Hixon writes,
“… Desolate through forests and fearful in jungles he is seeking an Ox which he does not find. Up and down dark, nameless, wide-flowing rivers in deep mountain thickets he treads many bypaths” (p.62, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions by Lex Hixon).
Still no Ox. Just unending searching.
The Trading Matrix Deceives
The trading matrix makes a parody out of the sincere seeker’s journey into trading. Instead of searching for the Ox (the Self) and having it be a spiritual quest, the beginning trader is asked to project the Self onto the image of “the winning trader.”
Of course, the winning-trader image is just a glorification and in some ways a deification of the ego, a trading James Bond worshipped by only two little old ladies in a tiny town in England. (I was going to say worshipped by women everywhere but that would be politically incorrect … Hey, Terry, you said it anyway! The fool on the hill sees the sun going down….)
The Fool
Actually, the image of the fool is an apt counter-balance for the image of the winning trader. How many times have you called yourself a fool for getting into trading? ½ times? Then you’re an exception. Most traders call themselves worse things than a fool at certain times. A harsher trader might yell at himself, ”You tiny dancer, you don’t know how to trade” (from the diary of Elton John, master trader).
The mathematical equation for a fool is the following: fool = wise old man = the Self. I’m starting to feel like a Madman Across the Water. “There’s too much confusion” (“All Along the Watchtower”). I’ll have to get some relief by ending this now. And who but a fool would be searching for an Ox anyway?
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