MD/LS'ers
[John said early in the LS Dynamic/Static thread]
> Keith's lengthy dissertation(s) is to me the highest quality offering I have
> encountered since joining the squad.
The commentary is insightful and nails the * radical empiricism * aspect of the
MoQ, but as Diana puts it before we, "pile into the lilamobile and cruise for
free falling dynamically blissed out coolosity" some observations.
[Keith]
> First, though, Pirsig is forced to recognize that reality as manifest to us
> in the present instant is fundamentally mystic, that is, beyond words.
[Dave T]
The present instant is beyond words, yet we all put our experiences into words
and thoughts on an almost continuous basis. On one hand DQ is "common everyday
experience" on the other:
> [the mystic experience is] a direct, immediate, overwhelming experience
> divorced from the common experience of reality
> Second, the experience or the knowledge imparted by it is felt to be
> self authenticating, without need of further evidence or justification.
> Third its essence incapable of being expressed or understood outside the
> experience itself"
How do we reconcile this? Possibly by not focusing on the Dynamic but rather
on the Static. It seems to me that, in this light, ZMM and Lila can also be
interpreted as cautionary tales.
Why is the narrator, in both books, telling the tale? Because Phaedrus is no
longer with us. Did Phaedrus's bias for the "dynamic" lead his demise? Did
Lila oblivious possession by DQ lead to hers? After Phaedrus's quest
ends in that Chicago room it is the narrator who builds the static
intellectual pattern that is the MoQ from the shards. It is the narrator who
finds the those little digestible slivers of DQ in the preponderance static
qualities that is motorcycle maintenance. Yet both here, and in the other
discussions, many seem focused on Dynamic Quality as a sexy "magic
bullet". All we need do is grab the mystical DQ train to to enlightenment.
However, even those cultures in which mysticism is central to their
philosophies and has been studied for centuries have had very limited success
in producing "enlightened" individuals. One could argue no greater than chance.
Static qualities,their moral relationships, and a nebulous dynamic quality or
"good" is really all we have to work with. So I would add to Diana suggestion:
> .. achieve Dynamic and static at the same time. Let your
> life flow by staying close to Dynamic Quality, whilst at the same time
> [evaluating, modifying, and] maintaining the static patterns that support the
> Dynamic and to do that without conflict
While auspiciousness may occur at the intersection of static and dynamic as a
practical matter static quality is our primary tool for evaluating and tuning
our day to day existence towards "Good" IMHO that is where 98% of the
remaining 99% of the MoQ lies.
Part of the bias for dynamic may be rooted in Pirsig's choice of static, as
opposed to say stable, for his split. While the split has a sharper
"black and white" ring to it, static carries with it a lot of negative
connotations. I, like the chemistry professor am a stable pattern of organic
chemicals, but no way am I static.
Diana maintains we still seem mired in figuring out; What Pirsig said,
or maybe more correctly what he means by what he said.
> a. establishing what Pirsig said, b. discussing what we think about that and
> then, perhaps, c. what to do about it. We're still struggling with "a", I'd
> quite like to get on to "b" but you can't do "b" without doing "a" first, and
> you can't do "a" at all, let alone "b" or "c" if you're going to ignore three
> quarters of Pirsig's work, as some are bizarrely doing.
I would suggest that, rather than a linear approach, a simultaneous equation
might be not only a more appropriate metaphor, it is what we just naturally do.
If dynamic in beyond words, in essence incapable of being expressed or
understood outside the experience, let's practice few static simultaneous
equations while keeping the corners of our eyes peeled for a dynamic
sandstorm.
Dave Thomas
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