The Dalai Lama on "Blessing"

The Dalai Lama:
“Let me begin by explaining what we mean by blessing when we talk about a lama’s blessing or the blessing of the Dharma in the Buddhist context.
Blessing must come from within your own mind.
It is not something that comes from outside, even though we talk about a lama’s blessing or the blessing of the Three Objects of Refuge.

When the positive qualities of your mind increase and negativities decrease, that is what blessing means.
The Tibetan word for blessing is [byin rlab, pronounced “chin-lap”] can be broken into two parts — byin means “magnificent potential” and rlah means “to transform.” So byin rlab means transforming into magnificent potential.
Therefore, blessing refers to the development of virtuous qualities that you did not previously have and the improvement of those good qualities that you have already developed. It also means decrement of defilement of the mind that obstruct the generation of wholesome qualities.

So actual blessing is received when the mind’s virtuous attributes gain strength and its defective characteristics weaken or deteriorate.”