Hello,
>There's always lots of schmoozy talk among the New Age crowd about
>becoming "one with all." It's my contention that to enter the
>"transpersonal domain," become spiritually awakened or experience
>"oneness" you don't have read books by Ken Wilber, attend lectures by
>Deepak Chopra or spend several months at a monastery in Tibet, but
>simply go to your local museum, symphony hall or trout stream where
>Beauty is likely to be found if you can't discover it in your own back
yard.
And let's not forget, simply go work on your motorcycle. :)
> I also believe there is no greater calling in life than to create
beautiful
> things. Which is why, long after the politicians are gone and forgotten,
> the artists and their works will be preserved and revered. I consider
> Pirsig to be a first rate artist. I'm drawn to the MOQ again and again
> because of its wonderfully lucid, harmonious and elegant intellectual
> pattern, especially compared to the degenerate, postmodern, anti-
> rational rubbish being propagated by humanties professors at today's
> universities.
Good sentiments. Pirsig is an excellent artist and thinks of philosophy as
basically a creative, artistic endeavor, as opposed to philosophology which
usually passes for philosophy. Ultimately what's recommended by the MOQ is
to live as creatively and artistically as possible, being guided to the
greatest extent by Dynamic Quality, and not some static, residual pattern,
whether written in religious books thousands of years old, or by humanities
professors of today's universities.
Regards,
Sriram
----- Original Message -----
From: Platt Holden <pholden@sc.rr.com>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 5:41 AM
Subject: MD Beauty & DQ
> Hi All:
>
> Once in a while I run across a passage from a piece of contemporary
> writing that so closely parallels what Pirsig wrote in LILA that I feel
> compelled to share it with you. The following is from an article written
> by James Elkins entitled "The Ivory Tower of Tearlessness." See if this
> doesn't remind you of LILA:
>
> "Robert Rosenblum, an art historian, wrote me a very straightforward
> catalog of his reactions to paintings. 'I have truly gasped (jaw dropped,
> breath caught, etc.) from the sensation of what I guess we might still
> call Beauty, or some other kind of magic in art.' He lists a few works of
> art that took him aback, and then he notes -- a little sadly, but only a
> little -- that he never felt that way the second or third time. 'In each
case,
> it was a response to my first view of the work. By the time of the
> second, I was already invulnerable.' "
>
> Isn't this very much like the passage in Chapter 9 where Pirsig
> describes hearing a tune for the first time that "stops you in your
> tracks?"
>
> In the same article there's another comment dear to my heart:
>
> "But if you can see the picture just for what it is, without restraining
> yourself, you might be overwhelmed by its beauty, which breaks all the
> resistance and tears down all the walls between the object and the
> observer -- even 'inner walls.' In that case the painter and the observer
> grow into one another. They are united, like Siamese twins."
>
> There's always lots of schmoozy talk among the New Age crowd about
> becoming "one with all." It's my contention that to enter the
> "transpersonal domain," become spiritually awakened or experience
> "oneness" you don't have read books by Ken Wilber, attend lectures by
> Deepak Chopra or spend several months at a monastery in Tibet, but
> simply go to your local museum, symphony hall or trout stream where
> Beauty is likely to be found if you can't discover it in your own back
yard.
>
> I also believe there is no greater calling in life than to create
beautiful
> things. Which is why, long after the politicians are gone and forgotten,
> the artists and their works will be preserved and revered. I consider
> Pirsig to be a first rate artist. I'm drawn to the MOQ again and again
> because of its wonderfully lucid, harmonious and elegant intellectual
> pattern, especially compared to the degenerate, postmodern, anti-
> rational rubbish being propagated by humanties professors at today's
> universities.
>
> Platt
>
>
>
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>
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