Simpson, William W.

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Simpson, William W.

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Office—Conscious Living Foundation, 1110 Oberlin Dr., Glendale, CA 91205.

CAREER: Writer, educator, and administrator. Conscious Living Foundation, Glendale, CA, founder and director, 2002–.

WRITINGS:

From the Path: Verses on the Mystic Journey (poetry), PageFree Publishing, Inc. (Otsego, MI), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book titled Stepping out of the Whirlwind—A Beginner's Manual for a Conscious Life.

SIDELIGHTS: William W. Simpson writes about a variety of spiritual disciplines. He has studied both Chan and Zen Buddhism as well as Zen meditation. Since 1975, he has been a practitioner of Kriya Yoga meditation, and he is founder and director of the California-based Conscious Living Foundation, an organization that offers programs and techniques for personal growth, relaxation, meditation, and spiritual living. He has taught several classes at the foundation, and has also recorded a number of the foundation's audio products, including readings of poetry, prayers, and affirmations.

From the Path: Verses on the Mystic Journey is "a wonderful and moving collection of poetry and verse with a mystical bent," commented Marie Jones on Bookideas.com. The sixty-six poems span a variety of religious ideas, focusing more on ideas of spirituality rather than on any one particular branch of religious faith. Topics cover both practical and metaphysical concepts familiar to those who follow a spiritual life. "And So I Sit" looks at the difficulties of consistently maintaining a spiritual practice; "To Rest in You" celebrates the inner peace and joy that comes from knowing and communing with the divine; "Another Kind of Love" considers that it is the unconditional giving and receiving of love that propels one's spiritual growth. For those readers who are just starting out on their spiritual quest, Simpson also offers a chapter titled "First Steps," in which he shares practical techniques for spiritual growth and transformation, including praying, using affirmations, meditating, and more.

Simpson "has a gift with words and delights the senses with descriptions of emotions and feelings not easily captured in phrases," Jones stated. The book "is full of philosophy, lessons of life as well as moments of spiritual awakening and consciousness," commented Robert Denson III on the Sunpiper Press Web site. Simpson "is well aware that spirituality is a journey, that one never arrives," remarked Jeremy M. Hoover in Reviewer's Bookwatch. "The poems in this book are food for the soul," Hoover stated, "providing both inlet and outlet for contemporary journeying with the divine."