Life as you Give It E-Book

Louis Condé

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Experience the life-changing power of Louis Condé with this unforgettable book.

Leseprobe

Life as you Give It

Louis Condé

CONTENTS

Foreword

How to Attain Happiness

Mind Development: Emancipation from Human Miseries

Co-operation between Employer and Employee

Power of Suggestion

Thought Vibrations

Birth of a New Era

Selected Gems from Lahissa’s Teachings

FOREWORD

This book consists of seven talks by Lahissa, better known as Dr. Louis Conde, and one section of selections, short pas­sages taken from many of his talks. Throughout the text there are also some excerpts from his lessons on Mental- Spiritual Development. The seven talks were given between 1927 and 1931, the last years of the speaker’s life. The Gems were selected from talks given during that same period; and to the best of our knowledge, the thoughts included in these Gems are the very ones he stressed during all his years of teaching.

Doctor Conde was an independent teacher, lecturer and world traveler, a pioneer in the mental-spiritual field, and the material in these pages was selected for its application to the present day.

For over half a century, without affiliation with any or­ganization or institution, Doctor Conde devoted his life to service to mankind—uplifting them to higher channels of thought. His work was for all, regardless of color, creed or social status. Turning his back on all opportunities for a career for personal gain, he went about teaching the laws and realities of life and exemplified his teachings in his own experiences. He helped people to understand and to help themselves, inspiring happier and more useful lives. He helped those who came with their problems and ailments, broken in mind and body. Instinctively he was called “Doc­tor,” and this title remained with him through all his life.

This uncommonly common man lived side by side with

people in all walks of life; he assumed different roles for periods of time in order better to understand people and to teach them in their own language—his was never academic parlance. The many illustrations used in this text are the real stories of people who came to him for advice and help. Backed by his vast experience and deep insight, his teachings were given on his own authority, acknowledging none other than the Supreme Source of all knowledge, the Universal Intelligence, or God.

These talks were recorded in shorthand and transcribed by the editor who was Doctor Conde’s secretary; her sister, the co-editor, has contributed much in helping to arrange and complete this work.

In appreciation of the opportunity we had of studying personally with this teacher-philosopher and of serving him the last few years of his earthly life, we are presenting this book with the sincere wish that all who read it may receive the enlightenment and help which we and thousands of others have derived from these masterful teachings. Other interesting and varied subjects will be published later.

Louis Conde—Lahissa, originally from inner spiritual Ti­bet, came to the Western world and to the United States to pioneer a new era, the era of man’s full consciousness of the power within him—the power of thought.

“His power is unlimited,” he said in Boston in 1875. “As a man thinks, so he can do; what seems impossible today is possible tomorrow. Man will be able to go around the earth in the flash of a moment; he will be able to go from here to any of the planets, to use forces of which the human mind hasn’t the least conception as yet.” With these statements always came the warning that man must use his powers con­structively or he would pay the price.

Many of the natural laws which the author-speaker pre­sented to the scientific world in his early teachings have gradually been unraveled, and still others he gave remain to be discovered. One may well imagine the reaction when, at the time electricity was beginning to be better understood, he said: “All things contain that force which is called elec­tricity; electricity is only directed vibrations; and all matter is concentrated vibrations.”

Or when he said that “life is present everywhere and all planets have life.”

Doctor Conde was much ridiculed when, before the dawn of the twentieth century, he said: “There is enough energy in one grain of sand so that if it were to be released suddenly, it would tear the world asunder,” but after these many years, the enormous potential power of the atom has been tapped.

He was ahead of his time when he referred to diseases as reflections of the mind; and to mental lethargy as the worst disease of all; and when he explained evolutionary reincar­nation—even thought vibrations, years before those expres­sions had been heard of. These and many others of his New Teachings fell like bombshells into the stagnant thought of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, bringing the sure reaction of persecution to the teacher.

Ignoring all opposition, this genuine pioneer went tirelessly and fearlessly on, planting seeds of mental-spiritual under­standing. Nor did persecutions ever cease—they continued to the end—for this teacher of men, who was continually at war with intolerance and selfishness. He openly exposed existing conditions wherever he found them enslaving instead of enlightening the people. Though the simple truths Doctor Conde gave were resisted during his lifetime, in recent years they have become more and more understood, until now many of the things he talked about are commonly accepted.

The keynote of his message, as will be seen in the pages of this book, is the Law of Compensation in its broad sense— that “as you give to life and your fellowman, so shall you receive from life and your fellowman”; that unselfish love, tolerance and forgiveness are not only words to be heard from the platform but are prerequisites to health and happi­ness; that in order to gain wisdom, one must seek Truth and Understanding. He worked for a greater rapprochement between peoples and nations; he envisioned the assimilation of all religions into the Brotherhood of Man.

Though many of the worthwhile things that Doctor Conde stood for and fought for have not as yet come to pass, there has been a great awakening of thought, and vast strides in human progress have been made in the past three-quarters of a century. But progress has gone too far on the materi­alistic side at the expense of the spiritual, and the present need is for greater spiritual development. It is left for all of us who are interested in the unfoldment of that which is beautiful and best in mankind to stress the importance of the spiritual values of life—those the speaker talks about in these pages.

For, as he stated: “Real progress along the physical- material plane cannot be made without there being first progress along the spiritual as well—for the spiritual, or mental, always dominates the physical.”

How to Attain Happiness

The law governing attainment of Happiness is very sim­ple, the same as the Law governing Health. It is: Forget your­self Your great handicaps to happiness are thoughts of self, the fears of self, the fears of the game of life, the fears of what may be in the future through experiences in the past.

The handicaps to your happiness are the capital sins: Self­ishness! Greed! Hatred! Envy! Jealousy! Pretenses! Those are your handicaps to happiness!

Living-in-the-past or living-in-the-future is a handicap to happiness. Live now), continually now—not speculating in possibilities or daydreaming all kinds of beautiful things for yourself. Keep your mind concentrated on what you are do­ing now: on being of service to your fellowman, on giving happiness unselfishly to everyone you come in contact with, whether you get happiness from it or not. That is the key to your happiness.

My dear people, you are all seeking—every human being is seeking—something; but they don’t know what it is. What they are seeking is Happiness. That is what they are all searching for, and to me it is pitiful to see them trying to find it all kinds of ways but the right way.

They think, “Money will give me happiness.” No! No! What does it profit a man if he has gained the wealth of the world but he does not have happiness—he does not have health! What does he have?

Many possessions do not give happiness. You know the old story of the mendicant sitting on the sidewalk. When the king came by and offered to change places with him, the mendicant told the king that he did not wish to make the ex­change, for he had what the king could never have—free­dom and happiness.

These good times, as you call it, of excesses, do not give happiness to you. The Law of Compensation is ever there: if you over-seek pleasure, you have a reaction from it. If you go to dances and the like until four or five o’clock in the morning, and you have to go to work at eight, then you pay the price. One is at the expense of the other one: you are not able to do your work, and you are bound to be a failure. If you drink, and drink to excess to forget your troubles and unhappinesses, when you wake up in the morning with a headache, it is still unhappiness—even worse unhappiness. Frivolities do not give you happiness. You must find relaxa­tions, yes! I do not say to you that you must go through life with a long face. No! I do say to you to seek your happiness —get it any way you can get it, so long as you do not hurt somebody else. No matter what you do, don’t go to excess.

Obey the physical, the material laws; obey the Spiritual Laws! You must be in harmony with both in order to get the most and the best out of life. But you will not find happiness by seeking it in nervous excitement; you will find it in love, kindness, service.

A little while ago I was talking to some youngsters at the back of this building, among them a young girl who was studying to be a journalist. I explained to her, “Now, little girl, in school you are getting journalistic theories of writing, and so forth, but after you are through school, you are only beginning. When you will buck the game of life—when you will come up with the realities of it, you will not have senti­ment, because you will see the realities, and realities have no sentiment. And when you will learn to play the game of life completely—to meet the tragedies of life completely—to know what it is all about—to know what is going on in this world, then you will start to learn, and you will start to be­come a journalist. But not until then. And if you apply your­self in your work completely, not daydreaming and building castles in the air; but doing something, facing the realities and the tragedies, seeking ways of helping and of changing them, then you will find happiness. Money will not give it to you.”

“Oh yes,” she said, “money will! Money will give you any­thing you want.”

“Oh no,” I replied, “money will not. When you don’t have it, you crave for it; then when you do have it, you want some more; and when you get some more, you are not contented but you want something else. So money does not mean much —it means but little.”

She finally came to the realization.

Every day people tell me, “Oh, if I had this man, if I could marry this man, I would be happy!” That is all a dream. Or, “Oh, if I owned my home, I would be happy.” No, you wouldn’t.

All those material things—those physical things—do not give you happiness or peace of mind. Happiness does not come from the outside. It comes from ‘within—the mental side, which is the spiritual side. You are either in heaven or in hell now. If you have happy thoughts, you are in heaven. If you have selfish thoughts, revengeful thoughts, hateful thoughts, you are in hell.

Happiness does not come from outside. It comes from the radiation within; and it is just as easy—it is easier—to have happy thoughts as it is to have miserable thoughts. It is easier to be kind than it is to be hard; and as I have told you at the beginning of this talk, it is those handicaps—the capital sins— that are really the cause of your own unhappiness. So unbur­den yourself of those handicaps.

Hatred! What good does it do you to hate anyone, no mat­ter what was done to you? If you keep on hating the person, you are sending out those vibrations. You are bound to speak them out, they are bound to get around to the person. And then the Law of Compensation comes in: as you give, so you receive. That person is going to do everything against you— creating more trouble and more unhappiness for you; but the moment you forget to hate that person, and you forgive, it is over with.

Gossip is another one of your faults. There is so much of it and it is so unnecessary. When you gossip, you are disturb­ing that smoothness, and those same vibrations come back to you.

When you have learned to make the most of now, to for­give and to forget no matter what is done to you, no matter what anyone says, when you have learned to be big enough to live your own life: to look things squarely in the face, ana­lyze them, see the best thing to do and do it, regardless of the thoughts or ideas of anyone, then, you are master. And when you are master of yourself, and of everything around you, then you are happy.

When you scatter sunshine and happiness around you, giving constructive suggestions—always something good— everyone likes you; they think a great deal of you, and at your time of need, they are there for you. And it is so easy to scatter happiness—so easy.

That reminds me of a girl in Mobile, Alabama. The Elks Club was having a baby show contest. That particular morn­ing, as I came by the square, I saw the girl in the contest office. I saw her with her handkerchief, wiping her eyes, with her head down on the desk; and I knew the girl was in distress—distress of soul. I walked in and stood by the desk. She looked up and said, “Oh, I beg your pardon.”

I said, “Yes, little girl, is this the baby contest show?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, weeping.

“Are you taking babies?” I asked.

“Yes, sir. Have you got a baby?”

“Oh, yes,” I told her, “I have. She is about this tall.” I in­dicated about five and a half feet. “She is a blonde, with blue eyes. She is very shapely and pretty, and I think she is the most beautiful baby you have seen.”

She looked at me oddly and said, “Oh, no! This is for little babies.”

Then she laughed. I looked at her and said, “Do you feel better, little girl?”

She looked at me surprised and said, “Why . . . yes.” “Fine! That is all I wanted. Good-bye.” And I walked out. After that, every time this girl would see me on the street at a distance, she would call, “Hello, Doctor, hello!” Several weeks later, she was waiting for a streetcar when I happened to come up. She said, “How do you do, Doctor Conde.” “How do you do, little girl.”

She stopped and asked, “Do you know what you did for me?”

I smiled and said, “Yes, I know.”

With thankfulness in her eyes, she told me that I had saved her life that morning. “When you came in,” she said, “I was ready to go and jump in the bay. I was desperate. Everything looked dark, but when you came in and made that joke”— because it was a joke, naturally, to make the girl come out of it—“it made me laugh; and somehow or other, it put new hopes in me that life was not so dreary and dark after all. It changed my attitude toward life completely, and what I thought was a tragedy is over with. I am happy now.”

Do you see how easy it is? It is so easy: forget yourself, forget to talk about yourself, to tell everybody your trou­bles. The more you talk about your troubles and about your miseries, about your tragedies, the more you are making yourself conscious of them and the more selfish you are. But when you are thinking of the other person, of everyone you meet, with the desire of helping them, not with charity, but through your words, through your actions, helping them to something better, you will have happiness yourself. That is the only way you can have it.

Do not pretend! Because when you pretend, you have to lie; and it takes more lies to cover that one lie. Then when you are found out, you are miserable; and you are tense all the time, afraid you will be found out. So be natural, be real, live a real life.

Do not cater to the pettiness of other people, don’t be a slave, don’t have an inferiority complex. Remember there is no human being who is better than any other human being or different from any other human being. You are all just as little grains of sand on the beach. So why feel inferior, or think that you have to cater to somebody else or live accord­ing to the ideas of somebody else? Think for yourself.

Don’t run away from handicaps—your mental handicaps. Meet them! Fight them! If you run away from a dog, that dog is going to grab you and get you. But if you meet that dog, he will come and sniff and then walk away. It is the same with your handicaps. If you walk away from them, they will overcome you; but when you meet them and see the picture of what you are with the handicaps, then you are ready to change.

It is those handicaps that are causing you a great many un­happy thoughts and those unhappy thoughts are due to self­ishness.

My dear people, what difference does it make what will happen tomorrow or next year to you? Why look forward to troubles when ninety-nine per cent never happen?

Instead of being conscious of trouble, forget it all, and ap­ply yourself to doing the best thing now, because it is now that counts and nothing else but now. Have an object to work for—something constructive—and put your effort to that now by doing something now about it. Then you won’t have disappointments; then you won’t have tragedies. I don’t think about whether I will be able to pay my bills next week or not—that doesn’t interest me at all. I am giving the best in me, right now. By doing that I know there will be some re­turns, and those returns will pay the bills. It is not worrying about it, not scheming all kinds of things, that will bring the money to pay those bills.

Look upon your experiences as fun, because life is a fight— it is a battle—and the one who fights and is game is the one who has happiness. He is doing something constructive, and when you are doing something constructive for yourself, you are doing something constructive for your fellowman.

Why dream of wanting this or of wanting that? Those are wasted thoughts, wasted energy; and whenever you waste, you pay the price. Use what you have now, but do not waste it. Use your brain, but do not waste it on unnecessary thoughts, because it will “get” you, it will sap you, it will weaken you. So why scatter your thoughts and do things that do not mean anything to you?

Forget sentiment! Forget ideals! There aren’t any. If you have sentiment and ideals, you are the one that gets your “bump,” because that is all sentiment and ideals are for! They are to cause you to have to sit down and face the reality, and it hurts. When you fall down, it hurts. When you are expect­ing all kinds of things for yourself, when you have ideas that people should be this way or that they should do that way, you are the one that is going to suffer from it. So do not have your thoughts on sentiment.

Love is not sentiment! What most of you call love is self­ishness. Real love is the love that wants the best for the other person and that will do anything to give happiness to the other person, to help that person go up, without thought of receiving anything in return! That is love.

Wives who come to me tell me eternally the same thing: “My husband does not love me anymore; he doesn’t make me happy.” I look at them and say, “Well, what are you giving him? Are you making him happy? You expect everything from the other person, but you give nothing in return. When you will forget to receive from the other person, and will give the best in you, you will receive the best back.”

That reminds me of a woman who came to me not long ago with that tale. She was oppressed and depressed; had been operated on and had all kinds of physical troubles: all caused by her misunderstanding of the word love. She had a husband of the type that is not emotional; and because he didn’t come home every day and take her in his arms and crush her and hug her and make a fuss over her, she was mak­ing herself miserable, claiming that he didn’t love her—that he didn’t give her happiness. So I questioned her.

I asked: “Little girl, how long have you been married?” “Oh, nine years.”

“Have you any children?”

“No,” she replied.

“You told me that you had been ill?”

“Yes.”

“Has your husband provided for you?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “I will say that for him.”

“How much does he make?”

“About one hundred and ninety five dollars a month.” “Have you a nice little home—very comfortable?”

“Yes.”

“When you were sick who paid the bills? Did you pay?” “Oh, no! I wouldn’t have been able to.”

“What was your operation the last time?”

She told me.

“How long were you in the hospital?” I continued ques­tioning.

“Almost three months.”

“Who paid the bills?”

“Why, he did.” She took that as a matter of course.

“Was he good to you while you were in the hospital?” “Yes.”

“You had a nurse?”

“Yes, private nurses. One day and one night.”

“That was quite a worry to him, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was.”

“Did he have a great deal of money in the bank?”

“No.”

“It has cost him two or three thousand dollars?”

“Yes.”

“Did his regular salary cover that?”

“No, he does work at night—extra work.”

“For what? To pay that bill?”

Then I hardened. “You poor, foolish, sentimental little woman! The man was giving you the greatest proof of his love for you. He stood for all your foolishness all those years. He put up with your petty ailments—you making yourself ill, and all because he didn’t make a fuss over you; and he stayed on and slaved, just to please you! And you have caused him many hours of anxiety, many days of anxi­ety and months, probably years, of hard work, all for you! And you mean to tell me that that man does not love you? Is that your conception of love? That mushy sentiment? He stood by you through thick and thin, and you have let hap­piness fly out of the window, with your petty sentiment, with those ideas, when it was there for you all the time!”

With husbands it is the same thing. “Oh, my wife doesn’t do this and she doesn’t do that,” they say. They are miserable about it. I say to them, “Are you doing everything to help her to be happy, to make her happy, and to help her prog­ress?” Because you cannot be happy without progress! You cannot make a woman happy by giving her four walls and a home! You cannot make a man happy by cooking a good meal for him! That is not happiness. Happiness comes from the unselfish desire of giving happiness to the other person, of helping that person to something better.

The woman who wants her husband to be home right after he gets through work, thinking, “He must be home. He must stay home, his business is with me!” is a handicap to that hus­band. He may be a little clerk or a little businessman; he has no liberty. His wife has robbed him of his liberty; she has made a slave of him! He cannot mix with his fellowmen, he hasn’t any friends, he doesn’t have the good will of his fellow- man, because he is not one of them. He is held by an apron string. And after ten years, he is still holding the same posi­tion, he has not advanced. And then his wife looks at him and says, “My, he never made anything of himself, he is not a suc­cess, he is a failure. Here we have been married ten years, and we haven’t anything.”

She doesn’t realize that she is the one who is guilty, she is the one who has robbed herself as well as him! If she had given him his freedom, if she had had her mind on helping him to better things instead of “petting” and all that, if she had helped him to make something of himself, she would have had happiness out of it, and she would have gloried in his success. But she took him unto herself.

Sentimental love will never give you happiness. It is not hugs and kisses either from your child or from your opposite sex that will make you happy; but it is the love of construc­tive good for the other person. That is what will make you happy.