Tao Te Ching (Chapter 44) Fame or integrity: which is more important? Money or happiness: which is more valuable? Success or failure: which is more destructive? If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be […]
The Taoist Trader: System or Straightjacket?
Tao Te Ching (Chapter 18) When the great Tao is forgotten, Kindness and morality arise. When wisdom and intelligence are born, The great pretence begins. When there is no peace within the family, Filial piety and devotion arise. When the country is confused and in chaos, Loyal ministers appear. (By Lao Tsu, translated by Gia-Fu […]
The Taoist Trader: Market Preconceptions
Tao Te Ching (Chapter 16) Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the source. Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature. The way of nature is unchanging. […]
The Taoist Trader: Trading from the Inner Gold
The Taoist Trader: Tao Te Ching (Chapter 11) Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful. Shape clay into a vessel; It is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; It is the holes which make it useful. Therefore benefit comes […]
The Taoist Trader: Soft Trading
The Taoist Trader: Tao Te Ching (Chapter 6) The valley spirit never dies; It is the woman, primal mother. Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail. (By Lao Tsu, translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English) This chapter shows that […]
The Taoist Trader: The Tao, the Feminine and Trading
The Taoist Trader: Tao Te Ching (Chapter 4, Part 2) The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled. Oh, unfathomable source of ten thousand things! Blunt the sharpness, Untangle the knot, Soften the glare, Merge with dust. Oh, hidden deep but ever present! I do not know from whence it comes. […]
The Taoist Trader: Tao Te Ching – A Political Text or a Spiritual Text?
The Taoist Trader: Tao Te Ching (Chapter 3) Not exalting the gifted prevents quarreling. Not collecting treasures prevents stealing. Not seeing desirable things prevents confusion of the heart. The wise therefore rule by emptying hearts and stuffing bellies, By weakening ambitions and strengthening bones. If men lack knowledge and desire, then clever people will not […]
Seeing through the Trading Matrix: Both Ox and Self Forgotten (Zen Ox-Herding Picture 8)
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 […]
Seeing through the Trading Matrix: A Dream within a Dream (Part 1)
Near the beginning of The Matrix at Neo’s apartment, Neo is dialoguing with Choi. Choi asks, “Something wrong, man…?” Neo replies, “… You ever have that feeling where you’re not sure if you’re awake or still dreaming?” Butterfly Dream Chuang-tzu had a dream, in which he was a yellow butterfly. As a butterfly, he flitted […]