“[It’s] maybe the single most important reason for whatever success I’ve had,” he told the renowned Odd Lots podcast this week. “Meaning, it has given me an equanimity to step back, to see the arc, to accept there’s a life cycle.”

Dalio often describes major crises and events in terms of cycles, and he referenced meditation as the thing that lets him step outside himself long enough to see reality clearly, rather than get caught up in headlines. But in the Odd Lots interview, he also made clear what he does with that clarity: He uses it to map out cause-and-effect relationships. 

For Dalio, meditation creates the mental distance he needs to see events—markets, politics, human conflict—as linked chains rather than emotional shocks. That lens is so central to his worldview that he referenced it over and over:

“If you understand the cause-effect relationships … you can be ahead of the game. The causes happen before the effects.”

He talks about politics this way, too. Instead of seeing polarization as chaos, he thinks about the “mechanics” that produce it: incentives, cycles, interest groups, constraints. He isn’t judging them morally; he’s trying to understand how each variable begets the others.

Meditation, he says, is what lets him make that shift away from the instinct to react. 

“You align the subliminal and the intellectual mind … while still feeling the emotions, but being able to look down on them and ask: How does reality work?”

Dalio’s perspective echoes core Buddhist ideas far more than the conventional Wall Street training. In much of Buddhist thought, the world is a web of causes and conditions: pratītyasamutpāda, or dependent origination. Everything arises from something else, and clinging to how we wish things were is what creates suffering, rather than the event itself. Dalio doesn’t use Buddhist language, but he describes almost the same process: Don’t impose your preferences, don’t treat incidents as isolated, and don’t get trapped in your immediate emotional reaction.

On investors who meditate

Dalio isn’t the only investor who sees meditation as part of the job. Ivan Feinseth, another longtime research analyst, has practiced Transcendental Meditation since 1978, when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi—the leader of the movement—visited his New Jersey high school.

The routine Feinseth describes is simple: You sit, breathe, and repeat a mantra until your thoughts stop becoming intrusions and instead flow naturally, to the extent that you can observe them. The effect he describes is almost identical to Dalio’s. 

“It does center you and relax you and calm you,” Feinseth told Fortune. “I get answers to questions … Many times I’m thinking about something and, after I meditate, I’ve found a solution.” 

Sometimes it’s trivial, like realizing his neighbor could fix a garage door with a side-mounted motor that he remembered seeing years ago (“We do have an incredibly accurate memory”). Other times, it’s the structure of a major research report or the right way into a thorny market call.

“Once you start to relax, things become clearer,” he said. “Sometimes the best way to think about something is not thinking about something.”

Few professions blur emotion and logic like investing, Feinseth argued.

“People act emotionally and then use logic to justify an emotional reaction,” he said. Meditation doesn’t remove that dynamic, but it can help keep you from participating in it, especially during selloffs that are obviously out of step with fundamentals.

Research on mindfulness has shown mixed but meaningful effects on investor decision-making. A 2020 thesis on mindfulness and trading found no reduction in overconfidence and even higher anchoring among more mindful traders. However, a research brief from investment firm Addepar argues that mindfulness can interrupt biased, stress-driven reactions by shifting cognition from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex, creating a pause before acting. 

In practice, mindfulness means noticing a fear response during a selloff without immediately selling; recognizing when a familiar narrative is shaping an investment thesis; or stepping back from recency-driven overconfidence. Meditation doesn’t eliminate biases, but it provides a structure for identifying and disrupting them, the authors argue. 

Dalio, it appears, would agree.

“Whatever success in life I’ve had,” Dalio said, “is more because I know how to deal with what I don’t know, than anything.”

Asian markets mostly rose Monday as fresh hopes for a US interest rate cut provided some calm after last week’s rollercoaster ride fuelled by worries of a tech bubble.

The scramble to snap up all things AI has helped propel equities skywards this year, pushing several companies to records — with chip titan Nvidia last month becoming the first to top $5 trillion.

But investors have grown increasingly fearful that the vast sums pumped into the sector may have been overdone and could take some time to see profits realised, leading to warnings of a possible market correction.

That has been compounded in recent weeks by falling expectations the Federal Reserve will cut rates for a third successive time next month as stubbornly high inflation overshadows weakness in the labour market.

However, risk appetite was given a much-needed shot in the arm Friday when New York Fed boss John Williams said he still sees “room for a further adjustment” at the bank’s December 9-10 policy meeting.

The remarks saw the chances of a cut shoot up to about 70 percent, from 35 percent earlier.

Focus is now on the release this week of the producer price index, which will be one of the last major data points before officials gather, with other key reports postponed or missed because of the government shutdown.

“The reading carries heightened importance following the postponement of October’s personal consumption expenditures report, originally scheduled for 26 November, which removes a key datapoint from policymakers’ assessment framework,” wrote IG market analyst Fabien Yip.

“A substantially stronger-than-expected PPI outcome could reinforce concerns that inflationary pressures remain entrenched, potentially constraining the Fed’s capacity to reduce rates in December despite recent labour market softening.”

After Wall Street’s rally Friday capped a torrid week for markets, Asia mostly started on the front foot.

Hong Kong and Seoul jumped more than one percent, while Sydney, Singapore, Wellington and Taipei were also well up, though Shanghai and Manila retreated. US futures advanced.

Tokyo was closed for a holiday.

But while the mood is a little less fractious than last week, uncertainty continues to weigh on riskier assets, with bitcoin hovering around $87,000.

While that is up from its seven-month low of $80,553, it is still sharply down from its record $126,200 hit last month.

– Key figures at around 0230 GMT –

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.4 percent at 25,568.08

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,829.71

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday

Dollar/yen: UP at 156.70 yen from 156.39 yen on Friday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1515 from $1.1519

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3096 from $1.3107

Euro/pound: UP at 87.92 pence from 87.88 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $57.93 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $62.44 per barrel

New York – Dow: UP 1.1 percent at 46,245.41 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,539.71 (close)

dan/rsc