2JP2 100 (38)

Pope Saint John Paul II. the Great

(Saint Karol Józef  Wojtyła)

/1920-2005/

Photo credit:

https://www.facebook.com/PCross83/

“His Holiness Pope John Paul II was a man I held in high regard. He was a determined and deeply spiritual minded person for whom I had great respect and admiration. His experience in Poland, then a communist country, and my own difficulties with communists, gave us an immediate common ground. The first time we met, he struck me as very practical and open, with a broad appreciation of global problems. I have no doubt that he was a great spiritual leader.
Right from the beginning a close personal friendship developed between us, which was confirmed on several subsequent occasions. I found we were in complete agreement about several issues. The Pope felt as I do that as human beings we not only require material development but we also need spirituality. Certainly, improved material facilities provide us with physical comfort but we also have unique intelligence or mind that mere material provision cannot fully satisfy. Both in public and to me in person the Pope always stressed the importance of spiritual values and we shared a concern that the younger generation is losing interest in them.

We were also in complete agreement about the need to promote harmony amongst different religious traditions. I was privileged to participate in the inter-faith meeting held at Assisi, a very important and significant event, at his invitation. It demonstrated to the world community that our different traditions really could pray together and send a message of peace from one platform.

I also have deep appreciation for the Pope's mission to bring peace to the world. In spite of increasing age and declining physical health, his relentless efforts to visit different parts of the world and meet the people who lived there to promote harmony and spiritual values, exemplified not only his deep concern but also the courage he brought to fulfilling it.

The Pope was very sympathetic to the Tibetan problem. Of course, as the head of an institution trying to establish good relations with China and seriously concerned about the status of millions of Christians in China he could not express this publicly or officially. But right from the start of our friendship he revealed to me privately that he had a clear understanding of the Tibetan problem because of his own experience of communism in Poland. This gave me great personal encouragement.

Finally, I want to express my deep admiration for the Pope's ability to forgive even his would-be-assassin. This was a clear indication that he was a true spiritual practitioner.”

(Dalai Lama mourns John Paul II, "a true spiritual practitioner". Asianews.it. 04. 03. 2005. [https://cutt.ly/KyMoSOr])

“The quality of our moments become the quality of our lives” - Dan Millman’s TEDx talk

Dan Millman
World Champion athlete (1964), motivational speaker, author of several books, martial arts instructor
Source of the photo: https://bolstablog.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/millman/

“Talent is about 20 percent innate, body type and so on for sports, but about 80 percent can be developed.”

“And I realized being able to do handstands and somersaults didn’t helped me much when I went out on a date and those skills really didn’t apply directly when I got married or had children and dealt with financial challenges and career decisions and all the challenges of everyday life we all face.”

“It’s not as if you have a story, you are a story in the making, you’re a novel being written and you never know what the next chapter is going to be.”

“At any time we face some adversity, some challenge we start to reflect and look at our lives once again and wonder if we can make some changes.”

“If you want to help people, of course, do what your heart tells you to do, but don’t neglect the work on yourself, because that’s what’s going to give you the clarity, the courage to know how to exert the right leverage at the right place at the right time and really make a positive difference in the world.”

“Two fundamental approaches to change, to doing what needs to be done and the first approach is very popular. It sounds something like this:‘first you need to quiet your mind so you can create empowering beliefs to raise your self-esteem so you can practice positive self-talk to find your focus and affirm you power to free your emotions and visualize positive outcomes so that you can find the courage to generate the confidence to make the determination to form the commitment to feel sufficiently motivated to do whatever it is you need to do’. That’s one approach. I recommend the other which is ‘just do it’. Life is always going to come down to that whether it takes us a few minutes, a few months or years, the question always remains before us: what will you do now in response to the circumstances?”

“We don’t have a spam filter in our heads, a lot of junk mail comes through and that’s perfectly natural.”

“Somebody came up to me after a seminar or a talk workshop I gave in ‘Dan, I don’t know, I have to tell you. I feel so inspired.’  I said, ‘Don’t worry, it will pass’. Because it’s true, isn’t it? Inspiration comes and goes, motivation rises and falls. The question remains: What will we do?”

“You made a resolution you stuck with. You’ve set aside a time every day for your exercise routine.”

“A little of something is better than a lot of nothing. In other words, it’s fine to dream big, but start small and then connect the dots.”

“The lesson is simple, the student is complicated.” (Barbara Rasp)

“Here and now, breath and relax.”

“I’ve had many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” (Mark Twain)

“Most of our troubles are self-created about past and future. Regrets, anxieties, but right now we can handle this moment.”

“Life comes at us in waves of change. We cannot predict or control those waves, but we can become better surfers.”

“Learn to surf the waves of change here and now each moment. We can always handle this moment and the quality of our moments become the quality of our lives.”

Peaceful Warrior (2006) - Quotes

The movie’s main characters: “Socrates” (Nick Nolte, right) and Dan Millman (Scott Mechlowicz, left)
Source of the photo: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/peaceful-warrior-2006

• I know more than you think.

■ And you think more than you know. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom. 

• Yeah? What’s the difference?

■ You know how to clean a windshield, right?

• Yeah.

■ Wisdom is doing it.

■ You can live a whole lifetime without ever being awake.

• Hey, Socrates, (if) you know so much, how come you’re working at a gas station?

■ This is a service station. We offer service. There’s no higher purpose.

• Than pumping gas?

■ Service to others.

• What?

■ Slow down. You might taste something.

• You sure got a lot of rules about stuff, don’t you?

■ Not rules. Thing I’ve learned form my own life experience. That’s why I’d say your eating is sloppy.

• Who cares?

■ You do. That’s the difference between us, Dan. You practice gymnastics. I practice everything.

■ Everyone tells you what to do, what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs.

• And let me guess. You want me to believe yours?

■ No. I want you to stop gathering information from outside of yourself and start gathering from the inside.

• Are you part of some cult or something?

■ People are afraid of what’s inside and that’s the only place they’ll ever going to find what they need.

People are not their thoughts. They think they are and it brings them all kinds of sadness.

The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. None of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose.

• You’re out of your mind. You know that?

■ It’s taken a lifetime of practice.

There’s never nothing going on. Take out the trash, Dan. The trash is anything that is keeping you from the only thing that matters, this moment. Here. Now. And when you truly are in the here and now, you’ll be amazed at what can you do and how well you can do it.

Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses.

• I mean, what kind of a warrior trains by sitting around scrubbing toilets?

■ When you become a warrior, you learn to meditate in every action.

• Scrubbing toilets?

■ Letting go of attachments. Like your pride. Giving up your addictions.

• Yeah, name one thing I’m addicted to.

■ Talking. Especially interrupting. Knowing everything, when in fact you know nothing.

All you have is now, Jack.

You ever hear of the healing power of a touch?

The habit is the problem. All you need to do is be conscious about your choices and responsible for your actions.

Every action has its price and its pleasure. Recognizing both sides, a warrior becomes realistic and responsible for his actions.

Death isn’t sad. The sad thing is most people don’t live at all.

■ A warrior does not give up what he loves, Dan. He finds the love in what he does.

• Look at me! Look at me. I have a metal rod in my leg.

■ A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He’s about absolute vulnerability. That’s the only true courage.

• What kind of training you think I could do? Huh? I just had an accident!

■ The accident is your training. Life is choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you’d like to be.

• Just ignore what happened to me?

■ A warrior acts, only a fool reacts.

• What if I can’t do it?

■ That's the future. Throw it out.

• Well, how would we start?

■ There is no starting or stopping, only doing.

• Three?

■ Three.

• Life has just three rules?

■ And you already know them.

• Paradox, humor and change.

■ Paradox.

• Life is a mystery. Don’t waste time trying to figure it out.

■ Humor.

• Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.

■ Change.

• Know that nothing stays the same.

The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination.

quotes from the movie Peaceful Warrior (2006) which was based on Dan Millman’s novel

Prayer for peace

Saint John Paul the Great

(Saint Karol Józef  Wojtyła)

/1920-2005/

Photo's source:
https://www.facebook.com/PCross83/

God of our Fathers,
great and merciful,
Lord of peace and of life,

Father of all.

Your plan is for peace and not for suffering,
You condemn war
and You humble the pride of the aggressor.

Your sent Your Son, Jesus
to proclaim peace near and far,
to unite men
of every race and every ethnicity
in a single family.

Hear the unanimous cry of your children,
the heartfelt supplication of all humanity;
no more war, an adventure without return,
no more war,
a spiral of grief and violence.

In communion with Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
we pray to you again:
speak to the hearts of those who decide
the destinies of peoples,
stop the cycle of retaliation
and revenge,
suggest with Your Spirit new solutions,
generous and honorable gestures,
periods of dialogue and patient waiting
more fruitful than the swift actions
of war.

Grant in our time days of peace
No more war!
Amen.

(January 16, 1991)


Source: https://books.google.ro/books?id=jWC_W1sDeKwC&pg=PA125