Conscious Living

 

- Issue 105  Christmas & Hanukah -

Published by The Conscious Living Foundation

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Welcome to Conscious Living, our online magazine designed to share our current activities and growth, along with articles and information that we hope will be supportive and encouraging in your efforts to live each moment with more joy and satisfaction.

Christmas and Hanukah are almost here and, as always, it gives us a new opportunity to appreciate the unique blessings that flow to us and through us during this holy season.

Our newsletter begins with the original Christmas story as it is contained in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.  We also share a surprising historical perspective on the creation and meaning of the "12 Days of Christmas".

We continue with our collection of essays by Ernest Holmes, with his thoughts on "The Power That Jesus Used". 

In addition, we offer a collection of inspiring stories centering around the holiday season, including O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi", along with the Christmas story, "A Solitary Life".

We couldn't resist adding a little "Christmas Humor" and an affirmation appropriate to the season.

As always, you'll find a new spiritual poem, this one entitled, "Joy Is The Birthright" and a collection of cookie recipes perfect for the holidays.

If you're considering buying a gift for a friend or loved one during the holiday season, why not select gifts that can genuinely make a difference in their lives?  Give them products that will continue to inspire, encourage and uplift throughout the year.  Browse our catalog of products - especially our Holiday discounts - and if you are in doubt about what to buy, give a gift certificate - they are available in a wide range of denominations.

We are pleased to announce the first in a series of new audio recordings by our most popular author, entitled, "The Wisdom of Ernest Holmes Volume I".  Look for full details in the News section.

Some of the friends of The Conscious Living Foundation have formed an 8 voice singing group called "Sunrise", and we are pleased to offer you their three Christmas albums - just right to help us get in the holiday spirit.  We've included five of their music videos right within this issue.  Look for details in the News section.

This issue also includes an in-depth look at the history surrounding Hanukah and an essay on the the application of the 12 Step principles to those who lived at the time of Jesus' birth - "The 12 steps of Christmas".

We continue with our serialization of "The Third Eye" by T. Lobsang Rampa, a fascinating, controversial and very popular account of the life and esoteric experiences of a Tibetian Monk, along with the next chapter of "A Romance of Two Worlds" by Marie Corelli, the best selling Victorian novel exploring the relationship between the occult and Christianity along with large doses of mystery, romance and guardian angels.  

As always, we are so grateful to all of you who visit our website, and contribute through your generous donations, purchases, emails and article submissions.  Thank you for letting us share this issue of our newsletter with you. 

Wishing you the very best during the holiday season,

William Simpson
Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Contents:

(If you've missed any past issues of our newsletter, or you'd like to reread an article or affirmation, click Here.)

 

   
Christmas Story: One Solitary Life                               
           

He was born in an obscure village,
the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village,
where he worked in a carpenter shop
until he was thirty.
Then for three years
he was an itinerant preacher.
He never set foot inside a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles
from the place he was born.
He never wrote a book,
or held an office.
He did none of these things
that usually accompany greatness.

While he was still a young man,
the tide of popular opinion
turned against him.
His friends deserted him.
He was turned over to his enemies,
and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross
between two thieves.
While he was dying,
his executioners gambled
for the only piece of property he had -
his coat.
When he was dead,
he was taken down
and laid in a borrowed grave.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone,
and today his is the central figure
for much of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched,
and all the navies that ever sailed,
and all the parliaments that ever sat,
and all the kings that ever reigned,
put together
have not affected the life of man
upon this earth as powerfully as this
"One Solitary Life."

  

Serial:  The Third Eye by T. Lobsang Rampa

CHAPTER SIX  

               LIFE IN THE LAMASERY

    Two weeks went by and my body burns were very much better. My leg was still troublesome but at least it was making progress.  I asked if I could resume normal routine as I wanted to be moving about more.  It was agreed that I should, but I was given permission to sit in any way I could, or to lie on my face.  Tibetans sit cross- legged in what we call the lotus attitude, but my leg disability definitely prevented that.    

On the first afternoon of my return there was work in the kitchens.  My job was to have a slate and keep check of the number of bags of barley being roasted. The barley was spread out on a stone floor which was smoking hot.  Beneath was the furnace at which I had been burned.  The barley was evenly distributed, and the door shut. While that lot was roasting we trooped along a corridor to a room where we cracked barley which had previously been roasted. There was a rough stone basin, cone-shaped and about eight feet across at the widest part. The internal surface was grooved and scored to hold grains of barley.  A large stone, also cone-shaped, fitted loosely into the basin. 

It was supported by an age-worn beam which passed through it, and to which were fixed smaller beams like the spokes of a wheel without a rim.  Roasted barley was poured into the basin, and monks and boys strained at the spokes to turn the stone, which weighed many tons.  Once it started it was not so bad, then we all trooped around singing songs. I could sing here without reprimand!  Starting the wretched stone was terrible.  Everyone had to lend a hand to get it moving. Then, once moving, great care was taken to see that it did not stop.

Fresh supplies of roasted barley were poured in as the crushed grains dropped out of the bottom of the basin. All the cracked barley was taken away, spread on to hot stones, and roasted again. That was the basis of tsampa. Each of us boys carried a week's supply of tsampa on us or, more correctly, we carried the cracked and roasted barley on us.  At meal-times we poured a little of it from our leather bags into our bowls. Then we would add buttered tea, stir with our fingers until the mass was like dough, then we would eat it.    

The next day we had to work helping to make tea. We went to another part of the kitchens where there was a cauldron holding a hundred and fifty gallons. This had been scoured out with sand and now gleamed like new metal. Earlier in the day it had been half filled with water, and this was now boiling and steaming. We had to fetch bricks of tea and crush them up.  Each brick was about fourteen to sixteen pounds in weight and had been brought to Lhasa over the mountain passes from China and India. The crushed pieces were tossed into the boiling water.  A monk would add a great block of salt, and another would put in an amount of soda.  When everything was boiling again, shovelfuls of clarified butter would be added and the whole lot boiled for hours. This mixture had a very good food value and with the tsampa was quite sufficient to sustain life.  At all times the tea was kept hot, and as one cauldron became used, another was filed and prepared. The worst part of preparing this tea was tending the fires.  The yak-dung which we used instead of wood as fuel is dried into the form of slabs and there is an almost inexhaustible supply of it. When put on the fires it sends out clouds of evil-smelling, acrid smoke. Everything in range of the smoke would gradually become blackened, woodwork would eventually look like ebony, and faces exposed to it for long would become grimed by smoke-filled pores.    

We had to help with all this menial work, not because there was a shortage of labour, but so that there should not be too much class distinction. We believe that the only enemy is the man you do not know; work alongside a man, talk to him, know him, and he ceases to be an enemy.  In Tibet, on one day in every year, those in authority set aside their powers, and then any subordinate can say exactly what they think.  If an abbot has been harsh during the year, he is told about it, and if the criticism is just, no action can be taken against the subordinate.  It is a system that works well and is rarely abused.  It provides a means of justice against the powerful, and gives the lower ranks a feeling that they have some say after all.

There was a lot to be studied in the classrooms. We sat in rows on the floor.  When the teacher was lecturing to us, or writing on his wall-board, he stood in front of us.  But when we were working at our lessons, he walked about at the back of us and we had to work hard all the time as we did not know which of us was being watched!  He carried a very substantial stick and did not hesitate to use it on any part of us within immediate reach.  Shoulders, arms, backs, or the more orthodox place—it did not matter at all to the teachers, one place was as good as another.    

We studied a lot of mathematics, because that was a subject which was essential for astrological work.  Our astrology was no mere hit-or-miss affair, but was worked out according to scientific principles.  I had a lot of astrology drummed into me because it was necessary to use it in medical work.  It is better to treat a person according to their astrological type than to prescribe something quite haphazardly in the hope that as it once cured a person, it may again. There were large wall charts dealing with astrology, and others showing pictures of various herbs.

These latter were changed every week and we were expected to be entirely familiar with the appearance of all the plants. Later we would be taken on excursions to gather and prepare these herb’s, but we were not allowed to go on these until we had a far better knowledge and could be trusted to pick the right varieties. These “herb-gathering” expeditions, which were in the fall of the year, were a very popular relaxation from the strict routine of the lamastic life.  Sometimes such a visit would last for three months, and would take one to the highlands, an area of ice-bound land, twenty to twenty-five thousand feet above the sea, where the vast ice sheets were interrupted by green valleys heated by hot springs.  Here one could have an experience matched perhaps nowhere else in the world. In moving fifty yards one could range from a temperature of forty below zero to a hundred or more, Fahrenheit, above. This area was quite unexplored except by a few of us monks.    

Our religious instruction was quite intensive; every morning we had to recite the Laws and Steps of the Middle Way. These Laws were :            

1. Have faith in the leaders of the lamasery and country.            

2. Perform religious observances, and study hard.            

3. Pay honour to the parents.            

4. Respect the virtuous.            

5. Honour elders and those of high birth.            

6. Help one's country.            

7. Be honest and truthful in all things.            

8. Pay heed to friends and relatives.

9. Make the best use of food and wealth.           

10. Follow the example of those who are good.           

11. Show gratitude and return kindness.           

12. Give fair measure in all things.           

13. Be free from jealousy and envy.           

14. Refrain from scandal.           

15. Be gentle in speech and in action and harm none.           

16. Bear suffering and distress with patience and meekness.    

We were constantly told that if everyone obeyed those Laws, there would be no strife or disharmony.  Our lamasery was noted for its austerity and rigorous training.  Quite a number of monks came from other lamaseries and then left in search of softer conditions.  We looked upon them as failures and upon ourselves as of the elite.  Many other lamaseries had no night services; the monks went to bed at dark and stayed there until dawn. To us they seemed soft and effete, and although we grumbled to ourselves, we would have grumbled still more if our schedule had been altered to bring us to the inefficient level of the others. The first year was particularly hard. Then was the time to weed out those who were failures.  Only the strongest could survive on visits to the frozen highlands in search of herbs, and we of Chakpori were the only men to go there.  Wisely our leaders decided to eliminate the un- suitable before they could in any way endanger others.  During the first year we had almost no relaxation, no amusements and games. Study and work occupied every waking moment.    

One of the things for which I am still grateful is the way in which we were taught to memorize.  Most Tibetans have good memories, but we who were training to be medical monks had to know the names and exact descriptions of a very large number of herbs, as well as knowing how they could be combined and used. We had to know much about astrology, and be able to recite the whole of our sacred books.  A method of memory training had been evolved throughout the centuries. We imagined that we were in a room lined with thousands and thousands of drawers.  Each drawer was clearly labeled, and the writing on all the labels could be read with ease from where we stood.  Every fact we were told had to be classified, and we were instructed to imagine that we opened the appropriate drawer and put the fact inside.  We had to visualize it very clearly as we did it, visualize the “fact” and the exact location of the “drawer”.  With little practice it was amaze- ingly easy to—in imagination—enter the room, open the correct drawer, and extract the fact required as well as all related facts.    

Our teachers went to great pains to ram home the need for good memories. They would shoot questions at us merely to test our memories. The questions would be quite unrelated to each other so that we could not follow a trend and take an easy path.  Often it would be questions on obscure pages of the sacred books interspersed with queries about herbs. The punishment for forgetfulness was most severe; forgetting was the unforgivable crime and was punished with a severe beating.  We were not given a long time in which to try to remember. The teacher would perhaps say: “You, boy, I want to know the fifth line of the eighteenth page of the seventh volume of the Kan-gyur, open the drawer, now, what is it?”  Unless one could answer within about ten seconds it was as well not to answer, because the punishment would be even worse if there was any mistake, no matter how slight.  It is a good system, though, and does train the memory.  We could not carry books of facts.  Our books were usually about three feet wide by about eighteen inches long, loose sheets of paper held unbound between wooden covers.  Certainly I found a good memory to be of the utmost value in later years.    

During the first twelve months we were not allowed out of the lamasery grounds. Those who did leave were not permitted to return. This was a rule peculiar to Chakpori, because the discipline was so strict it was feared that if we were allowed out we should not return.  I admit that I should have “run for it” if I had had anywhere to run.  After the first year we were used to it.    

The first year we were not permitted to play any games at all, we were kept hard at work the whole time and this most effectively weeded out those who were weak and unable to stand the strain. After these first hard months we found that we had almost for- gotten how to play.  Our sports and exercises were designed to toughen us and be of some practical use in later life.  I retained my earlier fondness for stilt walking, and now I was able to devote some time to it.  We started with stilts which lifted our feet our own height above ground.  As we became more adept we used longer stilts, usually about ten feet high.  On those we strutted about the courtyards, peering into windows and generally making a nuisance of ourselves.  No balancing pole was used; when we desired to stay in one place we rocked from foot to foot as if we were marking time.  That enabled us to maintain our balance and position. There was no risk of falling off  if one was reasonably alert. 

We fought battles on stilts.  Two teams of us, usually ten a side, would line up about thirty yards apart, and then on a given signal we would charge each other, uttering wild whoops calculated to frighten off the sky demons.  As I have said, I was in a class of boys much older and bigger than myself.  This gave me an advant- age when it came to stilt fights.  The others lumbered along heavily, and I could nip in among, them and pull a stilt here and push one there and so send the riders toppling.  On horseback I was not so good, but when I had to stand or fall on my own resources, I could make my way.    

 

Another use for stilts, for us boys, was when we crossed streams. We could wade carefully across and save a long detour to the nearest ford.  I remember once I was ambling along on six-foot stilts.  A stream was in the way and I wanted to cross.  The water was deep right from the banks, there was no shallow part at all.  I sat on the bank and lowered my stilted legs in. The water came to my knees, as I walked out in midstream it rose to nearly my waist. Just then I heard running footsteps.  A man hurried along the path and gave the merest glance at the small boy crossing the water.  Apparently, seeing that the stream did not reach my waist, he thought: “Ah! Here is a shallow spot.”  There was a sudden splash, and the man disappeared completely. Then there was a flurry of water, and the man's head came above the surface, his clutching hands reached the bank, and he hauled himself to the land.  His language was truly horrible, and the threats of what he was going to do to me almost curdled my blood.  I hurried off to the far bank and when I, too, reached shore, I think that never before had I traveled so fast on stilts.    

One danger of stilts was the wind which always seems to be blowing in Tibet. We would be playing in a courtyard, on stilts, and in the excitement of the game we would forget the wind and stride out beyond the sheltering wall.  A gust of wind would billow out our robes and over we would go, a tangle of arms, legs and stilts. There were very few casualties.  Our studies in judo taught us how to fall without harming ourselves.  Often we would have bruises and scraped knees, but we ignored those trifles.  Of course there were some who could almost trip over their shadow, some clumsy boys never learn break falls and they at times sustained a broken leg or arm.    

There was one boy who would walk along on his stilts and then turn a somersault between the shafts. He seemed to hold on the end of the stilts, take his feet from the steps, and twist himself round in a complete circle.  Up his feet would go, straight over his head, and down to find the steps every time.  He did it time after time, almost never missing a step, or breaking the rhythm of his walk.  I could jump on stilts, but the first time I did so I landed heavily, the two steps sheared right off and I made a hasty descent. After that I made sure that the stilt steps were well fastened.    

Just before my eighth birthday, the Lama Mingyar Dondup told me that the astrologers had predicted that the day following my birthday would be a good time to “open the Third Eye”.  This did not upset me at all, I knew that he would be there, and I had complete trust in him.  As he had so often told me, with the Third Eye open, I should be able to see people as they were.  To us the body was a mere shell activated by the greater self, the Overself that takes over when one is asleep, or leaves this life.  We believe that Man is placed in the infirm physical body so that he can learn lessons and progress.  During sleep Man returns to a different plane of existence. He lays down to rest, and the spirit disengages itself from the physical body and floats off when sleep comes. The spirit is kept in contact with the physical body by a “silver cord” which is there until the moment of death. The dreams which one has are experiences undergone in the spirit plane of sleep. When the spirit returns to the body, the shock of awaking distorts the dream memory, unless one has had special training, and so the “dream” may appear wildly improbable to one in the waking state.  But this will be mentioned rather more fully later when I state my own experiences in this connection.    

The aura which surrounds the body, and which anyone can be taught to see under suitable conditions, is merely a reflection of the Life Force burning within. We believe that this force is electric, the same as Lightning. Now, in the West, scientists can measure and record the “electric brain waves”.  People who scoff at such things should remember this and remember, too, the corona of the sun.  Here flames protrude millions of miles from the sun's disc. The average person cannot see this corona, but in times of total eclipse it is visible to anyone who cares to look.  It really does not matter whether people believe it or not.  Disbelief will not extin- guish the sun's corona.  It is still there.  So is the human aura.  It was this aura, among other things, which I was going to be able to see when the Third Eye was opened.


Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was a very popular writer who claimed to have been a Lama in Tibet before spending the second part of his life in the body of a British man, Cyril Henry Hoskin, who described himself as the "host" of T. Lobsang Rampa.

To many, Dr. Rampa was a revolutionary of his time, one of the first of the Eastern teachers to bring Buddhism and metaphysics to the West in a popular fashion. He wrote many books about spiritual matters, beginning with "The Third Eye".

Lobsang Rampa attempts to teach the timeless universal truths, while traveling along the spiritual path. Dr. Rampa's books also discuss the state of humanity's progress and he shows how we can be a positive force for good, thus improving ourselves and helping our fellow humans and all sentient beings.

Look for the next chapter in The Third Eye by T. Lobsang Rampa in the next edition of our newsletter or prior chapters in previous editions.  To read other books by T. Lobsang Rampa, visit our free Ebook section by clicking  Here.

 

 

 

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News:  Now You Can Make Purchases From Our Website By Telephone
We have received emails and telephone calls from several visitors to our website asking if they could make a purchase by telephone.   Some do not feel confident providing credit card information on the Internet.  In response to this request, The Conscious Living Foundation is proud to announce that we are now able to accept your credit card payments by calling us at 818/502-9096.  If you call during non-office hours, please leave your phone number and we'll call you back.

In addition, in the past it was necessary to go through PayPal in order to make purchases from our website.  This is no longer the case.  If you prefer using PayPal to make your purchases, that option is still available.  However, we are now able to process all major credit and debit cards directly through our website without going through PayPal.  This increases the simplicity and decreases the time involved in making a purchase through us.  We now accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.

Our goal is to make your shopping experience as relaxing and simple as possible.  Thank you for your continuing suggestions! 

 To visit our product catalog, click Here.


 
News: Enjoy All Your Christmas Favorites With Sunrise
We discovered Sunrise through mutual friends and have since begun sponsoring them at their concerts.  

They were originally part of their church choir (Self Realization Fellowship) and decided to form Sunrise and share their music with a broader audience.

They specialize in singing popular music from the 1920s through the 1970s with special emphasis on singing songs that are cheerful, upbeat and inspirational. Their performances and albums are especially entertaining since they offer a complete musical review - performing solos, duets, trios and quartets in addition to performing as a complete ensemble.

Below are five music videos from their Christmas album "Angels From The Realms of Glory":

The player will show in this paragraph

 "Ave Maria"

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"I'll Be Home For Christmas"  

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 "Jingle Bell Rock"

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"White Christmas"  

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"Angels From The Realms of Glory"

 

Sunrise has two Christmas albums available:

The songs on "Let It Snow" include: 
  • Let It Snow
  • Silver Bells
  • Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire
  • Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
  • It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
  • Joy To the World
  • Go Tell It On The Mountain
  • Little Saint Nick
  • Baby It's Cold Outside
  • Do You Hear What I Hear
  • Hark The Herald Angels Sing
  • Deck The Halls
  • I Wonder As I Wander
  • Silent Night
  • Hallelujah Chorus
The songs on "Angels From The Realms of Glory" include:
  • Angels From The Realms of Glory
  • We Wish You A Merry Christmas
  • Sleigh Ride
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
  • I'll Be Home For Christmas
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
  • Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
  • Jingle Bell Rock
  • Jingle Bells
  • Winter Wonderland
  • White Christmas
  • The First Noel
  • Oh Come All Ye Faithful
  • Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel
  • Ave Maria (Schubert)  
You can purchase "Let It Snow" for $14.95 or hear audio excerpts by clicking Here. You can purchase "Angels From The Realms of Glory" for $14.95 or hear audio excerpts by clicking Here.

If you'd prefer to buy both albums, you can get all the music on both CDs

in one package by buying "A Sunrise Christmas"

- and save $5.00!

You can purchase "A Sunrise Christmas" for $24.95 or hear audio excerpts by clicking Here.
To visit our product catalog, click Here.     

 


                                           

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News:  New Recording - The Wisdom of Ernest Holmes, Volume I

This recording is a first in a series of selections from the writings and talks of Ernest Holmes.  Each chapter expresses the core concepts of Doctor Holmes' philosophy in clear and understandable ways.

Most are conversational in character and provide a tremendous expression of the wisdom, humor and deep-felt spirituality that has made Ernest Holmes a corner stone of the new thought movement.

The chapter titles are:

  • Brave New World
  • The Open Mind
  • The Delight of God
  • The One Power
  • Perfection At The Center
  • Manifesting Perfect Health
  • See Yourself As You Want To Be
     

 Selections From The Writings of Ernest Holmes -  Narrated by William Simpson, The Founder of The Conscious Living Foundation.

To purchase this new recording, or to get more information including excerpts, please click Here.

 To visit our product catalog, click Here.

 

Essay:  The Power That Jesus Used                                    by Ernest Holmes                                  

 

Throughout our lives, we have read and wondered about the miracles of Jesus. But to how many of us has the thought come that this same power must be available to everyone? We have been so accustomed to thinking of Jesus as a man filled with love and compassion and human kindness that we have overlooked something else about him that is equally important. Jesus had access to a spiritual Power that he used in every way. To him it seemed the most natural thing in the world that he should be able to tell the paralyzed man to walk, or multiply the loaves and fishes, or still the wind and waves.

I happen to be one of those who really believe that Jesus did these things and that we could also do them if we had the know-how. It takes nothing away from Jesus when we say that in addition to his love and compassion and his great humanity, we also have access to the same Power, which enabled him to do such wonderful things. Even his own followers thought he must have been using a power that no one else possessed; however, when we study his words carefully, we find that he said that others could do what he did if they followed the same rules. Jesus was not the great exception; he was the great example, and he even said that "greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

What we want to find out, then, is the nature of this Power that Jesus used, learn how it operates, and then apply it in our own lives in helping ourselves and also in helping others. I am not thinking only about the healing miracles when people have been restored to physical health. For while this is wonderful and good, there is much more to life than merely getting rid of a pain. Jesus had access to some kind of Power that was available for every purpose. He had access to an Intelligence that guided him in everything he did. And he had a deep inward peace and feeling of security that removed all confusion and doubt and uncertainty from his mind.

What we want to find is the key that unlocks the doorway to the Power greater than we are. What we want to do is to discover the secret, which he so plainly told us was a certain kind of relationship he had to God, who, he said, was present everywhere and was also within him and within everyone.

We are accustomed to thinking of the powers and energies in nature, and we know that the whole field of modern science is devoted to the discovery of these powers and learning how to apply them for our everyday needs. We also know that these powers which science uncovers have always existed, they were always there waiting to be used, and always ready to respond when we use them rightly.

We think of a scientific man as one who uses a power of nature. We do not say that he possesses it as a personal thing. For, of course, this would not be true. What we say is that science discovers the power, unlocks its energy, and then uses it for definite purposes for the betterment of humanity. What we really mean by this is that there are certain physical laws and physical powers in nature, which are greater than we are but which can be used, and that these powers operate for us as though they were our servants. We employ them; we do not implore them. That is, we do not beseech them, we do not coerce them, and, as a matter of fact, we do not even concentrate them. We merely use them.

But Jesus had access to another kind of power, which he called the Power of the Spirit. We cannot doubt but that there are spiritual powers which act like physical ones; that act for us and in a certain sense become our servants when we have first leaned how they operate. But in doing this, we must always comply with them, for the secrets of nature are disclosed, and the powers of nature can be used only when we first comply with the way they work. Of all people in the world, the true scientist is the most humble. He stands in reverence and awe before the wonders of a self-operating universe that operates independently of his will, his coercion, or even his desire.

When it was discovered that a hen lays a certain number of eggs and then sits on them and hatches out chickens, someone had the foresight

to realize that you can have as many hens as you want to sit on as many eggs as they can cover and produce as many chickens as are desirable, provided you actually put the hen and the eggs together. Here is an example of the way nature works, with complete independence of our thoughts and our will and our desires, but always with this in mind, that when we comply with the way she works, we receive the benefit.

Jesus worked in a different kind of laboratory. He understood a different set of laws, and because he used these laws, a power was delivered to him that has amazed the world. It is our purpose to rediscover these laws, find out how they work, and apply them for every legitimate purpose, and then reap the benefit for us and for others. Of course, in doing this, it is necessary that we follow the example of the one who really knew. The only reason we have to suppose that Jesus knew is that he proved his claim. What we should do, then, is to find out exactly what Jesus believed, and why, and how he used this secret of the ages so effectively.

The first thing we shall learn is that Jesus believed himself to be one with God, and he believed that the Divine Presence was right where he was. He communed with this Presence through prayers and meditation until it was the most real thing to him in life. We find, then, that the whole background of his teaching starts with the idea that there is such a Presence and such a Power; that the Presence is accessible to all of us, and that the Power can be used by anyone who has faith in it.

This is no doubt the greatest secret of the ages. It is the miracle of the answer to prayer. It is the miracle of Life itself. We need to believe that you and I, so little and so alone, do have access to a Power that has the possibility of making everything in our lives happy and

harmonious if we cooperate with it. Right here, I would like to inject this thought – for it is one that so many people express – how can we believe in a Power that we can neither touch nor taste nor handle?

The answer to this is simple enough. Let us go right back to the hen sitting on her eggs. Neither you nor I nor the hen ever put a chicken in an egg, nor did we ever take one out. The hen, instinctively, by some method of which she is not consciously aware, follows the law of her own life. She lays the eggs and then she sits on them, and nature performs the miracle for her. The Power, which does this, cannot be touched or tasted or handled. It cannot be seen. And yet, we are so used to it that we never question the results. We build incubators and set the eggs in them, and subject them to a certain heat for a certain period of time, with complete assurance, with absolute faith, because experience has taught us that we can do this and have chicks hatch.

So it is with every law that we use. No one has ever seen the powers of nature. We only see how they work, and we accept them with the simplicity of a child. Again someone might ask: How can we believe in a Divine Presence when we have not seen it? The answer to this also is simple. How can we believe in the law of attraction and repulsion, which we have not seen? How can we believe that a magnet will attract iron since we do not see the power of attraction that draws it? No one has ever seen love or human affection; no one has seen kindness and tolerance and human understanding; but we have all felt them, and we have no more doubt of their existence than we do of our own being.

I do not think we need to be concerned with the fact that we do not see God other than in His creation, or that we have not seen the forces of nature other than in and through what they do. When Jesus told us that we should have faith, he was not telling us about something that is impossible for us attain, for Jesus was the most simple and direct of men, and he knew that faith is a natural attitude of mind. It is the very simplicity of his teaching that eludes us. As a matter of fact, it is so easy that it is hard, so

simple that it is difficult, so direct that we fail to catch its significance. For whether or not we know it, we all have faith. We are merely mostly using it in reverse.

So Jesus told us that there is a Divine Presence that will guide us if we let it. And he told us that there is a Power that will operate for us if we believe that It will. But he also told us that this Presence is love and this Power is good and that we cannot hope to derive the greatest benefit from the Presence as Divine guidance, or the Power as the operation of Divine Love, until we first greet the Presence in love and use the Power for good. So far as I know, he laid down no instructions other than these: God is love and God is good. Therefore, Divine Power is delivered to us only in such degree as we love and as we are constructive.

All the prayers or the will of man can neither add to nor take from the powers of nature. This is so self-evident that one cannot even argue against it. What we have to do, then, is to invite the Presence and use the Power. We invite the Divine Presence every time we think about It in love and with true humility. We draw inspiration into our minds and into our imaginations and loose it through our actions when we recognize this Presence, and we benefit from the use of the Power when we comply with the way it works.

Here is where our great experiment in using the Power that Jesus understood starts. This is the very beginning of it. We must believe that there is a Divine Presence. Of course, our belief does not create It; it merely acknowledges It. It is this acknowledgment of the Divine Presence that Jesus was referring to when he said: "…your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

The artist believes in the presence of beauty. He invites it into his thought and will and imagination; he makes himself open to it. Our acknowledgement of the Presence of God should be as simple as this and as direct. No matter what we are doing, we should start with this basic thought: "God is all there is. God is right where I am. Divine Intelligence is now directing me. I not only invite It, I believe It is here. There is nothing in me that can deny me the privilege of receiving this Divine guidance. There is Something in me that knows what to do under every circumstance, knows how to meet every situation, knows how to overcome every obstacle. I am in partnership with the infinite Mind that creates everything and sustains everything. I am one with God."

We should entertain thoughts like these until they become habitual; that is, until nothing in us denies them. It is not going to take any more faith than we now have, for one of the greatest lessons we can learn about faith is that we always possess it. But too often, we are using it negatively. As a matter of fact, we are always affirming something, be it for good or ill. We are always either saying, "I can," or "I cannot." What we need to do is to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive. In doing this, we shall gradually acquire the habit of affirmative thinking.

       

To this belief that there is a Divine Presence that is guiding us and leading us gently but certainly on the pathway to success and happiness and wholeness, we must also come to believe that there is a Power that always goes with this recognition of the Divine Presence. We must have faith that this Power operates on our word. But, of course, we do not see Its operation. We do not touch It or taste It or handle It, but we can feel It. It is this deep underlying conviction and feeling that we must acquire.

But this is not difficult. It is just a question of training the mind to believe in and understand spiritual Law in exactly the same manner that it believes in and understands the operation of physical law. If it were something too difficult, then it would be beyond our reach, and we should become discouraged even before we started. The whole thing has to be kept simple and direct and sincere. The Power that Jesus used was a spiritual Power. He knew that it operated on or through his word of faith, and he had such a complete reliance on it that he did not hesitate to tell the paralyzed man to get up and walk.

It is not the words that Jesus used that performed the miracle. It was his inner conviction of the Power that operated on and in and through his words. He called this faith and belief, and in so doing, reduced it to a mental attitude or to a way of thinking that we can all understand. There is Something that operates on our belief and acts exactly like a law, because It is a law and tends to bring about conditions, which correspond to our faith, our belief, and our way of thinking.

Frequently, when we begin to use this Power consciously, we find that our thoughts are unruly. In one moment we affirm some good we desire and in the very next moment, we deny what we have affirmed. In this way, we are a mental house divided against itself. We may as well recognize this fact because it is an important one. But in recognizing it, there is no occasion for us to despair. For we know that thinking is really a movement of the mind upon itself, right where we are, and we are the thinker. Therefore, we can change out thoughts.

This is why Jesus told us that sometimes only prayer and fasting can bring about the desired result. He did not mean that God listens because we do a lot of talking. What he meant was that we should pray affirmatively and fast when it comes to negative thinking. This is the sacrifice we make in the surrender of our doubts and fears to the great affirmations of life. To pray without ceasing means to continue in an affirmative attitude of mind and to fast means to refrain from all negative thoughts and ideas.

There must come a new impulse to the mind, a new way of looking at things. This is what Jesus called the new birth. He referred to this when he said that we must be born again, we must be born of the Spirit, which means being born into a complete conviction of the Presence and the Power and the Activity of God in and through us. The results that follow this new birth are automatic, and this is why Jesus told us that if we would seek the kingdom of God first, everything else would be added.

What a wonderful adventure lies before us. How grateful we should be for the opportunity to live and love and work and play. We should have a keen sense of anticipation and enthusiasm because we know that we are working with a spiritual Power greater than we are, a Law of Mind that is available to create every good thing in life. I believe this is the secret to this power Jesus demonstrated and to the understanding of his teachings. We may call this faith, we may call it religion, we may call it worship. It is all this and more, too. But in reality, it resolves itself into a simple, sincere, and direct approach to God and to the Law of Mind.

The world is in search of the answer to its problems. Frustrated and distraught, disillusioned and chagrined, today it stands on the brink of two possibilities – to be, or not to be. The world today is shocked by the realization of what it has brought on itself. Nothing is more certain than that we have failed, and as never before, millions of people are ready to try something else, that something that for far too long has been neglected, that something which alone can make it whole. Nothing is more certain than that we must rediscover the secret of the ages, this coming into close cooperation with the Presence that made us and the Power that sustains us. Along this pathway alone lies the hope of humanity. This, and this only, is the road to peace, to prosperity, and to happiness.


The Conscious Living Foundation is proud to offer its recording of one of Ernest Holmes most famous books, "Creative Mind and Success".  To learn more about the recording and hear several FREE selections on such topics as:

- How to attract friends
- An affirmation on love
- The power of words
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                                      - What we will attract

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We are also pleased to announce the recent release of "Affirmations of Ernest Holmes" - a collection of 20 of Dr. Holmes' most powerful and effective affirmations and treatments.  Each of the affirmations was designed by him to create the best mental attitude and sense of feeling that will promote positive change according to the subject matter of the affirmation.

The affirmations cover a wide range of topics from healing and excellent health, to increased abundance and prosperity, to a greater sense of unity and oneness with Spirit.  These affirmations have been practiced by hundreds of thousands of people for decades and have been found to work with great effectiveness.

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Affirmation:  (Selection from The Conscious Word Daily Affirmation)                       

        

Christ Spirit is born in me today.

I am renewed.

I begin again to recognize

All the good, all the love,

All the joy which surrounds me and

Embraces me.

I am greatly blessed!

 

 

(The preceding is a selection from our daily affirmation, emailed directly to you each morning, called The Conscious Word.  You can obtain more information and view a sample issue by clicking Here.) 


 

News A New Collection of Bath and Body Products

The Conscious Living Foundation is pleased to announce a new collection of healthy bar soaps, "SoapOne" - soap products with spirit.  Available now at a special introductory price.

SoapOne products are designed with harmony and beauty in mind.  One hundred percent vegetable soap with essential oils - the primary ingredients are: Palm Nut Oil, Palm Oil, and Palm Butter.  Our new products are circular in shape and come in four unique flavors:  Allure, Bloom, Reflection and Serenade.  To find out more, click Here.  
 

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The Original Christmas Story:  Luke 2:1-20 and Matthew 2:1-8

Luke 2:1-20

1  In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.

2 This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

3 And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,

5 to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

6 And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.

7 And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8  And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.

10 And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people;

11 for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."

16 And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child;

18 and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

19 But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Matthew 2:1-8

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
6 "`But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.' "
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,
15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt
20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,
23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

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News:  The Conscious Word and Conscious Wisdom are Now Available With A 2 Week FREE Trial
 

The Conscious Word is an email newsletter sent directly to you each day.  Each issue contains an inspirational affirmation designed to help uplift your spirits and support your conscious efforts at personal and spiritual growth and development.

By practicing the affirmation which we email to you, for 3 to 4 minutes a day, you create an effective tool that will help you experience an ongoing positive change in your life. 

We all “know” many things.  However, “knowing” something, in and of itself, does not make it “true” to us.  We can read all about oranges; we can look at pictures of oranges and we can talk to people who have eaten oranges.  But, until we taste the orange ourselves, we do not truly understand the full truth about what an orange is. 

Likewise, we can experience the “truth”, the real nature, of many more subtle and essential concepts by “tasting” them.  One of the capabilities of an affirmation is to provide us with a “taste” of the subject matter of the affirmation.

However, something else is also at work in an affirmation.  One of the secrets of the universe is that when a human believes something is so, it becomes what he or she believes.

Jesus said “Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, `Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea,' it shall be done.  And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”  (Book of Matthew verses 21 and 22)

The key words in this quote are “If ye have faith and doubt not..” and “all things whatsoever ye shall ask believing..”

Jesus is describing this receptivity of the universe to human belief.  However, there are requirements for this belief to be effective.  Jesus says we must have “faith” without doubt and that we must “believe” as we ask.

James Allen’s famous premise “As a man Thinketh, so it is” expresses this same truth.

In essence, when we become utterly convinced of the truth of something, which means we have absolutely no doubts about it, the universe will be molded and shaped to match our conviction.  The challenging part is to find a way to become convinced of something that is not yet actualized.  To cultivate our faith.  This is where affirmations can help.

By taking a thought or collection of thoughts and impressing them deeply upon the mind with persistence and concentration,  a conviction can be cultivated.  Developing our own personal convictions, especially about ourselves, and then deepening and persisting in those convictions is a major key to our health, happiness and success in life.

For More Information, an example issue and A Two Week Free Trial, Click Here After your 2 week free trial, our normal subscription rate is $3.50 each month.

 

In addition, CLF is pleased to announce the introduction of our newest Daily Inspiration product, Conscious Wisdom. 

Conscious Wisdom is an email newsletter sent directly to you each day. 

Each issue contains inspirational guidance and wisdom designed to help uplift your spirits and support your conscious efforts at personal and spiritual growth and development.  We're offering a Two Week Free Trial subscription, so that you can experience personally how Conscious Wisdom can help change your life.  The regular monthly subscription costs $3.50 each month.

For More Information, an example issue and A Two Week Free Trial, Click Here.

 

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News:  Gift Certificates Now Available - Give the gift of Spiritual Inspiration and Renewal
Consider a Gift Certificate from The Conscious Living Foundation.  What better gift to give friends and loved ones than the gift of new hope, inspiration, encouragement and upliftment?  If you are considering buying a gift, why not let your loved ones select something that can genuinely make a difference in their lives?

Your Gift Certificate can be printed out for your personal delivery, or it can be emailed directly.  Our Gift Certificates are available in denominations from $5.00 to $1,000 and every product in our catalog is available for purchase with our CLF Gift Certificates. 

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This time give the gift of a deeper spiritual life and increased personal growth.

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News:  New Product Line Added To Our Catalog:  Spiritual Classical Music
The Conscious Living Foundation is pleased to announce that we have added an entirely new category of music to our product catalog.  In addition to our wide variety of New Age music CDs and Cassettes, we are now offering a variety of classical recordings of the very highest quality.

This expanding selection of recordings are primarily performances by the acclaimed choral group Gloriae Dei Cantores.  You will find selections by Renaissance masters,   sacred music of Russia (including numbers by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky), Palestrina, Brahms and Mozart - along with wonderful Christmas selections.

In addition, there are more traditional spiritual songs such as Amazing Grace, What A Friend We Have In Jesus and Simple Gifts.

As always, free audio samples from each album are available for your download and enjoyment.

 Click Here for more information and lots of free samples.

Spiritual encouragement can come in many forms - one of the most powerful are these recordings of the deep attunement and inspiration of these great masters.

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Essay: Hanukah - A History:
 
More than 2000 years ago there was a time when the land of Israel was part of the Syrian Empire, dominated by Syrian rulers of the dynasty of the Seleucids.

In order to relate the story that led up to Chanukah, we shall start with Antiochus III, the King of Syria, who reigned from 3538 to 3574 (222-186 B.C.E.). He had waged war with King Ptolemy of Egypt over the possession of the Land of Israel. Antiochus III was victorious and the Land of Israel was annexed to his empire. At the beginning of his reign he was favorably disposed toward the Jews and accorded them some privileges. Later on, however, when he was beaten by the Romans and compelled to pay heavy taxes, the burden fell upon the various peoples of his empire who were forced to furnish the heavy gold that was required of him by the Romans. When Antiochus died, his son Seleucus IV took over, and further oppressed the Jews.

Added to the troubles from the outside were the grave perils that threatened Judaism from within. The influence of the Hellenists (people who accepted idol-worship and the Syrian way of life) was increasing. Yochanan, the High Priest, foresaw the danger to Judaism from the penetration of Syrian-Greek influence into the Holy Land. For, in contrast to the ideal of outward beauty held by the Greeks and Syrians, Judaism emphasizes truth and moral purity, as commanded by God in the holy Torah. The Jewish people could never give up their faith in God and accept the idol-worship of the Syrians.

Yochanan was therefore opposed to any attempt on the part of the Jewish Hellenists to introduce Greek and Syrian customs into the land. The Hellenists hated him. One of them told the King’s commissioner that in the treasury of the Temple there was a great deal of wealth.

The wealth in the treasury consisted of the contributions of "half a shekel" made by all adult Jews annually. That was given for the purpose of the sacrifices on the altar, as well as for fixing and improving the Temple building. Another part of the treasury consisted of orphans’ funds which were deposited for them until they became of age. Seleucus needed money in order to pay the Romans. He sent his minister Helyodros to take the money from the treasury of the Temple. In vain did Yochanan, the High Priest, beg him not to do it. Helyodros did not listen and entered the gate of the Temple. But suddenly, he became pale with fright. The next moment he fainted and fell to the ground. After Helyodros came to, he did not dare enter again.

The "Madman"

A short time later, Seleucus was killed and his brother Antiochus IV began to reign over Syria (in 3586 - 174 B.C.E.). He was a tyrant of a rash and impetuous nature, contemptuous of religion and of the feelings of others. He was called "Epiphanes," meaning "the gods’ beloved." Several of the Syrian rulers received similar titles. But a historian of his time, Polebius, gave him the epithet Epimanes ("madman"), a title more suitable to the character of this harsh and cruel king.

Desiring to unify his kingdom through the medium of a common religion and culture, Antiochus tried to root out the individualism of the Jews by suppressing all the Jewish Laws. He removed the righteous High Priest, Yochanan, from the Temple in Jerusalem, and in his place installed Yochanan’s brother Joshua, who loved to call himself by the Greek name of Jason. For he was a member of the Hellenist party, and he used his high office to spread more and more of the Greek customs among the priesthood.

Joshua or Jason was later replaced by another man, Menelaus, who had promised the king that he would bring in more money than Jason did. When Yochanan, the former High Priest, protested against the spread of the Hellenists’ influence in the Holy Temple, the ruling High Priest hired murderers to assassinate him.

Antiochus was at that time engaged in a successful war against Egypt. But messengers from Rome arrived and commanded him to stop the war, and he had to yield. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, a rumor spread that a serious accident, had befallen Antiochus. Thinking that he was dead, the people rebelled against Menelaus. The treacherous High Priest fled together with his friends.

The Martyrs

 Antiochus returned from Egypt enraged by Roman interference with his ambitions. When he heard what had taken place in Jerusalem, he ordered his army to fall upon the Jews. Thousands of Jews were killed. Antiochus then enacted a series of harsh decrees against the Jews. Jewish worship was forbidden; the scrolls of the Law were confiscated and burned. Sabbath rest, circumcision and the dietary laws were prohibited under penalty of death. Even one of the respected elders of that generation, Rabbi Eliezer, a man of 90, was ordered by the servants of Antiochus to eat pork so that others would do the same. When he refused they suggested to him that he pick up the meat to his lips to appear to be eating. But Rabbi Eliezer refused to do even that and was put to death.

There were thousands of others who likewise sacrificed their lives. The famous story of Hannah and her seven children happened at that time.

Antiochus’s men went from town to town and from village to village to force the inhabitants to worship pagan gods. Only one refuge area remained and that was the hills of Judea with their caves. But even there did the Syrians pursue the faithful Jews, and many a Jew died a martyr’s death.

 

 

Mattityahu


One day the henchmen of Antiochus arrived in the village of Modin where Mattityahu, the old priest, lived. The Syrian officer built an altar in the marketplace of the village and demanded that Mattityahu offer sacrifices to the Greek gods. Mattityahu replied, "I, my sons and my brothers are determined to remain loyal to the covenant which our God made with our ancestors!"

Thereupon, a Hellenistic Jew approached the altar to offer a sacrifice. Mattityahu grabbed his sword and killed him, and his sons and friends fell upon the Syrian officers and men. They killed many of them and chased the rest away. They then destroyed the altar.

Mattityahu knew that Antiochus would be enraged when he heard what had happened. He would certainly send an expedition to punish him and his followers. Mattityahu, therefore, left the village of Modin and fled together with his sons and friends to the hills of Judea.

All loyal and courageous Jews joined them. They formed legions and from time to time they left their hiding places to fall upon enemy detachments and outposts, and to destroy the pagan altars that were built by order of Antiochus.

The Maccabees

 Before his death, Mattityahu called his sons together and urged them to continue to fight in defense of G d’s Torah. He asked them to follow the counsel of their brother Shimon the Wise. In waging warfare, he said, their leader should be Yehuda the Strong. Yehuda was called "Maccabee," a word composed of the initial letters of the four Hebrew words Mi Komocho Bo’eilim Hashem, "Who is like unto Thee, O God."

Antiochus sent his General Apolonius to wipe out Yehuda and his followers, the Maccabees. Though greater in number and equipment than their adversaries, the Syrians were defeated by the Maccabees. Antiochus sent out another expedition which also was defeated. He realized that only by sending a powerful army could he hope to defeat Yehuda and his brave fighting men.

An army consisting of more than 40,000 men swept the land under the leadership of two commanders, Nicanor and Gorgiash. When Yehuda and his brothers heard of that, they exclaimed: "Let us fight unto death in defense of our souls and our Temple!" The people assembled in Mitzpah, where Samuel, the prophet of old, had offered prayers to God. After a series of battles the war was won.

The Dedication

Now the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem to liberate it. They entered the Temple and cleared it of the idols placed there by the Syrian vandals. Yehuda and his followers built a new altar, which he dedicated on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev, in the year 3622.

Since the golden Menorah had been stolen by the Syrians, the Maccabees now made one of cheaper metal. When they wanted to light it, they found only a small cruse of pure olive oil bearing the seal of the High Priest Yochanan. It was sufficient to light only for one day. By a miracle of God, it continued to burn for eight days, till new oil was made available. That miracle proved that God had again taken His people under His protection. In memory of this, our sages appointed these eight days for annual thanksgiving and for lighting candles.

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News:  Your First Source For Everything -

In our attempt to offer new products and services which support your efforts at personal and spiritual growth, The Conscious Living Foundation is now offering for the first time, a greatly expanded catalog of products.  We hope, once you see our low prices, that you'll think of us as your first source for all your needs.

In addition to our Inspirational Products, we also now offer many other products which we all tend to purchase as part of our daily living.  We now make available almost everything you can imagine – from candles, incense, wind chimes, bird houses and angels to clocks, jewelry, kitchen supplies, tools and telephones. 

It is our hope that you will consider our product catalog as your first source for these other purchases.  Even if the product is not specifically inspirational, your purchase from us helps tremendously in our ability to remain in existence and continue to offer our other, more spiritually directed products and services.

To find our new catalog, just click the red “Products” button at the top of most pages of our website, or to explore the wide gamut of new products right now, just click Here.

 

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Conscious Friends - Creating a World-Wide Spiritual Community

Tens of thousands of people visit The Conscious Living Foundation website.  Married or single, male or female, youth or senior, we all appreciate having friends who share our common interest in personal and spiritual growth.  As we learn and mature, many of us have realized that relationships are an important part of creating and maintaining a harmonious and uplifting life. 

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New Delicious Recipes:    Christmas Cookies!  
Crisp Sugar Cookies -

Original recipe yield:
48 servings

PREP TIME  15 Min
COOK TIME  10 Min
READY IN  25 Min

 

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Cover and refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut out cookies into desired shapes and place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

       

Date Swirls Cookies


 
Original recipe yield:
24 servings

PREP TIME  30 Min
COOK TIME  10 Min
READY IN  40 Min

 

INGREDIENTS

  • FILLING:
  • 2 cups chopped dates
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup chopped nuts
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • DOUGH:
  • 1 cup butter or margarine
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a saucepan, combine filling ingredients. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes stiff, about 15-20 minutes. Chill.
  2. For dough, cream butter and sugars in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add extract. Combine flour, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for at least 1 hour.
  3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the dough to a 12-in. x 9-in. rectangle, about 1/4-in. thick. Spread with half of the filling. Roll up, starting with the long end. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Wrap with plastic wrap; chill overnight.
  4. Cut rolls into 1/4-in. slices. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

Deluxe Chocolate Marshmallow Bars       

Original recipe yield:
36 servings

PREP TIME  25 Min
COOK TIME  20 Min
READY IN  45 Min

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons baking cocoa
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts
  • 4 cups miniature marshmallows
  • TOPPING:
  • 1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 cups crisp rice cereal

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa; add to creamed mixture. Stir in nuts if desired. Spread in a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 18 minutes. Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over cake; return to oven for 2 to 3 minutes. Using a knife dipped in water, spread the melted marshmallows evenly over cake. Cool. For topping, combine chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and well blended. Remove from heat; stir in cereal. Spread over bars immediately. Chill.
 


 

Serial:  A Romance of Two Worlds          by Marie Corelli                      
           

CHAPTER VI.

THE HOTEL MARS AND ITS OWNER.

It was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon of the day succeeding the night of my arrival in Paris, when I found myself standing at the door of the Hotel Mars, Champs Elysees. I had proved the Pension kept by Madame Denise to be everything that could be desired; and on my presentation of Raffaello Cellini's card of introduction, I had been welcomed by the maitresse de la maison with a cordial effusiveness that amounted almost to enthusiasm. " Ce cher Cellini!" the cheery and pleasant little woman had exclaimed, as she set before me a deliciously prepared breakfast. "Je l'aime tant! Il a si bon coeur! et ses beaux yeux! Mon Dieu, comme un ange!" A s soon as I had settled the various little details respecting my room and attendance, and had changed my travelling-dress for a quiet visiting toilette, I started for the abode of Heliobas.

The weather was very cold; I had left the summer behind me at Cannes, to find winter reigning supreme in Paris. A bitter east wind blew, and a few flakes of snow fell now and then from the frowning sky. The house to which I betook myself was situated at a commanding corner of a road facing the Champs Elysees. It was a noble-looking building. The broad steps leading to the entrance were guarded on either side by a sculptured Sphinx, each of whom held, in its massive stone paws, a plain shield, inscribed with the old Roman greeting to strangers, "Salve!" Over the portico was designed a scroll which bore the name "Hotel Mars" in clearly cut capitals, and the monogram "C. H." I  ascended the steps with some hesitation, and twice I extended my hand towards the bell, desiring yet fearing to awaken its summons. I noticed it was an electric bell, not needing to be pulled but pressed; and at last, after many doubts and anxious suppositions, I very gently laid my fingers on the little button which formed its handle.

Scarcely had I done this than the great door slid open rapidly without the least noise. I looked for the servant in attendance--there was none. I paused an instant; the door remained invitingly open, and through it I caught a glimpse of flowers. Resolving to be bold, and to hesitate no longer, I entered. As I crossed the threshold, the door closed behind me instantly with its previous swiftness and silence. I  found myself in a spacious hall, light and lofty, surrounded with fluted pillars of white marble. In the center a fountain bubbled melodiously, and tossed up every now and then a high jet of sparkling spray, while round its basin grew the rarest ferns and exotics, which emitted a subtle and delicate perfume. No cold air penetrated here; it was as warm and balmy as a spring day in Southern Italy. Light Indian bamboo chairs provided with luxurious velvet cushions were placed in various corners between the marble columns, and on one of these I seated myself to rest a minute, wondering what I should do next, and whether anyone would come to ask me the cause of my intrusion.

My meditations were soon put to flight by the appearance of a young lad, who crossed the hall from the left-hand side and approached me. He was a handsome boy of twelve or thirteen years of age, and he was attired in a simple Greek costume of white linen, relieved with a broad crimson silk sash. A small flat crimson cap rested on his thick black curls; this he lifted with deferential grace, and, saluting me, said respectfully: " My master is ready to receive you, mademoiselle." I  rose without a word and followed him, scarcely permitting myself to speculate as to how his master knew I was there at all.

The hall was soon traversed, and the lad paused before a magnificent curtain of deep crimson velvet, heavily bordered with gold. Pulling a twisted cord that hung beside it, the heavy, regal folds parted in twain with noiseless regularity, and displayed an octagon room, so exquisitely designed and ornamented that I gazed upon it as upon some rare and beautiful picture. It was unoccupied, and my young escort placed a chair for me near the central window, informing me as he did so that "Monsieur le Comte" would be with me instantly; whereupon he departed.

Left alone, I gazed in bewilderment at the loveliness round me. The walls and ceiling were painted in fresco. I could not make out the subjects, but I could see faces of surpassing beauty smiling from clouds, and peering between stars and crescents. The furniture appeared to be of very ancient Arabian design; each chair was a perfect masterpiece of wood-carving, picked out and inlaid with gold.

The sight of a semi-grand piano, which stood open, brought me back to the realization that I was living in modern times, and not in a dream of the Arabian Nights; while the Paris Figaro and the London Times--both of that day's issue--lying on a side-table, demonstrated the nineteenth century to me with every possible clearness. There were flowers everywhere in this apartment--in graceful vases and in gilded osier baskets--and a odd lop-sided Oriental jar stood quite near me, filled almost to overflowing with Neapolitan violets. Yet it was winter in Paris, and flowers were rare and costly. Looking about me, I perceived an excellent cabinet photograph of Raffaello Cellini, framed in antique silver; and I rose to examine it more closely, as being the face of a friend. While I looked at it, I heard the sound of an organ in the distance playing softly an old familiar church chant.

I listened. Suddenly I bethought myself of the three dreams that had visited me, and a kind of nervous dread came upon me. This Heliobas,--was I right after all in coming to consult him? Was he not perhaps a mere charlatan? and might not his experiments upon me prove fruitless, and possibly fatal? An idea seized me that I would escape while there was yet time. Yes! ... I would not see him to-day, at any rate; I would write and explain. These and other disjointed thoughts crossed my mind; and yielding to the unreasoning impulse of fear that possessed me, I actually turned to leave the room, when I saw the crimson velvet portiere dividing again in its regular and graceful folds, and Heliobas himself entered. I  stood mute and motionless. I knew him well; he was the very man I had seen in my third and last dream; the same noble, calm features; the same commanding presence; the same keen, clear eyes; the same compelling smile.

There was nothing extraordinary about his appearance except his stately bearing and handsome countenance; his dress was that of any well-to-do gentleman of the present day, and there was no affectation of mystery in his manner. He advanced and bowed courteously; then, with a friendly look, held out his hand. I gave him mine at once. " So you are the young musician?" he said, in those warm mellifluous accents that I had heard before and that I so well remembered. "My friend Raffaello Cellini has written to me about you. I hear you have been suffering from physical depression?"

He spoke as any physician might do who inquired after a patient's health. I was surprised and relieved. I had prepared myself for something darkly mystical, almost cabalistic; but there was nothing unusual in the demeanour of this pleasant and good-looking gentleman who, bidding me be seated, took a chair himself opposite to me, and observed me with that sympathetic and kindly interest which any well-bred doctor would esteem it his duty to exhibit. I became quite at ease, and answered all his questions fully and frankly. He felt my pulse in the customary way, and studied my face attentively. I described all my symptoms, and he listened with the utmost patience. When I had concluded, he leaned back in his chair and appeared to ponder deeply for some moments. Then he spoke. " You know, of course, that I am not a doctor?" " I know," I said; "Signer Cellini explained to me." " Ah!" and Heliobas smiled. "Raffaello explained as much as he might; but not everything. I must tell you I have a simple pharmacopoeia of my own--it contains twelve remedies, and only twelve. In fact there me no more that are of any use to the human mechanism. All are made of the juice of plants, and six of them are electric.

Raffaello tried you with one of them, did he not?" A she put this question, I was aware of a keenly inquiring look sent from the eyes of my interrogator into mine. " Yes," I answered frankly, "and it made me dream, and I dreamt of YOU." Heliobas laughed lightly. " So!--that is well. Now I am going in the first place to give you what I am sure will be satisfactory information. If you agree to trust yourself to my care, you will be in perfect health in a little less than a fortnight--but you must follow my rules exactly." I  started up from my seat. " Of course!" I exclaimed eagerly, forgetting all my previous fear of him; "I will do all you advise, even if you wish to magnetize me as you magnetized Signor Cellini!" " I never MAGNETIZED Raffaello," he said gravely; "he was on the verge of madness, and he had no faith whereby to save himself. I simply set him free for a time, knowing that his was a genius which would find out things for itself or perish in the effort.

I let him go on a voyage of discovery, and he came back perfectly satisfied. That is all. You do not need his experience." " How do you know?" I asked. " You are a woman--your desire is to be well and strong, health being beauty--to love and to be beloved--to wear pretty toilettes and to be admired; and you have a creed which satisfies you, and which you believe in without proofs." T here was the slightest possible tinge of mockery in his voice as he said these words. A tumultuous rush of feelings overcame me. My high dreams of ambition, my innate scorn of the trite and commonplace, my deep love of art, my desires of fame--all these things bore down upon my heart and overcame it, and a pride too deep for tears arose in me and found utterance. " You think I am so slight and weak a thing!" I exclaimed. "YOU, who profess to understand the secrets of electricity--you have no better instinctive knowledge of me than that! Do you deem women all alike-- all on one common level, fit for nothing but to be the toys or drudges of men?

Can you not realize that there are some among them who despise the inanities of everyday life--who care nothing for the routine of society, and whose hearts are filled with cravings that no mere human love or life can satisfy? Yes--even weak women are capable of greatness; and if we do sometimes dream of what we cannot accomplish through lack of the physical force necessary for large achievements, that is not our fault but our misfortune. We did not create ourselves. We did not ask to be born with the over- sensitiveness, the fatal delicacy, the highly-strung nervousness of the feminine nature. Monsieur Heliobas, you are a learned and far- seeing man, I have no doubt; but you do not read me aright if you judge me as a mere woman who is perfectly contented with the petty commonplaces of ordinary living.

And as for my creed, what is it to you whether I kneel in the silence of my own room or in the glory of a lighted cathedral to pour out my very soul to ONE whom I know exists, and whom I am satisfied to believe in, as you say, without proofs, save such proofs as I obtain from my own inner consciousness? I tell you, though, in your opinion it is evident my sex is against me, I would rather die than sink into the miserable nonentity of such lives as are lived by the majority of women." I  paused, overcome by my own feelings. Heliobas smiled. " So! You are stung!" he said quietly; "stung into action. That is as it should be. Resume your seat, mademoiselle, and do not be angry with me.

I am studying you for your own good. In the meantime permit me to analyze your words a little. You are young and inexperienced. You speak of the 'over-sensitiveness, the fatal delicacy, the highly-strung nervousness of the feminine nature.' My dear lady, if you had lived as long as I have, you would know that these are mere stock phrases--for the most part meaningless. As a rule, women are less sensitive than men. There are many of your sex who are nothing but lumps of lymph and fatty matter--women with less instinct than the dumb beasts, and with more brutality. There are others who,-- adding the low cunning of the monkey to the vanity of the peacock,-- seek no other object but the furtherance of their own designs, which are always petty even when not absolutely mean. There are obese women whose existence is a doze between dinner and tea.

There are women with thin lips and pointed noses, who only live to squabble over domestic grievances and interfere in their neighbours' business. There are your murderous women with large almond eyes, fair white hands, and voluptuous red lips, who, deprived of the dagger or the poison-bowl, will slay a reputation in a few lazily enunciated words, delivered with a perfectly high-bred accent.

There are the miserly woman, who look after cheese-parings and candle- ends, and lock up the soap. There are the spiteful women whose very breath is acidity and venom. There are the frivolous women whose chitter-chatter and senseless giggle are as empty as the rattling of dry peas on a drum. In fact, the delicacy of women is extremely overrated--their coarseness is never done full justice to. I have heard them recite in public selections of a kind that no man would dare to undertake--such as Tennyson's 'Rizpah,' for instance.

I know a woman who utters every line of it, with all its questionable allusions, boldly before any and everybody, without so much as an attempt at blushing. I assure you men are far more delicate than women--far more chivalrous--far larger in their views, and more generous in their sentiments. But I will not deny the existence of about four women in every two hundred and fifty, who may be, and possibly are, examples of what the female sex was originally intended to be--pure-hearted, self-denying, gentle and truthful-- filled with tenderness and inspiration. Heaven knows my own mother was all this and more! And my sister is--. But let me speak to you of yourself. You love music, I understand--you are a professional artist?" " I was," I answered, "till my state of health stopped me from working." Heliobas bent his eyes upon me in friendly sympathy. " You were, and you will be again, an improvisatrice" he went on. "Do you not find it difficult to make your audiences understand your aims?" I  smiled as the remembrance of some of my experiences in public came to my mind. " Yes," I said, half laughing. "In England, at least, people do not know what is meant by IMPROVISING.

They think it is to take a little theme and compose variations on it--the mere ABC of the art. But to sit down to the piano and plan a whole sonata or symphony in your head, and play it while planning it, is a thing they do not and will not understand. They come to hear, and they wonder and go away, and the critics declare it to be CLAP-TRAP." " Exactly!" replied Heliobas. "But you are to be congratulated on having attained this verdict. Everything that people cannot quite understand is called CLAP-TRAP in England; as for instance the matchless violin-playing of Sarasate; the tempestuous splendor of Rubinstein; the wailing throb of passion in Hollmann's violoncello-- this is, according to the London press, CLAP-TRAP; while the coldly correct performances of Joachim and the 'icily-null' renderings of Charles Halle are voted 'magnificent' and 'full of colour.' But to return to yourself. Will you play to me?" " I have not touched the instrument for two months," I said; "I am afraid I am out of practice." " Then you shall not exert yourself to-day," returned Heliobas kindly. "But I believe I can help you with your improvisations. You compose the music as you play, you tell me. Well, have you any idea how the melodies or the harmonies form themselves in your brain?" " Not the least in the world," I replied. " Is the act of thinking them out an effort to you?" he asked. " Not at all. They come as though someone else were planning them for me." " Well, well! I think I can certainly be of use to you in this matter as in others. I understand your temperament thoroughly. And now let me give you my first prescription."

He went to a corner of the room and lifted from the floor an ebony casket, curiously carved and ornamented with silver. This he unlocked. It contained twelve flasks of cut glass, stoppered with gold and numbered in order. He next pulled out a side drawer in this casket, and in it I saw several little thin empty glass tubes, about the size of a cigarette-holder. Taking two of these he filled them from two of the larger flasks, corked them tightly, and then turning to me, said: " To-night, on going to bed, have a warm bath, empty the contents of the tube marked No. 1 into it, and then immerse yourself thoroughly for about five minutes. After the bath, put the fluid in this other tube marked 2, into a tumbler of fresh spring water, and drink it off. Then go straight to bed." " Shall I have any dreams?" I inquired with a little anxiety. " Certainly not," replied Heliobas, smiling. "I wish you to sleep as soundly as a year-old child. Dreams are not for you to-night. Can you come to me tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock? If you can arrange to stay to dinner, my sister will be pleased to meet you; but perhaps you are otherwise engaged?"

I  told him I was not, and explained where I had taken rooms, adding that I had come to Paris expressly to put myself under his treatment. " You shall have no cause to regret this journey," he said earnestly. "I can cure you thoroughly, and I will. I forget your nationality-- you are not English?" " No, not entirely. I am half Italian." " Ah, yes! I remember now. But you have been educated in England?" " Partly." " I am glad it is only partly," remarked Heliobas. "If it had been entirely, your improvisations would have had no chance. In fact you never would have improvised. You would have played the piano like poor mechanical Arabella Goddard. As it is, there is some hope of originality in you--you need not be one of the rank and file unless you choose." " I do not choose," I said. " Well, but you must take the consequences, and they are bitter. A woman who does not go with her time is voted eccentric; a woman who prefers music to tea and scandal is an undesirable acquaintance; and a woman who prefers Byron to Austin Dobson is--in fact, no measure can gauge her general impossibility!"

I laughed gaily. "I will take all the consequences as willingly as I will take your medicines," I said, stretching out my hand for the little vases which he gave me wrapped in paper. "And I thank you very much, monsieur. And"--here I hesitated. Ought I not to ask him his fee? Surely the medicines ought to be paid for? Heliobas appeared to read my thoughts, for he said, as though answering my unuttered question: " I do not accept fees, mademoiselle. To relieve your mind from any responsibility of gratitude to me, I will tell you at once that I never promise to effect a cure unless I see that the person who comes to be cured has a certain connection with myself. If the connection exists I am bound by fixed laws to serve him or her.

Of course I am able also to cure those who are NOT by nature connected with me; but then I have to ESTABLISH a connection, and this takes time, and is sometimes very difficult to accomplish, almost as tremendous a task as the laying down of the Atlantic cable. But in your case I am actually COMPELLED to do my best for you, so you need be under no sense of obligation." H ere was a strange speech--the first really inexplicable one I had heard from his lips. " I am connected with you?" I asked, surprised. "How? In what way?" " It would take too long to explain to you just now," said Heliobas gently; "but I can prove to you in a moment that a connection DOES exist between YOUR inner self, and MY inner self, if you wish it." " I do wish it very much," I answered. " Then take my hand," continued Heliobas, stretching it out, "and look steadily at me."

 

 

I  obeyed, half trembling. As I gazed, a veil appeared to fall from my eyes. A sense of security, of comfort, and of absolute confidence came upon me, and I saw what might be termed THE IMAGE OF ANOTHER FACE looking at me THROUGH or BEHIND the actual form and face of Heliobas. And that other face was his, and yet not his; but whatever it appeared to be, it was the face of a friend to ME, one that I was certain I had known long, long ago, and moreover one that I must have loved in some distant time, for my whole soul seemed to yearn towards that indistinct haze where smiled the fully recognised yet unfamiliar countenance. This strange sensation lasted but a few seconds, for Heliobas suddenly dropped my hand. The room swam round me; the walls seemed to rock; then everything steadied and came right again, and all was as usual, only I was amazed and bewildered. " What does it mean?" I murmured. " It means the simplest thing in nature," replied Heliobas quietly, "namely, that your soul and mine are for some reason or other placed on the same circle of electricity. Nothing more nor less.

Therefore we must serve each other. Whatever I do for you, you have it in your power to repay me amply for hereafter." I  met the steady glance of his keen eyes, and a sense of some indestructible force within me gave me a sudden courage. " Decide for me as you please," I answered fearlessly. "I trust you completely, though I do not know why I do so." " You will know before long. You are satisfied of the fact that my touch can influence you?" " Yes; most thoroughly." " Very well. All other explanations, if you desire them, shall be given you in due time. In the power I possess over you and some others, there is neither mesmerism nor magnetism--nothing but a purely scientific fact which can be clearly and reasonably proved and demonstrated. But till you are thoroughly restored to health, we will defer all discussion. And now, mademoiselle, permit me to escort you to the door. I shall expect you tomorrow ."

Together we left the beautiful room in which this interview had taken place, and crossed the hall. As we approached the entrance, Heliobas turned towards me and said with a smile: " Did not the manoeuvres of my street-door astonish you?" " A little," I confessed. " It is very simple. The button you touch outside is electric; it opens the door and at the same time rings the bell in my study, thus informing me of a visitor. When the visitor steps across the threshold he treads, whether he will or no, on another apparatus, which closes the door behind him and rings another bell in my page's room, who immediately comes to me for orders. You see how easy? And from within it is managed in almost the same manner." A nd he touched a handle similar to the one outside, and the door opened instantly. Heliobas held out his hand--that hand which a few minutes previously had exercised such strange authority over me. " Good-bye, mademoiselle. You are not afraid of me now?"

I  laughed. "I do not think I was ever really afraid of you," I said. "If I was, I am not so any longer. You have promised me health, and that promise is sufficient to give me entire courage." " That is well," said Heliobas. "Courage and hope in themselves are the precursors of physical and mental energy. Remember tomorrow  at five, and do not keep late hours to-night. I should advise you to be in bed by ten at the latest." I  agreed to this, and we shook hands and parted. I walked blithely along, back to the Avenue du Midi, where, on my arrival indoors, I found a letter from Mrs. Everard.

She wrote "in haste" to give me the names of some friends of hers whom she had discovered, through the "American Register," to be staying at the Grand Hotel. She begged me to call upon them, and enclosed two letters of introduction for the purpose. She concluded her epistle by saying: " Raffaello Cellini has been invisible ever since your departure, but our inimitable waiter, Alphonse, says he is very busy finishing a picture for the Salon--something that we have never seen. I shall intrude myself into his studio soon on some pretence or other, and will then let you know all about it. In the meantime, believe me, " Your ever devoted friend, AMY."

I  answered this letter, and then spent a pleasant evening at the Pension, chatting sociably with Madame Denise and another cheery little Frenchwoman, a day governess, who boarded there, and who had no end of droll experiences to relate, her enviable temperament being to always see the humorous side of life. I thoroughly enjoyed her sparkling chatter and her expressive gesticulations, and we all three made ourselves merry till bedtime. Acting on the advice of Heliobas, I retired early to my room, where a warm bath had been prepared in compliance with my orders. I uncorked the glass tube No. 1, and poured the colourless fluid it contained into the water, which immediately bubbled gently, as though beginning to boil. After watching it for a minute or two, and observing that this seething movement steadily continued, I undressed quickly and stepped in.

Never shall I forget the exquisite sensation I experienced! I can only describe it as the poor little Doll's Dressmaker in "Our Mutual Friend" described her angel visitants, her "blessed children," who used to come and "take her up and make her light." If my body had been composed of no grosser matter than fire and air, I could not have felt more weightless, more buoyant, more thoroughly exhilarated than when, at the end of the prescribed five minutes, I got out of that marvellous bath of healing! As I prepared for bed, I noticed that the bubbling of the water had entirely ceased; but this was easy of comprehension, for if it had contained electricity, as I supposed, my body had absorbed it by contact, which would account for the movement being stilled.

I now took the second little phial, and prepared it as I had been told. This time the fluid was motionless. I noticed it was very faintly tinged with amber. I drank it off--it was perfectly tasteless. Once in bed, I seemed to have no power to think any more--my eyes closed readily--the slumber of a year-old child, as Heliobas had said, came upon me with resistless and sudden force, and I remembered no more.

 


Marie Corelli was the most widely read author of fiction of her time.  Her works were collected by members of the British Royal Family and by Winston Churchill.  A recurring theme throughout her books was her attempt to reconcile Christianity with reincarnation, astral projection and other mystical topics.

Her books were a very important part of the foundation of today's New Age and New Thought movements.

Look for the next chapter in A Romance of Two Worlds by Marie Corelli in the next edition of our newsletter and prior chapters in prior editions.  To read other books by Marie Corelli, visit our free Ebook section by clicking  Here.

 

 

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News:  Special Discounts - This Holiday Season, Share The Spirit!

With the holiday season nearly upon us, if you're considering buying a gift for a friend or loved one, why not select gifts that can genuinely make a difference in their lives?  This time, give books, candle holders, incense, gift certificates, hand made soaps, videos, spoken word CDs or a huge variety of other products that will continue to inspire and encourage throughout the year.  To view our entire catalog of products, click Here.

For a unique gift, you might consider purchasing a subscription to one of our daily inspirational emails - Conscious Word (a daily affirmation) or Conscious Wisdom (a daily quotation).  For only $3.50 a month you will be bringing new hope and assurance into every day of the lives of your loved ones.

We make buying even easier with our Special Product discounts.  We have collected together some of our most popular spoken word audio CDs at tremendous savings.  Click Here to see our great selection of best sellers and favorites.  They include audio versions of your all time favorites, perfect to listen to while driving or exercising.

Deepen your practice of the techniques that bring new joy and hope into your life - and give the gift of a deeper spiritual life and increased personal growth. This holiday season share the Spirit!

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News:  Exploring The Free Downloads Library of The Conscious Living Foundation
 

 

One of the most popular sections of our website is our Free Downloads Library.  It is made up of several sections which are updated on a continuous basis (Click on any underlined words to go directly to that section):

 

E-Books

One of our most popular sections of our website is our free E-Book section, which is divided into two general areas:  Inspirational, Philosophical and Metaphysical E-Books and Literature and Light Entertainment E-Books.  Our collection now contains several hundred E-Books in a variety of popular formats.  We add new selections on a continuous basis.

 

Titles include works by:  James Allen, Emilie Cady, Catherine Ponder, Walter Lanyon, Charles Filmore, Wallace Wattles, Mary Baker Eddy, Florence Scovel Shin, Ernest Holmes, William Atkinson, Confucius, Aristotle, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Hesse, Signmund Freud, Ralph Waldo Trine, Thomas A Kempis, Rabindranath Tagore, Lao Tze, Paramahansa Yogananda, Krishnamurti, Kahlil Gibran, Buddha, Patanjali, Napoleon Hill, Mahatma Gandhi plus Literature by authors such as:  Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, a Sherlock Holmes Collection, Edgar Rice Burroughs, P.G. Wodehouse, Alexander Dumas, H.G. Wells, a Wizard of Oz Collection and hundreds of other titles!

 

Spoken Word Audio 

(Lectures, Talks, Sermons, Recorded Comments, Classes and Workshops)

 

Our Spoken Word Audio section currently includes recordings made by Mahatma Gandhi, Rabbi Michael Laitman, Billy Graham, Amee Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kulman, William Simpson, Krishnamurti and The Dalai Lama.

 

In addition, it contains recordings of works such as:  The Book of Proverbs, The Game of Life by Florence Scovel Shin, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A' Kempis, Practicing The Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles, The Dialogs of St. Catherine of Siena and As a Man Thinketh and Byways To Blessedness by James Allen.

 

Music

(Music and sounds from a variety of sources, styles and historical periods)

 

Our Music and Audio section contain a wide range of musical styles from various historical periods, but all "spiritual" in nature.  They currently include selections from such albums as:  Yoga Heart Healing, MasterPeace, Harmony in Disarray, Siddartha, Hush and Feel, Gospel Music, Tara Mantras, Soul Calls, The Kyoto Connection, Daughter of Love, Dream World, Buddhist Chanting, Songs For The Soul, Mind Sailing, Timeless Vibrations, Heart of the Mother, Yosemite Suite, Connected, The Cosmic Chants of Paramahansa Yogananda, Marti Walker, Hindu Chants, The Reflecting Pool, Winter Snow and Strings and Root Road Flute.

 

Video

(Large variety of films and videos, historic and modern, documentary and talks)

 

Our Video section currently contains:  The Ocean At Dusk - Guided Relaxation, A Biography of Mother Teresa, Meditation and Movement, Imagination Meditation, Laughter Meditation, Music for Meditation and Healing, A CNN Report on the Health Benefits of Meditation, A Biography of Mary Baker Eddy, A Man of God - An Interview with Leonard Ravenhill, Paramahansa Yogananda & Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda & Ramana Maharshi, Paramahansa Yogananda at Mt. Washington, Paramahansa Yogananda on a Walk In New York, Paramahansa Yogananda Demonstrating How To Sleep, Krishnamurti Talks on Freedom, Krishnamurti Talks on Life and Death, Krishnamurti  Talks on Meditation and Krishnamurti Talks on World Suffering.

 

Still Images

(Nature Pictures, Saints, Sages, Gurus, Mandalas, Chakras, Fine Art)

 

Our collection of pictures is too large to list in detail, but we promise that you will browse for quite some time in order to see them all.

 

Complete Audio Classics

(Complete Plays, Radio Dramatizations, Books Read Aloud

and Stories To Entertain The Entire Family

- With a special collection for children)

 

Our audio classics are dramatic portrayals designed to primarily entertain, but with wholesome content that expresses positive values and that are suitable for the entire family to experience together.  They include such titles as:

 

The Importance of Being Earnest, Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, War of the Worlds, Abraham Lincoln, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Immortal Sherlock Holmes, Around The World In 80 Days, Pickwick Papers, Julius Caesar and Jane Eyre.

 

In addition, there is a special Children's Section containing dramatizations and readings especially created for younger children.  They include such titles as:  The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Jack and The Bean Stalk, Puss and Boots, Blue Beard, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Twas the Night Before Christmas, Snowdrop and the 7 Dwarves, Robin Hood, The Golden Fleece, Beauty and The Beast, Rapunzel, King Arthur, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Magic Carpet and many, many more!

 

Wall Paper

(Large Beautiful Pictures with Inspirational Quotes Suitable To Place on The Background of Your Computer Desktop or Screensaver Program.)

 

The images in this section of the newsletter are a few of the selections contained in our Wall Paper Download Library.  To read the inspirational inscriptions, visit us by clicking "Wall Paper" above.

 


 

Let's share the gifts for which we are most grateful:
 joy, wisdom, love and the means to increase them in our lives. 
Click Here for our special discounts.

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Essay:  Christmas Story - Gift Of The Magi                          by O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

 


 

For a collection of affirmations, click Here.
For a large variety of inspiring quotations, click Here.

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Let's share the gifts for which we are most grateful:
 joy, wisdom, love and the means to increase them in our lives. 
Click Here for our special discounts.

Essay:  Christmas Humor:


Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.
 
"In honor of this holy season," Saint Peter said, "You must each possess something that symbolizes  Christmas to get into heaven."
 
The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. "It represents a candle," he said. "You may pass through the pearly gates," Saint Peter said.
 
The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, "They're bells." Saint Peter said, "You may pass through the pearly gates."
 
The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's glasses.
 
St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And just what do those symbolize?"
 
The man replied, "They're Carol's."

As a little girl climbed onto Santa's lap, Santa asked the usual, "And what would you like for Christmas?"
The child stared at him open mouthed and horrified for a minute, then gasped: "Didn't you get my E-mail?"

This guy goes into his dentist's office, because something is wrong with his mouth. After a brief examination, the dentist exclaims, "Holy Smoke! That plate I installed in your mouth about six months ago has nearly completely corroded! What on earth have you been eating?" "Well... the only thing I can think of is this... my wife made me some asparagus about four months ago with this stuff on it... Hollandaise sauce she called it... and doctor, I'm talkin' DELICIOUS! I've never tasted anything like it, and ever since then I've been putting it on everything... meat, fish, toast, vegetables... you name it!" "That's probably it," replied the dentist "Hollandaise sauce is made with lemon juice, which is acidic and highly corrosive. It seems as thought I'll have to install a new plate, but made out of chrome this time." "Why chrome?" the man asked. "Well, everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!"

While working as a mall Santa, I had many children ask for electric trains. "If you get a train," I would tell each one, "you know your dad is going to want to play with it too. Is that okay?"
    The usual answer was a quick yes, but after I asked one boy this question, he became very quiet. Trying to move the conversation along, I asked what else he would like Santa to bring him. He promptly replied, "Another train." 

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News:  Conscious Money Circulation "Abundant Blessings"
 

Would you like to have a greater feeling of being in the flow of abundance?   Is the activity of paying your bills a time of stress and anxiety for you?  The meditation, affirmations and background music on this CD were created to provide an uplifting and expansive experience of abundance and prosperity while paying bills.

Abundant Blessings © contains a meditation and affirmations for Conscious Money circulation. The meditation guides you within, to a place of centered calm. Affirmations of abundance and gratitude play in the background while you pay your bills or any time that you would like to be uplifted.

Play this CD and transform the mundane into the miraculous as you pay bills with gratitude and JOY!

To find out more about Abundant Blessings, click Here.
 


 

                                           

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News:  First Spanish Products - Conscious Word, Conscious Wisdom and E-books
 

The Conscious Living Foundation is proud to announce the translation of our website into Spanish.  The entire website, with all of our articles, poems, inspiring stories, affirmations, previous newsletters, quotations and affirmations are now available.  We are excited about the prospect of being able to reach others who were unable to share in all of the resources of the site because they didn't read English.  To visit the Spanish language version of our site, click Here.

 

In addition, we have begun creating our first products for those who prefer to read in Spanish.  The Conscious Word and Conscious Wisdom are both now available in a Spanish version. 

 

We have also translated 14 wonderful, inspirational masterpieces and are offering them as E-books in Spanish.  The titles include:

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
Prosperity by Charles Filmore
The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes
The Tao Te Ching
A Lamp Unto My Feet by Walter Lanyon
The Science of Getting Rich  by Wallace D. Wattles
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (2 volumes)
Above Life's Turmoil by James Allen
An Introduction to Yoga by Annie Besant
Teach Us To Pray by Charles Filmore
The Power of Thought by Thomas Hamblin
The Secret Door To Success by Florence Scovel Shin
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Charles Johnson
Your Word is Your Wand by Florence Scovel Shin

 

This E-book collection in Spanish can be purchased for $7.00 by clicking  Here.

 

He desterrado el pasado

Ahora vivo en el maravilloso presente

Donde regocijantes sorpresas

Llegan envolviendome

Todos los dias.

 

If you have any suggestion on other titles which we should translate, or other languages we should support, we would love to hear from you.  You can email us at: 

  

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News:  Destiny Designer - A Practical Aid To Organize Your Life
 

Even when we read spiritual books; even when we exercise; even when we practice affirmations and positive thinking;
even when we pray and meditate - it is not enough until we undertake these actions - consistently every day. 

If we aren't organized, we aren't committed.


Virtually all organized, responsible business professionals carry them. They are essential.  They are the omnipresent symbols of our busy, complicated lives. They are, of course…day planners. And until now they have performed just two functions, where to be or what to do next: the next meeting, the next event, the next task, the next party, the next phone call...

Now there is the Destiny Designer,™ a breakthrough personal calendar/planner that demands your focus on enhancing the fullness and richness of your life as much as it does managing your daily routine. If you use this one-of-a-kind tool every day, you will create the life you most passionately desire!

In our busy lives we often do that which screams for our attention first, not what truly moves our lives forward in a real and fulfilling way. Destiny Designer™ is designed to keep you centered on what is actually important in your life - not merely what you must get done in your profession.  Find Out More - Click Here.

 

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A Poem by William Simpson -

Joy Is The Birthright

 

Within the heart

A sacred space exists

Where troubles may be stored

Or joy.       

 

Eternal blessings flowing continuously

Saturate the being of one who is open -

Open enough to allow the unpredictability of life

To flow through as well.

 

Joy is the medium of life.

It is the clear stream that

Sometimes rushes over sharp craggy rocks

Of affliction and torment

That sometimes convolutes in upon itself in

Whirlpools of confusion and bewildering distraction.

 

Sometimes it tumbles quickly,

Cascading on its course,

Feeling as if life were inescapably out of our grasp.

And other times ebbs in wide flat stagnant basins

Of mistrust and unease,

Disquietude and trembling a harbinger of tomorrow’s obscurity.

 

But as the rippling water remains untouched and ever the same

Regardless of the sediment upon which it moves,

Thus joy remains inviolate

Regardless of the circumstances upon which

Life propels it.

 

Joy is the birthright of being.

Joy is the inheritance of genesis.

 

But to perceive that joy –

More is required.

 

As we can not hear the trilling of a bird at dawn

Without using our ears to listen,

As we can not see a summer’s rainbow after the storm

Without using our eyes to see,

So we can not feel the underlying joy of eternity

Without using our heart to feel.

 

All walls must be removed

All barriers must be dissolved

The heart must be open

Unobstructed, vulnerable and defenseless.

 

Only through the tender passageways of reverence

Only through the expansive cathedrals of mercy, forgiveness and compassion

Shall the heart be awakened.

 

Then -

 

Eternal blessings flowing continuously

Saturate the being of one who is open -

Open enough to allow the unpredictability of life

To flow through as well.

 

Within the heart

A sacred space exists

Where troubles may be stored

Or joy.

 

(From the collection, "From The Path - Verses On The Mystic Journey" click Here for more)

Copyright 2004 by The Conscious Living Foundation, All Rights Reserved

Let's share the gifts for which we are most grateful:
 joy, wisdom, love and the means to increase them in our lives. 
Click Here for our special discounts.


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A Poem by Kahlil Gibran - On Giving (From The Prophet)

 

Then said a rich man, "Speak to us of Giving."

And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself?

Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;

They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving

And is there aught you would withhold?                       

All you have shall some day be given;

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;

For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.

  

The Conscious Living Foundation is pleased to offer an original 2 CD recording of Kahlil Gibran's mystical masterpiece, "The Prophet".  For complete details and samples from the recording, please click Here.

 

     

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News:  Two New Music CDs:  "Soul Calls" and "Yoga Heart Healing"

 

Spirituality is a quiet inner quality that eclipses all boundaries of land, caste, profession, and religion, - and it manifests in many ways. For those whose spirituality seeks an ever deepening personal peace, the music of the SOUL CALLS provides a peaceful, soothing vibrational environment for the heart and mind of the listener. For those who are actively engaged in the interior life of loving God, the lyrics of the SOUL CALLS affirm the longing for and the presence of the Divine Beloved. Touching the heart of the peace-giver, the spiritual seeker and the devotee alike, the SOUL CALLS take the consciousness within ~ to the place of peace.   Click Here
 

 

 

 

YOGA HEART HEALING was created from the need to heal Anahata, the fourth chakra, considered the seat of universal love.   Anahata is the color green.  Our recording was created to support your practice of yoga, massage and other nurturing and healing activities.

 

Inspired by Dharma teachings from both Hindu and Buddhist wisdom, Yoga Heart Healing will open your heart chakra with its rich vibrant textures of soothing melodic transitions.  - just click Here!

  

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Essay:  The Twelve Steps of Christmas                                        by KC Mulville
 
If you want to know the true spirit of Christmas, put yourself in the sandals of the people who were around at the first one.

The Romans ruled the Jews. They ruled with the same subtlety as Tony Soprano. Things went well as long as you kept quiet, or as long as Tony didn’t have a spat of rage over something that had nothing to do with you. The Romans erupted in rage from time to time, and that was just your tough luck. The local magistrate was Herod, who ruled only by the Romans’ consent. Compared to other despots, Herod wasn’t bad, but despotism is a low standard. After all, Herod’s response to a possible new king was to slaughter every firstborn child. These were dark men, and they brought dark times.

Remember, the Jews were proud, but they’d been kicked around for a few centuries. It all went downhill after David; a thousand years of problems followed. First, they fought among themselves, leaving them weak. Prophets kept warning the Jews, but the Jews kept killing them. The Assyrians bullied them, and then the Babylonians. The Babylonians even held them captive for a while. Eventually the Jews wandered back to the Promised Land, only to have Alexander the Great storm through. Then came the Romans, and that’s where things stood.

Put yourself in the sandals (grateful to have them) of those Jews at the time. Consider how you would have felt. You would have felt weak, abused, and helpless. You also felt a little guilty. Why? Before David, the Jews considered Yahweh their king. Installing a king, for the Jews, would insult Yahweh. Later, though, the Jews watched as other nations rose up, and those nations had kings. The Jews got afraid, and they wanted political power, so they risked insulting Yahweh and made Saul king. Saul didn’t work out, but his successor David was a huge hit. David was one king, one brief moment of peace, and then it all crashed. By Jesus’ time, the Jews regretted all this. They came to think that their helplessness was payback. The Jews were helpless, and it was their own fault.

You can’t understand what a savior means until you need saving yourself.

The Spirit of Christmas isn’t about giving presents. It isn’t about warm wishes and sentimental gush. It isn’t about families gathered around a fireplace, spending one day posing as Hallmark people. It isn’t about football, or eating large birds, or winter sugar treats. It isn’t about tolerance.

The Spirit of Christmas is about being saved. It’s about feeling guilty and helpless, and reaching up with open arms, pleading for rescue. It’s about hitting rock bottom. It’s about moral exhaustion. It’s about knowing that much stronger people surround you, and they enjoy kicking you where it hurts. The Christmas Spirit is about finally realizing that no matter how clever, how compassionate, how handsome, how educated, how rich, or how well connected, the bad guys are stronger. You can’t win. They’re just too strong. The Romans win because they don’t care about you, and they don’t hesitate if they think they can gain any small advantage. They’ll kill you if they feel like it, and you can't stop it. Like it or not, you can’t win on your own.

Once you grasp that spirit, and you hit rock bottom, what can you do?

(1) We admitted we were powerless --that our lives had become unmanageable. (2) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. (3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Dickens understood the Christmas Spirit. Think of Scrooge in the graveyard, seeing his own grave, weeping, and begging the dark spirit to give him one more chance. What had Scrooge experienced?

(4) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (5) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (6) Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. (7) Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

The spirit of Christmas is forgiveness. When we realize how weak we are, we beg for a savior. The savior comes, not to defeat the bullies and rescue us from the strong, but to rescue us from ourselves. God didn’t come as a general; he came as an innocent child. We don’t receive power and strength to make war on our enemies; we simply receive forgiveness.

Scrooge immediately went out to all the people he’d harmed. He brought gifts to Bob Cratchett’s house and took care of Tiny Tim, but most importantly, he asked their forgiveness. He returned to his nephew and repented. The Christmas Spirit wasn’t about merely gifts; the gifts had a purpose to them. What, do you suppose, was that purpose?

(8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. (9) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

The spirit of Christmas isn’t about giving at all. The Christmas spirit is entirely about receiving; not gifts, but forgiveness. Before Christmas, we come to see how weak we are in this world. When Christmas comes, we don’t get any stronger. The Romans don’t go away. Death will still come for Ebenezer Scrooge. We remain as weak after Christmas as we were before it. But strength isn’t the point of Christmas; forgiveness is. That’s why, whatever we do, we need to keep asking for forgiveness.

(10) Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. (11) Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. (12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Let it be said of us, then, what Dickens said of Scrooge: “it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

 

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News:  New Audio CD - Embracing The Stillness - Lessons In Meditation

 

Embracing The Stillness is a collection of meditation techniques explained and practiced with the Director of The Conscious Living Foundation, William Simpson.

It contains the following tracks:

  1. Discovering The Purpose of Our Lives  (2:29)
  2. How To Meditate  (3:22)
  3. Meditation on a Devotional Phrase  (11:01)
  4. Affirmation for Relaxation and Happiness  (6:45)
  5. Learning the Technique of Meditating on Om  (5:46)
  6. Meditation on Chanting Om  (6:25)
  7. Affirmation for Health, Wealth and Wisdom  (8:28)
  8. Sitting in the Stillness  (3:31)
  9. Affirmation for Perfection, Immortality and Light  (11:25)
  10. Visualization and Prayer for Others  (2:44)
  11. What We Believe  (1:31)

"There is an essential part of our being which exists beyond thought and feeling - pure awareness.  When we can remain present, alert and calm, we discover the fertile ground upon which we can plant the seeds of immediate growth, positive change and joy". 

William Simpson -
from "Embracing The Stillness"

To hear some sample selections from this new recording, click Here.

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Essay:  The Origin of "The 12 Days of Christmas"
 

 

 

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