Consider the wingsuit flyer standing at the edge of a cliff. He steps into emptiness. Gravity immediately pulls him toward the earth. The rushing air meets the wings of his suit, creating the aerodynamic forces that allow his descent to become forward flight. Two forces. One pulling downward. The other making the glide possible. And yet the flyer does not try to defeat either one. He works with both . Take away gravity, and there is no descent to transform. Take away the air, and there is nothing for the wings to work against. Take away the wingsuit, and the relationship between those forces changes completely. But when everything comes together . . . the glide appears. Perhaps this is a beautiful metaphor for meditation—and for life itself. The mind also moves through opposing forces. Pleasure and pain. Fear and desire. Success and failure. Holding on and letting go. Past and future. What we want . . . and what life gives us. We usually believe peace will come when one side final...
Consider the strange paradox of fame. At first, you chase it. You want to be seen, recognized, admired, and remembered. You work for applause, an audience, and attention. And maybe, just maybe, one day you get exactly what you wanted. Then something curious happens. The thing you spent years chasing begins to chase you. The paparazzi follow you. Fans surround you. Strangers recognize you. Groupies want access to you. Your face appears in places you never put it. People discuss your life as if they somehow know you. It is almost like a karmic boomerang : you throw the desire for recognition into the world, and eventually recognition comes flying back toward you—sometimes with far greater force than you anticipated. Because think about it: Fame cannot exist by itself. How could you know you were famous if no one recognized you? Fame depends on witnesses. It requires people to point at you, photograph you, follow you, talk about you, and want something from you. The crowd is not an u...