Hello Andreas, Hello All,
I intended to post this on MF, but I was too late, again :-), so for MD instead.
As you can see of my sometimes confused writings and also contradictions seem to
be recognizable between one post and another one (but IMO no real
contradictions), it looks as if I cannot derive real, matter-of-fact, or
practical tools from the MoQ.
That is more or less correct, but the MoQ serves me as a sort of compass, a
compass that directs me to more quality, even in small and everyday-experiences.
This I consider to be somewhat practical too, in a special sense, but it is
nothing I'm able to explain to other people and that indeed grieves me. But I
see more light at the end of the tunnel lately due to my systems-concept which
helps me to give Pirsigs MoQ refined structures.
I feel similar to how Andreas put this:
> Bobb, Diana, Bodvar, Johannes and all MF,
>
> Why do I write this letter ? = Why do I investigate in Philosophy ?
>
> I want to live in the best of all possible worlds. And if one wants to live
> in the best of all possible worlds, one has to find a structure which allows
> her to see the GOOD. The MOQ is the best frame I have found so far. Because
> it allows, and nevertheless with a sharp focus on the GOOD, to value live
> within a wider spectrum.
MoQ is not rigid, but not arbitray either; it gives space to motion in between
our world, without saying Quality is whatever you like. Sometimes I think in
these days, that some of you are right in saying that ZAMM gives us the REAL
Quality, but an undividable ONE, which is no flaw, but allows - like it is
described in ZAMM - only this complete, immeditate, direct approach to pure
Quality, while in the same hinders you from getting insight concerning the 'real
essence' of quality.
The real essence of Quality is simply Quality, no more and no less. It looks as
if this being a tautology only, but I think (sometimes, nevetheless still
questioning) to be able to grasp, really get what it is, sometimes when looking
at it's incarnations in our lives.
It is a sort of 'grid' - imagine you can zoom out and zoom in again.
Zoom out: Hey, quality in the beauty of the downing of the sun, the smile of a
pretty girl, the understanding of a mathematical idea (the idea, which is behind
the formula!), a gesture of peace between two statesmen.
Zoom in: What makes the sun look so red and orange,... What was that girl
smiling at/or about?, Yes, the formula, but the formula consists of only signs
and numbers! What is really achieved when those two statesmen shake hands?...
You don't see ANYTHING which IS Quality; there is only meaning or more precise,
presumed meaning, but the Quality can only be seen in the whole.
ZAMM IMO leaves this wholeness untouched and that is it, what TOUCHED us all so
deeply.
In Lila, Pirsig - he is a rational mind, a very rational mind, don't forget
about it - tries to take closer look, in which he is doing very good, but this
dissecting leads to atomized Quality, unfortunately.
This is no reason to give up exploring and discovering implications of LILA, it
gives amazing insights too, but - I feel shaky about this, I may say - ZAMM, was
like a hammer hitting you and affecting you deeply, letting you feel a
peacefulness of you soul you have never felt before, at least for me it was like
that.
I can remember, even today, those shudders (literally) that ran from my neck
down my back and I can also remember those tears that filled my eyes sometimes.
I have read it again and again, and every new reading gives you new insights and
new vitality, seems to be directing your eyes and you mind to the beauty of
life.
Lila gives you an also deep understanding, a deeper one, but here we get to see
more derivations of Quality, more implications, more understanding in applying
Quality to different issues, but it doesn't bring you closer to Quality; in a
way it pulls you even away from pure Quality in most cases.
Those two books, that make the work of Robert M, Pirsig, are somewhat like
Quantum-physics. Is it a particle or is it a wave?
Well, it is both, but not in the same moment!
A very personal word at last: Just before discovering the 'Lila-squad' - it was
SO lila, that you must have been blind to not being aware of it! ;-) - , I
discovered, while searching once more for the reason for my chaotic and confused
life, that I was a bearer of an inherited 'learning-disability', called ADD,
which is assumed to be widespread in all nations of the world, appr. 5-10
percent, very well known in the USA BTW. What is astonishing in this phenomenon,
i used to read about it everything I could, that it lacks almost completely of a
recognizable set of 'symptoms' when comparing different individuals.
I soon saw, that the reason for my interest for ZAMM and also LiLa had much to
do with this 'bundle of inadequacies',which comes along with this 'ADD'. And I
realized, that this 'Attention-deficit-disorder' is not at all a 'desease', but
much more a combination, a set of very special abiltities (as also
disadvantages, actually more than advantages!), which make problems in nowadays
world only due to a rationalized and structured evironment. The rigidness of our
environment is so encompassing, that one cannot escape it.
And everything I read in ZAMM, made me being sure more and more, the problems
that Pirsig describes refer to the same problems as said to be also
'ADD'-phenomena. And the very and congruent center of both, ZAMM and those
ADD-phenomena, is the search, yes the hunger for quality-events and always for
the NEW, the yet unknown New.
Oh yes, bear with me, this is my pet-theory. This is my outing finally! ;-)
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it,
Wish you well, JoVo
PS.:(I just had a deja-vu, strange thing indeed)
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