23 FEB

Way Of The Peaceful Warrior - Living In The Moment, Letting Go Of The Future

The Peaceful Warrior is a deep, complex movie and I come away with something new every time that I watch it. On this last viewing, the topic that really struck a chord with me was the concept of living in the moment; this idea that we have to let go of the past and the future and to live in the only moment that we truly have - this one.

I have trouble living in this moment. My mind is often racing over all the things I wish to get done: the books I want to read, the applications I want to program, the new technologies I want to learn, the new exercises I want to try, the friends I want to see, the movies I want to see, the ideas I want to put down on paper. It's gotten so bad that lately, I have felt unable to even enjoy a good audio book; how can I when every few seconds, I find my mind darting off on a half dozen tangents. It has become a struggle and a burden to pull my concentration back on track.

But of course, it's not always like this. There are many times when I am extremely focused on the activities at hand. When I'm at work, programming, I'm often lost in the moment and forget to eat or drink. When I'm having a deep, meaningful conversation with someone, all I'm thinking about are the ideas being exchanged. When I'm watching a movie, I sit there in a completely receptive state. When I'm at the gym, with a cold, iron bar in my hands, I am there 100% in the moment, feeling the muscles, feeling the joints, getting overwhelmed by the proprioceptive beauty of musculoskeletal system.

So why is it that sometimes my mind is like a laser while other times it is like a scatter-shot of disparate ideas? I've been meditating a lot on this conundrum today and my initial thought was that my mind races only when the current moment is not powerful enough to hook my full attention. But, the way of the peaceful warrior teaches us that there are no ordinary moments; it teaches us that there is always something amazing happening and that we have but to open our minds in order to see it.

I guess what I need to do is train myself to see the extraordinary; to see the beauty and the love that is all around me at all times. When I can do that, the past and the future won't matter because this moment - the now - will be overwhelming.

Socrates: Where are you?
Dan Millman: Here.
Socrates: What time is it?
Dan Millman: Now.
Socrates: What are you?
Dan Millman: This moment.