The eighth Zen Ox-herding picture or the eighth stage on the road to enlightenment in Zen Buddhism is called “Both Ox and Self Forgotten.” Hixon writes:
“The final illusory barrier has evaporated: All delusive feelings have perished, and ideas of holiness, too, have vanished” (Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions by Lex Hixon, p.78).
Spiritual Death and Rebirth
Toward the end of The Matrix Reloaded when the sentinels attack the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar who are on foot and running away, Neo is running and he abruptly stops and quizzically says, “Something’s different. I can feel them.” Neo turns around and thrusts his right hand straight out (palm out, fingers extended). Then, using his newly realized mental/spiritual power, Neo stops the sentinels dead in their tracks. Afterward, Neo falls down unconscious and possibly in “some kind of coma.” Or perhaps, Neo is in a deep meditative state communing with his deeper Self and recharging his batteries so to speak. And thus, both the Ox (Neo’s deeper Self) and Neo himself (Neo’s ego) are forgotten. Note that this experience prepares Neo for attaining even higher states of consciousness that he will need in The Matrix Revolutions. Upon awakening, Neo will be spiritually reborn.
The Trade and the Trader Forgotten
Somehow the above subtitle reminds me of the title of a book I read many years ago. The book was titled Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal by the late Alan Watts. Watts studied Zen Buddhism in London and New York. Later, he was ordained an Episcopal priest. Watts died in 1973 after having written this book which was his last. An enticing excerpt from the book is the following:
”If I ever have to get away from it all, and in the words of the Chinese poet ‘wash all the wrongs of life from my pores’ there is simply nothing better than to climb out onto a rock, and sit for hours with nothing in sight but sea and sky.”
This book is written in more of a Taoist than Buddhist flavor.
What has this to do with trading? If you forget about your ego and its obsession with winning and forget about becoming more holy so you can win with spiritual effortlessness, then you can begin to trade with true nonattachment. Or better yet, you can find your own rock to sit on.
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