John,
--- John Beasley <beasley@austarnet.com.au> wrote:
> To take the really big step and address the
> fundamental boundary between
> self and other, from which the subject/object divide
> naturally arises, is
> not easy. This is in fact the mystic's task, and
> while in some situations it
> can occur without preparation or delay, as John
> Wren-Lewis testifies, more
> often it is a lengthy journey or transformation in
> which the goal posts keep
> shifting, and the task keeps changing, until the
> recognition that has for so
> long been sought simply arises, and shows that the
> seeking was in itself
> immaterial (but still necessary). This path is what
> Pirsig writes about, but
> offers no real help in achieving. He has identified
> the fatal weakness in
> 'value free' science, and points to value inherent
> in personal experience,
> which he calls quality. The mystic understanding is
> that the subject/object
> divide is overcome through immersion in this realm
> of value, without filters
> or barriers to what is. Pirsig, unfortunately, gets
> caught up in trying to
> conceptualise a system that can include this realm
> of value, and while some
> of his ideas are useful, the outcome is just
> theology. It is talking about
> value from the outside, and therefore misses the
> essential core of it.
>
WHile I agree with this, I think it is useful to, like
Pirsig did in another context, remove the word "just"
in the next to last sentence. In writing about
mysticism one can either describe personal
experiences, or one can write about those experiences,
and what they imply. The latter is theology (albeit
non-theistic), and I see nothing wrong with that.
Isn't that what Wilber's books are?
For a Western writer who combines both (personal
experiential description AND philosophical
interpretation) I recommend Franklin Merrell-Wolff's
*Experience and Philosophy*.
- Scott
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