HOPE FUELS MOTIVATION

"It is necessary to hope
For hope itself is happiness,
And its frustrations, however frequent
Are less dreadful than its extinction."

- Samuel Johnson

Worry does not help any situation to improve.

The sea like life itself, is a stern taskmaster.  The best way to get along with either is to learn all you can, then do your best and don't worry especially about things over which your have no control.

Admiral Chester William Nimitz quoting his grandfather in E.B. Potter's Nimitz

The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary - YouTube

The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary - YouTube: ""



Millions of plastic bags a year end up in the "great garbage patch" in the Pacific Ocean. Caught by ocean currents, the bags and many other plastic products will remain there until they disintegrate—but never biodegrade—into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.


A coalition of California groups is working to eliminate single-use plastic bags from the state's grocery stores. As part of the project, the group Heal the Bay produced this mockumentary about the life cycle of plastic bags in California.






'via Blog this'

To Be Homeless

"Becoming homeless" is a Buddhist metaphor to describe what happens to us when we learn to disidentify with our mind and its thoughts.  Become detached

Mind is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will, and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term is often used to refer, by implication, to the thought processes of reason. Mind manifests itself subjectively as a stream of consciousness, or inter subjectively through conversation.

Theories of mind and its function are numerous. Earliest recorded speculations are from the likes of Zoroaster, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek, Indian and, later,Islamic and medieval European philosophers. Pre-modern understandings of the mind, such as the neo-platonic "nous" saw it as an aspect of the soul, in the sense of being both divine and immortal, linking human thinking with the un-changing ordering principle of the cosmos itself.

Which attributes make up the mind is much debated. Some psychologists argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions constitute mind, particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions—love, hate, fear, joy—are more primitive or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind as such. Others argue that various rational and emotional states cannot be so separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and should therefore be considered all part of what we call the mind.

In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: the private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads." Thus we "make up our minds," "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No one else can "know our mind." They can only interpret what we consciously or unconsciously communicate.

Nikos Kazantzakis quotes of a Religious Nature

“The canary began to sing again. The sun had struck it, and its throat and tiny breast had filled with song. Francis gazed at it for a long time, not speaking, his mouth hanging half opened, his eyes dimmed with tears.

"The canary is like man's soul," he whispered finally. "It sees bars round it, but instead if despairing, it sings. It sings, and wait and see, Brother Leo: one day its song shall break the bars.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis

“When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis

“Overdraw me Lord, and who cares if I break!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ



“We are not men, to have need of another, an eternal life; we are women, and for us one moment with man we love is everlasting Paradise, one moment far from the man we love is everlasting hell. It is here on earth that we women love out eternity”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ



“My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ

“Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ

“I say one thing, you write another, and those who read you understand still something else! I say: cross, death, kingdom of heaven, God...and what do you understand? Each of you attaches his own suffering, interests and desires to each of these sacred words, and my words disappear, my soul is lost. I can't stand it any longer!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ



“When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ



“You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me."

Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?"

Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ

Kazantzakis more quotes

“Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Rock Garden

“Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco



“Reach what you cannot”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco



“I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel

“Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Rock Garden

“Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco



“Reach what you cannot”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco



“I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

Odyssey by Kazantzakis

“The people cast themselves down by the fuming boards

while servants cut the roast, mixed jars of wine and water,

and all the gods flew past like the night-breaths of spring.

The chattering female flocks sat down by farther tables,

their fresh prismatic garments gleaming in the moon

as though a crowd of haughty peacocks played in moonlight.

The queen’s throne softly spread with white furs of fox

gaped desolate and bare, for Penelope felt ashamed

to come before her guests after so much murder.

Though all the guests were ravenous, they still refrained,

turning their eyes upon their silent watchful lord

till he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.

The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raised

it high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:

Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,

pursued around the cup with double-pointed spear

dark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;

she smiled and the sad tenderness of her lean face,

and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.

Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena’s goblet high

and greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:

“In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,

the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;

I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,

of losing priceless goodness, man’s most worthy face.

I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,

but on my head gods hurled their lightning bolts, and laughed.

I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,

and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me;

then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,

piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,

the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,

and then set sail; but suddenly a wild storm burst,

and when I raised my eyes, the sea was strewn with wreckage.

As I swam on, alone between sea and sky,

with but my crooked heart for dog and company,

I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlements

about my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.
Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; I remained alone

with a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of gods

and hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.

Old comrades, O young men, my island’s newest sprouts,

I drink not to the gods but to man’s dauntless mind.”

All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,

and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;

They did not fully understand the impious words

but saw flames lick like red curls about his savage head.

The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,

and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger’s pangs;

all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled.

Under his lowering eyebrows Odysseus watched them sharply:

"This is my people, a mess of bellies and stinking breath!

These are my own minds, hands, and thighs, my loins and necks!"

He muttered in his thorny beard, held back his hunger

far from the feast and licked none of the steaming food.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel

Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes

“What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis

“My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.” 

― Nikos Kazantzakis

Yes, the purpose of earth is not life, it is not man, earth has existed without these, and it will live on without them. They are but the ephemeral sparks of its violent whirling.
Let us unite, let us hold each other tightly, let us merge our hearts, let us create –so long as the warmth of this earth endures, so long as no earthquakes, cataclysms, icebergs or comets come to destroy us – let us create for earth a brain and a heart, let us give a human meaning to the superhuman struggle. ”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“With the passage of days in this godly isolation [desert], my heart grew calm. It seemed to fill with answers. I did not ask questions any more; I was certain. Everything - where we came from, where we are going, what our purpose is on earth - struck me as extremely sure and simple in this God-trodden isolation. Little by little my blood took on the godly rhythm. Matins, Divine Liturgy, vespers, psalmodies, the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, the constellations suspended like chandeliers each night over the monastery: all came and went, came and went in obedience to eternal laws, and drew the blood of man into the same placid rhythm. I saw the world as a tree, a gigantic poplar, and myself as a green leaf clinging to a branch with my slender stalk. When God's wind blew, I hopped and danced, together with the entire tree.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis


“Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis



“You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis



“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their
own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” 

― Nikos Kazantzakis

“A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.” 

― Nikos Kazantzakis

“Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis


“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

Zorba the Greek lived "the full catastrophe".

Zorba:
If a woman sleeps alone, it puts a shame on all men.




Alexis Zorba:
Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it. You've got everything except one thing: madness! A man needs a little madness, or else...
Basil: Or else?
Alexis Zorba: ...he never dares cut the rope and be free.



Basil: I don't want any trouble.
Alexis Zorba: Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.




Alexis Zorba: On a deaf man's door, you can knock forever!




Alexis Zorba: Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?
Basil: I don't know.
Alexis Zorba: What's the use of all your damn books if they can't answer that?
Basil: They tell me about the agony of men who can't answer questions like yours.
Alexis Zorba: I spit on this agony!




Alexis Zorba: All right, we go outside where God can see us better.




Alexis Zorba: God has a very big heart but there is one sin he will not forgive___  [slaps table] __ if a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.  I know because a very wise old Turk told me.




Alexis Zorba: Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house,everything. The full catastrophe.

Jon Kabat-Zinn named his first book on Mindfulness after the line in Zorba:


"Full Catastrophe Living"

Zorba the Greek Quotes - Nikos Kazanzakis

“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.” 
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek


“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.” 
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.” 
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy—some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

Life is about...

Five Things We Cannot Change:

1.) Everything changes and ends.

2.) Things do no always go as planned.

3.) Life is not always fair.

4.) Pain is part of life.

5.) People are not loving and loyal all the time.

Decide What You Want and Go Get It

You need to know what it is you want from life so that you can effectively direct your energies to making that dream a reality. Steven Covey says to begin with the end in mind.

The picture above is of an Earthrise seen from the Moon. John Kennedy is famous for coalescing a nation around the Dream of putting a Man on the Moon.

Martin Luther King, jr. gave a famous speech, "I Have a Dream". You might say that 40 years later Barack Obama is a part of that dream.

You need a dream of your ideal way of living your life. The lifestyle is all we have. Habits make the man. So you need to determine who you want to be and go about being that person. Aristotle said,

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."

Therefore, we need to have a Big Picture of our ideal existence to determine our habits and priorities:

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
- Bertrand Russell

And believe me this is a sticking point because the pressure starts here.

"The secret of getting started is breaking
your complex, overwhelming tasks into
small manageable tasks, and then
starting on the first one."
- Mark Twain

My experience tells me that Twain is right. In fact, at first we need to take very small steps in the direction of our goals to build momentum, motivation and confidence. Practice makes perfect in converting knowing to doing. Start with one good habit at a time and over a few months you will have patched together an improvement to your way of living.

"One important key to success is
self-confidence. An important key to
self-confidence is preparation."
- Arthur Ashe


Napoleon Hill is a great educator in this area and he repeatedly says about dreams and goals that if you can conceive it, and believe it, you can achieve it. God does not taunt us with dreams we have no hope of achieving.

"Don't be afraid of the space between your
dreams and reality. If you can dream it,
you can make it so."
- Belva Davis


Do not be afraid to dream big and to dream often. He who dreams more, accomplishes more, according to Twain.

Belief in our Dreams is one of the secrets to great achievements:

"The only limit to our realization of
tomorrow will be our doubts of today."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Of course no achievement is without a price and without effort but if your desire is intense you will find a way to achieve your goals.

"What lies behind us, and what lies before
us are small matters compared
to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is important to get started and to learn by doing.

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. Norman V. Peale

You can achieve great things and accumulate wealth without harming your fellow man by your greed and deception. Follow the Golden Rule.

Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with others.



If this sounds like Sunday school, do not let it deter you. Many years of observing men and markets has introduced me to the idea of right work. Warren Buffett is a man of honor and Bernard Madoff is a crook.  Warren is among the World's richest men and Bernie is in jail for the next 150 years.

Helen Keller Eternal Optimist

"No pessimists ever discovered the secret of the stars,
or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."


-Helen Keller

Dalai Lama - Mission Statement

“He frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of inter-religious harmony and the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture and religion.”

Beginner's Mind

Sit down before facts like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.  Follow humbly whatever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
- T.H. Huxley

Michael Moore Explains Why He Stands With Julian Assange & WikiLeaks

Michael Moore cuts up visa card in support of Wikileaks

Frost over the World - Julian Assange