Preface
No Ordinary Moments:
A Peaceful Warrior’s Guide to Daily Life
If a person sweeps streets for a living,
he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted,
as Beethoven composed, as Shakespeare wrote.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the years following publication of my first book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, I received questions from thousands of people all over the world who wanted to know more about a peaceful warrior’s approach to life.
I wrote No Ordinary Moments as a comprehensive guide to the way of life I teach, and live, to the best of my ability. This volume contains universal principles and practices designed to benefit readers whether or not they have read my previous books.
For those new to my writings—and as a review for those familiar with my work—I want to summarize a key incident described in Way of the Peaceful Warrior, because it gave birth to the title and tone of this book.
Late one night, months after meeting Socrates, an unusual old gas station attendant who became my mentor in the peaceful warrior’s way, I asked him yet another in an endless string of questions: “Soc, do you think I could ever learn to read other people’s minds?”
“First,” he said, “you’d better learn to read your own; it’s time you looked inside to find your answers.”
“I don’t know the answers; that’s why I’m asking you.”
“You know far more than you realize, but you don’t yet trust your inner knower.” Socrates turned and gazed out the window and took a deep breath. He always did this when he was deciding something. “Go out back, Dan—behind the station. You’ll find a large flat stone. Remain on that stone until you have something of value to tell me.”
“What?”
“I think you heard me.”
“This is some kind of test, right?”
He said nothing.
“Right?”
No one could clam up like Soc.
With a sigh, I went outside, found the stone, and sat down. “This is silly,” I muttered to myself. To pass the time, I started thinking of all the concepts I’d learned. “Something of value . . . something of value . . .”
Hours passed; it was getting cold. The sun would rise in a few hours.
By dawn, I came up with something—not too inspired, but the best I could do. I rose on stiff, sore legs and hobbled into the warm office. Socrates sat at his desk, relaxed and comfortable, preparing to end his shift. “Ah, so soon?” he said, smiling. “Well, what is it?”
What I told him isn’t worth repeating and wasn’t good enough—so back to the rock.
Socrates soon left and the day shift came on. As the sun passed slowly overhead, my classes came and went. I missed gymnastics practice. How long would I have to stay here? Desperate, I racked my brain for something of value to tell him.
Socrates returned before dusk, gave me a quick nod, and entered the office. After dark I came up with something else. I limped inside, rubbing my back, and told him. He shook his head and pointed toward the rock. “Too mental; bring me something from your heart and from your guts—something more moving.”
As I continued to sit, I muttered to myself, “Something more moving . . . more moving.” What did he want from me, anyway? Hungry, sore, and irritable—and so stiff I could hardly think anymore—I stood up on the rock and began to practice a few flowing movements of t’ai chi, just to get some energy moving.
I bent my knees and gracefully moved back and forth, my hips turning, my arms floating in the air, and my mind emptied. Suddenly an image came to me: A few days before, I had been out running and came to Provo Square, a little park in the middle of the city. To loosen up and relax, I started practicing a slow-motion t’ai chi routine Socrates had shown me. My mind and body relaxed into a peaceful state of balance and concentration. I became the movements, swaying like seaweed, floating to and fro on gentle ocean currents.
A few students from the local high school stopped to watch me. Focused on each movement, I hardly noticed them—until I finished the routine, picked up my sweatpants, and started pulling them over my running shorts. As my ordinary awareness asserted itself, my attention began to drift.
The students who had been watching me caught my attention—especially a pretty teenage girl, who pointed at me, smiled, and said something to her friend. I guess they were impressed, I thought, as I put both legs into one pant leg, lost my balance, and fell on my butt.
The kids laughed. After a moment of embarrassment, I lay back and laughed with them.
Sitting on that rock outside the gas station, I smiled as I remembered the incident. In the next instant, a wave of energy overwhelmed me as I was struck by a realization so profound it was to change the course of my life: I realized that I had given my full attention to the movements of t’ai chi, but not to the “ordinary” movements of putting on my pants. I had treated one moment as special and the other as ordinary.
Now I knew I had something of value to tell Socrates. I strode into the office and announced, “There are no ordinary moments.”
He looked up and smiled. “Welcome back,” he said. I collapsed on the couch; he made us tea. As we sipped the steaming brew, Socrates told me: “Athletes practice their athletics; musicians practice their music; artists practice their art. The peaceful warrior practices everything. That is a secret of the Way, and it makes all the difference.”
I finally understood why, several years before, Socrates had insisted, “Walking, sitting, breathing, or taking out the trash deserve as much attention as a triple somersault.”
“That may be true,” I had argued, “but when I do a triple somersault, my life is on the line.”
“Yes,” he replied, “but in every moment, the quality of your life is on the line. Life is a series of moments. In each, you are either awake or you are asleep—fully alive, or relatively dead.” I vowed never again to treat any moment as ordinary.
As the months passed, I would ask myself, at random: In this moment, am I fully alive, or relatively dead? I resolved to practice every action with full attention.
I’ve learned that the quality of each moment depends not on what we get from it, but on what we bring to it. I treat no moment as ordinary, no matter how mundane or routine it appears. I practice writing, sitting, eating, and breathing with my full attention. In doing so, I’ve begun to enjoy daily life as I once enjoyed gymnastics. Life hasn’t changed; I have. By treating every action with respect and every moment as sacred, I’ve found a new relationship with life, filled with passion and purpose.
All I’ve described comes naturally, almost effortlessly, once we clear the internal obstructions in our lives. This book outlines how we can accomplish this.
If No Ordinary Moments serves, in a small way, to make your daily life more peaceful, happy, and healthy, then my efforts will have been rewarded and my joy multiplied in the mirror of your lives.
Dan Millman
San Rafael, California
Spring 1992
PART I
The Peaceful Warrior’s Way
Introduction
Beneath the surface of daily life lies a deeper quest – a journey up a mountain path toward our hopes and dreams. No Ordinary Moments serves as a map up that mountain to a new way of life – through the same process of insight, disillusion, discovery, and inspiration I encountered and described in Way of the Peaceful Warrior.
The term peaceful warrior seems to contradict itself. How can we be both peaceful and a warrior? Famous warriors from every culture, in spite of their violent image, have demonstrated qualities of courage, commitment, and inner strength; yet few of these warriors had a peaceful heart. The peacemakers of history have shown qualities of loving-kindness and compassion; yet only a few of these peacemakers possessed a warrior’s spirit. The peaceful warrior combines courage and love – a warrior’s spirit with a peaceful heart.
Now we begin our journey: The first part of this book provides a revealing look at the issues and challenges of the peaceful warrior’s way through the dark forest – a necessary preparation for our climb above the clouds and into the light. . .
Continued in NO ORDINARY MOMENTS…
Also available as an Audio Book, read by the author.
A Peaceful Warrior’s Guide to Daily Life
While some of the material in this book is also addressed in Everyday Enlightenment, No Ordinary Moments contains material covered in none of my other books, including: “Universal Addictions” and “When the Going Gets Tough” as well as other core issues of life.
Comments by Dan:
After writing my first two novels, many people wrote to say, “I was inspired by your first books, but how do you actually apply these insights and principles in everyday life?”
I wrote No Ordinary Moments in 1991-more than ten years after Peaceful Warrior. I had met other significant teachers and gained fresh insights. So, in response to reader requests, and leaving my path as a “teacher through fiction,” I began a series of non-fiction guidebooks. So this book contains every insight I could offer at this point in my life on every significant topic related to practical spirituality.
No Ordinary Moments contains material I don’t address in any of my other books. For example, the chapter on “Universal Addictions” helps to clarify the meaning and source of all addictions, and gives tools for insight and management of our lives while recognizing our human frailties. And many have found the chapter “When the Going Gets Tough” an encouraging and hopeful reminder for those facing one of life’s adversities.