Yeah, I know that's not a real word, but work with me here! ; )


Real quick, I want to share with you a personal moment
because I just thought it was that cool...

My 11 year old daughter graduated....correction...
"promoted" from grade school to middle school last night.

It was really a neat little ceremony - kids walked in,
looking all dapper and beautiful in new dresses and suits,
sang a few songs, received some recognitions, etc.

The prnicipal read the kids a poem, then the teachers,
each for their own students, handed out their their certificate
of completion and proceeded to share with all in attendance
where they thought their students - our children - would be in 10, 15, 20 years.

All of their predictions were really cool - one kid is gonna be
an NBA all-star, another, a chief justice of the supreme court,
another, a rock & roll star... that kinda thing.

My daughter is gonna be a marine biologist and co-founder of
Brown & Patel Labratories - Patel being my daughter's best friend
and cohort in crime. ; )

The entire evening was based upon a mindset of success...

for 5th GRADERS!!!

That principal, Ms. Leithof, has earned my utmost respect for how she
handles that school, it's faculty and the lessons taught to our kids.

So many of us don't learn these mindset lessons until well into adulthood,
and even more never learn it all.

Ms. Leitholf and her faculty are teaching it to grade school children...

PHENOMENAL!

I want to share with you the short poem that she read to the kids -


YOUR LIFE HOLDS UNLIMITED POTENTIAL
and WONDERFUL DREAMS

You have the ability
to attain whatever you seek
within you is every potential
you can imagine.

Always aim higher than
you believe you can reach.
So often, you'll discover
that when your talents are set free
by your imagination,
you can achieve any goal.

If people offer their
help or wisdom
as you go through life,
accept it gratefully.
You can learn much from those
who have gone before you.

But never be afraid or hesitant
to step off the accepted path
and head off in your own direction
if your heart tells you
that it's the right way for you.

Always believe that you will
ultimately succeed
at whatever you do
and never forget the value
of persistence, discipline,
and determination.
You are meant to be
whatever you dream of becoming.
--Edmund O'Neill


Cheers!
Rick

P.S. Not to boast or anything (proud daddy moment coming in 3...2...1...)
but my daughter made the honor roll! WOOHOO!!!

P.S.S. Before you go spend an obnoxious amount of money
on some mindset course, I recommend heading over to
The Million Mind March
and picking up the one booklet + CD + report
called the "Save Me" package...

You pay only for shipping and handling...less than 8 bucks.
I make nothing on the deal.

This is simply an introduction to some
solid information that can transform your thinking,
the way you conduct business, and your life!

Go order it now, and if you aren't thrilled with it,
I'll send you your 8 bucks back...
you keep all the materials!

www.TheMillionMindMarch.com

Cheers again!
Rick


 
 

I've been with my mom for the past several days

as my dad is very ill and in the hospital.

With lots of time on my hands...

sitting around the hospital...

I've been doing a lot of reading

and reflection....

primarily on the power of the

Subconscious Mind.


It's a fascinating topic, but one that I feel

is often misunderstood, or just too "out there"

for some and so they choose not to consider it

at all.


What is the subconscious mind?

Well, it first helps to understand that we all

have a Conscious Mind

and a Subconscious Mind.

Your conscious mind is the thinker in you...

it's objective and responsible for reasoning and weighing decisions.


Your subconscious mind, on the other hand,

is subjective...

subjective to your conscious mind

because it accepts what your conscious mind tells it.

Your subconscious mind is your intuition...

your gut instincts...

again, based on what it has learned.


Ever drive home from work and suddenly realize

you've pulled up in your driveway and kinda

"spaced" the whole drive home?

You were able to do that because your

subconscious mind

took over while your

conscious mind was focusing on other things.

It was able to do that because your

conscious mind trained your subconscious mind

to do that...through repetition.

Your conscious mind has done that drive for you

hundreds, probably thousands of times...

and in doing so, trained your subconscious mind

to take over on occassion

when your conscious mind

has more pressing matters to focus on.


Think of the implications of that...

what else could you "train" your subconscious mind

to do through repetition?


There are those that say that your

subconscious mind and your higher power...

God...

are one in the same.

That when you can truly focus and allow your

subconscious mind to open up and accept all

that you want it to,

you are actaully becoming one with Him.


You can further look at this concept as

FAITH.

If you plant a seed, you have faith that it will grow.

That's what seeds do....

and trusting or having faith in

the laws of growth and agriculture,

you know the seed will do what seeds do.


FAITH then, is a way of thinking..

an attitude of mind...

knowing that the idea you fully accept in your conscious mind

will be planted in your subconscious mind...

it has to!

EVERYTHING that passes through your conscious mind

is planted in your subconscious mind.


It's what you do with that seed

that then determines its growth and manifestation.


Faith is, in a sense,

accepting as true what your reason and senses deny.

It is refusing to listen to the little

rational, analytical, objective...

conscious mind

and embracing an attitude of complete reliance

on your subconscious mind.

Faith is believing against all reasoning.


Faith is the difficult side of the subjective mind...

it's no joke...

it's is what keeps many from realizing

their goals and dreams.


I don't know about you, but I've struggled for years

with the concept of God.

There's the whole creation vs. evolution thing...

and I'm not here to start a debate on this topic...

I merely point that out as a means of further

explaining faith and the power of the subconsciou mind.

The belief in the concept of a higher power

is FAITH...

the kind of faith I described above.

It's the subconscious mind believing...

that God exists despite all the scientific rationalization.


That doesn't mean that you have to believe in God

in order to realize your subconscious mind...

but I think that realizing your subconscious mind

certainly lends itself to accepting Him a little easier.

I know it helps me to understand it all a little better.


I know that's a lot and it's kinda deep

but that's what I've been focusing on the past several days

and I wanted to share it with you.


Just keep in mind,

that the subconscious mind...

is where our creative ideas manifest...

that FAITH lives in your subconcsious mind

and is like a seed planted in the ground...

it grows after its own kind.

Plant the idea (seed) in your mind,

water it, fertilize it with expectancy...

and it will grow and manifest.


This is how the subconscious mind works.


Cheers!
Rick

 
 

So I was watching one of my all-time favorite movies last night "Point Break" with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.

Total kick-ass movie!

This movie is one of those cult classics, alongside Roadhouse (another Swayze flick), Office Space and Princess Bride, that's chock-full of one liners. It's action-packed and is just a helluva lot of fun to watch.

In it, Reeves plays an undercover FBI agent, Johnny Utah, looking for a group of bank robbers who also happen to be surfers.

He befriends the surfers before realizing they're the bad guys.  His new best bud is the pack leader, Swayze's character, Bodhi...they call him the Bodhisattva because he's always searching...searching for the ultimate ride.

Now, this post is actually not about the movie nor the actors, but rather about Swayze's character's name - Bodhi.

I've heard the name before - Steely Dan has a tune titled Bodhisattva ...

 
... check out a pretty cool video of the song here

... and I've always really dug the name - I wanted to name our current dog Bodhi, after Swayze's character...but he was labled with Otis instead.

Problem is, is that I never really knew what was behind the name Bodhi.

So I did a little research, courtesy of Wikipedia and I discovered that the name is quite fitting of what we do at The Million Mind March.

Now, this may be nothing new to you, but I've never studied Buddism, so it was new for me and I figured it might be new to a few others as well.

Bodhisattva, as I've already hinted at, comes from Buddhism, and while there are slightly varying divisions of Buddhism, the meaning of Bodhisattva is basically the same throughout -

The Bodhisattva is a person with a considerable degree of enlightenment and seeks to use their wisdom to help other human beings to become liberated themselves. The Bodhisattva is an already wise person who uses skillful means to lead others to see the benefits of virtue and the cultivation of wisdom.

Again, there are some slight variances of this definition, but this is the crux of it.

Neal Pollock, who has written on Tibetan Buddhism, explains the Bodhisattva with this story -

"The nature of the Bodhisattva is apparent from a teaching story in which three people are walking through a desert. Parched and thirsty, they spy a high wall ahead. They approach and circumnavigate it, but it has no entrance or doorway.

One climbs upon the shoulders of the others, looks inside, yells "Eureka!" and jumps inside.

The second then climbs up and repeats the actions of the first.

The third laboriously climbs the wall without assistance and sees a lush garden inside the wall. It has cooling water, trees, fruit, etc. But, instead of jumping into the garden, the third person jumps back out into the desert and seeks out desert wanderers to tell them about the garden and how to find it.

The third person is the Bodhisattva."

So, in a nutshel, Bodhisattva = enlightened being; wisdom being; and by some definitions, it is a being that has not yet reached total enlightenment, because he is refraining from nirvana in order to save others, and it is in saving others that he reaches total enlightenment, or Buddhahood.

Now let's take a look at The Million Mind March ... straight from the website -

"The Million Mind March is a focus society with a vision to inspire 1-million fellow Soldiers of Prosperity to bury the words, "I can't" and to unify as a movement of change, to deliver wisdom, reciprocity and abundance to all who would be free and who share in the collective ideal of greatness."   (Go here to read the rest)

So, do you ever have those...what Oprah calls an epiphany...where you suddenly realize some moment of clarity?

Well, I just had one...why I like the name "Bodhi" and why I was drawn to The Million Mind March.

Dare I say that, for me, M3 and what it stands for, is Bodhisattva.

M3 is way of being.  It is enlightenment.  It is delivering wisdom to help others.

So, how cool is that?

A cult classic film with the likes of Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, can actually teach you something!