The Way of Go by Troy Anderson

Author:Troy Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2004-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Reverse Forward

Look forward, you see what’s ahead. Look backward, you see what’s behind. Most of us are comfortable planning forward and reminiscing backward, but some of the more powerful techniques Go players use require you to plan backward and reminisce forward. Backward planning starts with the goal and then looks at the steps needed to get there. Forward reminiscing is visualizing the steps you’re going to take and living in that future by putting yourself into that mind frame. Thinking each step into the future, the farther you can read on the Go board, the stronger you’ll become. The clearer the goal in the distance, the easier it is to trace backward from that goal to what the right steps will be. In tandem, Reverse Forward gives you the forward-looking steps coupled with the backward-looking map.

The other benefit of Reverse Forward rules is to know that doing things one way and doing things opposite are more likely the scope of possible opportunities than just one side of that spectrum. Because GO’S RULES are dualistic, sometimes doing the opposite is as good as or better than doing things the “right way.” Many people have proven that the right way to get ahead in middle management is not to kowtow to one’s boss or just sing the company’s praises, contrary to popular belief, but instead to stand up to the establishment and challenge the status quo. While the risk of getting fired increases, the risk of not staying at your same level likewise increases. It’s important to consider Owe Save when throwing things into reverse.

Talk to the Hand

The dualistic nature of GO’S RULES is a confusing part of learning Go, especially since this is the first introduction to such a system. Just as sometimes you are told to be aggressive, to “push, push, push,” there are other times when you are told to be more passive, to “shore up before striking” and other rules to the contrary. For many people, Go is beyond description, and indeed this is something it shares with its ancestral cousins.

Indeed, one of Go’s nicknames is “hand talk.” One rationale for this moniker is that you don’t need your mouth to communicate in Go, just your hands. Perhaps because Go grew up with the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism and the practice of zen, Go was primed for similar treatment as an indescribable art. A concomitant to yin and yang, its yin-yang colored stones wrapped around each other inside a board’s intersections made the game enigmatic. Go is on a par with the mystery and the close-mouthed-

ness of these other Ways, but is there a need to be sympathetic to the unspokenness?

Many of the patriarchs of the various Ways have shown their great distaste for trying to describe their Ways rationally. Moreover, they’d say, because even the duality is an illusion, you had best not try to speak what something is, you had best just experience it. The third patriarch of zen, Hsin Hsin Ming (c. A.D.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.