To all: OK, its not the metaphysics of Love, its the MOQ, but then again its
Christmas. Plus I don't want y'all to think Jackson Browne is my only source
for ideas about love. On top of that, John B and jc have be very brave in
their open-ness and I want to honor that kind of thing.
Remember the lines?
"What became of the changes we waited for love to bring?
Were they only the fitful dreams of some greater awakening?"
Its a bit sad. He's saying that romantic love did not satisfy. It didn't
stop the yearning or longing, so he wonders if the love he seeks isn't
something higher or deeper than romantic love. He wants to know if those
fitful dreams are meant to lead him toward a "greater awakening". I was
reminded that the ancient Greeks had many different forms of the word
"love", recognizing that it appears many ways and in many places. And then
add the MOQ's picture of reality as different kinds and levels of quality.
Its not too hard to see that Quality keeps evolving and changing, but in
such a way as to recapitulate the same themes and principles over and over.
Pirsig uses several words to describe this underlying theme; Quality, value,
morality, ethics, and simply good. But I think these words all refer to the
same thing. We ought not take them too literally. They are metphors for the
underlying principle, that thing which evolves and recapitulates itself in
various froms. As pirsig would describe these various forms are what's left
in the wake of DQ, they are patterns of static quality, they reflect a
particular aspect of DQ. The most remarkable and profound implication of
this picture of reality is that literally EVERYTHING IN CREATION IS A CLUE
TO THE MYSTERY THAT IS OUR GROUND OF BEING. Everything is a clue, because it
is DQ crystalized. Its forzen into a static pattern and so no mystical
insight is required. Static quality is soemthing we CAN grasp with the
intellect, at least to some extent.
I think that one of the main reasons Pirsig uses the words he does is
because they get at the most important thing, the thing that SOM ignores or
worse. Quality, value and goodness are things we sense deep inside. Its not
the kind of thing one finds under a microscope. It doesn't eve seem
particularly based on sight and sound. It goes deeper. What's your favorite
color and what kind of music do you love? These things are not determined by
the eye or ear, but by your very essence.
Values are like that. Quality is like that. Morality is like that. And LOVE
is like that too. They are all the same because they all stir the heart, and
I ain't talkin about blood pumps.
We can feel it in relation to any level of static quality. I love the shape
of mountains, well-baked acorn squash with butter and maple syrup, my
country, my wife, clear thinkers and almost any artist. I love the mystics
and the saints most of all. I think we all feel essentailly the same way and
it corresponds beautifully to the MOQ's hierarchy. A doesn't cause B, B
loves pre-condition A. Facts, values, love. Whatever. Multi-valent molecules
are the sluts of chemistry, but at the inorganic level that's considered to
be an excellent quality. And bonding ain't just for atoms any more... Love
at the intellectual level doesn't seem to express itself as any kind of
tenderness either, but it's not unrelated to lust, patriotism or romatic
love. The connection is less than obvious because they're at different
levels and because SOM doesn't see such a thing. Our culture's immune system
is very resistant to such an idea and yet it is buried deep in the mythology
or out culture. The message of love is lost in the rubble, but waiting to be
re-discovered and re-asserted.
"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 followers sometimes did, but they didn't."
MERRY CHRISTMAS
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