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Blessed Be.
In the modern neo-pagan family of faiths, the phrase "Blessed Be" has come to be used much as the Judeo-Christians use the word "amen". But its origins go back far in history to the Hindu poem "The Bhaghavad Gita". In this epic poem, young Prince Arjuna is asking the mighty God Krishna about the nature of life. In the poem, Krishna bestows the phrase "Blessed Be" on the young prince, possibly as a well-meaning wish.
When I've heard the phrase these days, I've often taken it to be a command to be a blessed person; that is, to find the sacred in oneself. And this has often left me feeling that it is an undone thing. For this is an internal process.
But we live in a world where we must interact with the external world around us. And so I have added the command "Blessed Do" to this ancient phrase. This tells us that it is not enough to simply find the holy within ourselves, but to bring it out of ourselves and to do holy things:
"Blessed Be & Blessed Do!"
The most important lesson I can teach anyone today is the lesson of breathing, for this says more subtly all that I have just stated. We breathe in. We breathe out. We take from the world around us, and we give back.
The ocean of air we breathe is shared by all on our world. It has been breathed by all who have gone before us as long as life has lived on the earth. And it will be breathed by all who will come after us.
And it is breathed by people who look differently from us, who believe differently from us, who live differently from us, and who love differently from us. And yet it is still the air that sustains us all.
Even those who transcend the boundaries of this world carry it with them into space, and bring it back when they're through. We share the air, we share the water, we share the things of the earth, we share the things of the spirit.
We can learn a lot from breathing.
Blessed Be & Blessed Do!
In the modern neo-pagan family of faiths, the phrase "Blessed Be" has come to be used much as the Judeo-Christians use the word "amen". But its origins go back far in history to the Hindu poem "The Bhaghavad Gita". In this epic poem, young Prince Arjuna is asking the mighty God Krishna about the nature of life. In the poem, Krishna bestows the phrase "Blessed Be" on the young prince, possibly as a well-meaning wish.
When I've heard the phrase these days, I've often taken it to be a command to be a blessed person; that is, to find the sacred in oneself. And this has often left me feeling that it is an undone thing. For this is an internal process.
But we live in a world where we must interact with the external world around us. And so I have added the command "Blessed Do" to this ancient phrase. This tells us that it is not enough to simply find the holy within ourselves, but to bring it out of ourselves and to do holy things:
"Blessed Be & Blessed Do!"
The most important lesson I can teach anyone today is the lesson of breathing, for this says more subtly all that I have just stated. We breathe in. We breathe out. We take from the world around us, and we give back.
The ocean of air we breathe is shared by all on our world. It has been breathed by all who have gone before us as long as life has lived on the earth. And it will be breathed by all who will come after us.
And it is breathed by people who look differently from us, who believe differently from us, who live differently from us, and who love differently from us. And yet it is still the air that sustains us all.
Even those who transcend the boundaries of this world carry it with them into space, and bring it back when they're through. We share the air, we share the water, we share the things of the earth, we share the things of the spirit.
We can learn a lot from breathing.
Blessed Be & Blessed Do!
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