Hello ,
Dennis writes:
"We have to remember that a Metaphysics, even the MoQ, is an intellectual
construct, a model, a map for reality, *not* the real thing. Pirsig
knows this, he even warns us against taking him too literally, but when
we are engaged in philosophical arguments, it's all too easy to forget
this. There are no static patterns in this universe, just as there are
no trees, no sky, no stars, sub-atomic particles or self. These are
words, ideas, models for our experience, which is forever dynamic. The
self is never experienced, it is inferred from the seeming continuity of
experience and memory."
This is pretty true as far as I can see but it makes me laugh. I think of
the Objectivists I used to debate with on AOL. This kind of statement
just drives the rationalists crazy. They feel like you're playing some
kind of shell game with them.
Dennis, the truth is that for you, there *is* the sky, stars,
sub-atomic particles and self. They are more then just words, ideas
and models for our experience which are forever dynamic. If this were
true you would have power over all of the various quality events that
emanate out from the primordial portal. You don't so you can only
infer that everything is "forever dynamic". It works both ways.
I have read of people who were said to have such extended power over the phenomenal
world. They were credited with being able to actually change the
reality represented by the fixed value of X into a reality represented
by the fixed value of Y. These people did not indulge wantonly in
mysticism and would've dismissed the assertion that a wholesome
metaphysics is degenerate. They were people who thought in practical
scientific terms about reality. They admired scientists. For them
magic was the in the sweet fragrance of a flower. Being able to make
a flower materialize out of thin air in the palm of your hand would be
called *science* by them because such an act involved technique born
of full knowledge of fixed scientific laws.
I don't want to get involved in a discussion on such "miracles". And
I really have a bad attitude toward ghosts (confounding little
buggers will suck every drop of energy out of you if given half a
chance). What I will say is this: when Phaedrus tells a student of
metaphysics to destroy all intellectual patterns and destroy them
completely, he is ushering them into nothing more then a new flight of
stairs in the "graduate school" of the MOQ. If he were to say the
same thing to a real master of metaphysics, he would be met with
laughter and a warning not to do it while he was driving on the
freeway.
The position beyond this initial destruction of all intellectual
patterns is just more patterned reality governed by tightly fixed
laws. The graduate school of MOQ involves learning to undue these
laws by scientific means. That would involve various techniques of
meditation on mind, soul and ways of gaining control over the body.
If I thought the goal was to simply destroy all intellectual patterns I would
ride completely out on a wave of morphine--through the "little death"
of deep sleep--into the eternal peace of the "big sleep". But I'm not
so sure it's that easy.
Within one of the seven systems of Hindu thought is something they call
Laya Yoga. It is exclusively reserved for highly intellectual
students. The teaching involves completely unfolding the fixed map of
reality mentally (and also experientially), until one understands his true position in
this living, intelligent universe...and then folding it all back into itself
by deeply esoteric but-still-logical means. Whether or not anybody ever
graduates from this school is something I can't say. I'm still
struggling for the gumption to locate and maintain an impeccable
filing system for my business. It seems to me that Pirsig ended his public discourse
on the MOQ precisely at the mid-way point.
Bill
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