Character Education with Chess Quotes

“The "aha" moment is a validating experience for your efforts and at the same time changes your paradigm of the world in favor of a more accurate one. Campbell simply says “it wipes out the ego.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“It is not that love makes up for everything but rather that everything in the world can not make up for love.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Our uniqueness implies unique responsibility that we as individuals have in the world. It also implies an unavoidable loneliness. Here Ghandi’s words come to mind: “Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.” We are all minorities of one in the sense of our uniqueness and loneliness. But in searching for the truth and the meaning of our lives, we “intercept” with others who are doing the same and our loneliness at least will not have to be experienced as isolation. And in chess too, we “intercept” with others in this common interest that is much like life, where everything we do matters, where we have to participate responsibly, and the more responsible our participation is, the more we feel at home. As such it can have a highly affirmative effect on the person, a sense that the individual gets: “Yes, I belong to this world, I am part of how things get decided, of how things get achieved. I share this with others.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Artists, athletes, chess-players and anyone who loves their job know the feeling of losing one’s self in the current moment to full concentration. If we are more intentional in that experience, such as in meditation and prayer, we will notice that our presence becomes “denser and heavier”, more grounded, and there is a sense of security and sufficiency that accompany it. Unfortunately, many people spend too much time either thinking about the past or worrying about the future at the expense of fully living and appreciating the current moment.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“When discussing the topic of substance abuse with kids, I explain that doing drugs in order to be high and happy means that people try to support being by doing. However, being is “bigger” than doing. I validate that people who use substances know on some level that they need to take care of their being but they have the order reversed because doing can never support being simply because the “smaller” thing can never support the “bigger” thing. It is as absurd as trying to support silence by increasing the noise. The right order of things is that being supports doing and doing needs to serve being. In chess, without the King, the other pieces would all be “dead”, so their existence is supported by the King, but they need to serve the King with their capacity for action in order to have a good game.

But how do we begin to honor being if we are emotionally distressed or chemically dependent? We need to accept whatever facet of being we are going through—if we are sad, we need to experience our sadness and not run from it; if we are angry, we need to go through it without acting heedlessly; if we are scared, we have to pay attention to our fear and the reasons for it. Everything we go through is a message of being, and we need to decipher the message rather than run from it. I need to stress here the importance of learning to endure distress and let our emotions run their course without making a bad situation worse. The addicted brain needs to endure strong cravings for several years until the chemically reinforced neural pathways gradually subside in the absence of continued reinforcement. Here the words of the great poet and spiritual teacher Rumi come to mind: “Of all the cures God has provided, patience is the best.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“The pieces are connected to each other and the King and they are in this dynamic rhythm amongst themselves and with the opponent’s pieces, wherein lies their purpose. Each move is an attempt to change that balance and to establish a new, more favorable balance and that is why in chess (and in life) we are most vulnerable when we are most aggressive—the aggressive move essentially causes us to lose balance.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“about using the symbolism of chess and its pieces to clarify and fulfill the unique meaning of your life.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“What matters most is your intention and it defines the action first and foremost. Teaching kids to be intentional in their choices is an invaluable skill.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“When you are fulfilling the meaning of your life, your steps are assertive, but when you are after power or pleasure, you become aggressive.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“The obvious question is how to move without losing our balance? How to maintain harmony in a dynamic, ever-changing world? Part of the answer lies in remembering that this One Thing has a purpose. Viktor Frankl conceptualized the harmony of mental health as a certain tension between what we are and what we want to become.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“You only have one life—you do not have a separate personal life, professional life, social life, etc, but only one life and those other aspects are just parts of that life.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“The King in chess is indeed a symbol of unity and wholeness and the other pieces are not separate entities but rather parts of “the One Thing”, as Campbell put it.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Being is independent of our choices and actions—it just is, in its mysterious way, and we are privileged to temporarily be its “guests”.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Being is continuous, while doing has a beginning and an end. I compare being to silence and doing to the words we say. Just like silence holds our words and is often taken for granted, so does being “hold” our doing, and we take being for granted. Another parallel, used traditionally to describe the relationship between being and doing is the grinding stone—it is made up of a central pole, which is still and immobile and around which the stone turns. The invitation is to find that still place within yourself, and direct your actions from that point of view. If we are more aware of our being and place it on the “throne” of our value system, then our doing would be more meaningful, purposeful, and effective.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Being is such a mystery that when one puts a lot of thought into it, the sense of wonder only increases. Albert Einstein has said: “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.” Mystery reveals itself…and the paradox that it is not less mysterious for the revealing.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“You make a move and the world responds, acknowledging that you are connected, that you are a part of this big give-and-take, that you are responsible and what you do matters.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“The meaning of life is a “two-way street”—we have the right to expect certain things from life and strive towards them, but it is not over when we are no longer able to expect anything because life still expects things from us.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Our values inform us about the ultimate meaning of life much like in chess, where we know the main goal is the King. In order to fulfill that meaning, however, we need to choose our “moves” based on our unique circumstances. I borrow Frankl’s eloquence in explaining to my clients that there are certain things in the world that only they, as individuals can and must do, and it is up to the individual whether they will be done or left undone.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“The elusive concept of being, covered with mystery and often ignored in a world of action and achievement, seems to come a bit closer in chess to remind us of its primacy as symbolized by the King.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess