From: Elizaphanian (Elizaphanian@members.v21.co.uk)
Date: Mon Dec 02 2002 - 10:26:45 GMT
Dear Wim, (endnote for David)
I re-read Chapter 30, which was stimulating and enjoyable. I agree with
Patrick that it is refreshing to return to what Pirsig himself says:
sometimes we get distracted by our own preconceptions.
From chapter 30:
"Phaedrus saw nothing wrong with this ritualistic religion as long as the
rituals are seen as merely a static portrayal of Dynamic Quality, a
sign-post which allows socially pattern-dominated people to see Dynamic
Quality. The danger has always been that the rituals, the static patterns,
are mistaken for what they merely represent and are allowed to destroy the
Dynamic Quality they were originally intended to preserve."
It's something of an axiom in 'my' tradition of Christianity that the
Eucharist is bigger than we can understand, that it cannot ever be
'captured' by static intellectual patterns. That I think is one of the
necessary things for a correct understanding or approach to the Eucharist -
it is, in fact, the only thing that will enable you to meet God in the
process. Going from Pirsig's comments above, I think he would agree. As the
Eucharist cannot be captured, it is something which enables the 'embrace' of
DQ; put differently, the meaning of the Eucharist is inexhaustible, you can
always go deeper into it. This 'going deeper' is not necessarily a deeper
'capture' of the ritual, although it can be, for another axiom of my
tradition is that you are shaped by the Eucharist ("The Eucharist makes the
Church"). That is, as you journey deeper into God, so you become more alike
to God. So the ritual does its job of shaping the patterns which you are
made of in a more dynamic direction
What I suspect happened with Aquinas was that, after decades of deliberation
and exposition on the nature of the Eucharist (and indeed his involvement
with the development of the feast of Corpus Christi) he had 'lapsed' -
possibly unconsciously - into thinking that he had 'captured' the meaning of
the Eucharist in his static intellectual patterns, ie his writing and his
liturgical endeavours. At that moment when he was celebrating, I think he
realised his mistake, he gained some insight into the unfathomable depths,
and realised just how great the distinction was between his static patterns
and the nature of the process he was engaged in. Hence: "I cannot do any
more. Everything I have written seems to me as straw in comparison with what
I have seen."
BTW it is interesting that Pirsig is presenting rituals as for 'socially
pattern-dominated people' (which would make my analysis of Aquinas
incoherent). That suggests two things - that (for Pirsig) the rituals are
what enables a transition from level 3 to level 4 (although other elements
in Chapter 30 would argue against it), and also that it is possible to
describe people as dominated by one level or another. Perhaps the comment
about Lila being 'intellectually nowhere' might best be put as "Lila was a
person on whom intellectual patterns gained little purchase, and for whom
biological patterns were dominant." That I think would agree with David's
point about being 'tall'.
Sam
"Ask yourselves when are we going to see the first journal of bio-hacking
oriented toward teenage males, so they can create molecules in their
bedroom. Well, that journal came out in 1998. Be very afraid." (Bill Joy)
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Dec 02 2002 - 12:21:47 GMT