Intro: Chess, Buddhism & Meditation

“…one should stabilize the mind in meditative concentration, since a person whose mind is distracted lives between the fangs of mental afflictions.” – Arya Shantideva, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, “The Way of the Bodhisattva” (Wallace & Wallace trans.)

“If some men conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.” – Buddha Shakyamuni, The Dhammapada, from “The Teachings of the Buddha,” translated/compiled by Paul Carus

 Was asked by another admin to write a series of posts on chess, Buddhism and meditation. It’s with much humility that I accept the task. I’m not a very good chess player (yet), but have been in the depths of Buddhist teachings and the study/practice of meditation for almost twenty years. My goal is to help anyone with their game, regardless of their particular metaphysical (or non-metaphysical) world view. Also, I practice within a particular tradition, and there are countless traditions out there. But, ultimately, truth is truth, and it’s up to each individual to figure out what theirs is. If there is any truth in the words you see before you , it comes from the purity of the teachers I’ve had. Any errors, purely due to my own lack of wisdom. And finally, for simplicity’s sake, will keep all terms in English (or will at least try to!)

When watching any favorite television show, the process is pretty simple. Sit on the couch, use the remote, go to the channel of your choosing, and begin. But, what if the channel didn’t stay where you wanted, and only stayed on your channel bits and pieces at a time? What if you couldn’t find the channel you want, even though you knew it was there, somewhere, amongst the 500 other channels? What if the picture always came in fuzzy, or too dark? What if there was no sound, or it was in a different language, or the color scheme was all messed up?

Fair to say, anger and frustration would arise.

Believe it or not, this happens to you, as well as most people, every single day, every single hour, almost every single minute of their life. Except, instead of their HD Flatscreen, it’s their mind.

Don’t believe me? Take a moment, and think of the score board on your high school gymnasium wall. Think of it’s game clock, set with thirty seconds to go. Then start the clock running backwards: 30, 29, 28, 27, and so on. Now try to see the clock get all the way down to zero without any other thoughts popping into your mind. School, work, significant other, bills, tournaments, etc. As soon as you even notice another thought breaking that countdown cycle on the game clock, start over again at 30 seconds.

Some people will do well with this, others not. In all sincerity, if you’re new to this process, and honest, you probably won’t make it to twenty three, let alone zero.

If you’ve never done this before, it would probably take you a few weeks of practicing this several times daily, before being able to sincerely say “I kept my mind focused for a solid thirty seconds without any other thoughts intruding.”

In our culture, there is much emphasis on training the body. In grade school and high school, there’s physical education, and after school sports. In college, again, there’s sports, and trying to keep fit so one doesn’t look too shabby around those one wouldn’t mind exchanging bodily fluids with.

Even those who’ve entered the work-a-day world join gyms, to keep the body fit and in shape.

Trained.

But what about the mind?

From the time one learns to read, our educational system is pretty much geared towards “Information in, information out.” How the mind filters, processes and works with information is not generally a concern of schools. That function of the mind is usually molded by many other factors: parents, movies, television, one’s friends, one’s social circles.

In our culture, a slender, fit, muscular body is valued, along with all the physical training that goes with it. But what about mind training?

Not so much.

Some may be genetically predisposed to having a good attention span, others may have grown up with parents intent on study and focus. But those are the exceptions to the rule.

In the twenty first century, when we have computers that can figure out a million chess moves a second, there is no emphasis on how one’s own mind functions. Can you say that your mind is your own mind, even though it doesn’t always do what you want it to do?

Fortunately, other cultures have been studying the mind and it’s functions for the past few millennia. It’s only over the past two decades that the West has been able to get caught up.

What Western scientists today call “cognitive restructuring” or “implementation of methods and techniques to enhance and promote neuro-plasticity” has been called something else on the other side of the globe.

Meditation.

There are many words that can be translated as meditation, and there are many meanings of those many words. Hundreds of different traditions have used meditation, for various goals. But in the world of Buddhism, regardless of what tradition one belongs, meditation can usually be broken down into two parts:  Concentration and Insight. 

For the purpose of keeping this on topic of chess, will not so much be touching upon insight.

Concentration is what we’ll focus on.

How many times have you hit “submit move,” and 1/100^th of a second later saw it was a bad move? How many times has someone captured your queen and you had no idea it was about to happen? Have you ever lost to someone whom you clearly know has less knowledge and experience than you? How is it you do well with online chess, but get crushed in OTB tournaments?

Being relatively new to chess, one of the first major insights I had was the following:

I was my own worst enemy.

A good portion of the time, I was defeated because my opponent was very skilled, had extensive knowledge and knew exactly what he or she was doing. Until my knowledge and experience increase, the odds of winning against those folk are astronomical.

But why was I losing to other players who are also new to chess, and have probably studied/played even less than I? The answer is simple. They weren’t defeating me. I was letting them win.

And why was that?

Because I let my mind do things I wouldn’t want it to do.

Over the years, I’ve learned many ways to utilize meditation, for the benefit of myself, and others. But it finally hit me. I wasn’t using those same principles all the time in chess.

And what are those principles?

Well then. You’ll have to wait until my next post.

For now, just keep working on that game clock.

Nice. Love the tv watching metaphor and the gym game clock metaphor.  Looking forward to your next post.

“If some men conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.”

Kobe, the statement refers to the difference between external conquest versus internal.

When it was originally made, circa 500 B.C.E., battle, armies, warfare, was a part of life. And obviously, "great warriors" were held in high esteem, if not just plain feared.

If you look at the world today, little has changed. (Welcome to Samsara!)

Who is held in high regard today? Men, who through external means, somehow gain power over other men.

Sports figures (including your name sake), IFC fighters, NASCAR drivers, politicians, musicians are all held in high regard. And why? They dominate others through external, physical means.

Even fictional characters. Walk through Times Square, and the number one character you see available for sale in t-shirts, posters and drawings? Al Pacino's Tony Montana, ie: Scarface.

And even though evidence was blatantly contradictory to the truth, we as a nation let our leaders invade a country that hadn't done thing one to us. Why? Because they, who were in power, wanted to get "the bad guy."

With enough money and will power, almost anyone can subjugate and control others, even if only for a little while. Flash a gun in front of a group of people, and you'll quickly realize who has "power," at least on the surface.

But, according to Buddha Shakyamuni, and this is something I believe with all my heart, such power is fleeting. Power through violence almost always leads to negative consequences, and yes, the maxim, "those who live by the sword, die by the sword," is true.

Won an NBA championship? Own hotels across the globe? Got elected to office? Have twenty super hot girlfriends you can call any time? At the top of the leaderboards on Xbox Live? Have a 2000 ranking on chess.com?

Ultimately, all just writing on the surface of a lake.

But, are you in control of your own mind? Do you do things you know will cause harm and suffering to yourself and others, but can't stop? Who is truly in control of your mind: the media and your friends and parents and government and church? Or on an internal level, your pride? Or your wisdom?

The functional things and objects of this world are all temporal, and someday will fade away. All you truly ever own is what you have when you close your eyes when you go to sleep at night.

So, in our culture, someone who conquers "a thousand men in battle," whether it be the battlefront of the NBA or Congress or Wall Street, usually is considered a "great man."

What Buddha Shakyamuni is saying though is, what's even more powerful is a man being able to conquer his own mind and it's internal demons.

All the glory goes to someone who wins an NBA title, or sells a million records. Yet most kids rarely hear anything about sharpening and controlling of their own minds.

The essence of this can be summed up by what a mother said right after Obama was elected: "Now my son sees that he can grow up and be something other than a rapper or a basketball player."

And what does that mean? It means her kid can now see that power doesn't have to come from money, aggression or physical domination. It can come from self-discipline, focus, learning, and perhaps most importantly, thinking of helping others...all of which Obama needed to get to where he is today.

And how does this apply to chess?

Much emphasis is placed on rankings, number of games won, beating more skilled opponents, etc.

My win percentage, after playing for only seven months, is around 30%. Yet, because I try to keep ego out of it, can with all sincerity say I've enjoyed every game I've ever played, and to this day, have no animosity towards anyone who ever defeated me.

To me, I'd rather have that than win 80% of my games, all the while worried about defeating others, I must achieve this level, self-recrimination over stupid moves, etc etc etc.

Ultimately, if I've conquered myself, by knowing that my own chess playing is increasing in efficiency over time, that's what it's all about. Simultaneously, rather than getting angry with someone because they defeated me, I have an appreciate of what they did to win, and maybe have a new friend in the process.

Conquer a thousand men, the power will not last, and more opponents will arise eventually. Conquer your Self, and the results will last forever.

Dude,

Thank you for such an eloquence response.

In response to Kobe's statement about war. I totally agree with him about being at peace with yourself. I also think that the interpretation of the quote was not quite spot on. The analogy is meant more to be about how much more easier it is to conquer forces outside of yourself than it is to conquer (and control) yourself.

In the Chicago Open I defeated myself! I started off 3 wins no losses. Last round of the day and I was facing an opponent that I should have easily beaten. But a moment of my mind wandering lost the game. In the diagram below if you look at the Knight you will see that it is protected by the g pawn. I knew this and had for the past few moves kept reminding myself. But at this juncture I forgot. I wrote down Nxe4 which is the best move, but then changed my mind and moved g5. As soon as I did this I knew it was over as I now hung the Knight and gave his Rook entry into my back ranks. I played a few more moves and then resigned.

The point of this is to show just how a moment of mental slacking can cause destruction. If I had better control of myself I would have won the game. This loss kept me out of the $ as well so it was an expensive lesson.

One of my favorite quotes about battle and can therefore be applied to chess is"

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- Sun Tzu

Keyif wrote," The analogy is meant more to be about how much more easier it is to conquer forces outside of yourself than it is to conquer (and control) yourself."

(laughing)

I thought that's what I said!

Apologies. Key wrote in one sentence what took me several paragraphs.

Will ensure appropriate levels of caffeine intake have occurred before I reply to posts in the future. (still laughing)

Thanks Key!

cool!  please get the "how to" on here soon :)

another point about conquering something external versus your own mind, besides the fact that it might be more difficult to control your own mind, is that the benefit to yourself and others of controling your own mind will likely be much greater than that gained in controlling external things.  so that's the motivation for doing so.