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The First Distinction
Letting Go Of Go
Faced with an empty board, anything is possible, until the first stone is placed and answered. From there, conflict arises. But conflict is not without purpose, as Go holds endless lessons in how to avoid suffering.
About this series
Go, also known as Baduk or Weiqi, is an ancient board game developed in China over 4000 years ago, and still played by millions today. But what elevates Go from that of other board games enough to be considered an art, a spiritual practice, even an expression of divine cosmology?
In this series, I’ll offer some of my reflections on what the game has to teach.
- The Rules And History of Go: A Brief Introduction
- The First Distinction: Letting Go Of Go
- Balance In All Things: How To Walk The Golden Middle Way In Go
- Why Do Anything? The Art Of Interaction In The Game Of Go
- The Way Of Endless Go: Playing With Infinity
Emptiness
Buddhism claims everything is emptiness, but what does this mean? It means that there is no solidity, no fixed form or shape to the universe, no inherent essence or meaning, no inherent good or bad, no borders. Everything is just a constant stream of change, cause giving rise to effect with no distinct boundary between the two.
The empty Goban at the start of a game of Go is similar in this regard. It holds almost unlimited potential, 2³⁵¹ variations on a 19x19 grid to be exact, but there is no inherent shape or form for how the game should progress. Just like our constant stream of conscious experience, it has no inherent shape or form, only ways in which it tends to behave.
The first distinction
Then one player puts down a black stone, the first distinction. Suddenly, life springs into being and there is no longer emptiness.
From boundlessness and potential, there is now a definite cause awaiting an effect; a white stone. There is ‘yours’ and there is ‘mine’. There is ‘black’ and there is ‘white’. There is tension and excitement and suffering and joy as each player struggle for territory on the board.
