Bergen Beat

Peaceful Warrior

“Wake up!  If you knew for certain that you had a terminal illness – if you had little time left to live – you would waste precious little of it!  Well, I’m telling you, Dan – you do have a terminal illness; It’s called birth.  You don’t have more than a few years left.  No one does!  So be happy now, without reason – or you will never be at all.”

What is your favorite movie?  I’ve been asked this question a zillion times.  The answer has changed over the years, but has been the same since I saw “Peaceful Warrior” back in 2007.  I guess you could say this movie changed my life, and I find myself thinking about it and often and trying to live my life by its message.  And now that I think of it, the tagline of this very blog, “There’s never nothing going on,”  is from the movie!

“Peaceful Warrior,” a major motion picture from the book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, is a true story about a college student and world-champion athlete.  Awakened one night from a dark and reoccurring dream, Dan Millman wonders to an all-night gas station off the UC Berkeley campus.  At this gas station, he meets an old man.  Later guided by this eccentric old warrior, he begins a journey that transforms his entire world forever.

What happens?  How is his entire world transformed forever?  You’re dying to know, aren’t you?  I could certainly sit here and tell you all about the book and the movie, but what fun would that be… you should read it or see it for yourself!  It is full of many truths and tons of wisdom, all in one amazing and inspiring story.  What I’m concerned with here on the Bergen Beat is the message, and below are just a few of my favorite quotes from both the book and the movie that I try to adopt in my own life and my pursuit of becoming a Peaceful Warrior. 

“Where are you?”
“Here.”
“What time is it?”
“Now.”
“What are you?”
“This moment.”

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”

“You are rich if you have enough money to satisfy all your desires.  So there are two ways to be rich: You earn, inherit, borrow, beg, or steal enough money to meet all your desire; or, you cultivate a simple lifestyle of few desires; that way you always have enough money.”

“Sometimes you have to lose your mind in order to come to your senses.”

“I don’t live according to anyone’s expectations, Dan – not even my own.  Nor do all warriors act exactly as I do.  So whether or not my behavior meets your new standards, it should be clear to you that I have no compulsions or habits.  My actions are conscious, spontaneous, intentional, and complete.”

“The warrior neither seeks death nor flees from it.  Death is not sad; the sad thing is that most people don’t really live at all.”

“Life is a mystery. My ignorance is based on this understanding. Your understanding is based on ignorance. This is why I am a humorous fool and you are a serious jackass.”

“How do you know you haven’t been asleep your whole life? How do you know you’re not asleep right now?”

“A secret’s value is not in what you know, but in what you do.”

“Use whatever knowledge you have but see its limitations. Knowledge alone does not suffice; it has no heart. No amount of knowledge will nourish or sustain your spirit; it can never bring you ultimate happiness or peace. Life requires more than knowledge, it requires intense feeling and constant energy. Life demands right action if knowledge is to come alive.”

“It’s better for you to take responsibility for your life as it is, instead of blaming others, or circumstances, for your predicament. As your eyes open, you’ll see that your state of health, happiness, and every circumstance of your life has been, in large part, arranged by you – consciously or unconsciously.”

“Nearly all of humanity shares your predicament. If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change, free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

“Life is not suffering; it’s just that you will suffer it, rather than enjoy it, until you let go of your mind’s attachments and just go for the ride freely, no matter what happens.”

“You’ve been willing to change clothes, hairstyles, women, apartments, and jobs. You are all too willing to change anything except yourself, but change you will.”

“Dan, just look at yourself. If you remain blind to your weaknesses, how can you correct them? Your slavish obedience to the mind’s mood and impulses is a serious error. If you persist you’ll remain yourself – and I can’t imagine a worse fate.”

“You see Dan, when you resist what happens, your mind begins to race; the thoughts that assail you are actually created by you.”

Joy soothed me with her voice.  “Everything has a purpose, Danny; it’s for you to make the best use of it.”
“How will I ever make use of this accident?”
“There are no accidents, Danny.  Everything is a lesson.  Trust your life.  Everything has a purpose, a purpose,” she repeated, whispering in my ear.
“But my gymnastics, my training…”
“This is your training.  Let the pain purify your mind and body.  It will burn through many obstructions.  A warrior doesn’t seek pain, but if pain comes, he uses it.”

“Anger is a powerful tool to transform old habits and replace them with new ones.  Fear and sorrow inhibit action; anger generates it.  When you learn to make proper use of your anger, you can change fear and sorrow to anger, then turn anger to action.  That’s the body’s secret to internal alchemy.”

“To rid yourself of old patterns, focus all your energy not on struggling with the old, but on building the new.  You don’t need control emotion.  Emotions are natural, like passing weather.  Sometimes it’s fear, sometimes sorrow or anger.  Emotions are not the problem.  The key is to transform the energy of emotion into constructive action.”

“There is a saying: “When you sit, you sit; when you stand, you stand; whatever you do, don’t wobble.’ Once you make your choice, do it with all your spirit.  Don’t be like the preacher who thought about praying while making love to his wife, and thought about making love to his wife while praying.”

“It’s better to make a mistake with the full force of your being than to timidly avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit.  Responsibility means recognizing both pleasure and price, action and consequence, then making a choice.”

“Moderation? Moderation is the devil’s dilemma.  It’s neither doing nor not doing.  It’s the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy.  Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand.  It’s for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die.”

If you get a chance to read Way of the Peaceful Warrior, or see the movie, “Peaceful Warrior,” I’d love to hear what you thought about it or if any of it applies to your own life.  Comment here on the Bergen Beat, or e-mail me at bergsteinsarah@gmail.com.

And remember: “There are no ordinary moments.”