RazorBrain's Go Journal

The Seven Go Virtues by RazorBrain

Last week I wrote about deadly go sins, or as Janice Kim (3p) calls them ‘dangers.’ In that post I shared the ones that seem to plague me the most–thoughtlessness and greed. As I’ve considered my own go weaknesses I’ve also become aware of a few developing go virtues (thankfully)!

Last week at my local go club, I played three games and win or lose I played from a place that was if not new to me, at least all too rare. I was calmer and my mind was clearer and I enjoyed my games much more. I want to stay in this place, this ‘zone’ if you will, when I play.

So, if there are seven go sins or weaknesses, there must be a corresponding set of go virtues or strengths. Go is after all a game of harmony and balance. It is only right that weakness be counterbalanced with strength.

Here again is the list of weaknesses along with a bit about how each apply to my go and perhaps yours:

Go Sins:

1. Fear: In Hikaru No Go I loved when Sai taught Hikaru about the fighting spirit. Then just when things were looking hopeless for Hikaru the animation would show him charging across time and space with a sword to attack! Too often we let our fear of what a stronger player can do. In many ways, those holding the white stones depend on this type of fear to win, especially in handicap games.
2. Agitation: In Star Wars – Episode I, Liam Neeson’s character, Qui-Gon Jinn, calmly knelt to meditate while waiting for the energy shields to part before re-engaging his enemy. Ewen McGregor’s Obi-Wan on the other hand paced nervously. I am reminded of this when I play go and seem to be irritable at distractions around me. Such irritability and agitation drain energy from our go. (Never mind that Obi-Wan won the fight. I’m not going there right now ;-)
   
3. Greed: A victory is a victory. Pros seem quite satisfied winning a major title with only several stones separating their result from their now defeated opponent’s result. Needing to win by large margins points to other personal problems. If we are greedy and want to kill groups just to feel good or to subtly humiliate our opponents, then we should re-examine our go. Greedy overplays lead to trouble and a lack of satisfaction.
4. Thoughtlessness: I find that thoughtlessness is my constant companion, sigh. . . .  How much of our day goes by with our minds engaged elsewhere, in our pasts or in our futures? Do we do the same when playing go? When we respond without consideration we fall into a type of numbness to the present that robs our game.
5. Irrationality: Relying on hope is foolish in go and yet we do it all too often. When the stones say to abandon a group, we often continue to add good stones to bad ones ‘hoping’ that our opponent will make a disastrous mistake. This typically leads to frustration. Even when our opponents’ mistakes renew our belief in hope as a strategy, we must remember careful reading and a fighting spirit will get us further than passively submitting to our opponents’ lack of skill.
6. Anger: In the third volume of her Learn to Play Go series, Janice Kim (3p) quotes an old Korean expression when talking about anger. It goes something like, “Even monkeys fall from trees.” This begs me to consider how I react to my own mistakes. Anger can weaken our play when we make a mistake that we feel is beneath us. We are angry that we feel the embarrassment over our unworthy mistake. Ha! We simply take ourselves too seriously. Anger and vanity are foolish. Better to be weak in go rather than weak in character.
7. Envy: Are we sometimes envious of others’ go rank or achievements? I think we all are at times. When we let thoughts of what winning or losing  will mean for our reputations or even to the way we feel about ourselves we give envy room to affect our go.  Such thoughts distract us from the stones and help ensure that our fears are first realized in the present and then strengthened for the future.

My list of Go Virtues:

Below is my list of seven ‘go virtues’ or strengths that we can develop to counteract the ‘go sins’ or weaknesses listed above. These correspond directly with the list above. So, courage will counteract fear and serenity will counteract agitation, etc. :

1. Courage
2. Serenity
3. Gratitude
4. Awareness
5. Clarity
6. Patience
7. Contentment

Do you have other suggestions for what the ‘go virtues’ could be? If so, leave a comment here. I’ll be writing more about these in future weeks. I’d love to hear your ideas:

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