David,Platt,Roger,Horse,Rob, and the rest of the mystical MOQ universe
I have been following the "Zen and intellect" thread and finally decided to
add my two bits.
David Buchanan closed with:
> Jesus and Buddha were Mozarts of mysticism. And Pirsig is... the Elvis of mysticism??
David, I'm afraid at least one Buddhist author would disagree with your
calling Budda a mystic. Steven Batchelor, a former monk in both the Zen and
Tibetian tradtions, who has translated and written several books on Buddhism
in "Buddhism Without Beliefs" (Tricylce Books 1997) refutes your claim this way:
"Despite the Buddha's own succinct account of his awakening, it has come to be
represented (even by Buddhists) as something quite different. Awakening has
become a mystical experience, a moment of transcendent revelation of the
Truth. Religious interpretations invariably reduce complexity to uniformity
while elevating matter-of-factness to holiness....The Budda was not a mystic.
His awakening was not a shattering insight into a transcendent Truth that
revealed to him the mysteries of God. He did not claim to have had an
experience that granted him privileged, esoteric knowledge of how the universe ticks"
>From this one can interpret that: A "mystic" is one that claims to have had
experience(s) that granted him privileged, esoteric knowledge of how the
universe ticks. A tradition long a part of the Native American cultures as
illustrated in Pirsig's "brujo" story.
Is Pirsig in this "mysical" camp? Does he want to be? His own insanity and
recovery certainly was an EXPERIENCE and he does claim to have knowledge of
how the universe ticks. And these discussions ZMM and Lila show that his
knowledge can certainly be esoteric, but the key word is "privileged".
Neither Pirsig or Buddha claimed this experience or information is
"priviledged" quite the opposite both maintain that it is integral to, and
accessible by everyone.
Is not the attempted marriage of East and Western thought in MOQ a plea/ploy
to
de-mystify both?
Dave
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