High,
Q: When Pirsig says that Quality, or value, is the "primary" empirical
reality, does he mean:
a) That it is an event "before", independent of and distinct from mind or
matter?
--This seems his position in ZMM
b) i: If so, the subjects and objects which are "deduced from", "created
by", "arrive in the wake of" the Quality Event must logically be different
from this event itself - the Absolute Undefinable, Undivided Dynamic
Quality, yes? no?
ii: So why is it that "not just life, but everything, is an ethical
activity"? Why does he say that the world becomes "fabulously more coherent"
when ALL things and thoughts ever existing are seen to BE patterns of VALUE
- the very value which is semantically interchangeable with Quality. This
Quality, of course, being the source of the value - which is itself?
A: Does this "work well"? (pragmatic test of truth):
That Quality IS value, which is the primary empirical reality, which is
composed of patterns of value - strings of cohering Quality Events.
Therefore, the value is not solely to be found in the object.
Nor in the subject only.
It does not come "between" or "before" mind or matter,
it IS mind AND matter
The reason I pulled my ass off the stove is because my biological patterns
of (defensive) value reacted to the low value of the hot, inorganic stove.
Then, following my law (see below), I thought about it, and was able, if I
so chose to, to create culturally derived descriptions of that experience.
These descriptions are JUST as real as the stove.
Yes, Quality is the "substance of experience".
No, this substance we call value/quality is not something other than the
very real and immediate lingual thoughts and material body which I am
experiencing
RIGHT NOW, ALWAYS
Which begs the question of whether or not there is an "I" which truly
experiences the world through increasing grades of consciousness.
Yes, there is a self. That's me. Rich. This PART OF THE WHOLE.
I'm right here and so are you there.
No, this self is not "an autonomous little homunculus..." it is just exactly
what is right in front of your nose. Rather, it IS your nose, and the
thought of the nose, and the all-important, ever-enduring, shifting
CONSCIOUSNESS which seems to grow in intensity and duration according to the
complexity of the form of the particular matter/mind (Energy)...
It seems the best I can say is that:
Law: Consciousness accompanies any relationship between one form
of matter or mind or both, no matter how primitive.
Relative to our state of awareness, we may describe the
inorganic as UNconscious, the bio as SUBconscious, the soc as
PREconscious, and the int as SELFconscious, and the mystic as.
............? SUPERconscious...as the evolving wheel of dharma rolls up
the bumpy path to the wide ocean current, following the way of the birds,
taking orders from the sky and making music with the flowers while pious
over-exerting people ply, plead and beg for a place in the utopia present
right before there eys, right here and now...
Law for Any Quality Event:
The two relating entities pass knowledge, or become aware one of the other,
in this manner only and always:
Through successive levels of value. No jumps permitted.
i.e.: I want to email these ideas.
a)Int - the idea
b)Soc - the language, the internet
c)Bio - my body performing the task
d)Ino - the matter moved by the body
Now you want to read these ideas.
a)Int - check email
b)Soc - in English
c)Bio - need your 5 senses to read the screen
d)Ino - those sense don't exist without this.
So, in reality, this message is ONLY knowable to you through the
harmony and use of all the levels. This is because a higher level
(intellectual idea) must use lower levels (soc, bio, ino) in order to
express itself.
Oh boy, I should eat. I'm hungry.
Rich
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