Satyam: Honesty and Truth
Maya, the veil of illusion, will always deceive us if we fail to see the underlying interconnectedness between all things and enter the advaita, non-dualism, inherent in a liberated state of consciousness. First, however, we should instill a cohesive sense of honesty that only we can moderate through the ever-analytical mind. Our knowledge will ascertain our intentions, thereby requiring the need for the cultivation of ethical principles. If we make an error in judgment, the dishonesty need not lie with ourselves as we made the decision in truth. Conversely, if our goal is to deceive, then we are denying the integration of our beliefs with our reality.
The untruths we may allow ourselves to live with are not always apparent. These discrepancies may manifest as physical or mental blockages preventing us from healing and moving on—refusing to accept a bad trade will make us susceptible to making the same mistake in the future. A polygraph test is usually not necessary to find the truth. It is often quite apparent, if we aware, through detected variances in eye movement, nervousness, body tension, or other more individualistic tells to detect deception in those we know well. This disconnection between intention and action is what we seek to eradicate by allowing our conscience to guide us.
Just a Little White Lie
At times, the truth does indeed hurt. White lies are often viewed as inconsequential and may be overlooked by arguing the observance of ahimsa. Perhaps they well should be; a bad impression of someone or something is just that, an impression and not the absolute truth. This may be a good example of how different interpretations may lead to different outcomes, and why criticism should be withheld: it is merely the projection of our belief systems upon maya’s delusional quality.
Faith and belief is often upheld by identifying with groups of many. Therefore, we must always keep our discerning mind and inquisitively engage with the constant call for recognizing truth in education, media, and the markets. Creativity will thus spring forth from assessing a problem from a variety of angles and finding alternate solutions that resonate well with our conscience.
Truth of Trading
The global markets are a composite of a variety of belief systems all attempting to seek fulfillment of their reality. The outcome, however, of those shared beliefs is limited to a two-sided consensus of that community. A bull or bear market will be entered depending upon the criteria we have given weight to in measuring the probabilities for placing a trade. If we position ourselves to show support for bears, we cannot punish our lack of clairvoyance for an up-trending market.
The fragmentation, the antithesis of yoga, begins if we inaccurately assess a sense impression, either in dishonesty or ignorance, because of psychological or physiological barriers. The subconscious may manifest in discreet ways giving rise to a variety of anxiety or stress-related disorders. A trader may refuse to address these somatic markers with a deniable or unmanageable response. This lack of honestly must be uncovered to get to the direct cause of the problem. We must become the non-discriminatory observer of our mind, body, and emotions in order to find truth in the relations between ourselves and our environment.
Research from Johnson, Tellis, and Macinnis has identified common issues in trading performance and has often detected that traders will misidentify market conditions to support their bias or disposition. “When applied to a stock market context, a consistent finding is that consumers prefer to buy past winners and sell past losers even when neither should be preferred.” Learning to recognize fictitious interpretations of market analysis will allow us the opportunity to become more conscious participants.
If we take a position in the markets, even though there are no indicators present that would validate entry, then we are deceiving our trading principles by breaking our rules and losing control of our responses. Manipulating the current market environment to avoid pain in the hopes of feeling pleasure is not a sound trading strategy. If the trade proves to be profitable, then we are cultivating distrust in our trading indicators. Conversely, if the trade turns in our favor, we cultivate distrust in ourselves. Either way, we lose: we do not seek to gain anything by straying from the value of satyam.
