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Way of the Peaceful Warrior
by Dan MillmanI first came upon Way of the Peaceful Warrior as a movie recommended by our own Jan Carol. Here is the trailer:
Peaceful Warrior (2006) – Official Trailer
I saw the movie, but now that I’m reading the book, I find the book so much better in the way that books are always so much better. Still, the movie is great, and I also recommend that, too.
I’d like to write a bit about each chapter in one post a week, starting with the Preface:
Preface
We learn most through contrasts. The before-and-after effect. The things that change us become our teachers. The things that empty us become our guidebooks and maps. Even the worst of traumas can be purposeful if we find a way to learn from them and fill ourselves back up with wonder after we’ve been broken. . . .
In the Preface, we are introduced to the main character, Dan, a college student and an acclaimed gymnast. We also meet Socrates. No, not THAT Socrates. But a modern version – he owns an all night gas station, but he’s not your usual gas station attendant. Far from it.
It’s only a brief encounter at 3:20 am, but we’ll have many more nocturnal encounters.
Before even getting into chapter 1, there is a section called The Gas Station at Rainbow’s End. Here we are more properly introduced to Socrates.
The reader witnesses Dan going through a recurring nightmare. An older man with white hair. A darkly dressed Grim Reaper. A fight between the two of them leaves the older man standing. And Dan moves closer and closer, until he dissolves into this older man . . . .
He is frightened awake and he goes to an all night gas station to buy a snack. And this is where he sees the man from his dream (and from the Preface), a 50 or 60 year old man with white hair who works at the gas station.
At the solemn nocturnal hour, the older gentleman leads the youth into the gas station office. It’s a room that Dan describes as “warm, orderly, and secure.” A contrast to the bright fluorescent lights in the rest of the gas station.
They have a brief conversation, not much to report, but as Dan is leaving, he turns around and sees the man suddenly appear on the roof! Dan tries his best to get the man to tell him how he managed to seemingly fly to the roof, but the man answers in riddles, such as, “The world’s a puzzle, no need to make sense out of it.”
Dan feels this mystical connection with the man, so he returns to the gas station the next night. He has already given the man a name – Socrates.
He tells Socrates about his dream and the fact that Socrates is the man with white hair in the dream.
Socrates continues to speak in riddles and circles. He tells Dan he is 96 years old, but he’s really no more than 50 or 60. 70 tops.
This, plus the nocturnal hour and the levitation and the ambiguous age, all
give the vibe of a lucid dream.Socrates offers to be Dan’s “teacher”, which Dan does not understand at all. Dan is a student at a university, so why would he need a gas station attendant as a teacher?
But still, the levitation trick – or was it a trick? – that landed Socrates on the roof fills Dan with such curiosity, he is captivated by Socrates.
There is foreshadowing, as Socrates says, “You hold many facts and opinions, yet know little of yourself. Before you can learn, you’ll have to first empty your tank,” referring to an analogy he made of a gas tank needing to be emptied before it can be filled.
He then explains the concept of “body wisdom”. When Dan asks what that is, Socrates states, “Everything you’ll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body. But you haven’t learned how to read the wisdom of the body.”
This made me think of all of the work we do for shaman journeying. Everything is a process, a learning process. And Dan is about to get a very good lesson, more than he could ever learn in college.
Each night, there were new lessons. The lucid dreamlike feel is there as if Dan were entering a shaman journey. Keep in mind this novel is actually based on the author, Dan Millman’s, life story.
Some of the lessons are on teaching Dan to take responsibility for his life. These are empowering lessons, and there’s this boding sense of danger. Part of this is due to the nocturnal timing, and part is due to the mystical nature of finding a guru to sit and eat a cheese sandwich with. When Dan realizes he can’t even tell his girlfriend about Socrates, it’s because his new teacher is a part “of another world, a world in which she had no part.”
And so ends this section of the book. Next week, another chapter and another adventure in Urban Shamanism.
Chapter 1 – Gusts of Magic
As we continue on the journey, we find Dan late at night, in the company of Socrates, at the gas station. The descriptions of Socrates from wolf, to tiger, to Grim Reaper, to cat, all set the stage for a mystical experience.
The Grim Reaper reference is a call-back to Dan’s earlier dream vision. And the animal descriptions bring in a shamanic element.
Socrates places his hands on Dan’s head and Dan is filled with a surge of electricity: “There was a loud buzzing, then a sound like waves rushing up on the beach. I heard bells ringing, and my head felt as if it was going to burst. That’s when I saw the light, and my mind exploded with its brightness. Something in me was dying – I knew this for a certainty – and something else was being born! Then the light engulfed everything.”
As Socrates goes onto explain to Dan, “I manipulated your energies and opened a few new circuits.The fireworks were just your brain’s delight in the energy bath. The result is that you are relieved of your lifelong illusion of knowledge. From now on, ordinary knowledge is no longer going to satisfy you, I’m afraid.”
The next day, Dan is unable to concentrate on his classes. The world has become more textured, more vibrant.
But unlike his studies, when it came to the hands-on work he does in the gym, he is in full form as a gymnast. His mind is uncluttered and clear.
Later in the chapter, we are taken on a journey of sorts, in Dan’s mind. We travel down a corridor with blue fog, we pass buildings and giant trees where buildings morph into boulders.
And into a gymnasium where he and Socrates end up perched high up on a beam overlooking a gymnastics meet. I think this must be a Middle World journey, of sorts.
In this vision, Dan is able to read minds. But more than that, able to tap into feelings and concepts.
And he takes note that the best gymnasts are the ones with the quietest minds.And also, while the gymnasts are performing, the minds of the audience also quieten.
And the vision continues on, across many countries, across many continents. As he travels, he explains, “I experienced every emotion, heard every cry of anguish and every peal of laughter. Every human circumstance was opened to me. I felt it all, and I understood.”
This experience leaves Dan shaken and feeling old but wise. He felt he had taken on the sadness of the world.
Dan falls into a deep sleep. He is shocked to find himself in the body of his 6-year-old self. He passes through a series of life stages as he sees himself growing up.
And he continues on, seeing himself marrying Susie, his college girlfriend, seeing his newborn son, seeing himself taking a job selling insurance. He goes through a phase of alcoholism, divorce, and being alienated from his son. All of this pain leading to a heart attack.
He wakes from this dream, realizing he has slept all night and most of the day.
He runs to Socrates who assures him that this dream is only one of many paths his life may take.
And so ends chapter one.
Socrates places his hands on Dan’s head and Dan is filled with a surge of electricity: “There was a loud buzzing, then a sound like waves rushing up on the beach. I heard bells ringing, and my head felt as if it was going to burst. That’s when I saw the light, and my mind exploded with its brightness. Something in me was dying – I knew this for a certainty – and something else was being born! Then the light engulfed everything.”
As Socrates goes onto explain to Dan, “I manipulated your energies and opened a few new circuits.The fireworks were just your brain’s delight in the energy bath. The result is that you are relieved of your lifelong illusion of knowledge. From now on, ordinary knowledge is no longer going to satisfy you, I’m afraid.”
This is a classic shaktipat, or kundalini awakening.
Sometimes a kundalini awakening is spontaneous – maybe a person goes deeply into a spiritual practice, and their own body does it – maybe it is a stressor or life event. Shaktipat is when the Guru does it to you. Ready or not here you come!
It’s the beginning of the Spiritual Emergence, and Spiritual Emergency – which can often be diagnosed as psychosis, as it is a symbolic and emotional effort to reconcile a cognitive dissonance or integrate the higher resonance of the kundalini awakening.
We don’t have enough wise kundalini coaches to help people with this. The kundalini I was taught was gentle, careful. The kundalini I see at yoga studios now tries to pump it up, increase the flow, charge it higher. Maybe in our toxic society this effort is needed. I prefer not to force the flower to open.
But it is a vulnerable time – we should all have a Socrates to help with it! (and so few of us ever do!)
You can hear a talk from Millman, here:
Thanks for your post on the kundalini awakening. I really enjoyed reading that in the context of a novel. Millman is a brilliant writer.
I also enjoyed the Millman talk. The concept of the mind/body/spirit and how we don’t always take notice of it, of the interconnectedness of it, of the power of it.
Chapter 2
The Web of IllusionIn this chapter, we follow Dan on his adventures. He visits Socrates again at the gas station. It’s late at night and the discussion turns toward a movie Dan has just seen, The Great Escape, about the daring escape of American and British prisoners of war.
Socrates makes the comment, “You’re a prisoner of your own illusions – about yourself and about the world.”
He goes onto to tell Dan that it Socrates’ job is to “point out your predicament, and I hope it is the most disillusioning experience of your life.”
And that made me think of a comment he made in an earlier chapter: “You hold many facts and opinions, yet know little of yourself. Before you can learn, you’ll have to first empty your tank,” referring to an analogy he made of a gas tank needing to be emptied before it can be filled.
This is foreshadowing the accident that will empty out Dan of all of his preconceived illusions and allow him to see the bars on his now invisible cage. As painful as that is, it’s what will allow how to finally awaken from his disillusions.
I like Socrates’ analysis of the difference between the mind and the brain: “The brain can be a tool. It can recall phone numbers, solve math puzzles, or creative poetry. In this way, it works for the rest of the body, like a tractor. But when you can’t stop thinking of that math problem or phone number, or when troubling thoughts and memories arise without your intent, it’s not your brain working, but your mind wandering. Then the mind controls you; then the tractor has run wild.”
Dan thinks he understands, but Socrates isn’t convinced, as he says, “To really get it, you must observe yourself to see what I mean. You have an angry thought bubble up and you become angry. It is the same with all your emotions. They’re your knee-jerk responses to thoughts you can’t control. Your thoughts are like wild monkeys stung by a scorpion.”
After this conversation, Dan goes back into his world of college and sports and doesn’t see Socrates for several weeks. But the conversation stays with him, sorting itself out in the narrative of his life over the passing days as he tries to understand.
It’s clear that Dan is a seeker and open to what will happen. He buys a notebook and starts a journal. He takes note of his negative thought patterns and processes. He notices that many of his thoughts (if not most) are “noise”.
When he returns to the gas station, we meet another character – Joy. Joy is not really explained as to “who” she is. She appears in a way out of nowhere. She’s a young friend of Socrates and they all meet up again for a picnic.
The lack of any historical reference for Joy renders her a kind of mythic presence. Of course, the same can be said for Socrates. Dan finds himself feeling unable to reconcile his feelings for her and keep his mind from, well, turning into that tractor of the brain running wild, to go back to Socrates’ earlier analogy.
And so Dan turns to studying and training like crazy to drown out his thoughts and feelings. He makes a fool of himself in front of his class. He isn’t eating, isn’t sleeping, and appears a bit crazed.
And he becomes very suicidal and ends up collapsed from exhaustion in the infirmary. He makes an appointment with a psychiatrist, but doesn’t keep it. What would he say? How would he explain Socrates?
And when he next sees Socrates, Dan is sent on this wild inner journey where he meets another young student, a guy named Donald, who is wanting to jump off the ledge of a hotel and commit suicide.
Dan talks him down. There’s this constant emptying out and emptying in aspect to the book.
Dan decides to follow Socrates, to find out where he lives, and of course, he wants to meet up with the beautiful Joy again. But once again, Socrates catches on and sets him up so he never gets to see where he lives.
Dan is getting angry with his teacher, who is constantly one step ahead of him. But Socrates reminds him in a note that reads: “Anger is stronger than fear, stronger than sorrow. Your spirit is growing. You are ready for the sword – Socrates.”
And so ends Chapter 2.
Your thoughts are like wild monkeys stung by a scorpion.
Wow, that’s much more intense than the traditional Buddhist “monkey mind!”
And then here – is the classic manifestation of the “Spiritual Emergency”:
And so Dan turns to studying and training like crazy to drown out his thoughts and feelings. He makes a fool of himself in front of his class. He isn’t eating, isn’t sleeping, and appears a bit crazed.
And he becomes very suicidal and ends up collapsed from exhaustion in the infirmary. He makes an appointment with a psychiatrist, but doesn’t keep it. What would he say? How would he explain Socrates?
It’s not an easy task to integrate a higher vibration, to reconcile the impossible with the real.
If he’d made that appointment with the psychiatrist, he might have “gotten caught” and none of the rest of the book would ever have happened.
If I recall correctly, the movie makes Joy out to be more of a love interest than she is. You are at about the same place that I am in the book – so your comments from here on out will be new to me.
I think this book – even though it’s not about shamanism – is a perfect place to start. Me, I started with Carlos Castaneda and suffered from decades of darkness. If I had started with Way of Peaceful Warrior – it might have been different. One of the delights of this book (as it is with Castaneda, too) is that it takes the form of a story.
Another one that I recommend highly, which also takes the form of a story, is James Redfield’s, “The Celestine Prophecy.”
If I recall correctly, the movie makes Joy out to be more of a love interest than she is. You are at about the same place that I am in the book – so your comments from here on out will be new to me.
Yes, I remember the movie that way, too. The Hollywood Effect.
I think this book – even though it’s not about shamanism – is a perfect place to start. Me, I started with Carlos Castaneda and suffered from decades of darkness. If I had started with Way of Peaceful Warrior – it might have been different. One of the delights of this book (as it is with Castaneda, too) is that it takes the form of a story.
Another one that I recommend highly, which also takes the form of a story, is James Redfield’s, “The Celestine Prophecy.”
I’m sorry you had such a bad experience, although from the way you write now, I couldn’t imagine you being in darkness. I like the way you share your journey, as you are shining light for those of us who come behind you.
The art of the story is so powerful and such a good teaching tool.
Thank you for recommending the “Way of the Peaceful Warrior”. I placed “The Celestine Prophecy” on my wish list for future reading. I really enjoy these types of stories.
Chapter 3
Cutting FreeThis chapter gives a lot of insight into techniques of bringing the mind to full attention. We see Dan struggling to remember a name, if he had finished eating, forgetting to notice how beautiful the sky is.
And then we see him doing re-directs for his mind in the gym. When he’s “soaring,” his mind is clear and everything is focused. But other times, not so much. But he’s noticing patterns at times. It’s a process.
Also interesting is when Dan gets a cold and Socrates reminds him that it’s a sign that his body is saying he is out of balance. Considering Dan had eaten cookies for breakfast (sounds like a typical college menu!), he does have a point.
But it’s not just the body, but also the mind. As Socrates says, “Stressful thoughts reflect a conflict with reality. Stress happens when the mind resists what is.”
He goes onto explain, “You say, Dan, when you resist what happens, your mind begins to race; the thoughts that assail you are actually created by you.”
There’s a really good mindfulness lesson!
And suddenly, Dan is existing inside of his teacup! He’s journeyed in his mind underwater, suddenly taking the form of a fish.
And he’s back again, sitting on Socrates’ couch.
And Dan understands that it he is very much like this fish – trapped inside of a teacup with a limited vantage point. He must expand his vantage point in order to grow awareness.
We all must.
I found this conversation so fascinating. Socrates explains, “. . . the practice of insight into the source of your own ripples is meditation,” referring to the ripples of water analogy that Socrates is using after Dan experiences that journey into the tea as a fish.
And then Socrates appears out of nowhere bearing a samurai sword and waving it over Dan’s head!
It’s hard to tell what is real and what is, well, in Dan’s head!
Dan goes quiet, retreats into a deep meditation.
Socrates explains that “the warrior uses the sword of meditation with skill and understanding. With it, he cuts the mind to ribbons, slashing through thoughts to reveal their lack of substance.”
And then there’s some comic relief as Socrates has fun messing with his customers at the gas station. He makes fun of a group of people all dressed in the same garb (they are new age spiritualists), but then oddly, he is very courteous to a “forty-year-old teenager”.
And Socrates explains to the confused Dan that he gave each of them what they needed. I think the new age seekers needed to not be so arrogant about their mission and perhaps the forty-year-old teenager needed compassion.
And here we go – another kundalini awakening, I think, as Dan floats among the stars and cosmos.
He feels his body as a “hollow vessel” and I can’t help returning to the part earlier in the book when Socrates tells him he needs to be “emptied out” to be filled back up again.
And Dan thinks he has learned everything he needs to and is graduating. But Socrates cuts him down to size – “What you saw was only a vision, not a conclusive experience.”
And now I’m remember what Alan Watts said, “Once you get the message, you can hang up the phone”. And then you’ll spend the rest of your life working it out. So true of these types of awakenings and journeys.
Socrates explains the core of awareness, breaking it down into two parts:
1. Insight – paying attention to what is arising.
2. Surrender – letting go of attachment to arising thoughts. This is how you cut free of the mind, he explains.I’m connecting the “emptying out” to the “surrender”. I can see why this book is so helpful.
And the way Socrates is eating reminds me of this mindfulness exercise:
What A Raisin Can Teach You About Mindfulness Practice
Socrates goes onto this great conversation about concepts of dying and immortality. “You have been immortal since before you were born and will be long after the body dissolves. The body is Consciousness; never born; never dies; only changes. The mind – your ego, personal beliefs, history, and identity – is all that ends at death. And who needs it?”
I find a lot of comfort in this and ties into one of my favorite Alan Watts teachings:
Alan Watts – How Do You Define Yourself?
And Socrates gives more techniques:
1. pay attention to how you walk
2. pay attention to how your mouth shapes the words you say
3. pay attention to how you thinkI’m trying these techniques and it makes me enter the world of The Observer, which is the most sublime state I can find right now.
As Socrates says, “Your attention must burn.”
And the chapter ends with a foreboding comment by Dan – “. . . And my training was about to begin with an ordeal I almost didn’t survive.”
Coda writes:
I couldn’t imagine you being in darkness.
Ah! I have the same darknesses that anyone has! I have anger, and violence, jealousy and selfishness.
If you look at the Carlos Castaneda thread, here:
Shaman Explorations – Carlos Casteneda Ch 3 – Plant Medicine AlliesYou will see that there are enemies to defeat. Some of them are fear (and anger may be a part of fear – do we not get angry at that which we do not understand?) or thoughts and knowledge (Don Juan calls this “clarity”) and power. If we defeat these, the next enemy is old age.
Don Juan claims that when you defeat these things, you need never go back, but I find it is cyclical. You defeat a little fear, and the next fear you must defeat is larger. Ultimately, you face the fear of death – and after that, the other fears seem small – but they aren’t nonexistent.
When I read Casteneda the first time, I was in pursuit of Power. I’m not sure I have defeated that enemy, but I do know my Darknesses, and strive to do 2 things with them:
1. Shine a light on them, and
2. Harness their energies for my own purpose.Darknesses are often instincts, developed for survival. Someone may push away relationship by being cold and haughty – or angry, bitter and nasty. This cold haughtiness or angry bitterness was developed as a survival instinct. It’s at the instinctual level – so very difficult to see in the mirror, and very difficult to redirect.
One of my Spiritual Awakenings was brought on by a movie (a Sandra Bullock comedy, “28 Days” of all things!). As I came out of the movie, my world collapsed around me as I saw myself in the mirror that Sandra Bullock held up – how selfish I’d been, and the wreckage I’d left behind me in my selfish desire to do as I pleased. I took responsibility from that point, for my words and deeds, and while – I am not always successful – strive to consider others and consequences in my choices.
This was part of my Peaceful Warrior process. It happens in the martial arts studio, too. Just because I know how to break someone’s arm, doesn’t mean that is always the wisest choice for a situation. The more advanced I get, the more I learn that there are better, subtler ways of obtaining peace from a situation. When I was Power Hungry, it was always about “destruction of the foe.” Now it is more about “stopping harm.”
When Socrates says:
“You say, Dan, when you resist what happens, your mind begins to race; the thoughts that assail you are actually created by you.”
This is very similar to a message you received from a Helper in the Middle World (I hope you don’t mind if I quote it here):
He says, “Don’t make your journey harder than it is.”
Coda writes:
And now I’m remember what Alan Watts said, “Once you get the message, you can hang up the phone”. And then you’ll spend the rest of your life working it out. So true of these types of awakenings and journeys.
Yes, but I’m learning something beyond this, which is relationship. In developing a relationship with “the phone,” then you integrate the teachings much more deeply – and you’re not left to your own mind, but instead, are in constant communication with the All That Is. Hanging up the phone ends the teaching. A relationship with the Teacher – whether that is a Helper, a Medicine Power, Plant Medicine, or another Person, even a Guru, – deepens the teaching with each conversation.
I think that Alan Watts was trying to distinguish himself from the psychedelic phenomenon happening at the time. Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey were blazing new trails into chaos and anarchy. By telling people to “hang up the (psychedelic) phone,” he was denying psychedelics as Teachers.
We are on this planet for Relationship. It is why our species has such difficulty Relating. We are afraid of the Other, we want to believe in our Separateness, and yet – are dismayed at the Aloneness of that. The drive of Life is for us to come together and Teach and Learn from each other.
Socrates suggests a mindful exercise:
2. pay attention to how your mouth shapes the words you say
This is a new teaching for me! Thank you!
Don Juan claims that when you defeat these things, you need never go back, but I find it is cyclical. You defeat a little fear, and the next fear you must defeat is larger. Ultimately, you face the fear of death – and after that, the other fears seem small – but they aren’t nonexistent.
This is so interesting. Once you face the fear of death and understand your place in it, not only do other fears seem small, but the entire planet, the entire universe, seems small and very, very close to the surface.
When I was Power Hungry, it was always about “destruction of the foe.” Now it is more about “stopping harm.”
I like this a lot.
I think that Alan Watts was trying to distinguish himself from the psychedelic phenomenon happening at the time. Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey were blazing new trails into chaos and anarchy. By telling people to “hang up the (psychedelic) phone,” he was denying psychedelics as Teachers.
Interesting insight. Watts has more depth than Leary and Kesey, although I did like Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
Did Watts keep the perspective that psychedelics could be useful tools to start the process of gaining spiritual insight? I can’t remember all of the history.
No, Watts walked away from psychedelics, Leary continued with them. I couldn’t say which of the two is “deeper,” however. Watts – is more erudite, more multicultural, tying Advaida Vedanta, Buddhism, and the Awakening to the Self in a nice package that the Western Mind can absorb – and be entertained by. Leary was more inward, more of a psychonaut, exploring the inner space and cataloguing it to the best of his ability.
Kesey just went wild, thus teaching the lesson of where the line of survival is.
Just my perception – I’ve only read bits of both of them.
Kesey just went wild, thus teaching the lesson of where the line of survival is.
Very interesting and helpful way of giving credit to Kesey and honoring his journey.
Chapter 5
The Mountain PathIn this chapter, Dan’s training is moving to the next level because he survived the duel in the previous chapter. As Socrates tells him, “For one thing, you’re going to have to find the answers from within.”
And then he sends Dan to the back of the gas station to sit and meditate and find his own answers – and not to come back until he has something “of value” to tell Soc.
The first piece of wisdom that Dan gets during this meditation session is something he got from a psychology lecture:
“Beneath all our apparent differences we share the same human needs and fears; we’re all on the same path together, guiding one another. And this understanding brings compassion.”
Nice, but not good enough – Socrates sends him back to do more meditating.
The next revelation he reveals to Socrates is, “So far I’ve seen beneath people’s social masks to their common fears and trouble minds, but that has only made me cynical, because I haven’t yet looked still deeper to find the light within them.”
Again, nice, but back he goes to his philosopher’s stone behind the gas station for more meditating. At this point, Dan has been up all night and skipped his classes during the day. It’s night again.
Still in recovery from his injuries, Dan does a Tai Chi routine in order to help his stiffening muscles from this lengthy meditation session. And this channels his mind more clearly.
And eureka! He flashes back to a recent memory where he was doing Tai Chi in a public park and had fallen, embarrassing himself in front of a bunch of teenagers who laughed at him. He exclaims: “There are no ordinary moments!”
And with that wisdom, Socrates is finally pleased.
And this lesson follows him into the gym where he is diligently building himself back up after his accident. There are no ordinary moments he thinks as he goes through his gymnastic routine, very mindful of his injured leg.
In this chapter, Dan tests himself, going for a very long run with Joy and testing himself even farther with gymnastics on the trampoline, making his teammates worried that he’d re-injure himself.
In this more advanced training, Socrates brings in an important concept that really ties into trauma therapy: Working to release tension in the muscles in order to release the past.
That made me think of this brilliant Jon Kabbat-Zinn guided meditation:
Jon Kabat Zinn Body Scan Meditation GUIDED MEDITATION
It struck me how much this chapter was about “the body”, whereas the previous chapters were more about “the mind”. But since the two are connected (although you wouldn’t know that from western medicine), this does make sense.
But wait, in the midst of a grueling run, Joy explains to Dan, “This wasn’t a test of your body; it was a test of your spirit – a test to see if you could push on- not just with the hill, but with our training. If you had stopped, it would have been the end. But you passed, Danny, you passed with flying colors.”
The next lesson involves satori. Soc explains, “Now let me tell you about satori, a Zen concept. Satori occurs when attention rests in the present moment, when the body is alert, sensitive, relaxed, and the emotions are open and free. Satori is what you experienced when the knife was flying toward you. Satoris is the warrior’s state of being.”
Dan says he can relate that to his gymnastic competition experiences. But Soc says it’s more universal – “Sports, dance, or music, and any other challenging activity can serve as a gateway to satori. You imagine that you love gymnastics, but it’s merely the wrapping for the gift of satori.”
I’ve experienced this myself while playing keyboard and guitar! I never thought of it as unwrapping something much bigger – it’s the gift of that intense, present moment awareness.
To better understand the process, Soc reminds Dan of how he was able to keep going in his runs with Joy – “When you ran up the hill after Joy, you didn’t just gaze wistfully at the top of the mountain, you looked directly in front of you and took one step at a time. That’s how it works.”
I like the way he breaks it down into manageable steps.
Toward the end of this chapter, Dona and Socrates were meeting in the mornings, not at night, in order to go running, although he ended up running with Joy until Soc returned from what he explained was probably the flu. But it still left unanswered questions, as always.
Socrates is one mysterious dude.
Dan has been working extra hard and wants to prove to his Coach that he’s ready to compete again. But his coach is a hard sell.
First, Dan impresses everyone with his floor exercises, next the rings.
And he did it not only to impress his coach and teammates, but also Socrates, who was visiting the gym. In a bit of comic relief, Dan had already told his teammates to call Socrates “Marilyn”. Socrates plays along, pretending to be Dan’s eccentric grandfather, Marilyn.
The concept of “meditating your action” comes up. This is different than simply “doing” something. Soc explains:
“Meditating an actin is different from doing it. To do, there is a doer, a self-conscious ‘someone’ performing. But when you meditate an action, you’ve already released attachment to outcomes. There’s no ‘you’ left to do it. In forgetting yourself, you become what you do, so your action is free, spontaneous, without ambition, inhibition, or fear.”
I think one of the key statements in this chapter is something that Millman places in there calmly, kind of like an afterthought – “Though gymnastics was no longer the center of my life, it was still an important part, so I did my very best.”
Dan’s life seems so much richer now. He’s dating again (a college girlfriend named Linda), training, easily getting through his studies, and has this very powerful meditation practice.
The chapter ends with the three-day competition against Southern Illinois University. Dan competes on the high bar and makes a 9.8, wining the competition for his team.
But it comes with the solemn realization that comes to those who get a hard won victory and then it’s all over. His college career is coming to a close and he’ll face the real world soon. On the plane on the way home from the competition, he thinks, “All these years I had been sustained by an illusion – happiness through victory and now that illusion was burned to ashes. I was no happier, no more fulfilled, for all of my achievements.”
Okay, a bit of a downer to leave on, but I’m sure there will be more adventures and more insight in the next chapter. Happiness, from what little I know, is an illusion, so finding it may not be in Dan’s best interest, as it could be a distraction from something even better.
Did we lose Chapter 4? Where Dan has his accident?
There are no ordinary moments.
The pain, the distress – the joy, the simplicity – nothing is ordinary.
This leads to an interesting view of Carlos Castaneda’s “Ordinary” and “Non Ordinary” realities – according to Socrates, it’s all non-ordinary!
Regarding satori:
I’ve experienced this myself while playing keyboard and guitar! I never thought of it as unwrapping something much bigger – it’s the gift of that intense, present moment awareness.
Yes! Some call it “peak experience,” or “the zone,” where the music flows through you effortlessly, or the dance – or the art.
Again, this is why I say so much that Art is Truth.
“Meditating an actin is different from doing it. To do, there is a doer, a self-conscious ‘someone’ performing. But when you meditate an action, you’ve already released attachment to outcomes. There’s no ‘you’ left to do it. In forgetting yourself, you become what you do, so your action is free, spontaneous, without ambition, inhibition, or fear.”
This is why I like active meditations. Tai Chi, for me, there comes a flow when the breath and the body are one, and the gentleness of it, lacks striving. Unfortunately, it only comes with mastery – so – as I get older and creakier and more forgetful, it is harder to surrender to that mastery.
It is when you have done a thing for so long that it resides at the level of instinct, and you can completely surrender to the process. Walking meditation would be the best place for a beginner to experience this, because you can “learn to walk” in a very short time, even though you’ve been doing it all your life.
I have a wish that Dan Millman gets to join Cirque du Soleil, and turn his Art into uplifting happiness for millions – but – I have a feeling that’s not how the book is going to end!
Thanks again!
Did we lose Chapter 4? Where Dan has his accident?
Uh oh! I know I posted it, but maybe forgot to press the “Submit” button?
I’ll add it before going onto Chapter 6. Sorry about that!
Again, this is why I say so much that Art is Truth.
Yes! I love that Chris Hedges video clip. Awesome stuff.
And what about literature to combat propaganda?
Is Literature ‘the Most Important Weapon of Propaganda’?
This is why I like active meditations. Tai Chi, for me, there comes a flow when the breath and the body are one, and the gentleness of it, lacks striving. Unfortunately, it only comes with mastery – so – as I get older and creakier and more forgetful, it is harder to surrender to that mastery.
Brilliant! I hadn’t thought of the “flow” of Tai Chi, but that makes sense.
I’d like to study this at some point. I tried earlier, but never stayed with it. But I don’t think I truly understood it’s importance and without that narrative, there was no connection.
Thanks for your thoughts. 🙂
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