Hullo Chris (or is it Davor? Now I'm confused)
I really wonder if there is any great point in a 'formal' synthesis of
Wilber and Pirsig. I am currently working on an essay, long and tedious as
usual, in which I am exploring their different understandings. But I don't
really have any interest in creating a better metaphysics, or a Q-ethics, as
such. My interest, as always, is to deal with the next level of quality that
emerges as meaningful for me. That means it will have only peripheral
interest for those in the discussion who are at very different stages of
development to mine.
Wilber has recently taken to using the colour coding developed by the Spiral
Dynamics people to discriminate between these different levels of
understanding. While the colours are annoying in a way, they are a less
threatening way of talking of developmental stages than the alternatives,
and they really make clear how difficult it is to speak across levels. I
think this accords with the realities I have seen in this group, where
seemingly constructive discussions suddenly erupt into abuse and worse.
These fights disappointed me greatly at first, given that everyone had read
Pirsig, and hopefully were inspired and challenged by his writing. Now I am
just saddened when a gulf emerges between people which seems unbridgeable,
at least in the short term. I am also very aware of the male 'cyber-warrior'
ethos of these groups, and that also explains much. But sadly, I find most
of the discussion unavoidably results in people from different levels trying
to communicate their quality to people who mostly are at another level and
hence unable to respond appropriately.
But to return to your post. You wonder if "creativity is the lure towards
the next level." I agree with you that incompleteness and creativity are not
the same thing, though they are closely allied, I suspect. The
incompleteness that inevitably emerges at every level acts as a 'push' to
move on and do the hard work of transformation that leads to the emergence
of a new and 'higher' level (meaning both transcending and including the
lower level). This is the incentive for change that perhaps motivates the
alcoholic in the gutter, when the pig gets up and moves away. It is a
strong, perhaps unbearable, sense of something missing, of a lack, an
emptiness, that will not go away or be anaesthetised for long.
Creativity, I suspect, is in part a subtle intuition of what is available at
the next level, though as yet hazy and unclear. It is the 'lure' of an as
yet faintly glimpsed quality that generates interest and even enthusiasm,
and a rapt attention to the detailed work of exploring this half-sensed
emergent value. So I see creativity and incompleteness as the carrot and
stick of our progress into new realms of quality.
I'm not sure I want to be labelled as a creative person, pleasant though
that might be. I have just realised that I don't particularly want to
produce another 400 wood sculptures over the next ten years, but it was a
very unpleasant and empty month or two, with few rewards, that brought that
realisation. What was necessary to bring some clarity into this was to
remain with the discomfort of not doing what my superego confidently asserts
I 'should' do - that is, get up off my backside and get into the work shop
and produce. Instead, I chose to stay with the unpleasantness of being
unfocussed, lazy, and heavily in denial of my feelings with binges of
computer games, food, etc, to reduce the discomfort somewhat. This does not
feel like quality, yet it was only by resolutely refusing to go back to work
(more of the same), that eventually a significant change in direction could
occur.
To put this more abstractly, in my experience it seems necessary to attend
to the incompleteness that emerges at any level, if there is to be space for
a new creativity to emerge. Other people may live a life of constant
challenge and lure, but not me. If there is one skill which seems to me
absolutely indispensible for growth and development, it is the ability to
attend. And this attending needs to be disciplined, in that the worst thing
to attend to is our thoughts, ideas, and fantasies. To attend to these is
truly to be lost. Rather, we must attend to what is: our emotions, our
emptiness, our feelings of incompleteness, and most helpfully, our bodily
symptoms, most of which are rather painful and unpleasant things, and not be
swayed by our superegos, our conscience, our 'shoulds'. This is also part of
most spiritual disciplines, but it is just as relevant to any aspect of
growth. The outcome of sustained attention to what is, is that eventually I
move on, and as Wilber puts it "a whole new world of available stimuli
becomes accessible to the new and emergent holon", and creativity is
boosted.
I am not arguing this is the only path to creativity. A change of scene, a
holiday, and so on, may also be spurs to creativity, and I would not want to
dispute this. But the creative spur of changing levels, of moving into
really new territory, seems different to the 'variations on a theme' style
of creativity that is commonplace.
I would be interested in feedback from others in this forum as to how they
experience creativity, as this may be just my path, and there may be many
others.
John B
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:36 BST