[ExI] robert pirsig's bike in zen and mm

[Jef Allbright]

On 11/13/07, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <pgptag at gmail.com> wrote:
> Not at all!

You mean (as usual for us, right?) you don't see even a smidgen of my point?


> If Pirsig had considered his vision of Quality too ethereal and
> delicate to survive contact with the real world, he would never have
> published the book. It would have been found hidden in a closet after
> the author's death.

There was never any implication that it was delicate at all, but it is
described as a subtle layer of interpretation that many people, like
John and Sylvia, didn't get (and didn't get that they didn't get it.)
It was always clear and obvious to them what the truth was, but their
model lacked a place holder for <fnord>Quality<fnord>.


> To write it as Pirsig might had written it, Quality can be found only
> on a mountaintop when you are alone, but also in a Starbucks while
> webcasting to the world (he referred to finding Quality in a
> mororcycle gear, but you see what I mean).

Yes, Zen is not found in where you are or what you're doing, but in
terms of one's perceived relationship to the whole.  And when you
excitedly say "The new zen and the art of taking over the universe",
it seems obvious to me that such a viewpoint explicitly excludes (or
tramples) the **viewpoint** -- nothing to do with the activity -- of
Zen.

Eh?

- Jef