posted October 09, 2007 03:24 AM            

First I checked the dictionary. Nothing there helped me understand BE LESS.

But then I checked on the word's history. Found two entries.

quote:

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Word History: The verb bless comes from Old English bldsian, blçdsian, blçtsian, "to bless, wish happiness, consecrate." Although the Old English verb has no cognates in any other Germanic language, it can be shown to derive from the Germanic noun *blôdan, "blood." Bldsian therefore literally means "to consecrate with blood, sprinkle with blood." The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, the early Germanic migrants to Britain, used bldsian for their pagan sacrifices. After they converted to Christianity, bldsian acquired new meanings as a result of its use in translations of the Latin Bible, but it kept its pagan Germanic senses as well.

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quote:

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bless

O.E. bletsian, bledsian, Northumbrian bloedsian "to consecrate, make holy," from P.Gmc. *blothisojan "mark with blood," from *blotham "blood" (see blood). Originally a blood sprinkling on pagan altars. This word was chosen in O.E. bibles to translate L. benedicere and Gk. eulogein, both of which have a ground sense of "to speak well of, to praise," but were used in Scripture to translate Heb. brk "to bend (the knee), worship, praise, invoke blessings." Meaning shifted in late O.E. toward "to confer happiness, well-being," by resemblance to unrelated bliss. No cognates in other languages. Blessing is O.E. bledsung.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

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So BLESS has a rather gruesome history, doesn't it?

Then I thought: Well, maybe it means to "be less" because you have sacrificed some of your blood for the alter. Hmmm. That still didn't feel quite right. The druids were still thumping my third eye. Obviously the word has evolved to be much more positive.

So I meditated some more.

Then I was watching a Deepak Chopra DVD I had rented from Netflix. Something he said gave me an idea.

Perhaps the E in BLESS stands for Ego. When we BE LESS Ego, we become a better channel of blessings. This still may not be the Ultimate Answer, but I like it better than the blood thing!

The words I found in Blessed and Blessing were interesting too. You can check those out for yourself if you feel inspired (in spirit).

So when I saw the word BLISS in the bless history up above, that took me on a parallel spiral. BLISS IS. It just IS. More meditation.

After my last trip to the bookstore, I came home with Revelations of Christ proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda. He had some neat things to say about BLISS that helped me firm up my ideas about that word:

"Bliss, indeed, may be defined as the fulfillment of love, but in itself Bliss alone is absolute, implying as it does the perfection of calm joy.........

......Bliss is what remains after every qualification of emotional ups and downs has been removed.............

.......Paramhansa Yogananda described divine vision as "center everywhere, circumference nowhere." If our delusive circumference of self-definitions were wholly removed, then either what remained, Conscious Bliss, would be aware of itself or it would be aware of nothing at all...........

.......Think of an onion. When it is peeled, nothing is left; the onion consists of its peels. With us, however, there is something left, something real. That "real something" is conscious bliss. Everyone who has gone this route has discovered from experience that this is, eternally, what remains: Bliss. Cosmic Bliss is also, of course, self-aware."

I just had a giggle thought. The hard candy coating of a tootsie pop is "our delusive circumference of self-definitions." And Bliss is the chewy chocolate center!

So when we remove all the duality emotions, the only thing left is Bliss. BLISS IS. It just IS.

The Bliss spiral felt more complete than the Bless spiral. But I learned a great deal from both. The druids may have more to reveal if I can just open my third eye a little wider! Thanks for listening, Knowflakes.

Only Love Prevails

posted October 09, 2007 07:40 PM            

I didn't do it this way last night. Couldn't think of S words that felt right. But they woke me up with the sunshine this morning.

Ego always wants to speak 1st and LOUDEST!

The following phrases indicate ego responses:

"I jumped to conclusions."
"I had a knee-jerk reaction."

The old saying about counting to ten before responding when we're angry is good advice. Spirit always speaks softly and slowly. So the counting helps me remember to listen to Spirit first and react from a place of love instead of anger.

posted October 10, 2007 09:44 AM            

No, I only post in LindaLand. I've explored some other sites too. But I'm pretty content right here for now.

posted October 10, 2007 12:11 PM              

noun
Definition:

word formed from initials: a word formed from the initials or other parts of several words, e.g. 'NATO', from the initial letters of 'North Atlantic Treaty Organization'

[Mid-20th century <acro- + -nym< Greek onuma 'name', after synonym etc]