Preface
Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit
Not all those who wander are lost.
J. R. R. Tolkien
I want to tell you a true story. A long time ago, I set out on a quest for meaning in the modern world. In the years that followed, I evolved from a youthful athlete to an elder teacher of practical (some say spiritual) life skills. The events and experiences unfolded as I describe them — not metaphorically or in a parallel dimension but in the stormy arena of daily life. For decades now, in my books and presentations, I’ve described an approach to living with a peaceful heart and a warrior’s spirit. This open path, accessible to anyone, evolved from decades of training in gymnastics and martial arts, and with guides I met along the way. Insight emerged only after lengthy periods of preparation, course corrections, and humbling wake-up calls. While many authors and role models have inspired me, four mentors had the greatest impact on my life and work. I’ll identify them by name in Part Two, but here I refer to them by the archetypal roles they played in our encounters:
The Professor: A Bolivian scientist-mystic who created a school whose curriculum contained a global heritage of spiritual practices progressively leading to enlightenment.
The Guru: An American-born spiritual master whose radical teachings transcended existing techniques, but whose later behaviors left lessons of a different kind.
The Warrior-Priest: A martial artist, metaphysician, healer, and charismatic spiritual rascal who rescued souls and opened doors to my future career and calling.
The Sage: A devotee of reality whose paradoxical teaching — simple yet difficult, practical yet idealistic — brought a new clarity rooted in present action.
My first two mentors, the Professor and the Guru, would inspire me to write Way of the Peaceful Warrior, while the Warrior-Priest and the Sage would influence all that followed. Each of them had their gifts and blind spots. They appeared within a vast field of other teachers, gurus, and spiritual authorities, some benign, others dangerous or deluded. It wasn’t always easy to discern one type from the other. The circumstance that attracted me to each mentor, and why I eventually moved on, provide the substance of my story.
Some readers may ask: What about your teacher Socrates? Is he one of the four mentors? If not, why isn’t he included? An understandable question, since my first book in the Peaceful Warrior Saga blends autobiography and fiction, leaving just enough ambiguity to lend an air of mystery about the old service station sage I called Socrates.
To resolve such ambiguity, I now offer this small revelation: I am Socrates. That is to say, the literary character I named after the ancient Greek is a projection of my own psyche. I was not Soc’s student but his creator. As my muse, he assisted in his own creation. Our dialogues were not remembered conversations but flowed forth as I wrote them. My 2006 novel, The Journeys of Socrates, conveys an imagined life of this literary character and the experiences that tempered his spirit.
To put it another way, Socrates is real; Dan Millman is a fictional character. Those of my readers and seminar attendees who desired a teacher like Socrates had him all along. Just as young Arthur had Merlin, Frodo had Gandalf, Luke Skywalker had Yoda, Daniel-san had Mr. Miyagi, and Carlos Castaneda had Don Juan Matus — mentors and students from life and legend — I had my Socrates. His teachings emerged from the experiences I’ll describe in the chapters that follow.
Even the most meticulous memoirist is an unreliable narrator, recalling the patchwork of the past through personal filters and biases. As the protagonist of my own life, it would be easy to paint a self-portrait in colors made more rosy, witty, or significant with the passing of time. Still, I’ve related events as accurately as I can, checking my memories with those of friends and family. I hope authenticity and candor have compensated for any shortcomings. This, the story of a transformative quest, had to wait until now.
Now has always been my favorite time. And while the story is mine, the way belongs to all of us.
Dan Millman, Autumn 2021
Reflections on the extraordinary experiences that shaped Dan Millman’s evolution from youthful dreamer to spiritual teacher, written to inspire readers on their own quests
In this long-awaited true story of a search for the good life, bestselling author Dan Millman describes his quest for meaning in the modern world, including the story behind his writing of the spiritual classic, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. His evolution from childhood dreamer to world-class athlete catapults him, over a span of two decades, through mind-expanding experiences with four radically different mentors who prepare him for his calling as a down-to-earth spiritual teacher.
For forty years, through books and seminars, Millman has shown how to live with a peaceful heart and a warrior’s spirit. This memoir shares his course corrections, wake-up calls, and life lessons as he introduces readers to four key mentors: the Professor, a Bolivian scientist-mystic; the Guru, an American-born spiritual master; the Warrior-Priest, a martial artist and metaphysical healer; and finally the Sage, a different sort of psychologist and a servant of reality.
At times rollicking, at times poignant, Millman’s reflections will delight millions of devoted fans and inspire a new generation of readers because, as he writes, “This story is mine, but the way belongs to us all.”