Rich, Horse and Y'all:
Just a few thoughts to add to what Horse has just said....
There is a passage in Lila where Pirsig says that even an inanimate
"object" like a chair has dharma. He says that even a chair is composed
of a moral order. Even "substance" or "matter" is made of Quality.
Maybe the trick is to see that "Quality" is just a metaphor. Quality is
metaphor that refers to a mystery, a way to refer to that "undefinable
creator", as you put it. Joe Campbell liked to point out that "God" is
also just a mataphor. It refers to the same mystery that "Quality"
refers to. When we talk about that wich is beyond words and concepts,
metaphors are about the best we can do. To give us a feeling for the
mystery behind creation Pirsig uses words like Good, Value, Morality to
demonstrate the flavor of DQ. He chose those words to convey the sense
of what he experienced while tripping and while insane. I don't think we
can really expect to get at the nuts and bolts of such a thing, just as
they say the name of god can not be pronounced by the human tounge in
any language.
On the other hand, directing our attention to the nature of this mystery
goes along way toward comprehending the nature of the phenoneanl world,
that part of reality that is not so mysterious, that can be defined and
quantified. Those static patterns of reality that sort of issue out of
the undifferentiated continuum (DQ), like chair with all it's dharma,
are seen in an entirely different light when they are seen as having
arisen from Quality. Everything has to do with Quality, even minds and
bodies. Pirsig is trying to persuade us that values and morality are not
just principles invented by economists and theologians, they are a
fundamental aspect of the entire universe.
The values, the morality of our ego consciousness isn't something our
minds gave birth to, rather Quality, through evolution, gave birth to
out minds. That's the Copernican revolution in his metaphysics. Quality
isn't just in your mind, its everywhere.
David B.
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