Hi there
On 5 Jul 2001, at 14:23, Jonathan B. Marder wrote:
> HORSE
> <<<Most of the problems that arise in this respect are from superimposing the
> MoQ over a set of already held beliefs. Once you let go of your old beliefs
> and start afresh from a Quality foundation and apply an evolutionary morality
> the majority of problems dissolve.
> >>>
>
> Sorry Horse, but I can't accept this. Beliefs are no items of clothing. I am
> extremely suspicious of individuals who suddenly and completely revise their
> whole system of beliefs. When people suddenly put on the MoQ like a new suit,
> IMO they are likely to take it off just as abruptly. I think that the MoQ DOES
> affect beliefs, but in a dynamic way. People tend to form and revise their
> beliefs constantly over an entire lifetime. Nobody should "let go of old
> beliefs" because of the MoQ. However, they may find that the MoQ may help them
> to refine and resolve contradictions in their beliefs system.
If you look carefully at what I said you'll see that it was "let go" of your beliefs and NOT
"completely and entirely discard every one of your current beliefs" like yesterdays
newspaper.You have to let go in order to re-evaluate because if you don't let go you CAN'T
re-evaluate. Letting go of beliefs refers mainly to Intellectual patterns of value not biological or
social patterns. In Lila, in the last chapter Pirsig has this to say:
>From Lila Chapter 32
"From the static point of view the whole escape into Dynamic Quality seems like a death
experience. It’s a movement from something to nothing. How can “nothing” be any different
from death? Since a Dynamic understanding doesn’t make the static distinctions necessary
to answer that question, the question goes unanswered. All the Buddha could say was, “See
for yourself.”
When early Western investigators first read the Buddhist texts they too interpreted nirvana as
some kind of suicide. There’s a famous poem that goes:
While living,
Be a dead man.
Be completely dead,
And then do as you please.
And all will be well.
It sounds like something from a Hollywood horror-film but it’s about nirvana. The Metaphysics
of Quality translates it:
While sustaining biological and social patterns
Kill all intellectual patterns.
Kill them completely
And then follow Dynamic Quality
And morality will be served.
Lila was still moving toward Dynamic Quality. All life does. This breaking up of her life’s
patterns looked like it was part of that movement.
When Phaedrus first went to India he’d wondered why, if this passage of enlightenment into
pure Dynamic Quality was such a universal reality, did it only occur in certain parts of the
world and not others? At the time he’d thought this was proof that the whole thing was just
Oriental religious baloney, the equivalent of a magic land called “heaven” that Westerners go
to if they are good and get a ticket from the priests. Now he saw that enlightenment is
distributed in all parts of the world just as the color yellow is distributed in all parts of the
world, but some cultures accept it and others screen out recognition of it."
Lila Chapter 32
OK I'm not advocating it to the above extent - at least not initially and all in one go - but the
process of letting go of your previously held beliefs is necessary 'cause if you try to hang on
to them as a sort of Static Value Pattern security blanket then you end up with a mish-mash
of incoherent garbage wherein you can rationalise the acceptance of every opposing belief
as if it was perfectly natural - this seems to be a very neat path to relativism.
A good example here is the vegetarian issue. Instead of trying to rationalise meat eating
habits, let go of your previously held beliefs that it is moral for the human race and any
member therein to do whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it (this seems to be the
general attitude towards animals, the global environment etc. although there is some change
occuring) and examine the situation from a Quality starting point and an evolutionary morality.
In some cases it may be that you previously held beliefs were quite valid but with regard to
vegetarianism they may not have been. You now have a goal towards which you can work by
giving up one thing at a time etc. So far I'm up to bacon and chicken only and hope to have
dumped them within the next couple of years. I did exactly the same with my addiction to
tobacco. I'm not trying to moralise here, just point out that trying to shoe-horn the MoQ into a
belief system that originates from a completely different metaphysical starting point is
useless and pointless. You just become more and more confused and confusing asd
Gerhardt and others will testify.
Horse
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