Letter To My Daughter When She Turned Three (July 1998)

July 1998
My Dearest Madeleine,

Soon you will be three years old! My how you have grown. You are so beautiful and smart and determined.

Beautiful and smart you can never change. This you will always be.

But determined with the will and stamina of a bull. This you must keep burning in your heart. So often I see people who have given up. Literally, flat out, abandoned hope or ambition or dreams. It happens at all ages to all types of people. To most it happens very early on in their lives. They are taught that they “can not” do this or that. That they are too poor, too weak, too dumb. It brings tears to my eyes because it just isn’t true. Reality, our past, present and future, resides in our minds.

"Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

That which we can imagine and dream, we can achieve. This is the fundamental truth of life. This is what I call “Applied Metaphysics”.

I promise to you, Madeleine, that I will make your childhood a classroom for this reality. You must never forget that you are capable of achieving anything that you set your mind to. Not because you are beautiful and smart, but because it is an immutable law of life in this dimension. It is available to anyone who understands and practices it.

Now, understanding it is one thing, practicing and believing it in your gut is quite another thing. The most difficult of this, for most, is believing it. Why? Because even if one can break his or her mind free to understand (this most simple and fundamental of concepts!) he or she must then break free of the societal and familial brainwashing that she has endured throughout her life. Constantly we are reminded and taught that we are victims, incapable of changing ourselves or our position in life. It is all a lie! But our leaders, coaches, parents, reporters, etc, do not even know this. Or, worse, they have unwittingly abandoned such hope because it would mean facing up to their failures in life and developing the discipline and will to change themselves. Oh so sad!

You, of course, will not have to overcome this brainwashing because I will teach you through concrete illustrations and experiences that we, our bodies, are completely free agents if we can harness the power of our spirit/soul.

This gets to the root of the other challenge that I pointed out above. We must practice this belief/skill I call manifesting. Practicing does two things: first we refine our manifesting skills and second we come to believe in our gut the power we have to manifest. This believing is always a challenge because we are fighting mainstream belief systems which are very powerful in creating (right word?) grooves in societal belief patterns that attract thought consciousness. We must constantly struggle to stay out of these ruts.

Furthermore, practice is required because we must develop judgment/wisdom which is 98% experiential. Sorry, sweetie pie! But there is no other way! We must learn to control our thoughts and emotions lest we unwittingly strike out and hurt ourselves and others! But this too you will come to understand.

Also, we must practice to learn to develop our determination and will power. Not everything goes your way. This is part of the lesson. There are forces in life that will often win battles over you. The key for you to remember is that losing small battles early in life prepares you to handle losing larger battles later in life. The battles do not get any easier. You must continue to fight tougher battles if you are to grow and be capable of winning tougher battles

Now comes the paradox. Winning doesn’t matter. Fighting is all that matters. You must become equanimous with outcomes, yet ruthless with self-awareness and inner-strength.

"Equanimity is the power of the mind to experience the changes in the realm of form, the realm of feeling, the realm of the mind, yet remain centered and unmoved. Equanimity is developed as we learn to keep our heart open through the changing circumstances of our life and our practice."
Jack Kornfield

"The man of discipline, striving with effort, purified of his sins, perfected through many births, finds a higher way."
The Bhagavad-Gita

Continue to practice this my dearest Madeleine. For you are a saviour unto many. And remember that the greatest thinkers of all times understood these laws. If you have any doubt of what I say, or how to proceed listen to the voice that never ceases in your heart.

"Listen to your heart. It knows all things because it came from the Soul of the World and it will one day return there."
Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist

And never abandon hope.

"I learned this, at least, in my experiment: That if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
Henry David Thoreau

I am with you always,

Papa