There comes a time in the journey of a long term visionary where you may have seen the ups and the downs, the swing highs and the swing lows, and you have “holdled” on regardless. And at some point you become resilient to dollar value of your investment. If it fulfils other purposes which add quality of life then that is just as good and valuable. Use case, utility and improved user experience are great to obtain in any visionary product.
Our web3 technology is a marvelous tool, except it is so far ahead of the curve that the masses have a while to go before they catch up, like a year or two, perhaps the next bitcoin bull market blow off top in late 2025 (not financial advice). Let’s see how well that prediction ages. As a visionary, you ride out the highs of the four year cycles and you feel like a genius. Then the bear market comes and your portfolio dips by more than 70%. Such is cryptocurrency in its infancy. If you don’t have the stomach then stay out of the market.
In fact this experience of the market can teach one detachment, like that of a day trader who simply calculates wins and losses as entry points in his statistical graph. And if he or she can make at least 51% worth of profitable trades, then they are successful. That’s a rate of say 6 out of 10 profitable trades. Such is the market life.
And so sometimes there will be losses. The trader learns quickly that he has to take the emotions and attachment to loss out of the equation if she is to persevere in the end to a point of success. With a mood of detachment the trader refines the sniper skills and aims to profit along the way. It sounds like the art of war, where one aphorism advising the general tells him not to worry too sentimentally about his troops.
Ruthless, some might say. Determination is a key to progress, but something beyond mere determination is called “hoping against hope”. It’s like the stranded ship wrecked survivor on a desert island. The Bhagavad Gita calls it “siddhy-asiddhyoh” in chapter 2:48. Whether with perfections/results/success or without. This word “siddhi” is also one that is used to refer to the mystical metaphysical gifts that a yogi might obtain as a result of long years of practice in their yoga.
Nevertheless, Krishna tells Arjuna to just carry on with yoga, regardless of whether you are attaining apparent siddhi or no siddhi. That is not the goal of yoga. The real goal is to link up with god in a mood of service. And so sometimes learning to tolerate occasional failure or lack of result in the pursuit of our goal, whether as a trader or a yogi, is all part of the journey and the process. If we are process-oriented above goal-oriented, then we may find ourselves already in the eternal moment or somewhere closer to the kingdom of god than we realized, or on the way at least.
Hoping against hope is the anthem of the long term “hodler”, who keeps the diamond hands on the cryptocurrency stack like a yogi keeps their focus on the diamond heart. Even if the price is low now, or the way is dry, still, by hoping against hope the vision grows. Evenness is the word used in the Gita – “samatvam”. Detachment is a fine skill to acquire, especially if you have a higher love, a higher taste, or a higher goal. Whether you feel it now or not does not matter because, even if it takes another thousand lives, at least it is steadily coming closer. That kind of conviction requires a visionary who knows the goal is attainable and who is also simultaneously willing to see it evaporate. Self-sufficiency means relying on nothing other than the higher self or god Supersoul, whether within the heart, or within the scriptures, or within the voice of the teacher, for the solution and answer to all questions.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:48
योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय ।
सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ॥ ४८ ॥
yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi
saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhananjaya
siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā
samatvaṁ yoga ucyate
yoga-sthaḥ—steadfast in yoga; kuru—perform; karmāṇi—your duty; saṅgam—attachment; tyaktvā—having abandoned; dhananjaya—O Dhananjaya; siddhi-asiddhyoḥ—in success and failure; samaḥ—the same; bhūtvā—having become; samatvam—evenness of mind; yogaḥ-yoga; ucyate—is called
TRANSLATION
Be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna. Perform your duty and abandon all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is called yoga.
COMMENTARY
Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that he should act in yoga. And what is that yoga? Yoga means to concentrate the mind upon the Supreme by controlling the ever-disturbing senses. And who is the Supreme? The Supreme is the Lord. And because He Himself is telling Arjuna to fight, Arjuna has nothing to do with the results of the fight. Gain or victory are Kṛṣṇa's concern; Arjuna is simply advised to act according to the dictation of Kṛṣṇa. The following of Kṛṣṇa's dictation is real yoga, and this is practiced in the process called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By Kṛṣṇa consciousness only can one give up the sense of proprietorship. One has to become the servant of Kṛṣṇa, or the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa. That is the right way to discharge duty in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which alone can help one to act in yoga.
Arjuna is a kṣatriya, and as such he is participating in the varṇāśrama-dharma institution. It is said in the Viṣṇu Puraṇa that in the varṇāśrama-dharma, the whole aim is to satisfy Viṣṇu. No one should satisfy himself, as is the rule in the material world, but one should satisfy Kṛṣṇa. So, unless one satisfies Kṛṣṇa, one cannot correctly observe the principles of varṇāśrama-dharma. Indirectly, Arjuna was advised to act as Kṛṣṇa told him.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabhupadabooks.com)
(photo my own)