The Modern Order of Essenes: The Blessing Walk

[ecosophia]

Another week, another set of Essene teachings!  If you're just starting out, please read the introductory essay here.  

This week's paper introduces the first of the basic Essene spiritual practices, the Blessing Walk. It will take you around six months of daily practice to pass through all the stages of learning the Blessing Walk. You do not have to complete all the stages to go on to the next degree of the MOE – just make a start and see where it takes you.

Next week’s paper introduces the second basic Essene spiritual practice, the Healing Breath meditation. The Blessing Walk and the Healing Breath may be learned together.

Essene Blessing Walk

The Essene Blessing Walk is a marvelous healing tool.  We heal ourselves as we continue to practice this technique, and we send healing energy to others they can use to heal themselves.

We recommend you learn this technique step by step.  Practice each step until it becomes a part of you and then proceed to the next step.  Twenty-one days is the traditional period to take for each step, assuming that the Blessing Walk is performed once a day. This is a good period of time to spend on each step because in twenty-one days we build a positive habit and replace an old negative one that no longer serves us.

The Blessing Walk - Step One

Dress comfortably. Choose a place where you will encounter people.  Choose a length of time for your walk from a few minutes to an hour or more. Be comfortable. Choose a time, go to the place, and start walking at whatever pace you choose for yourself.

As you walk, pay attention to the people who come into your awareness.  Smile. Send them a telepathic message, a blessing. Make up your own blessing. It doesn’t matter what your blessing is. Just say it in your mind and feel it in your heart. Send that blessing to the person in your awareness at the time. For example, you could quietly say inside your mind, something like this:

   1. I offer you my blessing.

   2. May blessings be upon you.

   3. May your life be easier.

   4. May God bless you.

   5. May abundance flow your way.

   6. May joy and happiness be with you.

   7. May Peace be with you.

Look at a person. Smile. Send them a heartfelt blessing telepathically.  Use your own words. Smile. Continue walking and blessing those who come into your awareness.  Do this as long as you want and as often as you want.

Remember that you are not forcing a blessing on the people you encounter. You are offering the blessing. They have the right to refuse it.  There are people who do not want your blessing. There are people who do not want abundance, joy, happiness, or peace. You can see this in the way they avoid these things, and pursue courses of action that help them avoid these things. You do not have the right to force them to accept a blessing they do not want. Keep this in mind. The words “I offer” in the first example, and the word “May” in the others, is intended to convey this.

With practice, you develop a blessing aura around yourself and that blessing will radiate outwards to everyone you encounter who is willing to receive it.

The Blessing Walk - Step Two

As you continue to walk comfortably, sending heartfelt telepathic blessings to those who come into your field of awareness, become aware of the animals and insects who also come into your awareness. These creatures are children of the Divine just as we are. They made a decision to come into this world at this time for reasons we may never understand.

But whatever the reason, we and they are all a part of the same Divine.  The difference between us is that we have the power to destroy them.  Whenever we do that without good reason we destroy a little part of ourselves.  We are all brothers and sisters and the Divine loves each of us unconditionally.  Ponder these things as you continue your Essene Blessing Walk.

Send the animals and insects a blessing too. They deserve to have an easier life with more love and consideration just as humans do. Smile at them and send them a heart-felt telepathic blessing too as you continue to send blessings to all humans you see.

With practice, you develop a blessing aura around yourself and send that blessing, that prayer, telepathically to the people and animals you see, hear or feel.

The Blessing Walk - Step Three

As you continue to walk comfortably, blessing the people and animals you meet along the way, become aware of the plants, trees and flowers that come into your awareness.

These living things made a conscious decision to be here in this physical reality just as we did. And as our purpose is unknown to them, so theirs is unknown to us. And as chaos often disrupts our life, so are their lives also difficult at times.

Research has shown that prayer, and blessing is a form of prayer, helps people, animals and plants heal faster than without our prayers. So, as you become aware of flowers, plants and trees on your Blessing Walk, send them a heartfelt telepathic blessing too.

Then ponder this: Research has shown that people heal more completely, more quickly when they’re in the presence of plants and animals.  Is it possible all these plants and animals are sending us a blessing and praying for us?  Is it possible these plants and animals know we’re all brothers and sisters?  That we’re all here in this lifetime to help one another?

Ponder these things as you continue sending blessings to all plants, animals and humans that come within your presence on your Essene Blessing Walk.  With practice, you develop a blessing aura around yourself and send that blessing, that prayer, telepathically to the people, plants and animals you see, hear or feel.

The Blessing Walk - Step Four

As you continue to walk comfortably, blessing the people, plants and animals that come into your awareness, allow the awareness of rocks, dirt, buildings, roads and other things to come into your awareness.  All of these things are a part of the Divine just as much as you and I.

Things don’t seem to have the emotional baggage plants, animals and humans have. Things don’t seem to be affected by emotions but they do appear to store them.  Our prayers and blessings don’t appear to heal things the way that prayer helps plants, animals and humans heal themselves.  If we believe this appearance, however, we are mistaken.  Our prayers and blessings do help everything in the Creation heal themselves.

As you become aware of things in your life, send them a heart-felt telepathic blessing. Over the course of several days or weeks, observe how the feelings of that thing or that place change, how the vibration there is more inviting. It seems that by blessing the things in our life, those things return a blessing to us and others.

Check it out for yourself.  With practice, you develop a blessing aura around yourself and send that blessing, that prayer, telepathically to everything and everybody you see, hear or feel.

 

The Blessing Walk - Continued

There are three more steps to be mastered in the Essene Blessing Walk.  We recommend you master the first four steps first.  Take some time after the twenty-one days you spend on the fourth step to review the material you have already studied, and make sure you have learned it.

Practice them until they become a part of who you are.  Then proceed to learn the next three steps.  When you know you’re ready, please proceed.

The Blessing Walk - Step Five

As you continue to smile and send a heartfelt telepathic blessing to the people, animals, plants and things that enter your awareness during your Blessing Walk, take a look inside yourself. Have these walks been a blessing to you? Are you happier? Do you feel better about yourself?

There’s a fundamental Universal Law at work here.  What you give away, you receive. Some people call it the Golden Rule.  But by whatever name, the law works just the same. When you give blessings to everybody and everything, you will be blessed, your life will be easier, you will be happier and filled with joy more often.

That’s the way it works.

One of the basic principles of the Universe is that there’s a reason for everything.  The Divine plan includes all things, all plants, all animals, all humans and everything in the Creation.  There is a purpose for each and every one, for each and everything.  We all have a purpose.

The Essenes generally believe our primary purpose is to learn to love more and more.  The more we love, the more we are loved.  The more we love, the closer we are with the all-loving Divine.  The more we love, the easier our path becomes.  The paths of those around us also becomes easier.

As you continue your Essene Blessing Walk, please ponder these things until you have a deep understanding of how your life is changing and improving as you love more and more.

The Blessing Walk - Step Six

As you continue to smile and send a heart-felt telepathic blessing to the people, animals, plants and things that enter your awareness during your Blessing Walk, change your way of thinking.

Instead of doing these things only during your Blessing Walk, do them anytime. You may  smile and send a heartfelt telepathic blessing to anything and anybody at any time. You can gradually change your way of thinking or you can just change.

This process of starting small and adding more and more things or expanding into more and more parts of your day is called “becoming established.”  When the process becomes a part of you, a part of your daily routine, your day-to-day activities, you’re said to have become “established” in this  practice.  This same process is used to become established in prayer, contemplation or meditation.

The Blessing Walk - Step Seven

As you continue to smile and send a heartfelt telepathic blessing to the people, animals, plants and things that enter your awareness during your Blessing Walk, change your way of behaving.

Instead of thinking about becoming established in blessing everyone and everything, just do it. Make it a habit.  Don’t even think about it, just do it. Smile and telepathically send a blessing to everyone and everything all the time.

Instead of thinking about becoming established in prayer, contemplation or meditation, just do it. Make it a habit. Don’t even think about it, just do it.  Communicate with the Divine about making life easier for everyone and everything (pray).  Ponder the possibilities of your life, the qualities of the Divine and everything in this world (contemplate).  Meditate all the time and go about your life at the same time.

*  *  *  *  *

It takes a great deal of time and practice to finish the entire set of seven steps and become established in the Essene Blessing Walk. You do not need to complete the sequence in order to proceed to the next stage of your Essene training. Once you have made the Essene Blessing Walk a regular part of your life, and are beginning to work through the steps given above, you may proceed to the second Candidate technique, the Essene Healing Breath.

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Comments

The Smile

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you very much for this. I'm adding this straight away to my current daily practice (basically discursive meditation). It sounds like the sort of activity that starts off awkward and weird, and then becomes comfortable, and eventually a big part of you. Can I clarify that "Look at a person" doesn't mean you have to make eye contact? Or does it?

-JH

Re: The Smile

[ecosophia]

No, you don't have to make eye contact! I find eye contact rather uncomfortable, and avoiding it never interfered with my practice of the Blessing Walk. In fact, you don't even have to look at people. Try being intensely aware of someone without looking in their direction; with a little practice, you can do this easily, and send a blessing.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you JMG. I'm a bit more attracted to the mystical path, so will ad these Essene teachings to my spiritual practice.

Somehow the Blessing Walk reminds me of Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun/Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon.

- Spork -

[ecosophia]

John Gilbert used to say that Francis of Assisi should have been an Essene! John loved the Canticle, and often used it in his daily prayer practice.

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for sharing this!

In the past, you've commented about how the Essene Blessing walk involved blessing everyone you saw, and when asked about the consent involved, said something along the lines of "I was taught this technique, I didn't say I endorsed it as-is." It seems like the version posted above covers this by adding "offer" and/or "may" and making it clear that the other folks don't have to accept the blessing put forth.

In other words, based on previous comments, I was wondering how consent would affect your presentations of this practice, and it seems like you've anticipated that. So, as presented here, would you say this practice meets your current standards for consent in spiritual practices?

Thanks very much,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

I decided, on reflection, to edit the text as I received it so that it paid appropriate attention to issues of consent. So, yes, it meets my standards rather precisely.

Blessings

[(Anonymous)]

Now that I've finally gotten around to actually reading this, I'm think I'm going to do this. I'm not following the Essene disciplines as a whole; I just think this sounds like a particularly good practice to get into. I'll be rereading this passage a few times and will probably write down the main points for ready reference.

Re: Blessings

[ecosophia]

It's perfectly fine to pick and choose among the practices! Quite a few of John's students did -- me among them.

[tunesmyth]

Would you say that it's important to perform the Blessing Walk with only its own intent in mind-- would it be counterproductive to combine it with errands? For instance, would I be doing my practice a disservice if I performed it on my morning walk to the train station?

[ecosophia]

Quite the contrary. Make a habit of doing it while running errands, commuting, etc., and it becomes integrated more fully into your life. You can also go on walks purely for the purpose of blessing, but you don't have to limit yourself to that.

[autpaxautbellum]

Are plants and animals free to decline a blessing also? Or is it just humans who may choose not to accept?

[ecosophia]

Of course they can decline a blessing. In the case of plants, and also animals with simpler nervous systems (e.g., insects), it's usually the deva of the species or the local ecosystem who accepts or declines for them, but the more intelligent animals can choose for themselves.

[lincoln_lynx]

I live in the middle of nowhere so step 1 would take quite some time.

[ecosophia]

Then skip directly to step 2.

Universal Gnostic Church

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

Thanks for posting this material.

If I may, I have a question about something in the first post. The text there said:

"To become an Essene Master Teacher it is also necessary to complete the Gnostic Lessons, which confer the minor orders of the Universal Gnostic Church. "

This is probably a bit premature ;-) , but I'd like to get an idea of what this is about. An internet search has shown that there are at least two organizations using the name "Universal Gnostic Church" in some way.

Could you give a link to the organization you are talking about, and/or to the Gnostic Lessons? And will it be necessary to become a member of the UGC, or can the Gnostic Lessons also be done otherwise?

Milkyway

Re: Universal Gnostic Church

[ecosophia]

The Universal Gnostic Church is currently dormant; there are a few people left who were consecrated as bishops, including me, but I don't know of any active congregations at present. For that reason, there's no link -- yet.

The Gnostic Lessons were included, in edited form, in six of the FHR lessons:

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/196988.html
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/197659.html
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/198549.html
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/200003.html
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/201213.html
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/201837.html

(Hint: they're at the end of each lesson.)

I'll be posting another version, lightly reworked to fit the needs of Essene initiates. You should be able to get a fair idea of what will be required from these, however.

Re: Universal Gnostic Church

[(Anonymous)]

Thank for asking this question! I ran into the same trouble searching after reading the first Modern Order of Essenes post and was getting ready to ask.

JMG, thanks for making what information is available, available to us.

Prizm

[(Anonymous)]

I tried this surfing yesterday and it really helped. It can be tricky to not get antagonized by selfish/egotistical/overly competitive people, but turns out that's exactly what I need to practice.

[ecosophia]

Ahem. You did this surfing -- as in, there you were on your surfboard, a wave rising behind you, radiating blessings on all and sundry?

That's the coolest thing I've heard all week. Thank you.

[ganeshling]

I tried doing this walk 2.5 times so far and I am seriously impressed by how easily it tuned my inner state into a smiley and happy predisposition and how it had a long period of afterglow where I felt great in general and I wanted to bless everyone I see.

There was also another thing... I have a tendency to project negative energy/thoughts onto others that I seem to have picked up in early childhood. It feels like a sort of very minor version of an evil eye which I believe many people are doing unconsciously. A kind of a stream of critical thoughts directed towards others (and myself), particularly when in a bad mood or tired. I've been curbing and uprooting it for a number of years with good progress, particularly after picking up OSA - that set of practices helped to bulldoze the bloody habit into a corner!

The blessing walk felt as a practice that has all of the potential to finish this habit off. It undercuts these impulses and replaces them with sending out the energy of blessing and healing instead and, somehow, it feels like connecting me to a very natural way of being. As if something clicks into it's proper place where it belongs and with no effort involved after the initial slight push!

I honestly don't know how much effort I am going to be able to put into the course of this order but I am definitely going to at least nibble at it at the edges at any opportunity. Maybe progressing extremely slowly but progressing nevertheless. Something feels very right about this work and very timely too. It feels that even a small handful of people doing this blessing walk for 5 minutes a day could make a sizeable contribution to healing the current mess happening on the inner planes. It surely did make an impressive difference for me!

[ecosophia]

I'm very glad to hear this.

[stcathalexandria]

Question on timing - it says to practice the first four steps for 21 days, but I'm assuming you'll be posting the next lesson, next week, so I won't be able to do the lessons as they are delivered?

I'll certainly start on this first practice regardless, just wanted to know what to expect. Thank you!

[ecosophia]

You don't have to wait until the first practice is mastered before beginning work on the next one. That's true all through the Essene work. Get started practicing the Blessing Walk; next week, get started learning the Healing Breath meditation -- and then, as we go on to other practices, keep refining your Blessing Walk and Healing Breath practices while you learn other things.

[tunesmyth]

Do you have any tips on navigating crowded places while doing the Blessing Walk? I have been finding myself feeling slightly overwhelmed at times, like I'm in a live shooting simulation and there are assailants, er, blessing recipients, coming from all sides. Likewise when I'm by a busy road, and many cars start to go by; or when a train passes, and I can see the occupants flashing by. It sometimes starts to feel frenetic which is probably not ideal, I should think, for this purpose.

In these early stages do you recommend focusing on blessing a few individual people well, over aiming for larger numbers? Also, is it worth blessing groups rather than individuals when it seems appropriate?

[ecosophia]

I tend to avoid crowds reflexively, so don't really have any advice. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

[(Anonymous)]

I like it! John must have been a really sweet guy, to come up with something like this.

—Princess Cutekitten

[ecosophia]

He was indeed.

[vitranc]

Just today while walking to lunch I tried this on a whim.
Ho boy. It stimulated my third eye like nothing else until now.
There is something behind this.

Essene Walk

[tutti_quanti]

Would it be innapropriate to verbalize a blessing to animals or plants?

Smiling

[(Anonymous)]

I am so glad I found these teachings (thank you JMG).
I been practicing basically this same practice, for several years now.
I initially learned the practice of the inner smile from qigong, the more I practiced the better I felt, on my own started to bless things.
And has been one of the best practices I ever engaged in.
Just one more thing to consider of the importance of this practice, studies have found that when you smile your brain starts making, endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, plus neuro peptides.
All stress relievers, flooding through all the cells in your body.
Let that sink in 😉