A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Take for example someone who has newly learned about bitcoin. I was that person in 2017, seven years ago to the month.
Or anyone who has just realized the fact that the most powerful wealth generating skill in the world, is becoming a trader and investor in cryptocurrency assets.
Even a forex or stock market trader can earn a fortune in a short space of time with very little sweat on their brow, if they learn the skills required. But a crypto trader can earn ten times more. It's simply the nature of the market.
However, the theory alone is not enough for you to make your fortune in trading. It actually requires great skill, experience, the right personality and good timing.
I learned that the hard way through two bull market tops and the bear markets that followed, where my crypto assets lost most of their value and I went from rich back to poor almost overnight. It happens to almost all new traders.
We discover the magic touchstone of crypto which can turn all our fiat into profit, like the Philosopher's Stone which can turn all it touches into gold. We then trade our fiat into crypto, only to see it's value crash around 70% simply because we bought at the wrong time in the cycle and didn't know about that small detail of timing.
And that's where the phrase comes from "don't quit your day job". Some new traders see the light and perhaps even begin to see unimagined profits flowing in from their early trades. So they decide that they no longer need to work at their boring 9-5 job for measly pay in fiat and can make more money and be happier as a solo independant trader.
And they're correct, in theory. However, the market cycle then turns and they enter the bear season of longterm price downtrend and all their trades end up underwater. Suddenly your easy gains from the bull market are wiped out and you're left holding the bag.
I speak from personal experience when I say that this is when you really need that day job. In the beginning years of trading, it pays to keep the day job while also trading and investing on the side with money you're willing to lose in the learning curve.
In some circumstances all you lose is time and potential profit because - especially in crypto - if you simply hold the asset through the bear market for about three years, it will regain its previous value when the bull market season returns and prices trend upwards for a year.
Nevertheless, that day job or primary source of income will keep you alive while you learn the skills of trading.
Now the same principle applies to the seeker of enlightenment on the path of liberation of consciousness.
A little bit of knowledge from the ancient texts on spiritual awakening may reveal the truth that this material world is temporary and not our real condition as eternal consciousness.
It's a place from which we should liberate our self, and we can achieve that by becoming detached from it, not engaging with it and perhaps even denying our desires and renouncing it by retreating to a forest, cave or hermitage to meditate.
And this may be correct in theory. So the neophyte may turn their back on material life and become a monk or nun. However, a few days down the line the initial euphoria wears off and the suppressed material desires return. Subtly at first but then urgently, plaguing the aspiring transcendentalist like stinging insects on a hot summer night.
The novice tries to tolerate the rising urges, yet soon they grow to be like hungry wolves at the door, until a point is reached where one is actually driven mad by the attempt at artificial renunciation and ends up doing things one would never do under healthier circumstances.
The initial theory was correct and based upon insightful knowledge of consciousness, yet the application and particularly timing was off. And that can throw one into an even worse condition than when we started.
Therefore, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing on the path of liberation too. Rather than artificially try to give up the material world with its illusory allure, the ancient Wisdom recommends that the neophyte continue working and doing their duty according to their nature and situation in the material world, while simultaneously adding to it their practice in Transcendence on the path of liberation.
In time, with practice, and by cultivating patience and determination, the aspiring seeker of libertarian will find that their practice improves, while their material desire naturally dwindles and fades. Slowly they see results and the balance shifts.
Until one day they find that the tide has turned and they are successful at their true calling, that they have a higher taste, and that their old self is no more. They have found the Philosopher's stone and they know how to use it.
Until then, keep working and doing your duty. Keep your day job. It's a safe strategy. Preservation of wealth is harder than accumulation, just like maintenance is harder than creation. While destruction is the easiest.
Have a strategy and keep the goal in mind, but be willing to play the long game.
Bhagavad Gita ch3:33
sadṛśaṁ ceṣṭate svasyāḥ
prakṛter jñānavān api
prakṛtiṁ yānti bhūtāni
nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣyati
SYNONYMS
sadṛśam—accordingly; ceṣṭate—tries; svasyāḥ—in one's own nature; prakṛteḥ—modes; jñānavān—the learned; api—although; prakṛtim—nature; yānti—undergo; bhūtāni—all living entities; nigrahaḥ—suppression; kim—what; kariṣyati—can do.
TRANSLATION
Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows his nature. What can repression accomplish?
PURPORT
Unless one is situated on the transcendental platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he cannot get free from the influence of the modes of material nature, as it is confirmed by the Lord in the Seventh Chapter (7.14). Therefore, even for the most highly educated person on the mundane plane, it is impossible to get out of the entanglement of māyā simply by theoretical knowledge, or by separating the soul from the body. There are many so-called spiritualists who outwardly pose to be advanced in the science, but inwardly or privately are completely under the particular modes of nature which they are unable to surpass. Academically, one may be very learned, but because of his long association with material nature, he is in bondage. Kṛṣṇa consciousness helps one to get out of the material entanglement, even though one may be engaged in his prescribed duties. Therefore, without being fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, no one should suddenly give up his prescribed duties and become a so-called yogī or transcendentalist artificially. It is better to be situated in one's position and to try to attain Kṛṣṇa consciousness under superior training. Thus one may be freed from the clutches of māyā.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition, freely available at prabhupadabooks.com.
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