Ace Remas

Luigi Rossi measured success differently than most. For him, true success was a glass of red wine enjoyed on the porch of his decrepit cabin in the Nevada desert under the mantle of the Milky Way, the well-being of his two children and his sick wife, and the satisfying labor of quietly toiling in the familiar confines of the gold mine, which was bequeathed to him in lieu of wages.After illegal immigrant Tony came to hide out in the desert, Luigi found the kind of success most dream about, a glistening field of crystalline gold jewels worth millions. Then his real troubles began. His beautiful daughter could not resist the temptation to ferret away gold samples she sold on the black market. Her husband meekly acquiesced to her thievery, even though he knew it could destroy the life's work of his father-in-law. Luigi's mom-and-pop mining venture transformed into a business with investors, the impersonal dominance of technology and bookkeeping, and the contamination of deceit and dishonesty."Rich is business, poor is life," Luigi once lamented to his wife. Though he knew it was foolish not to be rich when offered the opportunity, he accepted success sadly. Could he, should he, abandon his simple but impractical values and just devote himself to acquiring and managing his millions? Wise and tempered by his years in the Nevada desert, Luigi crafts a way to protect his daughter despite her coarse dishonesty, satisfy his investors, and even save Tony from the long arm of the immigration authorities.

When a Paiute Indian woman asks a Buddhist monk if she can "steal" Bodhichitta, she instantly becomes a spiritual guide for the monk and his prized disciple Daniel. Bodhichitta--the effort to perfect oneself for the sake of others--is the most refined of Buddha's instructions. The Native American woman demonstrates how this Buddhist maxim is an accurate description of the Paiute state of mind. As a result of her theft, an entourage of tech-savvy San Francisco millennials, Daniel, and the Buddhist monk set out to convince one of the world's largest corporations, the state of Nevada, and the EPA to right a wrong inflicted upon the Earth Mother of the Paiutes. From the cloistered Buddhist meditation center in San Francisco, Daniel, the monk, and members of the Buddhist community learn Buddha's real intention was to jump into the world and not separate from it for personal benefit. Their efforts inspire valid spiritual realizations that help them to adjust their lives according to the reality of the present moment and the power of the wisdom teachings of Buddha.

Hector Feck found gold for the first time at age sixty-six. It was a transforming experience. As he pinched the single gold nugget from the black sand collected on the ridges of his pan, he was astounded he felt no satisfaction in this discovery, even after twenty years of occasional gold panning, dredging, and metal detector searches. Instead, he was disappointed. Not because the nugget was too small. It was not. When washed and cleaned, the nugget would fetch at least $1,500, money he sorely needed. He realized as he inspected the nugget carefully, all he had accomplished was to increase his desire for more gold, which meant more searching for it, and even when he found more, he would not be satisfied. He realized he would never be satisfied. Nothing in this world would satisfy. Except, he remembered, as if inspired by a vision, the looking for gold. He was satisfied with the activity. "So why continue to look for gold?" he asked himself. If it was for the money, then gold-hunting was just another job.