226. The art of Weiqi (Go/Baduk) war (碁#32) - Dealing with Nature’s Tao

Weeks, months, days and years. Our sense of time has been distorted by the mechanical clock. And in this modern world, we live in an impatient timescale. Everything has to be short and concise, otherwise we get bored easily. It has been eighty-four days and our weiqi (go/baduk) game has been going strong through the social media platforms. But because we both only make one, single, move per day - everyday, the game has seen a trailing off and slow decline in viewership enthusiasm. While at the same time, a small loyal following has started to appear. This second growing group pops in from time to time, to make sure that they haven’t missed much, but do not stay long because to do so would make the game too intense for them. Too intense. Stones on a board. Eighty-four days of war grinding on like a pestle and mortar. We only place one stone per day on the board. The rest of the time is filled with waiting by not waiting, studying the board or mediating over the board, peppered with lighthearted correspondence between us. These things are all good. And then... And then there are the unforeseen consequences of playing such a long game, that most players never have to deal with. On my opponent’s are his pets: A dog knocking the board occasionally and a cat lying on the board of play to get his attention. And on my side, it is the endless checking and rechecking to make sure the stones haven’t moved as footsteps on wooden floors tend to vibrate the stones (ever-so-slightly) off their positions. And then there’s the dust. The endless accumulating dust... Mother Nature is always there. She does what she wants. In her way subtly messing with us and seeing if we have noticed. I bring her up because we humans have trained ourselves up to believe that war and warfare is just between humans and what humans do to each other. This is a massive illusionary distortion created by our focus on the hero’s adventure as the man who knows everything and can do everything just like that. And yet, just because there’s a war on, it does not mean that soldiers are fighting everyday. Maybe in their minds they are, but not physically. In between the fighting, life still goes on. Life goes on and creates its own mess. And so long as we only have this planet to live on, our brilliant ideas of how things should be, will (sometimes) just have to take a rain-cheque on reality and we will have to accept how things really are. Even though I’m imparting on you a Taoist pearl of wisdom, this has nothing to do with spirituality but is just down-to-earth boots-on-the-ground reality. ⚔️圍棋戰聖 Follow on Instagram: @baguazhang_