“Neither by study of the Vedas, nor by austerity, nor by charity, nor by ritual, can I be seen in this form as you have seen Me. (11.53)
However, through single-minded devotion alone, I can be seen in this form, can be known in essence, and also can be reached, O Arjuna. (11.54)
The one who does all works for Me, and to whom I am the supreme goal, who is my devotee, who has no attachment, and is free from enmity towards any being attains Me, O Arjuna.”
Bhagavad Gita, translated by Ramanand Prasad, Chapter 11: 53-55
My Comment
Free from enmity…well, you try. And what if you free yourself of enmity, but your enemies don’t remember to free themselves?
The teaching of equanimity in the Gita is very hard for me. Very much in the western tradition, I like my emotions…and cultivate them. But there are times when the Gita’s teaching becomes overwhelmingly necessary. Now is one of those times.
It’s very easy once you realize that everyone is just playing a part written by the one who, like a little boy playing with his little plastic men in his room, also plays all the parts and actually is the only one to experience all the pleasure and pain he causes for his little men to experience.
Or, as our saviour, Bill Hicks, used to say at the end of every show: “It’s just a ride, man. Just a ride.”
and, I don’t know about you, but I find “good times” kind of boring. I have come more alive and am more and more at ease with myself since I realized I now have a game to play that may be worthy of my time and effort.
Yes, it’s a ride but it’s also for real
I think there are times for emotion and times for serenity – it’s knowing which one’s called for that’s tricky
and being able to summon it up at will is harder.
Trading is a good discipline for that.
The best actors and traders I think have this in common: they are personally detached enough from their own emotions to be able to put on and take off emotions (and likewise, stock trades), at will.
Some people are less able to do this than others due to the degree of objectivity with which they were endowed at birth. (See the free report at alabe dot com for a rough estimate of the amount of objectivity with which you – personally – were born; everybody gets assigned different and semi-random personality traits via the gravitational vortex present at the time of their birth. Don’t ask me how it knows stuff, but it knows stuff…way beyond chance.)