Auspicious Thoughts, Propitious Mind

Richard Camden

Description

This book is an enjoyable read possibly different to any kind of book the reader has ever experienced. It is an intriguing commentary on life that begs to be re-read, studied and retained for reference, and for others in the family to read and think about the way we live, our relationships, hopes and fears, and making decisions work, as well as asking; how is it some just seem to sail through life?' It is about why we should rein in thoughts and feelings before they take control, interfere and misdirect our lives, and about our habits and customs that betray our basic animal origins, and our primitive tribal instincts that drive us in everything, including that inborn, primordial instinct that asks, is there an after-life? For both believers and non-believers, this book offers a tantalising explanation of what is God, a precise definition of love, and why Satan does not exist. Here is down-to-earth food for the soul, a practical philosophy for contentment. It is for anyone with a yearning and enquiring mind on many matters of importance in their life, and a comfort to those who worry or are just curious to understand life, others and themselves better.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: Brown Dog Books
• Date de parution: 27 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781839520587
• Langue: English

Extrait

AUSPICIOUS THOUGHTS, PROPITIOUS MIND
First published 2019
Copyright © Richard Camden 2019
The right of Richard Camden to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Published under licence by Brown Dog Books and The Self-Publishing Partnership, 7 Green Park Station, Bath BA1 1JB
www.selfpublishingpartnership.co.uk
ISBN printed book: 978-1-83952-057-0
ISBN e-book: 978-1-83952-058-7
Cover design by Kevin Rylands
Internal design by Andrew Easton
Printed and bound in the UK
This book is printed on FSC certified paper
AUSPICIOUS THOUGHTS, PROPITIOUS MIND
Auspicious: conducive to success Propitious: giving a good chance of success
RICHARD CAMDEN
To the memory of my father ,
we affectionately called ‘The Oracle’
AUSPICIOUS THOUGHTS, PROPITIOUS MIND – THE PARTS AND THEIR CHAPTERS
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE – A FORCEFUL LIFE
1. A Meaning and Purpose to Life
2. Forces Visible and Invisible
3. Life Force
4. ‘There Isn’t a God’
PART TWO – IN THE MOOD
5. Morbid Fears
6. The National Mood
7. Man an Island
8. Taken in Drink
9. The Voyage of Life
PART THREE – ALL THAT WE ARE
10. Our Relationships
11. On Bonding
12. Decisions
13. That Big Sin, Those Big Sins
14. Uncommon Sense
15. On Genius
16. Co-Habiting Nations
PART FOUR – OUR NUMBER HAS COME UP
17. Three Is a Good Number
18. And so is Number Five
19. The Deadly Seven
20. Eight Is a Beautiful Number
21. The Ten Commandments
22. The Dozen
PART FIVE – WHAT HAPPENED ALONG THE ROAD
23. Hate
24. Violence
25. It’s All About Sects
26. A Man of War
27. Leaders and Heroes
PART SIX – CAN WE SPARE A MOMENT?
28. The Tractable Mind
29. Logic and Reasoning
30. Their Causes
31. The Noes and The Don’t Knows
32. The Divine Truth
33. An Episcopal Liturgy – Yes, Your Worship
34. The Lord’s Prayer
PART SEVEN – WOULD THAT WE WERE
35. On a Simple Life, For the Pocket
36. Honour
37. Trust Me
38. In for a Penny – In for a Pound
39. On with Exercise
40. Time Like an Ever-Rolling Stream
Epilogue
PREFACE
To have a disposition means a person’s inherent qualities of mind and character. Our character is determined by our inner moral values, and our personality reflects what we’re like as an individual, and the positive or negative way we view the world. If we are cheerful, we’re often said to have a sunny disposition, which, when taken in the best sense, needs a sound mind; and a sound mind is that state of a person’s mind which is adequate to reason and comes to a judgement upon ordinary subjects, like other rational people. In law, our sound mind is the state of mind of a person which is sufficient to reason and reach a judgement upon ordinary subjects, like other rational persons. There is a presumption of law that every person who has acquired full age is of sound mind, and therefore is competent to make contracts and perform all civil duties.
It is difficult to say whom this book is for, or indeed, if it is for anyone specifically at all; or perhaps more grammatically expressed, we should say, for whom this book is written, whereby it is implied, as sine qua non, that they would read it. One may write a book with the intention that others, even many others, will want to read it; or a book may be written just to get something down on paper, to get it off one’s chest, so to speak. In a way, this book is written as if the words could be contemporaneous notes, a record for what any man or woman of today may be saying.
As sentient creatures, we all are capable of some useful degree of perceptiveness, and that degree can be heightened by informed contemplation; informed perhaps by some of the aspects within these writings. And those who become experts at informed contemplation may even find their curiosity can be somewhat requited and so add that to their perception.
The book’s title was chosen because it suggests aspects of eudaemonia (Aristotle), meaning achieving the best conditions possible for us, in every sense – not only happiness, but also virtue, morality, and a meaningful life; and also aspects of a practical philosophy that can encourage an adroit and practical worldliness, a certain ‘savoir faire’ in matters of the heart and mind. Some thoughts are expressed here, some opinions mooted, some questions posed; some provoking questions as well as provoking answers are offered, as well as some generally held attitudes and beliefs challenged. Some readers may see a touch of satire and what may be accepted as wit.
It can be both evocative and provocative; can appeal to any philosophical turn of mind in us, perhaps even question the psychology of our thoughts, our way of thinking, our beliefs and those subsequent actions, not only as individuals, but also for groups and nations. It can interest the secular, the humanists and the believers. Having read, some may think, ‘Yes, I agree with that,’ or ‘No, I don’t,’ or ‘I didn’t know that,’ and ‘I wonder if this author is right about that?’ It may also serve as peripheral reading for students of psychology and philosophy, but if the professors didn’t like that, and in despite of that, the students could still go and read it.
This book can be viewed as a study, a treatise, to be considered with some degree of serious application. Some apology is made for using unusual words, even words with scientific origin. The English language has very many words that lie unused as unpopular, not taught in schools, not spoken on TV or in films, in case the viewers and readers are left in some bemusement or some ignorance of the meaning of the script or text, and so feel cheated in the pocket for what they have paid out for some entertainment. These days it is easy to ‘Google’ a word whilst reading, to get the full depth of the meaning an author wishes to convey, and that is so here, with this book.
The author uses the full range of words at an author’s command, be it English, French or Latin or whatever, believing that words can give a text a more full meaning to the reader if used as they should be, else why else are they there, in the vocabulary, and yeah, even in the dictionary, else they will be lost to the language? Readers may get more from this book, then, if they have a tablet alongside and search online dictionaries for their interpretation of words found unfamiliar in meaning. Or, if keen still, but struggling, the tablet alongside could also be a paracetamol, to be taken with a glass of water.
Is this a book to read and then give to the Scouts’ used book sale? If that is to be inevitable, then before that, it is hoped a reader will find within its pages something to chew on, to ponder over, before rushing, or perhaps wearily plodding, onto the next chapter; but then at least one would be able to say honestly at dinner parties, ‘Yes, I have read it.’ As a collection of interrelated, correlated thoughts with some non sequiturs thrown in, some might want to discuss it. Some never seem to want to discuss what they have read, unless pushed, and there are others who find stimulation in almost everything they read and are often very ready, keen even, to discuss the book with someone, usually someone of a similar intellect.
The thoughts that began the process towards this book began to be compiled in the late 1950s, when ‘A penny for them’, meant ‘A penny for your thoughts’ – an often used expression – that you wanted to engage in conversation with someone who was obviously deep in thought, but you didn’t want to intrude to any great degree; so you offered just a penny, and not ten pounds. Which prompts the question of what price do we put on peace of mind, or on knowledge and wisdom; and it will become the reader’s choice to say whether there is any of that in these pages.
There will be many instances in these chapters where the word ‘man’ is taken to mean mankind, and it is hoped that the intelligent female reader will not endeavour to deny the history in which men were, by some sort of evolution, probably due to physical strength and brutish roughness, due to testosterone, the first, the prime, if we are allowed that word, movers and shakers of history; the rulers, for the most part, and yet, when it suited man, they fell back on their undenied acknowledgement that when a man wasn’t available, such as a king, a woman could do the job just as well, and there are many examples to illustrate that. No, it’s mainly a biological thing: women bore and raised the children, for their confinement at term took them out of the loop, and so men generally held the reins of power, at the top and in all the seams through society.
But today things are very different, and women assume their rightful place alongside men, taking it in turns to hold the reins, and society is the better for it. However, history pops up and it is that history that is inevitably alluded to here, in these chapters, from time to time. And of course, if the word ‘man’ is written specifically to refer to the male sex, that will be made clear, otherwise man and mankind means men and women and humankind. There is no need for anyone to get upset, certainly no need to start stuttering and spluttering imprecations, if there seems to be any bias to one or the other; that just isn’t meant, just isn’t there.
The learned with their erudition may read and regard all these lines from their magisterial height as just a homespun philosophy, and so, in saying that, aim to prove their worth, to earn their keep. For the clergy there are certain aspects in some chapters that they could well dismiss as ‘wrong thinking’ and throw it away, burn