I watched the movie ‘Peaceful Warrior’ many years back and liked it. That is when I learnt of Dan Millman and his books. Many start their mindfulness reading with ‘The Power of Now’. There are other good starting points including “The Untethered Soul” by Michael Singer, “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hanh, “Be Here Now” by Ram Dass. The explosion of interest in mindfulness has led to huge number of (many being sub-standard or simply aping other books) books being published recently. There are nevertheless very few authors who offer you a progression into in-depth practices. Om Swami is one of those in the recent past who does do that in the Yoga & Vedanta tradition (his “A Million Thoughts” is an excellent advanced practice guide). Some good options for follow-up reads are “How to Meditate” by Swami Vivekananda, “Meditation & Life” by Swami Chinmayananda, “The Presence Process by Michael Brown among others. Another way to progress (possibly better as well) is to join a course (with apps such as insight timer/headspace, or those offered by Vipassana International Academy/Chinmaya Mission/others).
In the ‘Peaceful Warrior’ a master referred to as Socrates teaches Dan the ways in which he can “live the moment”, and he goes on to recover from a serious injury to succeed in his sports life. This book continues the lessons using a model of the self as a combination of – “Conscious Self” (Left brain based rational actions”, “Basic Self” (right brain based intuitive reactions/subconscious mind) and the “Higher Self” (mature spiritual decisions with joy, love and inspiration as outcomes). While this feels a little like pseudo-science, Dan does say that this categorization is to explain the techniques involved in each, and it is ok not to take this categorization literally. The subsequent sections go into details of ways to build each of the selfs.
There are concepts, examples, short anecdotes & stories and simple exercises. These cover the expected topics – full immersion in the moment, attention, courage, love, simplicity, perspectives, aspiration, responsible thinking, (unreasonable) happiness, diet, exercise, acceptance, energy flow and others. The matter never gets dense and the book is well organized. Many of the concepts/examples/anecdotes would be known to many.
This (audio)book is a good one to take up after your initial introductory mindfulness read(s) (possibly after one or more of the referred in the early part of the first paragraph). I found the audio narration by Dan Millman to be good.
My rating: 3.75 / 5.