Practical Steps To Greater      Peace, Hope, Love                  And Joy    
   
 
 
 
 
 


October 31 , 2005

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Welcome to Conscious Living, our newsletter 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.

We want to create a newsletter, website and products that will serve you.  Please email us your comments and suggestions.

William Simpson
Director
Contents:    

News:  New Section of Web Site - Free Family Classics Audio Selections

 Because of the continuing popularity of our free e-book sections, we have now added a free Family Audio Classics section to the site as well.  The audio files, in MP3 format, are a collection of radio programs from the past, and include such selections as:   Treasure Island, King Lear, A Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo, Abraham Lincoln, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre, Around The World in 80 Days and many others!  Most episodes last approximately 1 hour each.

We will continue to add audio files that we believe provide wholesome entertainment while modeling positive choices and values.  Now you have the opportunity to "gather the family and sit around the radio together" and share in the adventure and fun!  Click Here to visit the Family Audio Classics page.


News:  Free Ongoing Friday Night Meditation Workshops in Glendale, CA

William Simpson, Director of The Conscious Living Foundation, and author of From The Path - Verses on the Mystic Journey, is offering an ongoing Meditation Workshop every Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Glendale, California.  For directions, send an email to:  .

 

News:  New Section Added To Site - Free Audio Classics For Children

In addition to the Family Audio Classics Section described above, we have also added a very large collection of free audio files just for children.  Each episode runs approximately 30 minutes and includes such titles as:  The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and His Magic Lamp, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Puss and Boots, Cinderella, Robin Hood, Beauty and the Beast, King Arthur, Hansel and Gretel, King Midas, Sleeping Beauty, The Emperor's New Clothes and many, many more!  Click Here to visit the Audio Classics For Children page.

 

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Inspiring Quotations -

"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god."  

                               William Shakespeare

 We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

                               Talmudic saying

 The Self cannot be known by the senses,
Nor thought by the mind, nor caught by time.
If you know this, you will not grieve.

                                Bhagavad Gita

 To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think, is to weave them into garlands.

                               Anne Sophie Swetchine

 Knowing means to penetrate through the surface, in order to arrive at the roots, and hence the causes; knowing means to "see" reality in its nakedness. Knowing does not mean to be in the possession of the truth; it means to penetrate the surface and to strive critically and actively in order to approach truth ever more closely.

                              Erich Fromm

We imagine that our mind is a mirror, that it is more or less accurately reflecting what is happening outside us. On the contrary, our mind itself is the principal element of creation. The world, while I am perceiving it, is being incessantly created for myself in time and space.

                            Rabindranath Tagore

For a large variety of inspiring quotations, click Here.

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A Story:  Relativity                                         by anonymous
One day, Timmy was talking to God.

"What's a thousand years like to you, God?" Timmy asked.

"Like a second," God replied.

"What's a million dollars like to you, God?" Timmy asked.

"Like a penny, Timmy," God replied.

"Hey, God," Timmy thoughtfully asked, "can I borrow a penny?"

"Sure," God replied. "Hold on a second."

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Forum:  Share With Us - The Single Most Important Thing In Your Spiritual Life -

There are many in our Conscious Living Foundation community who have expressed a desire to have more contact with others who are attempting to live their lives in a more conscious way.  There are great blessings in giving and receiving our inspiration and insight. 

One way in which we can do this is through participation in CLF's Forum.  Here, we can leave messages for each other, confident that as we share our thoughts, needs and experiences, we will be understood, encourages and appreciated.  We all learn from each other - each has wisdom and love to impart.  We are all teachers and all students on the path of our lives.

Now, there is a specific way that you can easily participate in this exchange - Answer the question, "What is the single most important thing in my spiritual life?"  To share your answer or read the responses of others, just click Here.

Below is one of the first responses we received in answer to the question (Special thanks to Michelle):

 

For me, it's compassion. I've had to think a bit to put it all into words, but here's what I ended up with....

The word Compassion means "suffering with." When we feel compassion toward someone, we can have empathy with them...we can identify with their feelings, situation, motives....we can see and accept who they are.

In our interactions with other people, who after all are mirrors of ourselves, we should strive to be in a state of compassion. It's easy to connect with people who are not suffering, who are living life to the fullest, who have everything they need to satisfy their needs and desires. It's less easy to connect to people who have less. It's less easy to reach out to them on a personal level. Why is that? Is it because they mirror our shadow side, and we don't want to look at that, we don't want to identify with that?

Oh, we may donate to charities, and maybe even put in a couple hours a month or a week at a shelter for the homeless, but when was the last time we invited one of these people into our lives? When was the last time we offered to take them to lunch (as opposed to giving them money to buy a meal), sat and talked...really talked, shared information and understanding...with one who is less fortunate than we are?

Why is it that it is easier to show compassion in a time of crisis than in a time of not-crisis? Is it because we are usually one of many responding to those in crisis, sort of one cell in a larger compassionate being? It may be easier because we are that one-step removed; we are a nameless face in the crowd; the shadow side isn't ours, its everyone's. We don't have to see it as a reflection of us, it's a reflection of someone else, we're just helping out in a pinch.

The thing we often don't realize is that, for whatever reason, we do find it easier to offer compassion to others than we find it to be compassionate with ourselves. When we do offer compassion to others, that opens a doorway to our Self. Our Self steps through that doorway into the world of the other. Our Self than can empathize and understand that other person. It's more difficult to turn around and walk back through that door, back into our Self, and retain that compassion for what we find within. However, the more frequently we do return through that door, the more we find it possible to be compassionate to ourselves.

We tend to be hard on ourselves. I believe this is why we avoid looking at that shadow side; not because we know we won't like what we see, but because we know we should work to change it. We don't want to change, change is hard, it will turn us into someone else. Strangely enough, we tend to be pretty territorial with our problems. We don't want to change, but we do expect everyone around us to accommodate us while we securely hold to our problems and phobias.

If we could go that extra step with ourselves, be as compassionate and understanding with ourselves as we know we can be with others, I believe we can not only deal effectively with our shadow side, but help others to deal with theirs, also. The more we help them, the more we help ourselves, the more we can help them, and so on and so on. It certainly brings to the light the idea that we are all One. We might even make the world a better place some day!



Another Response From Our Forum Question - The Most Important Thing - Blessing

(Special thanks to LightSeeker)

When I found this a couple of months ago, it made a significant shift in my life.

The Gentle Art of Blessing
Pierre Pradervand

On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all.

On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play, bless them. The peace of your blessing will accompany them on their way and the aura of its gentle fragrance will be a light to their path.

On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their health, their work, their joy, their relationships to God, themselves, and others. Bless them in their abundance, their finances...bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but one day will spring forth as flowers of joy in the waste places of your own life.

As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers, its nurses and street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priests and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them
totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which protects them from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you.

To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total, unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest wellspring in the innermost chamber of your heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe that which is always a gift from the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is set aside, consecrated, holy, whole. To bless is to invoke divine care upon, to think or speak gratefully for, to confer happiness upon - although we ourselves are never the bestower, but simply the joyful witnesses of Life's abundance.

To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate form of giving, because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray of sun that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.

When something goes completely askew in your day, some unexpected event knocks down your plans and you too also, burst into blessing: for life is teaching you a lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted, you yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson you might balk against were you not to bless it. Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels follow in their path.

To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes; it is to activate that law of attraction which, from the furthest reaches of the universe, will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy.

When you pass a prison, mentally bless its inmates in their innocence and freedom, their gentleness, pure essence and unconditional forgiveness; for one can only be prisoner of one's self-image, and a free man can walk unshackled in the courtyard of a jail, just as citizens of countries where freedom reigns can be prisoners when fear lurks in their thoughts.

When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present wholeness, for even in their suffering, this wholeness awaits in them to be discovered. When your eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by life, bless him in his vitality and joy: for the material senses present but the inverted image of the ultimate splendor and perfection which only the inner eye beholds.

It is impossible to bless and to judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall, everywhere, behold the very face of God.

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A Poem by William Simpson -

Affliction And Indifference -

Everywhere on this blue-green planet
Life is teeming with
Labor and play,
Affliction and indifference.

Somewhere in a trash-littered alley
Cracked concrete and wet cardboard providing a pillow,
Lies a brother wearing the dull threadbare coat of despair.

If my joy in Thee does not include
Comforting and care for him
To what end is my joy known?

Somewhere in a small arid village
Cracked sun-parched clay providing a pillow,
A small sunken-eyed child is wearily starving to death.

If my love-delight in Thee does not include
Nurturing and protection for her
To what end is my love known?

Somewhere in a smoky shout-filled street
Cracked upturned earth and shards of metal providing a pillow,
Lies a torn soldier, eyes lost in the shock of  death’s last tremor.

If my tears of tender sympathy for Thee do not include
Consolation and practical succor for him
To what end is my sympathy known?

Everywhere on this blue-green planet
Life is teeming with
Labor and play,
Affliction and indifference.

(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



News:  New Audio CD - Byways To Blessedness by James Allen (4 CD Set)

 Many of our members and visitors are familiar with the James Allen's classic book "As A Man Thinketh".  This is Mr. Allen's most popular book and is a wonderful introduction to his view of the power of thoughts, words and actions.  For those who have not read it, it is available in the "E-Books" section of our website at no charge.  We also offer an audio version of the book Here.

However, the most complete expression of his approach to living is contained in his masterwork "Byways To Blessedness".  This book is the most complete, detailed and in-depth expression of James Allen’s inspirational vision of the path to conscious evolution.  As "As A Man Thinketh" was the introductory course to his thoughts and wisdom, "Byways To Blessedness" is James Allen's Master's thesis. 

This four CD unabridged recording contains the keys to personal happiness, prosperity, health and spiritual growth. 

We can understand in a deeper way, James Allen's insightful ideas and encouragement within such chapters as:  

  • Transcending Difficulties and Perplexities

  • Burden Dropping

  • Hidden Sacrifices

  • Sympathy

  • Standing Alone

  • Forgiveness

  • Seeing No Evil

  • Abiding Joy

  • Silentness

  • Solitude

  • Right Beginnings

  • Happy Endings


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

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News:  New Audio CD - Discovering Spirit - Informal Talks and Guided Meditation (2 CD Set)

 

Discovering Spirit is an inspirational collection of informal talks and a relaxing guided meditation with the Director of The Conscious Living Foundation, William Simpson.

Topics include: "God Is Within", "What Do We Do When We're Not Meditating?", "Perspective On The Path", "God's Forgiveness and Non-Judgment", "Sitting In The Stillness", "How To Practice Affirmations" and "The Nature of God".

"If we can free ourselves from this conception that God has a measuring tape with him all the time... it limits our understanding of the true nature of God as sweetness, as comfort, as compassion, as love.  God knows every single act we have ever undertaken... every thought we've ever had - every feeling, every emotion.  And yet, with all that awareness, with all that knowledge, God's only response is love.  Because God knows our true nature... And all these mistakes we make, are merely superficial coverings that will be washed away.  Our essence has been, is, and will be, ever unchanging light, love, joy, awareness and bliss."

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

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Article:  Happy and Healthy Thoughts                      by Anonymous

 

You can't have a feeling without first having a thought. Most of us have talked to ourselves in such negative ways for years we actually start to believe we are nothing. About a year and a half ago I started to really "listen" to how I talked to myself. I was shocked. No wonder I was depressed and felt I didn't deserve to live. It took great effort to overcome my negative thought patterns.

This list of Happy and Healthy Thoughts was my starting point. Reading this daily was like taking baby steps. However, as I practiced daily reading and reinforcing new thought patterns I began to feel better. I posted a copy on my refrigerator, in the bathroom and I still carry a copy in my Daytimer. Now, when I catch myself "dumping" on me, I try to correct those self-defeating thoughts.

Read this everyday. Post them where you can see them. Carry a copy in your organizer, purse or pocket. It will lift your spirits.

1. I am a unique and precious human being, always doing the best I can, always growing in wisdom and love.

2. I don't need to prove myself to anyone, not even to myself, for I know that I am perfectly fine as I am.

3. I make my own decisions and assume responsibility for any mistakes. However, I refuse to feel shame or guilt about them. I do the best I can, and this 100 percent is good enough.

4. I am not my actions, I am the actor. My actions may be good or bad. That does not make me good or bad.

5. Whenever I am tempted to punish myself, I remember to be kind and gentle instead. I know that in order to be the best I can be, I need forgiveness and understanding.

6. I know that it is okay to need. I try to keep in touch with my needs so that I can respond to them.

7. I know that others cannot be expected to read my mind or to guess my needs. In fairness to them and to me, I ask for what I need.

8. I deserve to be appreciated. When others show their appreciation, I embrace it with open arms. I never try to deny or diminish my value.

9. I live one day at a time and do first things first.        

10. I take great pride in what I do, in what I value and in the way I live for I truly believe in myself.

11. My mistakes and nonsuccess do not make me a louse, a failure, or whatever. They only prove that I am imperfect, that is human. It is wonderful to be human.

12. I love myself, absolutely and unconditionally, for that is what I truly need and deserve.

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News:  New Audio Book CD - "The World As I See It" by Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was one of the most influential men of the 20th century.  In addition to his fundamental contributions to Physics, he also modeled behaviors and attitudes of humanism and non-violence that continue to inspire at the beginning of the 21st century.
 

Some of his thoughts on spirituality:

"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details."

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

The topics of his talks include:

"The World As I See It"               "Religion and Science"                  
"Good and Evil"                             "Paradise Lost"
"Education and Educators"            "Society and Personality"
"Impressions of America"              "Wealth and Education"
"Peace"                                         "Students and Disarmament"
"Letter To Sigmund Freud"            "Arnold Berliner's 70th Birthday"

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Holiday Discounts Through December 26th -

We are offering discounts on many of our products through the holidays.  Now's a great time to purchase gifts that will inspire and uplift your loved ones through out the years.  You'll find our holiday and combination discounts scattered throughout our products catalog - especially in the Audio Books and Audio Guides To Growth sections.

 

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All Contents Copyrighted, 2005, The Conscious Living Foundation