the tao and racing

[tompkins]

One's life philosophy is determined as a result of many sources: experiences, examples, or reaction to many of life's challenges. Many issues of the Follow Up refered to yin/yang dichtomies as compared to the same dichotomy or early/late. Howard Sartin wrote about them often, used many symbols from the I Ching and stressed looking at the racing with this type of thought in mind.

Never paid much attention to the philosophical until my wife died: together since the age of 16 it was a tough thing to take. Looking for answers, as we all do to challenges like that, I returned to discover the magic of Eastern philsophy that had long been proposed in many of Dr. Sartin's writings. You owe it to yourself to touch on the great works of Lao Tsu (Tao Te Ching), the I Ching, or a modern day explanation in The Tao of Pooh.

Michael Pizzola coments in Pace Makes the Race , p.158, in a chapter entitled "The Decision Making Process - An Introduction to the Tao of Handicapping" - he states: "Again, there are no rules, but there are some things you can do to move along. To those who must have a mechanical approach, I can only tell you that you are sentencing yourself to mere competence at best. One of my favorite quotes is attributed to Lao Tsu, the compiler of the Tao Te Ching. He said, "When the great Way is lost, there arise codes of conduct and behavior."

"Look at any great achiever in any field: although they absolutely mastered the basics, they did not get to be great by following mechanical codes of behavior. Read the lives of great men and women: they lived according to their own truths and their behavior reflected that truth. Those who mimic those behaviors hoping to achieve their inner state of truth not only will fail to achieve that state (for they are putting the cart before the horse) but will bring a level of strain to their lives because they will be living someone else's truth."

Wise words indeed from a great philosophical point of view.