Sacred journey of the peaceful warrior

Four years after training with the old warrior he calls Socrates, and in spite of all he has learned, Dan Millman confronts personal failure and growing frustrations. Disillusioned with his life, unable to bridge the gap between knowing and doing, he sets out on a worldwide quest to rediscover his sense of purpose and source of inspiration. A buried memory sends him on a search for a woman shaman deep in a Hawaiian rain forest. She is the gateway to all his hopes and his fears and only she can prepare him for what is to come. In worlds of shadow and light, he encounters inner tests, mortal challenges, disturbing revelations, and memorable characters in the most crucial quest of his life. This is the sacred journey we all share, says Millman, the journey to the light that shines at the heart of all our lives.

From Library Journal

This is the story of a sacred journey begun when Socrates, an old gas station attendant/philosopher, leaves author Millman restless with the idea of conformity. Millman's journey is interrupted for eight years ("the lost years," he calls them), when he leaves the path of the sacred warrior for university politics, family responsibilities, and professional aspirations. Then, a faculty travel grant motivates him to forsake his miserable life of conformity and resume the sacred journey begun so long ago. He finds a nameless woman in Hawaii, spoken of by Socrates, and she agrees to serve as his shaman. Millman meets other unforgettable characters while facing shocking revelations and mortal challenges as he ascends the warrior's mountain to wisdom and peace. Recommended for libraries with large philosophy or religion collections.
- Ravonne Green, Emmanuel Coll Lib., Franklin Springs, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Dan Millman's entrancing sequel to The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior is decidedly down-to-earth. In the tradition of shamanic adventure tales, Millman finds his teacher Mama Chia, a Hawaiian shaman/healer, as a result of a long string of serendipitous events. Mama Chia takes him to the island of Molokai, where she continues the initiation process that began in his first book, introducing him to the path of service - living life from the heart. But this is no dour teaching. Mama Chia is a rollicking, all-too-human teacher who loves parties and lives life to the fullest. Still, she has her serious side - as when she reveals to Millman that he is one of The Peaceful Warriors, a group of hundreds of thousands of souls who have come to Earth on a final rescue mission. "What we have in common is an almost life-long feeling of being somehow different," she tells Millman, "of being oddballs, of being strangers in a strange land, never quite fitting in. We often have giving, and rather insecure natures."

Well, we are not here to fit in as much as we might like to. We are here to teach, to lead to heal, to remind others, if only by our example. Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior is a fun, enjoyable read sure to inspire you in your own endeavors. -- NewAge Journal, June 1991

Imagine a paradise, in plain view, yet hidden from the outside world; where the way of life is slow and ancient, and lush surroundings seduce you with sight and sounds that enthrall your mind and body. The air is exhilarating, the water is clean and refreshing; earthly nourishment is abundant and easily available. This is the backdrop for Dan Millman's Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior.

According to Millman, Sacred Journey has a message and meaning for everyone: "I blend fact and imagination, weaving threads from the fabric of my life into a quilt that stretched across different levels of reality. By presenting mystical teachings in story form I hope to breathe new life into ancient wisdom, and to remind the reader that all our journeys are sacred and all our lives an adventure."

Having cut my teeth on Carlos Castenada, I found Millman's characters more inviting. They are people who are at ease with their environment and themselves. It is Millman (and the reader) who is unsure and shaky about what he is experiencing, and they let him discover in his own time what he is to know.

Millman takes us through one man's challenging search for self discovery. He confronts his own fears and tries to bring together his basic, higher and conscious self into one human being that can face life without hesitation.

While reading this book I had a series of dreams more vivid in texture and color than ever before. There must be something to the quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which begins Millman's book: "What if you slept, and what if in your sleep you dreamed, and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there you plucked a strange and beautiful flower, and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand?" After you've read Millman's book you will know what possibilities await you. -- Whole Life Times, August 1991

It's quite possible that Dan Millman has out-shone even Dan Millman with this one! After reading Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, my spiritual senses have been satiated in the fullness of this banquet. Occasionally there comes along THE one book that sings with my soul. This is such a book. It gripped my attention from the first page and didn't let go until I reluctantly closed the last page. Finishing it left me with bitter sweet feelings as if I had bid a beloved friend farewell.

Way of the Peaceful Warrior proved (Dan Millman) to be a gifted man with pen and paper but this second odyssey is like comparing a roughly cut diamond to an exquisitely perfected jewel. There is an added polish to his style that I suspect is partly due to spiritual growth and consequent self confidence. His telling of metaphysical adventures on the island of Molokai is pure unadulterated reading delight. From page one it carried me with intensely descriptive dialogue thorough all his exploits without once losing its momentum and pleasure. His realistic sojourns into the realms of shamanism, Polynesian style, were powerful reading and at time s as suspenseful as a good mystery thriller.

Dry witted humor, ecstasy and despair, laughter and tears, fear and bravery - every human experience imaginable is covered in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior. Dan Millman's commanding and poetic style of writing stimulates all five senses with the one - and may even stimulate the sense that you left behind when you were born. -- Friends Review, June 1991

The sequel to Way of the Peaceful Warrior is every bit as spellbinding as the original. Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior finds Dan disillusioned by his broken marriage and again searching for answers to the challenges of life.

Again, the author uses the facts of his life, coupled with a vivid imagination, to create a fictinalized story with universal appeal. He searches for, and finds in a most unusual way, a nameless teacher that Socrates (his first teacher) had mentioned years before. His Hawaiian adventures with her teach spiritual truths in a suspenseful story format that's difficult to put down.

If you are already a fan, you're in for a real treat. If you're not, get the first book, read it, join the throngs of Dan Millman admirers, then enjoy the new one. -- Connecting Link, Issue 17