Inspired by true events, the movie "Peaceful Warrior" is adapted from the book "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman. The story begins at UC Berkeley where Dan is a college student and Olympic hopeful gymnast. While he seems to have everything going for him, Dan is restless and reckless. He meets a mysterious gas station attendant played by Nick Nolte and they develop a Karate Kid, there's a lot that can be learned by scrubbing floors, type of wise teacher/student relationship. It's not the greatest film experience ever, but I recommend it for its cleverly expressed and articulated lessons on living in the present and the triumphant happy ending of which I am always a fan. Even the trailer (above) can give you a quick inspiration fix.
Nick Nolte's character, who we only know as "Socrates" which is Dan's nickname for him, insists that Dan stop gathering information about life from outside of himself and start looking inside, the only place he'll find the answers he's looking for. Of course, the one way to access your true, inner self is to stop identifying with your thoughts which are "just reflexive." He tells Dan to "take out the trash," (of his mind) and he defines trash as "anything that's keeping you from the one thing that matters - here and now." There are some exciting scenes which illustrate how powerful we are when we are fully present and living in the moment.
One of the final scenes shows Dan embracing the big one, the lesson of all lessons - "The journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination." We've all heard this so many times it starts to lose its impact. What will it take for us to really get this? Dan Millman had a devastating accident which finally caused him to pay attention, but that doesn't have to happen to us. We can learn from him. Each moment has something wonderful to offer. Don't relive your past, don't get lost in the future. All we have is right now. We came here for this experience, not the results. There's always more results, but there's never another now, or now or now... We have to go beyond these words which lose their meaning from over-use and really feel what this means. Feel the now.
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