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Last night my wife and I watched Peaceful Warrior in DVD format, renting it on the first day of its release in video stores. After all, Tony Robbins did say, “This film will impact the course of your life forever.”

The film is based on the autobiographical novel of Dan Millman. If you haven’t read the book, it’s a story about an older spiritual mentor, in the guise of a service station mechanic (in the film he is played by Nick Nolte) and a college athlete, Dan Millman (played by Scott Mechlowicz) who has trained his body to perfection but has done little training of his inner self. The mechanic, whom the athlete calls Socrates, gradually initiates Millman into new worlds of inner strength and understanding. One of the ways he does this is by telling the resistant Dan Millman “to take out the trash,” referring to all the stuff that passes through his head that he doesn’t need.

I liked Peaceful Warrior for a number of reasons. It showed the differences of Eastern and Western approaches to life. It paints a picture of the Western mindset in the example of the ultra-competitive Millman. Millman’s life is a perfect example because his whole life is centered on the goal of making the Olympic gymnastics team. Peaceful Warrior depicts the inherent emptiness of that approach. His life is out of balance, he doesn’t know himself, he can‘t sleep, he has recurrent nightmares, and he’s not happy,

Peaceful Warrior is a film about happiness. Millman isn’t happy. Millman will only be happy if he makes the Olympic team. That type of mindset is such a common occurrence in Western society (postponing happiness until a future occurrence that might not ever happen) that it is perceived as normal. But in fact it is insanity and I would be pleased if someday it was classified as such in the DSM-IV, the diagnostic guide of mental health professionals.

There are no reasons to postpone happiness. There are no reasons to say, “I’ll be happy if…” That is an enslavement by the mind, and that is one of the themes depicted in the film.

I remember reading The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, the book that the movie is based on, in the 1980s. I was struck then by the emphasis the book made on living in the present moment. At the time, I had a job working for the United States Census Bureau, which at times I found monotonous. I noticed my habit of looking at my watch while at that job to see how many more hours before I could go home. Realizing I wasn’t living in the present moment, I cut out a circular piece of paper that fit the size of my watch dial. I glued it onto the dial and wrote on it the word NOW.

I kept this on my watch for as long as I worked for the Census Bureau. I found it refreshing to get my own reminder numerous times a day that the time is NOW.

To give you a taste for the film, I selected some dialogue sequences from it. This first exchange I list startles Millman when the importance of happiness is made clear:

Millman: Ask me anything.

Socrates: Are you happy?

Millman: (Silence)

Socrates: You said I could ask you anything

Millman: What does happiness have to do with anything?

Socrates: Everything.

This next scene forces Millman to see the insanity of his mental trap. He can’t stand the painfulness of it and he leaves in a state of anger.

Socrates: Last question. If you don’t make the Olympic team, what will you do:

Millman: If I don’t what?

Socrates: You must have thought about it.

Millman: What the hell are you talking about?

Socrates: What’s the problem?

Millman: I don’t know what I’m doing here. You’re a freak and you’re freaking me out.

Here is a brief dialogue exchange where Socrates sets Millman straight on the nature of thoughts:

Socrates: People are not their thoughts. They think they are. And it brings them all kinds of sadness. Thoughts never end.

Millman: I’m not what I think?

Socrates: Of course not…The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. It fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. And none of those thoughts reveal anymore about you than the freckle does on the end of your nose.

The following piece of dialogue shows us the importance of not only getting the mind clear, focused on the present moment, but staying in that state. It transpires when Millman rushes into the gas station to boast Socrates how he was able to take out the trash and clear his mind, how he was clear and flawless, and how he demolished his gymnastics opponent:

Socrates: How long did you stay that way, clear and flawless? I demolished that guy. You should have seen me. You’re in the past, gloating. You’re not in the now, living. You haven’t learned anything. Go home. Training is over for tonight.

And in the last scene of the movie, ten months after shattering his leg, we see Millman performing flawlessly at the Olympic trials, in his best event, the rings. Just before his triumphant dismount, he has an inner dialogue with Socrates:

Socrates: Dan, where are you?

Millman: Here

Socrates: What time is it?

Millman: Now

Socrates: Who are you?

Millman: This moment.

Peaceful Warrior is the timeless reminder to live in the present moment, that we are not all the stuff in our heads, and that we don’t need some event in the future to bring us happiness. We can have it each and every moment.

You will not see not too many American films portraying this kind of inner spiritual unfoldment. I found Peaceful Warrior to be a helpful reminder of the importance of living in the present moment, in happiness and peace. If you haven’t already done so, see it. Sports clichéd or not, flawed or not, Peaceful Warrior has a lot to offer and a lot to contemplate.

I’ll ask you what Socrates asked Millman: Are you happy? If not, this film might point you in the right direction. Not too many films even try to do that. And that makes the price to see this film a real bargain.