Failure

Oddly, perhaps, in a novel about realizing one's full spiritual potential, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior shows major characters dealing first with failure. Protagonist and narrator Dan, received five years of spiritual training - intensive enough for him to describe it as an "ass-kicking," involving "revelatory visions" that throw him; this is described in a prior book. Having expanded Dan's view of life, Socrates sends him away to assimilate his teaching and prepare for a final confrontation. He predicts that Dan will some day meet a woman shaman in Hawaii, a school of warriors hidden somewhere in Japan or China, and find a lost journal. Instead, Dan gets caught up in a failing marriage, academia, physical lethargy, and a general feeling of malaise - of missing something essential. This novel is about him struggling to reawaken faith. During his training, Dan twice fails to achieve the Fourth...