twisted tendril as Snare? A blessing, we should use it, should we not? And if a Curse -- why, then, Who set it there? [bk1sm.gif] -- from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Omar Khayyam / Translated by Edward FitzGerald <
1.pbs - Julian and Maddalo - A Conversation, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
And they will make one blessing which thou ne'er
Didst imprecate for, on me,death.
1.pbs - Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot The Tyrant, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Showering down blessings in the shape of comfits.
This, trust a priest, is just the sort of thing
--
And rain down blessings in the shape of comfits
As she flies up to heaven. Now, my proposal
1.pbs - Queen Mab - Part V., #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
For the gross blessings of the patriot mob,
For the vile gratitude of heartless kings,
1.pbs - Rosalind and Helen - a Modern Eclogue, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
The sources whence such blessings flow
Were not to be approached by me!
1.pbs - To Harriet, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
These choicest blessings I have known.
Harriet! if all who long to live
1.pbs - To The Lord Chancellor, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
This curse should be a blessing. Fare thee well!
1.rb - O Lyric Love, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
Their upmost up and on,so blessing back
In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home,
1.rb - Pippa Passes - Part II - Noon, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
The blessing or the blest one, queen or page,
Why should we always choose the page's part?
1.rb - Sordello - Book the Third, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
Busily blessing right and left, just stopped
To pat one infant's curls, the hangman cropped
1.rb - The Flight Of The Duchess, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
I said ``Is it blessing, is it banning,
``Do they applaud you or burlesque you-
1.rt - Brahm, Viu, iva, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
His four-handed blessing.
He raises his conch
1.rt - Maran-Milan (Death-Wedding), #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
Weight of sacrament or blessing or prayer?
Will you come with your massy tawny hair
1.rwe - From the Persian of Hafiz I, #Emerson - Poems, #Ralph Waldo Emerson, #Philosophy
Bring the blessing of old times;
Bless the old departed Shahs;
1.rwe - Monadnoc, #Emerson - Poems, #Ralph Waldo Emerson, #Philosophy
The frank blessings of the hill
Fall on thee, as fall they will.
1.rwe - Worship, #Emerson - Poems, #Ralph Waldo Emerson, #Philosophy
Floods with blessings unawares.
Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line
1.sfa - Prayer Inspired by the Our Father, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Regis J. Armstrong, OFM CAP & Ignatius C. Brady, OFM Original Language Italian O OUR most holy FATHER, Our Creator, Redeemer, Consoler, and Savior WHO ARE IN HEAVEN: In the angels and in the saints, Enlightening them to love, because You, Lord, are light Inflaming them to love, because You, Lord, are love Dwelling in them and filling them with happiness, because You, Lord, are the Supreme Good, the Eternal Good from Whom comes all good without Whom there is no good. HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME: May our knowledge of You become ever clearer That we may know the breadth of Your blessings the length of Your promises the height of Your majesty the depths of Your judgments YOUR KINGDOM COME: So that You may rule in us through Your grace and enable us to come to Your kingdom where there is an unclouded vision of You a perfect love of You a blessed companionship with You an eternal enjoyment of You YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN: That we may love you with our whole heart by always thinking of You with our whole soul by always desiring You with our whole mind by directing all our intentions to You and by seeking Your glory in everything and with our whole strength by spending all our energies and affections of soul and body in the service of Your love and of nothing else and may we love our neighbors as ourselves by drawing them all with our whole strength to Your love by rejoicing in the good fortunes of others as well as our own and by sympathizing with the misfortunes of others and by giving offense to no one GIVE US THIS DAY: in memory and understanding and reverence of the love which our Lord Jesus Christ had for us and of those things which He said and did and suffered for us OUR DAILY BREAD Your own Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES: Through Your ineffable mercy through the power of the Passion of Your Beloved Son together with the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all Your chosen ones AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US: And whatever we do not forgive perfectly, do you, Lord, enable us to forgive to the full so that we may truly love our enemies and fervently intercede for them before You returning no one evil for evil and striving to help everyone in You AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION Hidden or obvious Sudden or persistent BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL Past, present and to come. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. [1495.jpg] -- from Francis and Clare: The Complete Works: The Classics of Western Spirituality, Translated by Regis J. Armstrong, OFM CAP / Translated by Ignatius C. Brady, OFM <
1.sfa - The Canticle of Brother Sun, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Ivan M. Granger Original Language Italian My Lord most high, all-powerful, all-good, Celebration, light, and all sweet blessings are yours, yours alone. No man speaks who can speak your Name. Praise to you, my Lord, and to all beings of your creation! Praise especially to brother sun, who fills the day with light -- through whom you shine! Beautiful and bright, magnificent with splendor, He shows us your Face. Praise to my Lord for sister moon and for the stars. You have formed them in the firmament, fine and rare and fair. Praise to you, Lord, for brother wind, for the air, for the clouds, for fair days and every turn of weather -- through which you feed the world. Praise to my Lord for sister water, precious and pure, who selflessly serves all. Praise to my Lord for brother fire, through whom you fill the dark with light. Lovely is he in his delight, mighty and strong. Praise to my Lord for our sister, mother earth, who nourishes us and surrounds us in a world ripe with fruit, pregnant with grassy fields, spangled with flowers. Praise to my Lord for those seeking your love, who discover within themselves forgiveness, rejecting neither frailty nor sorrow. Enduring in serenity, they are blessed, For they shall be crowned by your hand, Most High. Praise to my Lord for our sister death, the body's death, whom none avoid. A great sadness for those who die having missed life's mark; Yet blessed they whose way is your most holy will -- Having died once, the second death does them no ill. Sing praises! Offer holy blessings to my Lord! In gratitude, selflessly offer yourself to him. [2652.jpg] -- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.wby - A Prayer On Going Into My House, #Yeats - Poems, #William Butler Yeats, #Poetry
GOD grant a blessing on this tower and cottage
And on my heirs, if all remain unspoiled,
--- Overview of noun blessing
The noun blessing has 5 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (1) blessing, approval, approving ::: (the formal act of approving; "he gave the project his blessing"; "his decision merited the approval of any sensible person")
2. blessing, boon ::: (a desirable state; "enjoy the blessings of peace"; "a spanking breeze is a boon to sailors")
3. grace, blessing, thanksgiving ::: (a short prayer of thanks before a meal; "their youngest son said grace")
4. benediction, blessing ::: (a ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection)
5. blessing, benediction ::: (the act of praying for divine protection)
--- Overview of verb bless
The verb bless has 4 senses (first 3 from tagged texts)
1. (4) bless ::: (give a benediction to; "The dying man blessed his son")
2. (1) bless ::: (confer prosperity or happiness on)
3. (1) bless, sign ::: (make the sign of the cross over someone in order to call on God for protection; consecrate)
4. consecrate, bless, hallow, sanctify ::: (render holy by means of religious rites)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun blessing
5 senses of blessing
Sense 1
blessing, approval, approving
=> support
=> aid, assist, assistance, help
=> activity
=> act, deed, human action, human activity
=> event
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 2
blessing, boon
=> good fortune, luckiness, good luck
=> fortune, destiny, fate, luck, lot, circumstances, portion
=> condition
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 3
grace, blessing, thanksgiving
=> prayer, petition, orison
=> request, asking
=> speech act
=> act, deed, human action, human activity
=> event
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 4
benediction, blessing
=> prayer, petition, orison
=> request, asking
=> speech act
=> act, deed, human action, human activity
=> event
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 5
blessing, benediction
=> prayer, supplication
=> worship
=> activity
=> act, deed, human action, human activity
=> event
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun blessing
3 of 5 senses of blessing
Sense 1
blessing, approval, approving
=> adoption, acceptance, acceptation, espousal
=> backing, backup, championship, patronage
=> admiration, appreciation
=> reward, reinforcement
Sense 2
blessing, boon
=> mercy
Sense 4
benediction, blessing
=> benison
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun blessing
5 senses of blessing
Sense 1
blessing, approval, approving
=> support
Sense 2
blessing, boon
=> good fortune, luckiness, good luck
Sense 3
grace, blessing, thanksgiving
=> prayer, petition, orison
Sense 4
benediction, blessing
=> prayer, petition, orison
Sense 5
blessing, benediction
=> prayer, supplication
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun blessing
5 senses of blessing
Sense 1
blessing, approval, approving
-> support
=> attachment, adherence, adhesion
=> advocacy, protagonism
=> sponsorship
=> endorsement, indorsement
=> blessing, approval, approving
=> reassurance
Sense 2
blessing, boon
-> good fortune, luckiness, good luck
=> prosperity, successfulness
=> blessing, boon
Sense 3
grace, blessing, thanksgiving
-> prayer, petition, orison
=> prayer wheel
=> benediction, blessing
=> collect
=> commination
=> deprecation
=> grace, blessing, thanksgiving
=> intercession
=> invocation, supplication
=> requiescat
Sense 4
benediction, blessing
-> prayer, petition, orison
=> prayer wheel
=> benediction, blessing
=> collect
=> commination
=> deprecation
=> grace, blessing, thanksgiving
=> intercession
=> invocation, supplication
=> requiescat
Sense 5
blessing, benediction
-> prayer, supplication
=> devotion
=> blessing, benediction
--- Grep of noun blessing
blessing
Wikipedia - Apostolic Blessing
Wikipedia - Apostolic blessing
Wikipedia - A Walk in the Woods (play) -- Play written by Lee Blessing
Wikipedia - Barakah -- Blessing power in Islam
Wikipedia - Benedictive -- Grammatical mood rarely found in Sanskrit, expressing a blessing or wish
Wikipedia - Berakhah -- Jewish blessing
Wikipedia - Berakhot (tractate) -- Tractate of the Talmud about blessings and prayers, particularly the Shema and the Amidah
Wikipedia - Birkat Hachama -- Jewish blessing, thanking God for creating the sun. Recited once every 28 years.
Wikipedia - Blessing (Catholic Church)
Wikipedia - Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church -- Large-scale wedding or marriage rededication ceremony sponsored by the Unification Church
Wikipedia - Blessing cross
Wikipedia - Blessing, Iowa -- Historical community
Wikipedia - Blessing Liman -- Nigerian military personnel
Wikipedia - Blessing Nsiegbe -- Nigerian politician
Wikipedia - Blessing of animals
Wikipedia - Blessing of same-sex unions in Christian churches
Wikipedia - Blessing of the Sea -- 2019 South Korean television series
Wikipedia - Blessing Okagbare -- Nigerian track and field athlete
Wikipedia - Blessing Onuh -- Nigerian politician
Wikipedia - Blessings of the Land -- 1959 film
Wikipedia - Blessington (Parliament of Ireland constituency) -- Irish parliamentary constituency
Wikipedia - Blessing -- Rite that should bring persons or property share in divine power or grace
Wikipedia - Category:Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings
Wikipedia - Christ Blessing (Bellini, 1460) -- Painting by Giovanni Bellini
Wikipedia - Christ Blessing (Bellini, 1500) -- Painting by Giovanni Bellini
Wikipedia - Count Your Blessings (1959 film) -- 1959 film by Jean Negulesco
Wikipedia - Count Your Blessings (1987 film) -- 1987 film
Wikipedia - Deconsecration -- Act of removing a religious blessing
Wikipedia - Episcopal blessing
Wikipedia - Fortinbras (play) -- 1991 play by Lee Blessing
Wikipedia - Get the Blessing -- British jazz group
Wikipedia - Ikar v'tafel -- Principle in Jewish law that governs the proper blessing that is assigned to any particular food prior to consumption
Wikipedia - Jack Blessing -- American actor
Wikipedia - Jblessing -- Kenyan music video producer and cinematographer
Wikipedia - Joyce Blessing -- African gospel musician
Wikipedia - Kiddush -- Blessing said by Jews at the beginning of Shabbat and holidays, or a snack or light meal served in the synagogue after Shabbat and holiday morning services.
Wikipedia - KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World! Legend of Crimson -- 2019 anime film
Wikipedia - Lee Blessing -- American playwright
Wikipedia - List of Blessings episodes -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Bountiful Blessings episodes -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Jewish prayers and blessings -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Live until 120 -- Jewish blessing
Wikipedia - Madonna and Child Blessing (Bellini, Venice) -- Painting by Giovanni Bellini
Wikipedia - Martin Blessing -- German banker and business person
Wikipedia - Mixed Blessings (British TV series) -- British sitcom
Wikipedia - Papal blessing
Wikipedia - Priestly blessing
Wikipedia - Priestly Blessing -- Jewish blessing by Kohanim
Wikipedia - Ravananugraha -- Hindu depiction of the demon Ravana lifting Mount Kailash; god Shiva blessing him
Wikipedia - Sebastian Kuchler-Blessing -- German organist
Wikipedia - The Rule of the Blessing
Wikipedia - The Scottish Play (Lee Blessing play)
Wikipedia - Toronto Blessing -- Christian revival movement
Wikipedia - To the Ones We Love: A True Story -- album by Of Blessings and Burdens
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington ::: Born: September 1, 1789; Died: June 4, 1849; Occupation: Novelist;
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3129672-blessing-your-spirit
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31751389-the-abundant-blessings-monthly-planner
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33198110-beatrice-s-christmas-blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33528822-hidden-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34034662-50-science-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34080808-50-science-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34212242-a-blessing-in-disguise
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36523747-the-abundant-blessings-calendar
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36640633-blessing-and-light
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/366676.Count_Your_Blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3733459-bring-on-the-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39076139-blessings-from-heaven
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39792887-the-blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39805252-the-blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40624658-the-abundant-blessings-2014-deluxe-wall-calendar
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42771979-snuggle-time-fall-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42838979.Small_Blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42838979-small-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44578039-appalachian-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/473426.Seven_Blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/537661.The_Blessing_of_a_Skinned_Knee
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/542647.Blessings_of_the_Cosmos
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/597766.Mixed_Blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/605385.Blessings_in_Disguise
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/607270.Blessing_the_Boats
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6578178-the-covenant-of-fifty-eight-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6684204-the-blessing-way
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6761625-highland-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7294160-the-blessings-of-the-animals
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7510769-a-million-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7746572-mixed-blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77477.Blessings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7841342-the-blessing-of-a-b-minus
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/792072.The_Blessings_of_Brokenness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/793778.Blessings_in_Disguise
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8523299-an-unlikely-blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/867387.The_Blessing_Way
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8786340-the-blessings-of-the-animals
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9519912-naamah-s-blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9519912.Naamah_s_Blessing__Kushiel_s_Legacy___9_
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9520479-quinn-s-blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14970491.Tonya_Jewel_Blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18265064.Blake_Blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2083628.Tom_Blessing
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6398.Lee_Blessing
Goodreads author - Hedrich_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/nl/wiki/Toronto_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/A_Ribband_of_Blue_And_Other_Bible_Studies#The_Negative_Conditions_of_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/A_Ribband_of_Blue_And_Other_Bible_Studies#The_Outcome_in_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/A_Ribband_of_Blue_And_Other_Bible_Studies#The_Positive_Conditions_of_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessing_of_homes
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessing_of_Jacob
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessing_of_Moses
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessing_of_the_Fleet
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessing_of_the_Throats
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessing_(Roman_Catholic_Church)
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Blessings
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Jewish_blessings
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/File:Confirmation_blessing.jpg
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/File:IndOrthEasterBlessing.jpg
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_prayers_and_blessings
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_prayers_and_blessings#Everyday_prayers_and_blessings
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Paritta#Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Priestly_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Talk:Toronto_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/The_Eightfold_Path#THE_TEN_BLESSINGS
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing#Characteristics
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing#External_links
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing#History
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing#Notes
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing#Popular_culture
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Toronto_Blessing#References
dedroidify.blogspot - nas-damian-marley-count-your-blessings
dedroidify.blogspot - replacing-curses-with-blessings
wiki.auroville - Blessings_of_the_Grace
Psychology Wiki - Types_of_gestures#Benediction_and_blessing
Occultopedia - backward_blessing
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanficRecs/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/DeadlyBlessing
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/ElementalBlessings
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheIdolsBlessing
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VisualNovel/BlessingOfTheCampanella
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingalongBlog
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blessing
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blessings
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:El_Greco_(Domenikos_Theotokopoulos)_-_Christ_Blessing_(%27The_Saviour_of_the_World%27)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:El_Greco_(Domenikos_Theotokopoulos)_-_Christ_Blessing_('The_Saviour_of_the_World')_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:God_the_Father_with_His_Right_Hand_Raised_in_Blessing.jpg
https://allpoetry.com/Marguerite-Blessington
Spice and Wolf (2008 - 2008) - Holo is a powerful wolf deity who is celebrated and revered in the small town of Pasloe for blessing the annual harvest. Yet as years go by and the villagers become more self-sufficient, Holo, who stylizes herself as the "Wise Wolf of Yoitsu," has been reduced to a mere folk tale. When a traveling m...
Fifteen and Pregnant(1998) - They say that the birth of a baby is a blessing, but what if that baby's mother is still just a baby herself? Tina Spangler is just an average teenage girl in her final year of junior high. Aside from school, soccer practice, the church choir, and of course, boys, nothing is as it seems with the r...
Altered States(1980) - Research scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality. Using sensory deprivation, then adding powerful, hallucinogenic drugs, he explores these altered states...and endures experiences that make madness seem a blessing.
Deadly Blessing(1981) - A former Hittite (a member of an Amish-like sect) dies in a mysterious tractor "accident", and his widow is left to face the frightening Hittites who view her as "the incubus" and may have sinister designs on her.
The Good Earth(1937) - The story of a farmer in China: a story of humility and bravery. His father gives Wang Lung a freed slave as wife. By diligence and frugality the two manage to enlarge their property. But then a famine forces them to leave their land and live in the town. However it turns out to be a blessing in dis...
I Think We're Alone Now (2018) ::: 5.7/10 -- R | 1h 39min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi | 21 September 2018 (USA) -- The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one lucky recluse -- until a second survivor arrives with the threat of companionship. Director: Reed Morano Writer: Mike Makowsky
Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! ::: Kono subarashii sekai ni shukufuku o! (original tit ::: TV-14 | 24min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy | TV Series (2016-2017) Episode Guide 21 episodes Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Poster It was a happy day for Kazuma - right up to the moment he died. A goddess intervenes and offers him a second chance in a magical land. Stars: Jun Fukushima, Sora Amamiya, Rie Takahashi
Vara: A Blessing (2013) ::: 7.4/10 -- Unrated | 1h 36min | Drama | 5 June 2014 (South Korea) -- In rural India, a young woman named LILA and her mother VINATA, a temple dancer wed to a Hindu god, find themselves on the fringes of society, struggling to make ends meet. Director: Khyentse Norbu Writers:
https://allods.fandom.com/wiki/Quest:The_Martyrs'_Blessings_(Empire)
https://amnesia.fandom.com/wiki/With_the_Blessing_of_a_King
https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/That_Door_of_Blessing_(Sikh_Evening_Ode)
https://aoc.fandom.com/wiki/Hellish_Blessing
https://characters.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_Chambers
https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Divine_Blessing
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Lightning_(TV_Series)_Episode:_The_Book_of_Markovia:_Chapter_One:_Blessings_and_Curses_Reborn
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Well_of_Blessings
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Avandra
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_battle
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Corellon
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Dust
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_knowledge
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_law
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_light
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Silvanus
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_the_wild
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_vengeance
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_wrath
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Chauntea's_Blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Death's_Blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Deepstone_Blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Elemental_Blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Improved_Dark_One's_Blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Martyr's_blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Raven_Queen's_Blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Raven_Queen's_Blessing_(power)
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Tenebrous_blessing
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Zehir%E2%80%99s_Dark_Blessing
https://dragonfable.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Kyanos
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/A_Blessing_for_the_Dead
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Azura
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Boethiah
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Mara
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Mephala
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Nocturnal
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Protection
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Restoration
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Talos
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Talos_(Knights_of_the_Nine)
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Talos_(Skyrim)
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings_of_the_Eight
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Divine_Blessings
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Dragonslayer's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Jode's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Jone's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Lunar_Blessings
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Malacath's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Mountain's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Tava%27s_Blessing_(Online)
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Tava's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Tava's_Blessing_(Online)
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Blessing_of_Talos
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Blessings_of_Hircine
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Blessings_of_Nature
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Eight_Blessings
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Emperor's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Trinimac's_Blessing
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Trouble_at_Tava's_Blessing
https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings
https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Enhance:_Blessing_of_the_Paladin
https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Enhance:_Unholy_Blessing
https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Reign_of_Shadows:_Whispered_Blessings
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Phoenix%27s_blessing
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Phoenix's_blessing
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Royal_Blessings
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Anima_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Astra_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Beorc's_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_(Heroes)
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Bridal_Blessings
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Earth_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Fire_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Light_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Light's_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Sacae's_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Water_Blessing
https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Wind_Blessing
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Amulet_of_dark_blessing
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ancestral_blessing
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Thunder_Blessing
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/War_god's_blessing
https://hardcorelevelingwarrior.fandom.com/wiki/God_of_Blessings
https://idle-champions.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Blessing
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings_of_Summer
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Deadly_Premonition_2:_A_Blessing_In_Disguise
https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_blessing
https://rappelz.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_the_Gods_Quest_Line
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Radiant_Blessing
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_Star
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Blessing
https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings
https://valkyriecrusade.fandom.com/wiki/Celestial_Blessings
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_(CTL)
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Auchindoun
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Freedom
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Kongs
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Protection
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Sacrifice
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessing_of_Sanctuary
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Blessings_Deck
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Elune's_Blessing
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Greater_Blessing_of_Kings
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Greater_Blessing_of_Wisdom
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Quest:Warchief's_Blessing
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Spirit_Beast_Blessing
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Twin_Spire_Blessing
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Movie: Orion no Ya -- -- J.C.Staff -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Romance -- Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Movie: Orion no Ya Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Movie: Orion no Ya -- Continuing his adventure to get stronger in order to traverse deeper into the "Dungeon," Bell Cranel wanders the Orario city streets with his friends and the goddess Hestia. That evening, the city is filled with stalls and games as it celebrates the Holy Moon Festival. -- -- Hermes, a god, hosts one such activity where participants are asked to pull a spear embedded in a crystal boulder; those who succeed will receive a special gift: a trip around the world and a divine blessing from the gods! Bell and his merry group challenge one another to claim the prize. But behind the facade of an innocent party game lies a preface for a daring quest ahead. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- Movie - Feb 15, 2019 -- 147,084 7.43
Fushigiboshi no☆Futagohime -- -- Hal Film Maker -- 51 eps -- Original -- Magic Comedy Shoujo -- Fushigiboshi no☆Futagohime Fushigiboshi no☆Futagohime -- In the hollow Mysterious Planet, seven kingdoms co-exist, all of them lit by the Sun's Blessing from the Kingdom of the Sun, in the middle of the planet. The light of the core sun is necessary for the continued existence of all the kingdoms. Yet, something is causing the Sun's Blessing to weaken. If something isn't done, it will be the end of life in the Mysterious Planet. Fortunately, the twin princesses of the Sun Kingdom, Fine and Rein, have been endowed with the magic of the Prominence, and are looking for a way to fix things. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Apr 2, 2005 -- 9,329 7.26
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari -- -- Studio Ghibli -- 1 ep -- Other -- Fantasy Historical -- Kaguya-hime no Monogatari Kaguya-hime no Monogatari -- Deep in the countryside, a man named Okina works as a bamboo cutter in a forest, chopping away at the hollow plants day after day. One day, he discovers a small baby inside a glowing shoot. He immediately takes her home, convinced that she is a princess sent to Earth as a divine blessing from heaven. Okina and his wife Ouna take it upon themselves to raise the infant as their own, watching over her as she quickly grows into an energetic young girl. Given the name Kaguya, she fits right in with the village she has come to call home, going on adventures with the other children and enjoying what youth has to offer. -- -- But when Okina finds a large fortune of gold and treasure in the forest, Kaguya's life is completely changed. Believing this to be yet another gift from heaven, he takes it upon himself to turn his daughter into a real princess using the wealth he has just obtained, relocating the family to a mansion in the capital. As she leaves her friends behind to enter into an unwanted life of royalty, Kaguya's origins and purpose slowly come to light. -- -- -- Licensor: -- GKIDS -- Movie - Nov 23, 2013 -- 155,340 8.22
Kanashimi no Belladonna -- -- Mushi Production -- 1 ep -- Book -- Dementia Drama Hentai Historical -- Kanashimi no Belladonna Kanashimi no Belladonna -- The beautiful Jeanne marries a man named Jean, and the happy newlyweds make their way to the Lord's castle with a cow's worth of money for his blessings. However, the demonic Lord is unmoved by their offering, ignoring their desperate, impoverished pleas. The Lord's wife offers an alternative: Jeanne must become the Lord's conquest for the night in a ritual deflowering. -- -- Scarred by the experience, the shaken Jeanne receives no sympathy from her husband. Instead, she is neglected. But as Jeanne drifts off to sleep, she is met by a strange spirit that encourages her to deliver retribution to those who wronged her. And with a mysterious surge of pleasure and an unquenching libido, Jeanne agrees. -- -- Kanashimi no Belladonna is a captivating, psychosexual adventure that tells a story of cunning witchcraft and deceitful superstition in a poor, rural village of medieval France. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Cinelicious Pics -- Movie - Jun 30, 1973 -- 25,287 7.12
Kanashimi no Belladonna -- -- Mushi Production -- 1 ep -- Book -- Dementia Drama Hentai Historical -- Kanashimi no Belladonna Kanashimi no Belladonna -- The beautiful Jeanne marries a man named Jean, and the happy newlyweds make their way to the Lord's castle with a cow's worth of money for his blessings. However, the demonic Lord is unmoved by their offering, ignoring their desperate, impoverished pleas. The Lord's wife offers an alternative: Jeanne must become the Lord's conquest for the night in a ritual deflowering. -- -- Scarred by the experience, the shaken Jeanne receives no sympathy from her husband. Instead, she is neglected. But as Jeanne drifts off to sleep, she is met by a strange spirit that encourages her to deliver retribution to those who wronged her. And with a mysterious surge of pleasure and an unquenching libido, Jeanne agrees. -- -- Kanashimi no Belladonna is a captivating, psychosexual adventure that tells a story of cunning witchcraft and deceitful superstition in a poor, rural village of medieval France. -- -- Movie - Jun 30, 1973 -- 25,287 7.12
Kiss x Sis -- -- feel. -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Ecchi Harem Romance School Seinen -- Kiss x Sis Kiss x Sis -- When Keita Suminoe's father remarried, not only did he gain a new mother, but elder twin sisters as well. Distinct yet similar, the homely and mature Ako is a former student council president, while the athletic and aloof Riko is the previous disciplinary president. The three of them have been together since kindergarten, resulting in a deep bond between the siblings. However, over time, their relationship developed into something more romantic—and erotic . -- -- Now in his last year of middle school, Keita has already received a sports recommendation, but it's from a different high school than his two sisters. Disappointed, both sisters try to change his mind, and he agrees, giving in to their desperate pleas. Unaware of the consequences, he now has to attempt to study for his high school exams while warding off the advances of his lust-driven sisters. With their parent's blessings, Ako and Riko strive to be Keita's future wife, leaving him to try his best to keep the relationship between them strictly platonic. However, with two beautiful girls vying for his attention, will Keita be able to withstand the endless temptations? -- -- OVA - Dec 22, 2008 -- 264,581 6.92
Konohana Kitan -- -- Lerche -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Fantasy Seinen Shoujo Ai -- Konohana Kitan Konohana Kitan -- In a bustling village of spirits, Yuzu, a cheerful fox girl, starts her first job as an attendant at the traditional hot springs inn Konohanatei. Though Yuzu has no experience working at such a high-class establishment, Kiri, the affable and reliable head attendant, immediately puts her to work learning the basics. -- -- While Yuzu's eagerness initially proves to be more of a hindrance than a blessing, her playful nature brings a unique charm to the inn, as both customers and her fellow workers quickly warm up to her clumsy yet well-meaning mistakes. Under the guidance of the other foxes—the rigid Satsuki, the carefree Natsume, the critical Ren, and the quiet Sakura—Yuzu steadily learns the trade of an inn attendant while learning to love the magical world surrounding her. -- -- Konohana Kitan presents the heartwarming tale of a simple fox girl forging bonds with others and finding a home amidst the mysterious, beautiful world of spirits. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 112,579 7.54
Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season -- -- Artland -- 10 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Fantasy Historical Mystery Seinen Slice of Life Supernatural -- Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season -- Ghostly, primordial beings known as Mushi continue to cause mysterious changes in the lives of humans. The travelling Mushishi, Ginko, persists in trying to set right the strange and unsettling situations he encounters. Time loops, living shadows, and telepathy are among the overt effects of interference from Mushi, but more subtle symptoms that take years to be noticed also rouse Ginko's concern as he passes from village to village. -- -- Through circumstance, Ginko has become an arbiter, determining which Mushi are blessings and which are curses. But the lines that he seeks to draw are subjective. Some of his patients would rather exercise their new powers until they are utterly consumed by them; others desperately strive to rid themselves of afflictions which are in fact protecting their lives from devastation. Those who cross paths with Mushi must learn to accept seemingly impossible consequences for their actions, and heal wounds they did not know they had. Otherwise, they risk meeting with fates beyond their comprehension. -- -- 206,606 8.76
Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season -- -- Artland -- 10 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Fantasy Historical Mystery Seinen Slice of Life Supernatural -- Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season -- Ghostly, primordial beings known as Mushi continue to cause mysterious changes in the lives of humans. The travelling Mushishi, Ginko, persists in trying to set right the strange and unsettling situations he encounters. Time loops, living shadows, and telepathy are among the overt effects of interference from Mushi, but more subtle symptoms that take years to be noticed also rouse Ginko's concern as he passes from village to village. -- -- Through circumstance, Ginko has become an arbiter, determining which Mushi are blessings and which are curses. But the lines that he seeks to draw are subjective. Some of his patients would rather exercise their new powers until they are utterly consumed by them; others desperately strive to rid themselves of afflictions which are in fact protecting their lives from devastation. Those who cross paths with Mushi must learn to accept seemingly impossible consequences for their actions, and heal wounds they did not know they had. Otherwise, they risk meeting with fates beyond their comprehension. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- 206,606 8.76
Ookami to Koushinryou -- -- Imagin -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Adventure Fantasy Historical Romance -- Ookami to Koushinryou Ookami to Koushinryou -- Holo is a powerful wolf deity who is celebrated and revered in the small town of Pasloe for blessing the annual harvest. Yet as years go by and the villagers become more self-sufficient, Holo, who stylizes herself as the "Wise Wolf of Yoitsu," has been reduced to a mere folk tale. When a traveling merchant named Kraft Lawrence stops at Pasloe, Holo offers to become his business partner if he eventually takes her to her northern home of Yoitsu. The savvy trader recognizes Holo's unusual ability to evaluate a person's character and accepts her proposition. Now in the possession of both sharp business skills and a charismatic negotiator, Lawrence inches closer to his goal of opening his own shop. However, as Lawrence travels the countryside with Holo in search of economic opportunities, he begins to realize that his aspirations are slowly morphing into something unexpected. -- -- Based on the popular light novel of the same name, Ookami to Koushinryou, also known as Spice and Wolf, fuses the two polar genres of economics and romance to create an enthralling story abundant with elaborate schemes, sharp humor, and witty dialogue. Ookami to Koushinryou is more than just a story of bartering; it turns into a journey of searching for a lost identity in an ever-changing world. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Kadokawa Pictures USA -- 660,637 8.26
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Ai to Seishun no Service-kai -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi -- Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Ai to Seishun no Service-kai Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Ai to Seishun no Service-kai -- Tomoya Aki, Megumi Katou, Eriri Spencer Sawamura, Utaha Kasumigaoka and Tomoya's cousin Michiru Hyoudou (all members of a doujin circle called Blessing Software) go out location scouting for their project, a video game. As Eriri attempts to get Megumi to act out a scenario for the main heroine, Utaha lures Tomoya away and forces him to act out a romantic scenario with her. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- Special - Jan 9, 2015 -- 97,903 7.06
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭ -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 11 eps -- Light novel -- Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi School -- Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭ Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭ -- After finally completing the first route of his visual novel, Blessing Software's producer Tomoya Aki is optimistic about the future of his team and achieving their goal of creating the best game of the season. -- -- However, they still have a long way to go. For one, Megumi Katou still has an incredibly flat personality and is unable to fit the role of Tomoya's ideal heroine. The other members of Blessing Software, Eriri Spencer Sawamura, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and Michiru Hyoudou, often forget she is even there due to her lack of presence and character. -- -- Throughout the development of their game, Blessing Software learns the struggles of working in an industry where deadlines must be met and edits are made constantly, and the hardships of working in a group setting. -- -- 254,378 7.79
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine -- -- CloverWorks -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi School -- Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine -- With the second Winter Comiket just around the corner, Blessing Software has been vigorously producing its new game, "How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend." Despite Utaha Kasumigaoka and Eriri Spencer Sawamura leaving the circle, Megumi Katou and Tomoya Aki are hopeful that, by sticking to Tomoya's original vision for the game, their upcoming creation will exceed Blessing Software's previous installment. -- -- With the addition of new members Iori and Izumi Hashima, development ensues—but not without its share of setbacks. Things rarely go as planned in the dating sim industry, with numerous obstacles forcing Tomoya to decide between helping his friends or completing the game. -- -- Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine draws the series to a close as Tomoya selects his final route, both within his personal life and Blessing Software. -- -- Movie - Oct 26, 2019 -- 98,836 8.47
Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan -- -- Egg Firm, J.C.Staff -- 120 eps -- Manga -- Comedy School Shounen Slice of Life Supernatural -- Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan -- To the average person, psychic abilities might seem a blessing; for Kusuo Saiki, however, this couldn't be further from the truth. Gifted with a wide assortment of supernatural abilities ranging from telepathy to x-ray vision, he finds this so-called blessing to be nothing but a curse. As all the inconveniences his powers cause constantly pile up, all Kusuo aims for is an ordinary, hassle-free life—a life where ignorance is bliss. -- -- Unfortunately, the life of a psychic is far from quiet. Though Kusuo tries to stay out of the spotlight by keeping his powers a secret from his classmates, he ends up inadvertently attracting the attention of many odd characters, such as the empty-headed Riki Nendou and the delusional Shun Kaidou. Forced to deal with the craziness of the people around him, Kusuo comes to learn that the ordinary life he has been striving for is a lot more difficult to achieve than expected. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 660,572 8.44
Tales of Zestiria the Cross -- -- ufotable -- 12 eps -- Game -- Action Adventure Magic Fantasy -- Tales of Zestiria the Cross Tales of Zestiria the Cross -- The Celestial Records speak of the existence of the "Seraphim," a race of divine beings who give blessings to humanity and are offered prayers by them in return. Those who are anointed with the ability to interact with these spirits are known as "Shepherds." Hailed as heroes for their prompt appearances in times of crisis, while also being feared for their power, the Shepherds are imprinted in common folklore along with the Seraphim. -- -- Sorey is a young human who has spent his entire life living in harmony alongside the Seraphim in the village of Elysia. Fascinated by the myths of the Celestial Records, he explores some nearby ruins with Mikleo—his childhood Seraphim companion—hoping to enlighten himself about the Seraphims' history with mankind. -- -- Unfortunately, they become trapped in the depths of the historical site during their investigation. While searching for an exit, they come across a mysterious girl who desperately seeks the help of a Shepherd to save the world, which is on the brink of being consumed by darkness. Despite Mikleo's warning about making contact with other humans, Sorey decides to help the stranger, which unknowingly leads him closer to the dream of peaceful coexistence between man and Seraphim. -- -- 273,686 7.29
Tales of Zestiria the Cross -- -- ufotable -- 12 eps -- Game -- Action Adventure Magic Fantasy -- Tales of Zestiria the Cross Tales of Zestiria the Cross -- The Celestial Records speak of the existence of the "Seraphim," a race of divine beings who give blessings to humanity and are offered prayers by them in return. Those who are anointed with the ability to interact with these spirits are known as "Shepherds." Hailed as heroes for their prompt appearances in times of crisis, while also being feared for their power, the Shepherds are imprinted in common folklore along with the Seraphim. -- -- Sorey is a young human who has spent his entire life living in harmony alongside the Seraphim in the village of Elysia. Fascinated by the myths of the Celestial Records, he explores some nearby ruins with Mikleo—his childhood Seraphim companion—hoping to enlighten himself about the Seraphims' history with mankind. -- -- Unfortunately, they become trapped in the depths of the historical site during their investigation. While searching for an exit, they come across a mysterious girl who desperately seeks the help of a Shepherd to save the world, which is on the brink of being consumed by darkness. Despite Mikleo's warning about making contact with other humans, Sorey decides to help the stranger, which unknowingly leads him closer to the dream of peaceful coexistence between man and Seraphim. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 273,686 7.29
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A Blessing and a Curse
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Blessington Street Basin
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By the Blessing of Satan
Charles Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington
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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Count Your Blessings
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Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise
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Get the Blessing
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List of Jewish prayers and blessings
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Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
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Naming and blessing of children
Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life
Of Blessings and Burdens
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The Blessing
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