High all,
Rog, you asked some tough moral questions. I find it pragmatic to divide
possible answers into two categories:
Classic answers are any intellectually-patterned static evaluations of these
dilemmas.
Romantic answers are any immediately-experienced dynamic evaluations of
these dilemmas.
The first type has been well illustrated by the discussion generated (I've
not followed all of it), so I am writing this email to point towards the
other.
What first strikes me is that it is impossible to make any universally valid
generalizations about the romantically-immediate moral is/now-ness of your,
or my situation. Neither of us is that suffering mother. Neither of us is
that suffering child. Neither of us, however, have the right to suppress
classically static answers (dogmatic values) to these questions, whether
ultimately dynamically unanswerable in conceptual linguistic terms or not.
You can't build a latter without latches.
Rog, you (and others) are clearly well aware of the prominence and important
centrality in the MOQ of fulling immersing one's "self" in this immediate
apprehension of the everfluxing current of 'direct dynamic experience'.
Pirsig refers to this immersion in the aesthetically non-dual continuum as
"care" in reference to fixing bikes in ZMM, and "dhyana" in reference to
fixing one's "self" in Lila (Sanskrit - literally: sport, play).
This romantic point does not apply well to questions dealing with historical
dilemmas, or very hypothetic situations. I wonder, however, if Pirsig
wouldn't support unbiased awareness of current reality as the BEST method
(or preliminary motions) for getting to the deepest possible understanding
of how it is best for a human being (culture of one) to act in ACTUAL,
rather than potential situations.
If that is correct, then Zen plays a pivotal role in the evolutionary
psychology of the MOQ, and therefore the gathering of best answers to moral
platypi.
I ask you a question in return:
If Zen (sambodhi, kensho, moksha, wu, whatever) is the best state possible,
and questions are best answered when in this state, (as analogous to fixing
a bike) and we are looking for the best answers,
then is Zen the best answer, or at least preliminary or method for searching
out the best answers?
If so, how does this romantic understanding of the working out of moral
dilemmas (actual and present) relate to the formation of classical
understanding of developing 'set' intellectual answers (i.e.doctor/germ), or
even temporary pragmatic ones?
If so, how does this dhyanic importance relate to the Quality underlying the
answers that you have so far received? How does romantic understanding
springing from zazen apply to a hierarchical organization of the values of
different personal opinions?
My difficulty, and
"If you take all this karmic garbage and make yourself feel better by
passing it on to others that's normal. That's the way the world works.
But if you manage to absorb it and not pass it on, that's the highest
moral conduct of all. That really advances everything, not just you. The
whole world. If you look at the lives of some of the great moral figures
of history - Christ, Lincoln, Gandi and others - you'll see that that's
what they were really involved in, the cleansing of the world through
the absorption of karmic garbage. They didn't pass it on. Their follower
sometimes did, but they didn't."
"If you take all this karmic garbage and make yourself feel better by
passing it on to others that's normal. That's the way the world works.
***
But if you manage to absorb it and not pass it on, that's the highest
moral conduct of all. That really advances everything, not just you.
***
The whole world. If you look at the lives of some of the great moral figures
of history - Christ, Lincoln, Gandi and others - you'll see that that's what
they were really involved in, the cleansing of the world through the
absorption of karmic garbage. They didn't pass it on. Their follower
sometimes did, but they didn't."
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