NCAA Basketball vs. the Peaceful Warrior, Part 3: The Craving

Later in the movie, after some training with Socrates, Dan’s coach tells him “no” to the possibility of going back and making the final qualifier for the Olympics.

Socrates shares some of his wisdom about the fact that Dan isn’t able to compete – and thus to achieve that gold medal he’s been working toward all of his life:

“Nearly all of humanity shares in your predicament, Dan: if you don’t get what you want, you suffer. And even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer, because you can’t hold on to it forever.”

His point is that what Dan loves is gymnastics; he’s practiced it all his life. He doesn’t need anyone’s permission to go out and perform the stunts and moves he’s learned over his lifetime:

“The gold (medal) is a craving: ‘if only I’d have it, I’d be happy.’ Can’t you hear yourself?”

They then go on a hiking trip, to a place Socrates has wanted to show him since the first night Dan showed up at the gas station.

At the end of the hike, Socrates points out the rock next to Dan’s foot, who is disappointed at it, but Soc reminds him, “The whole trip up here, you were excited, you were happy.”

“Yeah, because I thought I was gonna see something.”

“You were like a kid on Christmas morning, you said so yourself. The whole trip up here, you were excited, you were happy!”

“Because for the past 3 hours, I’ve been waiting to see this wonderful thing.”

“What changed?”

“That there’s nothing here but this rock!”

(He forgets the fact that it’s a sunny day, the sky is a beautiful shade of blue, and there is plenty of fresh air.)

“I probably should’ve told you that before we left, but I guess I wasn’t sure what we’d find, either. Never am."

As he starts to walk away, he calls over his shoulder, "Sorry you’re not happy anymore.”

It's then that Dan realizes the lesson to be learned: “The journey. The journey’s what brings us happiness, not the destination.”

At the end of the movie, during the Olympic qualifiers, Dan is talking with Tommy, one of his teammates, about the “magic” that he’s learned the last few months while rehabbing from his motorcycle accident:

“It’s not magic, Tommy, just getting rid of all that bullshit you have up in your head that tells you ‘you might not be enough.’ So you get up there, you make every move about the move, alright? Not about the gold, not about what your dad thinks of you, not about anything but that one moment in time.”

Tommy responds, “But this is for the gold. Everything we do, Dan, I mean, at least for me, my whole life is about getting those 20 seconds in front of those judges so they can give me that gold... You want to know how my whole life would change, how everything that’s a problem right now wouldn’t matter anymore? I get everything I want. I get to be happy.”

Truly?

No, for God has not made life in such a way that we have no choice but to wait until we achieve or acquire [fill in the blank with whatever accomplishment or material possession], and then we can be happy, for “there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat, and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor; this also, I saw, that it was from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24).

True happiness is not dependent on being in the spotlight, making the big bucks, or doing some grand and great work or deed, but by “taking out the trash” of our mind and simply enjoying every aspect of what we have right now: this moment.