Although acting on angry impulses that are destructive towards oneself and others is not recommended, anger itself is a powerful emotion with a lot of charge. You can transmute that charge into productive action if you know how. Insight #6 How a warrior uses meditation I remember walking through the hallway in my high-school practicing breathing and mindfulness. I felt like I was starting to wake up. This also marked the beginning of me purging friends who weren’t on board with self-development and instead forming new and fulfilling connections. One is insight, the willing of attention, the channeling of awareness to focus precisely on what you want to see. The other process is surrendering, letting go of all arising thoughts. That is real meditation; that is how you cut free of the mind. Dan is a world-class trampolining gymnast attending college at the University of California, Berkeley. The story begins when Dan experiences a series of nightmares, where he is in a dark lane. In front of him is Death, about to claim his life, when an old man appears out of nowhere and confronts Death. One particular night, Dan heads out to an all night gas station, where he meets the same old man from his dreams. The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

The right use of gymnastic to focus your full attention and feeling on your actions; then you will achieve satori. Gymnastics draws you into the moment of truth, when your life is on the line, like a dueling samurai. It demands your full attention: satori or die!? Our expectations are the source of our suffering. We get this egotistical attitude that the world owes us something. So we strut around with this sense of entitlement and self centredness.

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To live well we need to learn the right lessons, to have the right worldview, attitude and practice. By using a fictional story the author gives you a ring-side seat to a Socratic discussion about the nature of mindfulness and reality. You could call this a guide on how to be happy. A kind of Buddhism meets Hollywood. My journey has had such moments. It’s only through knowledge and awareness can we ever hope to live a good life. Probably the biggest obstacle we have in finding success and happiness is the idea that we must protect ourselves at all costs. It’s difficult to free ourselves from the illusions that bind us. We need more mentors in this world. People who reach out, tap us on the shoulder and ask ‘what are you doing?’. To slap us around the face, wake us up, and show us a path out of the prison we don’t even know we’re in.

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.” There, Dan witnesses his own death and realizes that he is not the body, but the soul. The temporary self – is just a masquerade, and there’s another reality which we can’t see. The author also poopoos attaining goals , belittles business acumen as unimportant , calls out monetary accumulation as unnecessary etc; this combined with the confusion of , one moment concentrating on the self , and the next advocating altruism and the sacrifice of self. Ayn Rand would spin in her grave and screech about the dangers of such a philosophy in the "real world" we all live in. The spiritual silliness about dying and being in the trees and the birds and the wind , blah blah silliness is just spiritual fluff to mask the fact that death holds no answers. I must say he makes a compelling argument that it should have no sway either. We need to be woken up, out of our complacency, our ignorance. To have our illusions shattered, and live with more awareness and presence. We are so focused on ‘making it’ that we lose sight of the fact that birth and death are the bookends on life. It’s the bit in between that matters.

Where Are You, What Time is It, What Are You

For me and probably hundreds more of Goodread's budding authors, the most valuable part of the book that gives us all hope was the Afterword where he recounts spending ten years writing the book, then the rejection slips flowed, finally he found an agent who then finally found a publisher who eventually gave up because the bookshops wouldn't buy a book that didn't fit neatly into a category Fact or Fiction. How that resonated with me!

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.” Happiness is not the result of a good life, it is a good life. Life is not a problem to be fixed but an adventure to be lived. Vulnerability After an intensive, twenty-year spiritual quest, Dan's teaching found its form as the Peaceful Warrior's Way, expressed fully in his books and lectures. His work continues to evolve over time, to meet the needs of a changing world. 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.” Because we focus our awareness on our mind we live in a state of reaction to the mind's thoughts. Our behaviour becomes nothing but habit. Someone dies and we cry, we agree to the expectations of others and we feel stressed, our business goes under and we feel depressed, someone makes a joke and we laugh, someone gives us a gift and we are grateful. Both the "good" and "bad" behaviours are reactions. They are habits.

'The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior' Quotes

Yet such an attitude prevents us from experiencing life. Shutting out the pain and suffering means we don’t get to feel the joy and happiness that come with it. Far too many people shun responsibility, then complain life is not what they expected it to be. We need to be jolted out of our complacency, to have our laziness challenged. The author of this book was an affluent white man and a talented, successful athlete. You don't get to forget these facts. The entire book is one big humble-brag under the guise of finding enlightenment that requires him to give up his amazing life. [And now he makes tons of money selling books that preach this philosophy. Totally hypocritical.] Similar to the Way of the Superior Man, this book bridges many insights from Eastern and Western philosophy. Why you should read the Way of the Peaceful Warrior I first read this after college when my father gave it to me as a graduation gift. I almost didn't read it, but was very glad I did as it was very impactful on me, and I think helped shape me into the person I am today. I recently decided to re-read it after a meditation teacher was talking about it - and was glad to discover that it's just as relevant to my life now as it was before. It's a book I can easily see myself re-reading every 5-10 years.

It’s not helplessness, neither a control freak. But being a player, showing up for life and letting the rest play out in it’s own way. Now Some of the negativity in here aside, I haven`t written this much of a review on a book in a while so there must be something to it. I would call it hope ...I have hope that one day I will find contentment. Wake up! If you knew for certain that you had a terminal illness - if you had precious little time left to make use of your life and consider who you are, you'd not waste time on self-indulgence or fear, lethargy or ambition. Be happy now, without reason - or you never will be at all.” We are the thoughts and feelings we have. We can get so caught up in thinking we are what we think we forget an important truth. Our minds are not here to give us the truth, only to keep us alive.Smoking is not disgusting; only the habit is. I may enjoy a cigarette, then not smoke again for six months. And when I do smoke, I don’t pretend that my lungs won’t pay a price; I follow appropriate action afterward to help counterbalance the negative effects.” His reactions about the achievements are not the same as they once were. He is quiet and doesn’t make too much noise because from within, he is aware that victories are not the path leading to full happiness and bliss. everyone tells you what's good for you. they don't want you to find your own answers. they want you to believe theirs.”