The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others. The greatest precept is continual awareness. The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything. The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways. The greatest magic is transmuting the passions. The greatest generosity is non-attachment. The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind. The greatest patience is humility. The greatest effort is not concerned with results. The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go. The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.
Ads from the Celebrate Humanity campaign in conjunction with the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
Celebrate Humanity - Heart - Andrea Bocelli
If you could have the arms of Hercules. Legs as swift as the wind. If you could leap shoulder-high above the rim. Have the kick of a dolphin. The reflexes of a cat. If you could have all this, you would have the body, you would have the tools. But you will not have greatness. Until you understand that the strongest muscle is the heart. To me, that's the soul of the Olympic Games.
Celebrate Humanity - Strength - Christopher Reeve
Funny, isn't it. An athlete aspires to be the best his or her country has to offer. And ends up representing the best humanity has to offer. That's the strength I find in the Olympic Games.
Celebrate Humanity - Play - Avril Lavigne
It doesn’t matter where you come from. Who your family is. What you wear. Or how good you are at math. All that matters is that you give it everything you’ve got. To me, that’s why the Olympic Games rock.
Celebrate Humanity - Adversaries & Equals - Nelson Mandela
For seventeen days, they are roommates. For seventeen days, they are soulmates. And for twenty-two seconds, they are competitors. Seventeen days as equals. Twenty-two seconds as adversaries. What a wonderful world that would be. That's the hope I see in the Olympic Games.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will.
“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.”
An image of Earth at night made by NASA. Developed and populated areas of the planet show up as points of light on the map, while large areas of Africa, Australia, Asia and South America are relatively dark.
"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. To be awake is to be alive. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Every man is a builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."
"There are those who look at what is and ask why. I dream of what has never been and ask why not?"
- Robert F Kennedy
“Each time a man stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
- Robert F Kennedy
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive God to be; and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
What ever happened happened well. What is happening happens well. All that is supposed to happen will happen well as well. What have you lost to cry? What have you brought to lose? What have you created to waste? What ever that’s taken is taken from here. What ever that’s given is given from here. All that is yours today will be others’ tomorrow. On another day it will be someone else’s. This change is the law of nature.
- Bhagavad Gita
Geetasharam is the essence of the Bhagavad Gita, a central text in the Hindu fath. It is a summary of the teachings contained in the sacred text. The Bhagavad Gita itself contains the lessons taught to Arjuna by Lord Krishna on the battlefields of Kurukshetra during the final battle in the great Indian epic, the 'Mahabharata.'
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Theme music from the 1981 Best Picture Oscar Award winner Chariots of Fire, based on the true story of British athletes preparing for and competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. The music was composed by Vangelis
I Wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone Narrow streets of cobblestone 'Neath the halo of a street lamp I turn my collar to the cold and damp When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light That split the night And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never shared No one dared Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools," said I, "you do not know Silence like a cancer grows Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you" But my words like silent raindrops fell And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming And the sign said "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sound of silence"
Dedicated to those who died in the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007.
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson January 31,1919 – October 24, 1972
60 years ago, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American Major League Baseball player, making his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. In doing so, he broke through the color barrier in professional sports in a society that was not completely prepared for it. Overcoming the trials and tribulations that came with it, Robinson became an icon and an inspiration to all who followed.
“I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me...all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr Royal Canadian Air Force Killed December 11, 1941
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love
Quoted by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 Inauguration Speech. The clip above is from the movie 'Coach Carter.'
Ithaca is a poem by Greek poet C. Kavafis about the voyage of Odysseus after the Trojan War to his home island of Ithaca, a journey that was depicted in Homer's Odyssey. Its main theme is that as you travel to enjoy the journey and not just the destination and that maturity of the soul is all one can ask for. Recited here by Sir Sean Connery and with music by Vangelis.
As you set out for Ithaca hope that your journey is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops, angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them; you'll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare sensasion touches your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops, wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope that your journey is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors you're seeing for the first time.
May you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind - as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to learn and learn again from those who know.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you're destined for. But don't hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you're old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you've gained on the way, not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you would have not set out. She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you'll have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt 26th US President
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
The greatest achievement is selflessness.
