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    Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Universal Questions
    Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Universal Questions
    Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Universal Questions
    Ebook248 pages3 hours

    Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Universal Questions

    By Dan Millman

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Each one of Dan Millman's best-selling books presents new keys to the "peaceful warrior's way of living." Each offers a different aspect of Dan's philosophy—relevant, user-friendly, real-world guidance for everyday life. For the first time, in Living on Purpose, Dan answers some of the toughest questions we face. Organized into twenty-four key principles to answer some of life's toughest questions, Living on Purpose refines and expands on the teaching of his other books with fresh insight. Each of the principles, in turn, features further questions and answers more specific, related challenges.

    Building a bridge between idealism and realism, Dan applies timeless principles to pressing questions from all over the world—questions on metaphysics, destiny versus free will, control and surrender, goal making, and setting life priorities, as well as common everyday challenges, such as child rearing, divorce, drugs, money and work, sexuality, and simplifying your life.

    In Living on Purpose, Dan Millman combines the wisdom of Solomon with the common-sense touch of Dear Abby, taking on real-world questions with the insight and knowledge that have drawn millions of readers to his books.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNew World Library
    Release dateOct 4, 2010
    ISBN9781577311591
    Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Universal Questions
    Author

    Dan Millman

    Dan Millman, former world champion gymnast, coach, martial arts teacher, and college professor, is the author of seventeen books published in twenty-nine languages and shared across generations to millions of readers. His international bestselling book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, was adapted to film. Dan speaks worldwide to people from all walks of life.

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    4.5/5

    36 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book helped me out of depression (twice), once in 2015 and again in 2020. It's all the wisdom of Millman's book "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" but more to the point and without the story metaphor. Millman's writing is like an athletic coach on your shoulder, whispering guidance in your ear. His Olympic background shows it. Well worth a read to see how it speaks to you.
    • 5/5
      Nice book , good book with great poems and story , how to lead and take charge of your own life.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Living on Purpose - Dan Millman

    Author

    Preface

    Answers to Life’s Questions

    Years ago, I met a peaceful warrior in an all-night gas station. His name was Socrates, and he once told me, I’ve noticed three kinds of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch what happens, and those who wonder what happened. Back then I was a skilled athlete, making things happen. But outside the gym—when I faced real-world dilemmas and decisions—I mostly watched and wondered.

    And I was not alone.

    Many of us live our lives by accident—stumbling into relationships, wandering into careers, searching for meaning, hoping and praying that we’ll get lucky in love, find our fortune, and stay healthy. I spent years like this, living at random, until I learned to live on purpose.

    My education began the first time I asked Socrates a question. He shrugged his shoulders and said, It’s the House Rules. The House is Life, the Tao, the Universe, Reality; the Rules are universal laws or guiding principles. The House Rules presented in this book—distilled lessons from the school of life—provide reliable strategies for living on purpose.

    Purposeful living embraces both reason and faith. Reason provides clear goals, while faith teaches us to trust the process of our lives. The Taoist sages remind us that flexibility overcomes rigidity—and just as a rushing stream flows around obstacles, so must our purposes adapt to the changing tides of life. Therefore, the House Rules are not rote formulas, but flexible reminders. In living on purpose and acting on principle we become like bamboo— strong yet supple—yielding to the forces we encounter, then snapping back on track.

    The format of this book is also purposeful—designed for different learning styles, it provides easy access to these universal principles. Turn to any section and note that each section:

    opens with a universal question followed by—

    a House Rule;

    a clarifying summary;

    two related questions and answers;

    a personal application page to bring that House Rule home.

    Some of the questions in this book are deeply personal, while others touch universal themes; some express curiosity, while others cry out from the depths of despair. These questions come from real people around the world, and all reflect our common desires and dilemmas. The topics involve relationships, work, children, health, spirituality, psychology, values, and decisions. I have edited for readability, and eliminated correspondents’ names because their identity bears no relation to the larger issues raised.

    My responses seem to come not so much from me, but through me. I do not, however, channel any discarnate warrior-sages from the fifth dimension, chat with God, or transcribe the dictations of astral guides. I claim only a gift of expression, an intuitive understanding of the House Rules, and an open heart. As the proverb goes, There are no secrets where there’s love.

    Test these House Rules in your own experience; tailor them to fit your particular circumstance. You will find that they point the way to greater productivity, creativity, and fun, and show us how to live a more spiritual life in the material realm. God helps those who help themselves—and this is a self-help book. The better we become, the better we serve our world. By living on purpose and improving the quality of our lives, we become a source of light to others.

    As one of the House Rules will later clarify, I can’t give you any wisdom you don’t already have inside you, but I can highlight your hidden strengths. And if this book stimulates self-reflection and insight—if you find yourself reaching within to find your own truths—then Living on Purpose will have served its purpose. As you turn these pages, keep faith in the higher truth that despite the dilemmas and difficulties of this world, our lives are a great Mystery, unfolding perfectly, in accord with universal laws, in the service of our awakening.

    Dan Millman

    Spring 2000

    LIVING on

    PURPOSE

    We are here to learn

    by expanding our awareness

    about the world

    and about ourselves.

    Learning about the world

    helps us to succeed.

    Learning about ourselves

    helps us to evolve.

    Our challenges in the arenas of

    relationship, health, and finances

    are all part of the curriculum.

    Daily life teaches us all we need to know

    for the next step on our journey.

    Each and every day,

    we find new lessons to learn.

    Q: We grow up, attend school, earn a living, maybe get married and raise a family, go on vacations, provide a service, and live until we die. Isn’t this enough? Why all this interest in spirituality? What’s the point?

    A: Most of us agree that life is a school in the sense that we learn many lessons. But if death is the end, what is the purpose of living in the first place? Questions about death may lead us to wonder about our lives. Are we a random experiment or part of a much bigger picture? One question leads to the next and all questions end in Mystery. Some of us turn to belief and faith; others simply wonder. And in this field of wonder grow the seeds of spirituality.

    The greatest teaching is to live with an open heart. —Anonymous

    At some point we may glimpse one of the fundamental lessons in the school of life: Our awareness resides, moment to moment, in one of two separate realities, each with its own truths. The first is conventional reality, which you describe in your question. The second is a transcendent reality—the spiritual dimension.

    Most of the time, conventional reality monopolizes our attention with the stuff of everyday life—the challenges of education, earning a living, relationships, family, and health—everyday experience. Our dramas, played out in the theater of gain and loss, desire and satisfaction, seem entirely real and important. Conventional life involves the natural pursuit of satisfaction and fulfillment, which depends upon events unfolding in line with our desires, hopes, and expectations. In trying to make things work out, we suffer the pangs of attachment, craving, and anxiety.

    We are involved in a mystery that passes understanding, and our highest business is daily life. —John Cage

    Then one day—maybe through a trauma, a death in the family, an injury, or other adversity, we notice that conventional reality, even at its best, leads to dissatisfaction. We feel frustrated when we don’t get what we want, when we get what we don’t want, and even when we get exactly what we want, because in this world of mortality, we will lose all that we love.

    Your daily life is your school, your temple, and your religion. —Kahlil Gibran

    Adversity and psychological suffering stimulate a yearning to transcend the conditional world, to wake up and find the higher wisdom that uplifts our soul even as we live in the conventional world. Life’s challenging lessons generate a willingness to make a leap of faith, to relinquish familiar truths that no longer serve, and to venture into the unknown. As Anaïs Nin wrote, Finally the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. In the school of daily life, spirituality is not separate from this world; it allows us to live an ordinary life while remembering the transcendent truths that set us free.

    Q: I’m on a vision quest—searching for more in life than news, weather, and sports. I take yoga classes and meditate; last year I completed a four-hundred-mile bike trip in the hopes of triggering a spiritually elevated state. The trip gave me a temporary high and a sore butt. Still, when I push my body to the limit things happen. Am I going in the right direction?

    A: Extreme physical feats—depriving the body of food and water, and other ordeals—can generate altered states and temporary highs, but to what end? Years ago, I traveled to the East and pursued many paths, until the search consumed itself and I came to rest. Today, numerous shamans, gurus, and guides are only too happy to take you on a tour of their chosen path. But all such paths are only classes in the School of Daily Life—part of a great adventure that teaches us all we need to know, never revealing what the next day will bring. This brings to mind the following story:

    Each day shapes our lives as running water shapes a stone. —Anonymous

    Near the end of World War II as American forces occupied Germany, two young men were captured and shipped to a U.S. POW camp. Interrogation failed—they would not or could not speak to American authorities and remained silent even among their fellow German prisoners, who insisted that they knew nothing about the pair. An expert in Asiatic languages soon determined that they were Tibetans. Overjoyed that someone was finally able to understand them, they told their story.

    In the summer of 1941 the two friends, wishing to explore the world outside their tiny village, crossed Tibet’s northern frontier and wandered happily in Soviet territory for several weeks, until Russian authorities picked them up, put them on a train with hundreds of other young men, and shipped them west. At an army camp they were issued uniforms and rifles, given rudimentary military training, and loaded with other soldiers into trucks heading to the Russian front. Raised in a nonviolent Buddhist tradition, they were horrified to see men killing each other with artillery, rifles, even hand-to-hand fighting. Fleeing, they were captured by the Germans and again loaded onto a train—to Germany. Then, after the Normandy invasion—as American forces neared the German border—the hapless pair were forced into auxiliary service in the German army, given guns and told to fight. Again they fled from the carnage, until they were captured by the Americans and their puzzling wartime ordeal ended.

    We often learn great lessons in simple and everyday ways. —Pearl S. Buck

    The adventures of these two wanderers reflect our own travels through the school of life. Consider the twists and turns in your own journey—how daily life is your vision quest and school, revealing what it means to be human. This life, this moment, is your hero’s journey, your moment of truth, your near-death experience. Relationships, family, work, health, and finances are God’s Challenge Course. If you seek adventure, pay attention to each moment and find the miraculous within the mundane. Choose your courses from the Catalog. Find creative ways to serve family and community. In doing so, you discover the greatest vision quest of all.

    Personal Applications

    Your course work in the School of Life gradually reveals your unique purpose here. You will discover smaller, more immediate purposes, such as making breakfast, doing the laundry, driving to work. You will also find larger, long-range purposes, such as improving your body or your relationship, and making a

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