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En esta ocasión he invitado de nueva cuenta a nuestra lectora asidua Amalia Sosa Haby,quien en su proyecto persona,l la lectura, ha representado una parte de su crecimiento personal y de madurez intelectual.
Ella cursa el 1er. grado de secundaria y en el mes de enero ingresó a nuestro colegio Larrea proveniente de Melbourne, Australia.
Nunca he dudado de su capacidad en otras áreas como la gimnasia (deporte que gusta mucho), las matemáticas y el uso de aplicaciones de rapidez mental en Ipad.
Hoy nos comparte su lectura Way of the Peaceful Warrior del autor Dan Millman, lectura que le gustó porque es un relato autobiográfico con partes de ficción sobre la gimnasia.
The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior
Dan Millman, is a champion Gymnast and trapolinist winning multiple titles and medals in both events. He won the 1964 trampolining championships and represented the United States in the 1966 Maccabiah Games, winning four gold medals in gymnastics.
The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior is an autobiographical book based on the life of Dan Millman-it follows his life as a student at Berkley College and his journey to be s peaceful warrior. The story starts with him meeting a man, at an all-night gas station at around 3am, who would later adopt the name Socrates after the Greek sage, who would transform his life and become his teacher through a journey about discovering the peaceful warrior inside him.
As he is leaving the gas station he looks back and sees the man standing on the roof. Puzzled he goes back and asks him how he did it. Socrates though only told him he used a ladder but the ladder stopped well short of the roof and there was no way he could have done it. Dan accuses him of having a twin but the man just laughs. As Dan is leaving he says “would you please tell me how you got up on the roof so fast? I am really puzzled.” with which Socrates replies “The world’s a puzzle; no need to make sense out of it.”
While under the teachings of Socrates Dan learns many things-one being that the brain and mind are two different things. The brain being real, controls your movements, but the mind is an illusion. Socrates takes Dan on many journeys, including taking him to the past and the future of what could happen if Socrates hadn’t come into his life. Another journey being taking him to a world gymnastics competition, to show him all the “noise” people have in their heads, but when doing gymnastics the mind goes blank and it is all about what is happening now. As that is going on Dan realises he can understand all that they are saying, the language doesn’t matter.
The story progresses to him meeting his future wife Joy, where they go for a picnic up a mountain and then it starts raining. While Dan gets angry Joy and Socrates are running around laughing, not fazed by the fact that it is raining but just as quickly as it started it stopped and Socrates teaches Dan a valuable message that he is the only one who is angry, while Joy and Socrates are laughing, they have a sense of humor.
In the story Dan gets angry at Joy and Socrates and doesn’t visit him for months. During that time Dan was so unhappy he didn’t see a purpose to life and felt the need to commit suicide. There is a part of the story where he is sitting in a lecture and ends up yelling at the professor asking what this lecture has to do with happiness and ends up giving a lecture himself but the class ends up laughing at him. Dan tries to go back to his old life but to him nothing made sense anymore.
He decides to see Socrates one last time before he kills himself and he does but when he reaches the station he see Socrates talking to a lady who had a girl of about four years of age with her, suddenly the girl throws her arms around Socrates’ neck with them both laughing. Seeing that makes Dan unbelievably sad and he turns and runs down a path only to fall down and lose consciousness.
He wakes up in an infirmary and is released the next day. He then calls a psychiatrist to make an appointment only to walk out of his office as soon as he arrives.
Later he walks into the gas station and says he has come to say goodbye to him, saying he is sick of being stuck halfway. Socrates replies saying that he is not halfway and that Dan will not kill himself. Socrates goes on to explain that there is a man named Donald about to kill himself and that only Dan can save him, so Socrates transports him to the top of the building which Donald is on top of. Dan then goes slowly to him asking if he can sit down, Dan then goes on to say that 99 precent of the people in this world would kill themselves. He explains that the way people live kills them. Dan then starts to talk to Don asking if he would never like to see another sunrise or sunset, never go up to the mountains again. To which Don replies I have never been up the mountains, Dan says he has so he doesn’t need to see them. He then says to Don if you go then I will too. Don holds out his hand for Dan to take and in the end he does, but as he does Don’s image changes to become a mirror image of Dan, startled he steps back and falls over only to find himself on the floor of Socrates office. Socrates asks if Dan is going to kill himself in which he replies no.
Later in the story Dan ends up running into the station saying that he is going mad with all the “noise” and that he needs to turn it down. Socrates then tells him it is the first realisation of a warrior.
Dan begins to observe that in the gym when he is doing a certain move his mind is blank then when he stops it is buzzing with thoughts.
Dan goes back to the gas station, he meets Socrates there at about midnight and they start talking and Dan is telling him how he joined a meditation group. Socrates then excuses himself to go to the bathroom only to come out wielding a samurai sword; Dan’s reaction is one of shock and annoyance, Socrates then starts to meditate and Dan then joins him. Dan gets fidgety after a while and gets up to get a glass of water and is then startled by Socrates. Then a van pulls up with two women and four men in it, Socrates then begins to talk to them and keeps annoying them until they crack, after he is done they drive off in a very angry manner. When they go a Chevy pulls up with a forty year old man acting like a teenager with his girlfriend with him. Socrates treats them with kindness and courtesy. After he is done Dan begins to ask why he treated them like he did and Socrates replies that they needed some kindness. Dan then asks what he needs to do and Socrates replies rather simply with practice, and goes on to explain that meditation is not the only part of a warriors way and a roll is not the only part of gymnastics you need to see the whole picture.
The book follows Dan’s journey for another ten years to the time when Dan finally understands what life is all about.
