Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

A fascinating semi-fictional story of a young Dan Millman, a champion in gymnastics, who became a student of an awakened gas station attendant, which he called Socrates.

The amazing thing about this book is that it gives us a sneak peek of an enlightened way of life. Soc's approaches were always fascinating to Dan, as well as to me. Their relationship is a perfect example to see how different an ego mind's attitudes, habits and ways of being are from a person who has gone beyond himself.

Dan has gone through lots of emotional and physical labor during his training as a warrior, as Socrates called a person doing it. He was also helped by Joy, a mysterious young girl, a friend of Socrates. He tapped into the unknown feelings and sensations and learned a lot about his body with a help of his new white-bearded teacher.

Eventually, after years of lots of struggling, making mistakes, searching and failing, he had his enlightenment, after which he died, but realized that he was never a character that he played. He was something that existed forever before his character was even born, and it would exist forever. That was a realization that Socrates wanted him to have from the night when he attracted his attention with jumping on a roof.

I think that Dan Millman's story can inspire us to search our Socrates within us, even though he says that there really was a Socrates in his life, and this book is based on mostly true events. But nevertheless, this book is full of metaphysical and existential wisdom, as well as stories and experiences that many of us will find relatable.

Read this and you will understand how does a peaceful warrior, an enlightened person lives his life. But be careful about making a caricature stereotypes out of it. This is about the way of being, a wisdom that can guide us, just like how it guided Dan to find his peace of mind.