The Wheel of Dharma and the Wheel of Fortune are synonymous. Embrace the mystery of how this is so. (Free will & determinism are dangerous half-truths.) This Wheel of Life turns ceaselessly, you cannot speed it up or slow it down; you can only flow it. Within us is another wheel (like Ezekiel's "wheel within a wheel"). It cannot be sped up or slowed down either. If you attempt to slow down or speed up either one, you will be ground under and dragged over and around, again and again. Wisdom is learning to flow with these wheels, even when they turn in opposite directions.
The truth is simple, the path is direct, the practice is unfailing, and although the reality is paradoxical, it is immediately accessible to any one who surrenders to it: when the mind is quiet, the heart opens; when the heart opens, the mind becomes quiet. Unconditional love and choiceless awareness are the two side of one coin; its substance is your own primordial nature. Live this.
The great Nyingma sage Longchen Rabjam (1308–1369) said: "In awakened mind, appearances & emptiness have never existed. But do not fixate on non-duality, for the inconceivable miraculous display still occurs." In other words, live life with open eyes, probing mind, and healing heart. Know that all that happens, good and bad, is forged in Divine Paradox. Know that our role is both to be and do. Being and doing with awakened mind is simply approaching life's challenges and opportunities (both individually and collectively) with unconditional love and clarity of mind. The particulars are different for every individual and in every circumstance.
