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Old May 3, 2013, 08:26 PM
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Zeeshan Zeeshan is offline
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There is more to chess than a meaningless numerical rating. One of many variations of the popular chess story involving Zen:

Quote:
CHESS AND THE ZEN MASTER

Once many Lifetimes ago there was a young Boston college undergrad (no names mentioned) who decided to quit school, take all of his acquired savings and travel to Japan for a month in order to ask The Big Question: “What is my life about?”.
Eventually he wound up at a small Rinzai Zen monastery to ask this question to the head Osho (priest) and Zen Master.
He stammered and stuttered as he was prone to do – finally just blurting out in an obnoxious voice (as he was prone to do):
“I just don’t know what I want to do with my life!”
The Zen Master looked at him coldly and asked: “What do you do really well?”
“Shit, I dunno. I do a lot of things Ok, but I can’t think of anything I’m really good at.”
“Please think,” the Zen Master sighed. “What can you do?”
So he thought, and he said. “You know, I’m really good at chess. I played in college competitively and was successful at it.”
“Ohhh. I see”, the Zen Master said, turning to the group of monks that were there hovering by and asked, “Any of you play chess?”
An elderly, lower-order priest raised his hand and said, “I play chess.”

The Zen Master said, “Please set up the board.” So one was set up in front of the Zen Master; with the kid on one side, and the elderly monk on the other.
“Ok… we’ll try playing chess” the Zen Master said. “But before we start, you two there, please go into the other room and get my swords off the wall”. So two of the monks went and got the swords. Then the Zen Master positioned each of the two behind both the American kid and the elderly monk. With Katanas raised, each could see the glint of razor-sharp steel reflected out of the corner of their eyes.
And the Zen Master said: “Ok. So you’re going to play chess. And the one who loses, loses his life.”
And the American student said: “Whoa! I just came here to ask a simple question!”
The Zen Master said, “No, no no! This is the biggest request one could have possibly made; the answer to this question, and if you want to resolve it… you must play”. And if you don’t want t play, then you will die right now, right here…”

So the student started to play. As you can well imagine, he was very nervous. Terrified.
The whole time, he could see the blade out of the corner of his eye. At first, he made a number of mistakes. But after awhile – since he was a very good chess player – he became very focused. In fact, his attention was so sharp, he became the game. No sword, no awareness, just complete attention to the game. He became the game, and the game became him. Naked awareness. No future. No past. No swords. Just the game.
And so the game continued and he began to win. It became quite clear that he was going to beat this elderly man, and eventually checkmate him. Then he looked up and saw the beads of sweat rolling down the face of the elderly monk. The monk knew that he was losing and that his life was coming to an end. So what could this kid do? He knew that if he won he would be killing this monk. The only thing he could do was prolong the game. He knew then that he had complete connection with this elderly man. Both were human beings. Both Lived, had loved, and had suffered. He knew in that moment Truth: the pinpoint gleaming comprehension that we all share this life.

So he began to prolong the game. That was all he could do, indeed all that could be done. Just make moves to create Time. And when that became clear, the Zen Master leaned down and whispered in the young man’s ear:

“You see you already have what you need. All you will ever need. You have the question that brought you here, ‘What is the meaning of my life’. When we have an answer, we shut a thousand doors, when we have a question, the whole universe is open. You also have faith. Not the faith of one God or many but the faith and understanding that we share this life together. Great faith, great courage, and naked awareness. If you use these tools you have always had right before your eyes… who could even imagine what you can accomplished.
And then he stood, saying; “Let the game continue…”
And then…
What happened?
Who live Who died Who can say.
And in the scheme of things it isn’t even important, this particular question or instance. What’s important is the lessons Life grants us; and that each moment is played with an equal intensity as it was played that day in that monastery.
Because we all have swords of one kind or another forever hovering over our own heads.
Your move.

ZP
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