At 08:17 AM 2/5/99 -0600, Jason Nelson wrote:
>Now back to the point, I want to talk about some ideas. First, I was
wondering what different people thought of meditation to reach a state of
dynamic quality. It seems to me that in Zen the buddhist are trying to
reach a state of no-mind. I believe this is very similar to dynamic
quality, but wanted to get some other opinons.
I absolutely agree with you. And would also point out that the Phaedrus
who sat and
stared at the wall for 3 day in a room in Chicago could also be said to
have achieved
a state of no-mind. It's a very fuzzy distinction between no-mind and
insanity that
I believe even Pirsig has had difficulty making wrt his former self.
>Second, I think that instead of all the intellectualizing about dynamic
quality, DQ should be experienced. Mediatation is obviously one way to do
this. Also remember that DQ is not found in an intellectual category, but
rather is an event that happens intuitively. I don't know if Pirsig wants
us to experience this state frequently or if he is just drawing a theory up
to explain reality. But all of the fancy talk about DQ always falls short
of the mark.
I think Pirsig knew/knows this, but all the same couldn't resist the
intellectual
challenge of creating a new metaphysics. And even though the words fall
short of the
actual experience, I'm grateful that he has done all he can to convey the
experience
to the rest of us. He has certainly changed my head around.
A couple of pithy quotes come to mind here . . .
"All this is just an analogy."
[ZAMM, late in the book. Said in reference to a Platonic dialogue, but
could just as
well have been talking about his own constructs.]
"The Tao which can be spoken is not the true Tao."
But language, and shared or communicated experience is all we have.
Jeff Travis
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