Well, one has heard of setting a
goal, a destination and striving or journeying towards that goal and destination relentlessly. But
can journey itself be a destination? Can one enjoy the present moment instead
of trying hard to make the best of it to achieve something in the future?
“The journey is what brings us
happiness, not the destination!” This is the lesson Dan Millman learns the hard
way in the film Peaceful Warrior. And
he learns this through an illusory character whom he calls Soc (Socretes).
Director: Victor Salva
Film Clip
Dan is a gymnast who wants to
achieve greatness in his life. He wants to be a great gymnast. But destiny has
other ideas for him, as his plans are shattered due to a series of accidents.
And then he meets this character, or he imagines he meets; who teaches him some
hard lessons. He teaches Dan that what is important is to enjoy each moment and
not to worry about what fruit it would bring. He teaches him that life will be
wasted if one only thinks about the destination and forgets the journey. Dan
learns that even journey itself can be one’s destination. It is only this way
that one can make the most of life.
The film directed by Victor Salva
and based on the novel Way of the
Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman is an inspirational sports film that
teaches a different lesson from what the world would usually teach. At the end
of the film we see Dan just giving himself totally to the given moment on the
still rings of the gymnasium weaving an incredible poetry of movements raising
the eyebrows of one and all. Of course, the audience by now knows the secret
which is not revealed to the judges and the live audience.
Indeed Peaceful Warriour is an
inspiring tale to all those who only think of results and goals, forgetting,
thus, to relish the given moment. What
matters most is that one lives entirely in the present moment.
- Melwyn Pinto SJ
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