Since Christmas, I have tried to slow down my pace. I am trying to take things more in stride, but doing so can be a very difficult job for a driven entrepreneur.

Please take a moment and reflect. What brings you a sense of wholeness and balance and joy? Where and how did you find it?

As I began to grow up, I attempted to define myself -- this presence of "I" -- through endlessly collecting information. In this natural process of mental awareness inhabiting a body, I discovered a symphonic mandala of sometimes competing, sometimes complementing explanations.

At any point, in any situation, in any story in your life, you have the capacity and the choice to actually discover what is underneath the language of thought. What is unaffected, unmoved, unbound by the telling of any story?

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins _ and cannons to fend off pirates. But it...