Peter Russell, author of The Global Brain
Dan Millman takes the perennial wisdom on maintaining inner peace and equanimity and puts it into straightforward, everyday language and useful exercisesa most valuable book.


Wisconsin Bookwatch, May 1993
Based on the principle that to change our world we first have to change ourselves, No Ordinary Moments: a Peaceful Warrior's Guide to Daily Life, outlines principles and practices to uplift our spirits, inspire real change, and make all our journeys easier. We all share the same journey up the mountain path of life, confronting issues of relationship, sexuality, health, money, and work. A clear mind is our map: a healthy body is our vehicle: open emotions provide the fuel. The way of the peaceful warrior is an awakened approach to life filled with purpose, meaning, and spirit, in which hurdles become a source of strength, and daily life becomes a vehicle for personal evolution.


Whole Life Times, August 1992
For many years, I have been a devoted reader of Dan Millman's Peaceful Warrior books. I have enjoyed traveling with him as he searched for his own inner truth. It was an enthralling journey but a vicarious one. I wanted more. I wanted to know how I could implement the ways of the peaceful warrior in my own life, and Millman's new endeavor, No Ordinary Moments: a Peaceful Warrior's Guide to Daily Life answers all my secret question and achieves even more. Millman speaks eloquently about his reasons for the title. I've learned that the quality of each moment depends not on what we get from it, but what we bring to it. I treat no moment as ordinary no matter how mundane or routine it appears. No Ordinary Moments is a carefully designed travelogue that puts you in the drivers seat. In plain, readable, life-affirming language, Millman offers a step-by-step guide to the peaceful warriors approach to living. It is a simple premise: by balancing your body, liberating your mind and accepting your emotions, you can acquire the tools you need to transform your life. As we apply these tools we open our selves to higher levels of energy and awareness and a closer contact with our higher self, Millman writes. Throughout the book, Millman effectively intertwines quotes and exercises that inspire you to change intention into action, challenges into strengths, and life experiences into wisdom. In the final analysis, Millman has designed a map that is easy to follow. The road to wholeness is a mere 296 pages and well worth traveling, again and again.


Publishers Marketing Association, 1992
The author, also the author of books that have inspired millions, shares an awakened approach to life filled with purpose, meaning, and spirit, in which hurdles become a source of strength, and daily life becomes a vehicle for personal evolution. We all share the same journey up the mountain path of life, confronting issues of relationship, sexuality, health, money, and work. A clear mind is our map; a healthy body is our vehicle; open emotions provide the fuel. This book outlines principles and practices to uplift our spirits, inspires real change, and makes all our journeys easier.


Book Description
Every day, we face challenges in relationships, sexuality, money, work, and health. While there is a wealth of information and advice available on all of these subjects, we still have trouble turning knowing into doing. Here, Dan Millman presents a peaceful warrior's way to turn our intentions into action, our challenges into strength, and our life experiences into wisdom. Based on the premise that by changing ourselves we can change the world, No Ordinary Moments presents simple yet powerful ways to balance our body, liberate our mind, accept our emotions, and open our heart.:


From the Publisher
To our readers: The books we publish are our contribution to an emerging world based on cooperation rather than on competition, on affirmation of the human spirit rather than on self-doubt, and on the certainty that all humanity is connected. Our goal is to touch as many lives as possible with a message of hope for a better world. - Hal and Linda Kramer, Publishers


From the Back Cover
Our lives are like a journey up a mountain path. As we climb, we face challenges in relationships, sexuality, money, work, and health. We can find abundant information and advice about all of these subjects. Many of us know what to do, but to make real changes in our lives, we have to turn knowing into doing. Here, Dan Millman presents a peaceful warriors way to turn our intentions into action, our challenges into strength, and our life experiences into wisdom. The arena is daily life. The method is simple action. The time is now. It starts where we are. It works at every level. Based on the premise that by changing ourselves we can change the world, No Ordinary Moments presents simple yet powerful ways to balance our body, liberate our mind, accept our emotions, and open our hearts. Dan Millman is one of the Big Teachers. He's no ordinary guy, and he writes no ordinary books.(Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love)


About the Author
Dan Millman is a former world trampoline champion, student of the martial arts, as well as coach and faculty member at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and Oberlin College, and was recently inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Now a best-selling author and popular speaker, he presents practical ways to transform our daily challenges into vehicles of spiritual growth. His eight books - including Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, No Ordinary Moments, The Life You Were Born to Live, The Inner Athlete, and The Laws of Spirit - have inspired millions of people in twenty-two languages worldwide. For nearly two decades, Dan Millman's work has influenced leaders in the fields of health, psychology, education, business, politics, entertainment, sports, the arts, and people from all walks of life and who share a common interest in the fields of personal growth and human potential. He and his family live in northern California.


Excerpted from No Ordinary Moments : A Peaceful Warrior's Guide to Daily Life by Dan Millman. Copyright © 1992. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
At the end of Way of the Peaceful Warrior, I shared a deep realization in the only words I could find: There is no need to searchachievement leads nowheremakes no difference at all. Just be happy now. Release your struggle, let go of your mind, throw away your concerns, and relax into the world. No need to resist life. Open your eyes and see that your are far more than you think. You are already free. Lofty words, coming from an ecstatic moment of illumination. A few years later, however, they seemed like the words of a stranger; I could remember them, but I couldn't feel them. Lofty words dont satisfy us if our body is in pain, if our relationship is troubled, or if were wondering how were going to pay our bills this month. During this down cycle in my life, doors slammed in my face and opportunities dried up. Despite my past realizations, I felt lost and frustrated. Doing what I could to support my family, I worked two jobs, starting at 4:30 a.m. and finishing at 6:00 pm. I was working as a typistthe only skill I could market at the time. Deep in debt, I handled what was in front of me, stayed open to opportunities, and faced life one day at a time. Something Socrates had said helped sustain me through this dry spell. He reminded me that life has cycles - that whatever goes up, comes down, and what falls can rise again. Progress can be slow: We remember, then we forget, the we remember; we take two steps forward, then one step back. No matter how enlightened we become, we still face the realities of life. A young man had spent five arduous years searching for truth. One day, as he walked up into the foothills of a great mountain range, he saw an old man approach from above, walking down the path, carrying a heavy sack on his back. He sensed that this old man had been to the mountain top; he had finally found one of the wise, one who could answer his heart's deepest question. Please sir, he asked. tell me the meaning of enlightenment. The old man smiled, and stopped. Then, fixing his gaze on the youth, he slowly swung the heavy burden off his back, laid the sack down, and stood up straight. Ah, I understand, the young man replied. but what comes after enlightenment? The old man took a deep breath, then swung the heavy sack over his shoulders and continued on his way. Socrates once told me, "A flash of enlightenment offers a preview of coming attractions, but when it fades, you will see more clearly what separates you from that state - your compulsive habits, outmoded beliefs, false association, and other mental structures. Just when our lives are starting to get better, we may feel like things are getting worse - because for the first time we see clearly what needs to be done." "After illumination," Socrates continued, "difficulties continue to arise; what changes is your relationship them. You see more and resist less. You gain the capacity to turn your problems into lessons and you lessons into wisdom." Mahatma Gandhi, nonviolent leader and political activist, advised all of us to live simply, so that others may simply live. Gandhi did indeed live according to these high ideals; wearing a loincloth or other simple garb and spinning his own cotton, he took only what he needed, and he gave whatever he could. But Gandhi had help from others. Said one Indian industrialist who donated millions of dollars to Gandhi's cause, It cost me a fortune to keep Gandhi simple. What constitutes simplicity may differ for each of us, depending upon our age, circumstances, and life purpose. Few of us are destined to embody Gandhi's high ideals or extremes of simplicity, or to live in isolated caves or forests like the wandering ascetics. We are more likely to deal with the everyday realities of modern society such as getting an education, earning a living, having relationships, and perhaps raising families, and facing the challenges that go with all of these. Still, we can all practice inner simplicity - a quiet mind in the midst of a busy lifestyle. A man once said to me, I'd like to live like a peaceful warrior and do more spiritual practices, but with a family to support, and a full-time job, I just don't have the time. He didn't realize that his family and his job - his relationship with his wife, the responsibilities of children, and the pressures of his profession - were his spiritual practice. Such a practice often demands and develops more than sitting in a cave and meditating. I speak from experience, because I've done both. There is a place for inner work - for stopping the world and getting away for a while - but for the peaceful warrior daily life is the arena of training; we use the demands of life as the means to reveal our weak areas, and transform them into strengths, and develop body, mind, and emotions. Near the end of our time together, Socrates reminded me, "I've shown you the way of the peaceful warrior, not the way to the peaceful warrior. The journey itself creates the warrior; daily life is your journey and is the means of your training. When you recognize this, every moment takes on a larger purpose." Daily life offers so much potential for growth precisely because it makes so many demands. We all recognize the issues that test and train us: work or career, finances, relationships, education, housing, health, diet and exercise - and finding our purpose, meaning, and direction.

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