The guy who wrote the review had 30 years experience at Kyudo vs. Herrigel's 3 years experience. As far as Kyudo is concerned, the reviewer has a much better understanding and perspective. However, when I read the book I had no interest in actually learning archery, but more about zen, and as such found value in the book, even though the text didn't flow that well IMO.
Zen and The Art of Trading
- Thread starter martys
- Start date
The guy who wrote the review had 30 years experience at Kyudo vs. Herrigel's 3 years experience. As far as Kyudo is concerned, the reviewer has a much better understanding and perspective. However, when I read the book I had no interest in actually learning archery, but more about zen, and as such found value in the book, even though the text didn't flow that well IMO.
It's every practitioner's dream to integrate the spiritual practice into his or her daily endeavors. Just for fun, I have post a mystical life story of one of the eight-four siddhas lived in the eighth to eleventh centuries India - Tandhepa, 'the Dice-player.' Translated from Tibetan version by James B. Robinson in the book "Buddha's Lions." Just beware of the cultural gap and the meaning of certain Buddhism terms such as "empty" should not be taken literally as "nothing", i.e. emptiness is NOT nothingness.
"Tandhepa, 'the Dice-player', was a person of low caste in the land of Kausambi. Having exhausted all of his wealth by continuously playing dice, he was soon penniless. He continued to compulsively play dice, but since he had lost all of his money, everyone avoided him. He became so dejected that he went to a cemetery and remained there.
A yogin came along and said to him, "What are you doing here?" Tandhepa replied, " I love to play dice, but I have lost my entire fortune. Both my body and mind are tormented, and so I am staying here." The yogin then asked him, "Would the Dharma be of use to you?" To which Tandhepa replied, "I cannot give up dice-playing. But if there is a teaching which would not make me give it up, then I could use it." "There is such a one," said the yogin, and he gave him initiations and instructions:
"Meditate on the three worlds being emptied just as your purse is emptied when you play dice. Meditate on the mind itself being empty, as empty as the three worlds."
Just as you can get rid of a fortune at dice,
you can get rid of conceptions by the dice of knowledge.
You should pound the conceptions into the Dharma-body
just as you are now pounding on yourself.
Just as surely as you sleep in this cemetery,
you will rest in great joy.
Tandhepa meditated according to the way he was taught, dissolving the conceptualizations of the three worlds into the Dharma-nature. In this way, he acquired the knowledge arising from the clear understanding that everything is without self-nature. Having obtained the fruit of Mahamudra, he said:
If at first distress did not arise,
then how could I enter the path of liberation?
If I had not taken recourse to my guru with faith,
how would I have entered the highest siddhi?
After he had spoken, he rose in the sky, and in that very body, he went to the realm of Dakas."
"Tandhepa, 'the Dice-player', was a person of low caste in the land of Kausambi. Having exhausted all of his wealth by continuously playing dice, he was soon penniless. He continued to compulsively play dice, but since he had lost all of his money, everyone avoided him. He became so dejected that he went to a cemetery and remained there.
A yogin came along and said to him, "What are you doing here?" Tandhepa replied, " I love to play dice, but I have lost my entire fortune. Both my body and mind are tormented, and so I am staying here." The yogin then asked him, "Would the Dharma be of use to you?" To which Tandhepa replied, "I cannot give up dice-playing. But if there is a teaching which would not make me give it up, then I could use it." "There is such a one," said the yogin, and he gave him initiations and instructions:
"Meditate on the three worlds being emptied just as your purse is emptied when you play dice. Meditate on the mind itself being empty, as empty as the three worlds."
Just as you can get rid of a fortune at dice,
you can get rid of conceptions by the dice of knowledge.
You should pound the conceptions into the Dharma-body
just as you are now pounding on yourself.
Just as surely as you sleep in this cemetery,
you will rest in great joy.
Tandhepa meditated according to the way he was taught, dissolving the conceptualizations of the three worlds into the Dharma-nature. In this way, he acquired the knowledge arising from the clear understanding that everything is without self-nature. Having obtained the fruit of Mahamudra, he said:
If at first distress did not arise,
then how could I enter the path of liberation?
If I had not taken recourse to my guru with faith,
how would I have entered the highest siddhi?
After he had spoken, he rose in the sky, and in that very body, he went to the realm of Dakas."
emptiness doesn't necessarily have to mean nothingness or not nothingness... some people say there's a "something" (love, pure awareness/consciousness, whatever) that fills all voids blah blah blah.... maybe so, or maybe since we like to create concepts we have to create the idea of "something special" there... imho only.
another way to look at emptiness might be stillness... no noise/disturbance. like a body of water with no ripples (not really empty, but still)
i would also recommend
"the power of now" by eckhart tolle
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-4408286-6865521?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
and
"i am that" by nisargadatta maharaj
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_2/104-4408286-6865521?v=glance&s=books
another way to look at emptiness might be stillness... no noise/disturbance. like a body of water with no ripples (not really empty, but still)
i would also recommend
"the power of now" by eckhart tolle
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-4408286-6865521?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
and
"i am that" by nisargadatta maharaj
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_2/104-4408286-6865521?v=glance&s=books
Thanks. You are right. In Buddhism, there are many schools of thoughts suitable for different people and many intellectual debates about this by the great masters... there are progressive stages of explainations about "emptiness." But I choose to simplify and take a safer stand while posting for the general public because one thing I am sure is that emptiness is not a mere logical negation and one will get into trouble approaching Buddhism in a nihilistic fashion. They said Middle Way School (Madhaymika)'s explaination is superior to Mind-only School but there are masters reached actual accomplishments taking the view of Mind-only school. The best way of course is actually see it for ourselves in the practice after studying detailed explainations.
I apologize for turning this money-making thread into Buddhism thread. I will try my best to steer back the other way. As far as the biography goes, it never said if Tandhepa got better at playing dice or not. I just assume he did.
I apologize for turning this money-making thread into Buddhism thread. I will try my best to steer back the other way. As far as the biography goes, it never said if Tandhepa got better at playing dice or not. I just assume he did.
Sorry, I can't help repeating myself... People practice tranquility meditation is indeed to let the mind settle on its own accord. I know a still tranquil mind is nice and cool but the nature of thought and stillness (non-thought) are not different and practitioner should not accept one and reject the other. Here is an ancient song of the accomplished female teacher Niguma:
If you don't understand that whatever appears is meditation,
What can you achieve by applying an antidote?
Perception are not abandoned by discarding them,
But are spontaneously freed when recognized as illusory.
If you don't understand that whatever appears is meditation,
What can you achieve by applying an antidote?
Perception are not abandoned by discarding them,
But are spontaneously freed when recognized as illusory.
. Hope I won't regret it)."POKER RULE#6: To win at poker you must embrace the idea of breaking even... A distaste for breaking even can lead us into the valley of pressing and overplaying and other wrongful activity."
We have to have a positive mindset for the long run. But one-sided expectation for a short performance interval is just going to chew us up. Breaking even or a loss is just one of the natural outcomes in a statistical run. This is the way our trading plan supposed to work given the nature of the game... it is not broken. The reason we have a plan in place is to help us focus on executing sound decisions under fire. Do not make it difficult by outsmarting our own plan. Pressing at the last hour to meet some number in our head is just out of place.
As in the meditation instruction: When you have a glass of muddy water, you can't make it clear by stirring it. Same with meditation, you can't make the mind clear by forcing it one way or the other. Let each settle naturally on its own.
Don't force our expectation on top of our trading, let the Law of Large Numbers do its work in peace.
We have to have a positive mindset for the long run. But one-sided expectation for a short performance interval is just going to chew us up. Breaking even or a loss is just one of the natural outcomes in a statistical run. This is the way our trading plan supposed to work given the nature of the game... it is not broken. The reason we have a plan in place is to help us focus on executing sound decisions under fire. Do not make it difficult by outsmarting our own plan. Pressing at the last hour to meet some number in our head is just out of place.
As in the meditation instruction: When you have a glass of muddy water, you can't make it clear by stirring it. Same with meditation, you can't make the mind clear by forcing it one way or the other. Let each settle naturally on its own.
Don't force our expectation on top of our trading, let the Law of Large Numbers do its work in peace.