Zen warrior on horseback. Can you identify with these words as the Kentucky Derby is at hand? I hope you can. I have always found a kinship to that Samurai Zen Warrior. It takes great discipline to be a successful horseplayer, and it also takes some good fortune. In today’s quotes I offer them as a tool for you in the Derby, and all the races that surround it. Here are some quotes I placed in my book “Zen and the Successful Horseplayer.”
“(One) aspect of the warrior’s discipline is that it also contains discriminating awareness, or skillful intelligence.
Therefore it is like the bow and arrow.
The arrow is sharp and penetrating; but to propel or put into effect that sharpness you also need a bow.
Similarly, the warrior is always inquisitive and interested in the world around him.
But he also needs skillful action in order to apply that intelligence…
(then) the arrow of intellect is joined with the bow of skillful means.”
~~Chogyam Trungpa
(Shambhala The Sacred Path of the Warrior)
“Your goal as a player is to reach a point where a great many things will have to go wrong for you to lose badly.
They will have to go wrong in bunches, repeatedly for an extended period of time.
Once you have reached this point you won’t give it as much weight because you know such occurrences are relatively…rare.”
~~Larry W. Phillips
(Zen and the Art of Poker)
“A horse gallops with his lungs,
perseveres with his heart;
and wins with his character.”
~~Frederic Tesio
(Breeding the Racehorse)
“To foresee a victory which the ordinary man can see is not the acme of skill.”
~~Sun Tzu
(The Art of War)
I wish you good fortune in your wagers, but more importantly I hope you find joy in the journey. For it is only when we seek that we may find.
