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:
- 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.
- 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 ;-)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. :
- Courage
- Serenity
- Gratitude
- Awareness
- Clarity
- Patience
- 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:
Our weaknesses stalk us on and off the board.
Many new go players struggle with impatience. They lack the necessary judgement to know when to strike at an opponent’s weakness. So, like an over eager child they rush to invade before they have prepared the position. Then they flounder and are either forced to run or die where they stand.
New players also typically lack the understanding necessary to discpline themselves from reacting directly to every attack made by a stronger opponent. I refer to this as playing too close. This leads to numerous undefendable cutting points and ultimately to frustration for the inexperienced player.
The answer of course is to always be aware of weaknesses, yours and your opponent’s, and to take all of these into account when formulating you next move. Perhaps an attack a players wants to make requires more power in the center of the board. So, he makes a leaning attack, develops the power and then when all is prepared he attacks. This more mature style of play yields better results.
“God has given me the game of go not only to entertain and please me, but also to teach me. ”
Now, less you think I’m being harse when talking about new players . . . yes we’ve all been there, infact I’m still there in many ways, if not on the goban, then in life. I was thinking this morning about my own flaws on and especially off the board. I realized that I must learn to be patient in my pursuit of my own weakness. If I resolutely react to each of my personal weaknesses the way a new player slaps stones down to stop a much stronger player’s attack, I will reap only frustration and will ultimately lose my fights in life. If I want to subdue my faults, I must approach them differently by first gaining the strength I need to fight and then by attacking when I am ready.
My life currently feels like the middle game in go, made complex by family, career, and life’s varied demands. There are strengths and weaknesses on my life’s board. To be successful, I must evaluate each and choose a direction of play that compliments my position. If I let fear of my numerous weaknesses distract me I will fail to sieze the profitable opportunities before me. However, if I ignore my weaknesses, I risk opening myself to damaging invasions and attacks.
I am still often guilty of making foolhardy attacks on my personal weaknesses, believing that willpower and diligence are enough to win the day. Like an inexperienced go player I am often discouraged by my results.
So, I must open myself to the life-lessons that go offers me. As for me, I believe God toutors each of us in personal ways. He has given me the game of go not only to entertain and please me, but also to teach me. If I am to conquer one weakness at a time I must build up strength and power before attacking. I can do this only by leaning God’s grace which for me is strength given to me through the merits of Jesus Christ. Prepared and strengthed, I can conquer each weakness in turn and achieve positive results.
There is peace in remembering that my life is under the watchful eye of a divine sensei and that I can play with calm confidence instead of fearful distraction. There is satisfaction in the realization that I am slowly but steadily learning to leave my ‘new player’ mistakes behind me.
"I just need to slow down and expand my view of go and life."
Many players feel that go is much more than just a game. I fall into this group and believe that go’s beyond-a-game qualities are much of what has kept it going for 2,000 to 4,000 years. I don’t think that go itself is spiritual endeavor in an of itself. However, much of the intrigue that go offers us comes from the way go tends to mirror our own lives, the way it mirrors the harmony of nature.
So, today I was working 2 kyu level tsumego. One problem looked to be took easy to be possible for a 2 kyu problem and of course it was. But even though logic and intuition told me this was so, I could not see another alternative, nor could I see how I could fail, but I sensed it.
As soon as I clicked the screen on the point where I wanted my first move I knew intuition had been correct and once again my reading skills had been deficient. When finally looked at the solution I realized what I had done wrong. It wasn’t that I had read out the local situation of the big eye that i was trying to destroy, it was that I hadn’t taken the time to open my vision to include the external stones and this had caused me to miss the other option, which was actually quite obvious once I had taken in the whole situation instead of just part of it.
For me, it’s not that go possesses any spiritual power of its own, but rather that God knows this game is an effective way to speak to my soul.
I often do something similar with my spiritual life. Prayer can be trite and off track if I focus too narrowly on my life and problems. If I take the time to patiently review the entire situation, I am better able to open myself to inspiration and find a way forward. Expanding my view often includes focusing not on me, but on others and on what God may want from me. This expanded view nurtures revelation and fosters faith and then correct action. My typical near-sighted point of view breeds fear and confusion and desperate moves that I sense are wrong but that I make anyway because of a lack of options.
I find that I have an easier time grasping spiritual principles as they manifest themselves on a goban. Once I recognize them, their parallels to my life, both spiritual and physical often rise up in my mind when i need them to provide spiritual guidance. For me, again, it’s not that go possesses any spiritual power of its own, but rather that God knows this game is an effective way to speak to my soul. So, I’ll keep pulling out the board and stones and when I’m not focusing on joseki I’ll continue to open my mind to the lessons that God has to teach me through this wholly unusual game.
In what ways does go teach you about life?
