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Now, fantasies themselves about the market are not necessarily a problem. In fact, they can be used to help motivate us to stay on a disciplined path of research and inquiry, and help fuel a growing passion for the market that sustains us during rough periods of loss. But Zen warns us that we far too easily hold traces of thought from the past that we become obsessed with and which distort the present: |
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Tanzen and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. |
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Coming around a bend, they met a lovely woman in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. |
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"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. |
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Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?" |
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"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"* |
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These past traces of thought may be derived from previous experiences trading the same stock or with a different stock but in the same situation. Of course, we want to remember our past outcomes so as not to repeat mistakes, or to remember past actions that worked so we may repeat them. But we need to be careful not to let the past mistakes unnecessarily frighten us so that we freeze and are unable to take the action demanded that is before us now, in this new but similar situation. |
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It is when we are not paying close attention that images arise. What I mean by this is that when we are fully present and paying attention, there is no gap for the mind to create thoughts or images. See what happens when you pay close attention to the changing quotes on your screen or to graphs of the movement of stock in real time. The mind, totally present with the moment to moment changing numbers, does not need to create fantasies about the future or get lost in reverie about the past. |
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Quotes: More Than Meets the Eye |
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Watching dynamically streaming and updating quotes, then, can be of benefit in helping us to learn to be more present-centered with our attention. While we are trying to calculate the best time to enter a |
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*Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. |
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