Auspicious Thoughts, Propitious Mind

Intriguing down to earth practical philosophy that paints a perceptive view of what much of life is all about.

About The Book

'Auspicious Thoughts, Propitious Mind'

def: auspicious, propitious - likely to turn out well, on track, promising.
This book is about hearts and minds, thoughts and feelings, actions and words, and decisions and accountabilities. It is about our ideas, notions and motivations, and about those inevitable responsibilities. It is about life's challenges to be met with honed self-reliance, and our choices made that bring outcomes good and not so good. It is about our higher ideals that give us the will to live and live better, with or with any concerns about any after-life. It is about peace of mind, as we seek happiness and contentment.

Richard Camden begins his book by discussing the raw essence of life, its origins and its meaning and purpose, and what of our animal origins have survived in mankind today. In his second part, the reader's attention is drawn to our moods and how they influence our behaviour and the decisions we make. This leads on to the third part, called, 'All That We Are,' and looks at who and what we have evolved to become, our characteristics, as individuals and our interactions as groups and nations.

In his fourth part, the author broaches the subject of a moral compass, and highlights some of the well-known guidelines from the scriptures looking at their relevance today. In the fifth part, 'Where Did It All Go Wrong,' the chapters look at man's ways of vindictiveness and ambition, that give others a bumpy ride through life. Our reactions and accommodations to that are explained in the sixth part that sets out how we can use our minds in a flexible way, especially regarding the causes and faiths we choose to adopt. In his final part, Richard encourages readers to keep life simple and always aim for a sound mind and healthy body.

Beautifully presented in hard cover, this book makes good reading, and is also available in e-book format. Aimed particularly at those with plenty of life still to be led, it is a cheering, thought-provoking and intriguingly different book. Due to its considerable useful content, it will be meaningful to those in business and in HR work. It begs to be 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?'
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Genre

This is a book of mixed genres. It is a work that can be a basis for self-development, being an initiation into some of life's challenges, realities and oddities. Included are aspects of the humanities, psychology, philosophy, sociology and religion; all simply expressed in practical every-day terms. The author, Richard Camden expresses the metaphysics of the power of goodness as one of nature's forces, the force that influences our lives towards happiness and fulfilment (Eudaimonia). He looks at relationships and how our beliefs influence our conduct and how our behaviour patterns, not only as individuals, but in groups and even as nations, reflect the character traits inherited down through the centuries from our primitive ancestors.
This work will be useful for students and others keen to know more on these subjects and as a vade mecum, a handy companion.

About The Author

Richard’s perception was acquired at the School of Experience, and now of an age in his 80's, ranks as a graduate of the University of Life. But in this fast-changing world, has any of that any value still? Only the reader can decide the answer to that. Although a Christian by faith, Richard says he remains deeply suspicious of religion and religious practices.

In his book, Richard offers the reader a line of thinking that is akin to the time-served commuter, the passenger habitually referred to as 'The Man on the Clapham Omnibus.' That person, he or she, is a notion adopted by the courts as a legal-fiction to help the court arrive at a judgement on what can justly and reasonably be expected of anyone's conduct in their dealings in life; that person being a fair and average person of sound mind. Richard's book aims to reflect the down-to-earth, common sense practicality and pragmatism of that person; but there are times when Richard’s alter ego asks a question that neither he, nor life, as yet, have an answer.

Richard's interest in the 'psychology of self' began in his 50s. He researched the subject further and began compiling notes for his book just prior to the new millennium. It was completed and published 20 years later, in 2019. Richard draws on his life's career of working with people and their animals as a veterinarian. His real-life experiences come from being an employer and founding partner of a professional partnership that became an SME of up to fifty staff of young men and women. He was able to observe their tribulations and worries, their stresses, marriage and relationship breakdown, even, sadly life’s disasters of divorce, miscarriage, abortion and suicide; and for him, all that, plus the worldly issues of Employment Law, and Health & Safety matters as they developed between the thirty years from 1970. Richard is a Facebook and Twitter user but not avidly so. Readers are welcome to follow and share his posts. There are links here.

Read Auspicious Thoughts, Propitious Mind

Auspicious Thoughts, Propitious Mind is for those who worry or are just curious to understand life, others and themselves better, and for those whose role it is to help them achieve that.

This book can help satisfy a yearning and enquiring mind on many matters of importance in the reader’s life.

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The Humanities

When we look into ourselves as individuals and as societies, the how and why of language, religion, nations and their history of war and peace, the role of philosophy, psychology, literature, music and the arts, these are the humanities. Many of our behavioural characteristics today still derive from our animal origins, and it is our prehistoric tribal instincts that drive our societal organisations, our businesses, and all the associations, clubs, cults and sects we choose to belong to. Our needs for comfort and to feel safe are also primeval, and those needs feed our acquisitiveness.

Apart from the invisible forces in the world such as gravity and magnetism, there is an empowering force that is universally available for us to draw upon, for a sense of the right, and of the just, and for anyone seeking betterment, enlightenment or just peace of mind. To atheists and believers alike, this force may be simply acknowledged as 'goodness,' but there is a need for a wider awareness and recognition of its existence and its power, especially the world leaders working for peace.

The book raises the matter of our existence, and the metaphysical concepts of religion in such a way that anyone may see more clearly what does, and what does not make sense to them about life's complexities and absurdities, witnessed every day, all around us, and in the world. This is a compendium of practical philosophy, a 'pocket' companion that the reader can enjoy and turn to again and again on their travels through life.

Only a very few special people in our life will ever be worthy of our trust. And when we have placed that trust, is all then well?

What is it, in essence, that separates us from the animals? It surely is, in all essence, ‘The gift of imagination and the means to communicate it.’

There’s a downside to just about every splendid invention, not intrinsic but extrinsic by the machinations and perversions of mankind.

We have two minds, each mostly doing their own job, but with overlap, and with an agreed position on which mind overrules the other, when ‘needs must’.

It’s best for us all if we say, ‘There is no such thing as fate, and no force for evil, and certainly no such thing as an honour killing!'

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Book data – ISBN – Copywrite – 40 chapters/preface/intro/epilogue – 500 pp. – 210,000 words - 20 years in writing