The Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior

Soc: Knowledge is not the same as wisdom.
Soc: ... You know how to clean a windshield?
Dan: Yes, why?
Soc: Wisdom is doing it.

Soc: There's no higher purpose... service to others.

Soc: You need to start asking better questions.

Soc: Everyone tells you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs.
Dan: And let me guess you want me to believe yours.
Soc: No. I want you to stop gathering information from outside yourself and start gathering it from the inside.
Dan: What are you, a part of some cult or something?
Soc: People are afraid of what's inside and that's the only place they're ever gonna find what they need.

Soc: Why can't you sleep? Is it because maybe late at night, when all the noise dies down and you're lying there in the bed, and there's nobody around but you, then maybe, you get a little scared? Scared because suddenly everything feels so empty.

Soc: People think they are their thoughts. They think they are and it brings them all kinds of sadness.
Dan: I'm not what I think?
Soc: Of course not.
Soc: The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. Non of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose.

Soc: That's what your training even your life is all about. Developing the wisdom to apply the right leverage in the right place at the right time.

Soc: Take out the trash.
Dan: You take out the trash.
Soc: The trash is up here (points to Dan's mind). That's the first part of your training. learning to throw out everything you don't need in here.

Soc: There's never nothing going on.

Soc: Take out the trash, Dan. The trash is keeping you from the only thing that matters... this moment, here, now. And when you truly are in the here and now, you'll be amazed at what you can do and how well you can do it.

Soc: Sometimes you have to loose your mind before you can come to your senses.



Dan: What kind of a warrior trains by sitting around scrubbing toilets?
Soc: When you become a warrior, you learn to meditate in every action.
Dan: Scrubbing toilets?
Soc: Letting go of attachments. Like your pride. Giving up your addictions.
Dan: Yeah, name one thing I'm addicted to.
Soc: Talking. Especially interrupting. Knowing everything, when in fact you know nothing.
Dan: You really think that this is going to expand my awareness of anything?

Soc: All you have is right now...

Soc: First realization of a warrior: Not knowing.

Soc: Emotions are natural like passing water.

Soc: Everything has a purpose... it's up to you to find it.

Dan's realizations:
1. Anger, hatred, violence... they're really just fear. Fear then, not money is the root of all evil.
2. Chaos Theory is correct except that chaos is actually not chaotic at all but perfectly controlled.
3. If you lend somebody $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
4. When making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich you must first apply the peanut butter, not the jelly to the bottom half of the bread.
5. The people that are the hardest to love are usually the ones who need it the most.
6. There's never nothing going on. There are no ordinary moments.

Soc: There is no "better". You will never be better. Same way you'll never be less than anybody else.

Soc: The habit is the problem. All you need to do is be conscious about your choices and responsible for your actions.

Soc: Every action had it's price and it's pleasure. Recognizing both sides, a warrior becomes realistic and responsible for his actions.

Soc: Death isn't sad. The sad thing is most people don't live at all.

Soc: When you feel fear, use the sword. Take it up here and cut the mind to ribbons. Slash through all those regrets and fears and anything else that lives in the past or the future.

Soc: A warrior does not give up what he loves. He finds love in what he does.

Soc: A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He's about absolute vulnerability. That's the only true courage.

Soc: The accident is your training. Life is choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you'd like to be.

Soc: A warrior acts, only a fool reacts.

Soc: There's no starting or stopping, only doing.

Soc: Nearly all of humanity share your predicament, Dan. If you don't get what you want, you suffer. And when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold onto it forever.

Soc: The gold is a craving. "If only I had it, I'd be happy." Can't you hear it in there?

Soc: You don't surrender you dreams. You surrender the one thing you never have and you never will -- control. Accept that you don't control what will happen to you... that you may or may not and that you are something exceptional either way.

3 Rules of Life (by Dan)
1. Paradox: Life is a mystery. Don't waste time trying to figure it out.
2. Humor: Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.
3. Change: Know that nothing stays the same.

Dan: The journey's what brings us happiness. Not the destination.

Dan: When you get up there you make every move about the move.

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



Who is Socrates? Click here to find out.