From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sat Feb 08 2003 - 21:23:00 GMT
Sam, Wim and y'all:
The numbered assertions below are Sam's. As he points out, much of what
Pirsig says about ritual can be found in chapter 30 and I think this takes
us into some pretty interesting territory. Its not just about religious
ritual, but even more compelling, it is about mysticism and insanity, about
static patterns and DQ, about the relationship between the social and
intellectual levels. That chapter breaks open so many fascinating anti-SOM
things that I'd hardly know where to begin, so I'm glad that Sam started it.
I'll insert some comments after each of Sam's assertions....
1. Ritual is the static latch of the social level; it functions to preserve
dynamic breakthroughs.
DMB says: Right, but its a little more complicated than that. In chapter 30
Pirsig spends some time discussing the relationship between static and
Dynamic Quality where ritual is concerned and he points out some differences
between East and West and between different periods. Sometimes static
rituals properly encase DQ and sometimes "these interpretations become like
golden vines that cling to a tree, shut out its sunlight and eventally
strangle it."
2. Ritual preserves a particular society in existence. It contains and
reproduces those patterns of behaviour which maintain that society above the
biological level, and which give that society its own identity. This has
maintained human societies in existence for at least tens of thousands of
years.
DMB says: Right, but its important to remember that often Pirsig is using
the word more broadly than is usually expected. Its not just the religious
rituals of the churches that create and preserve the social order. He
includes Monday mornings at work, payday, grocery shopping and a huge range
of other such "rituals".
3. Ritual is the source of the intellectual level. Intellectual principles
are derived from reflection on ritual practices.
DMB says: Again, I think this needs to be more precise. And I think this
gets at a very important issue; the connection between the social and
intellectual levels. He says, "The mythos is the social culture and rhetoric
which the culture must invent before philosophy becomes possible. ...it is
the PARENT of our modern scientific talk. This 'mythos over logos' thesis
agreed with the MOQ's assertion that intellectual static patterns of quality
are built up out of social static patterns of quality." This is consistent
with the point he makes with respect to Descrates, where he should have said
that "17th century French culture exists, therefore I think, therefore I
am". He not exactly saying that intellectual principle come from the
contemplation of rituals, but that the mythos, which includes rituals in a
big way, is what allows us to think at all. Language is also a key feature
of the social level. Imagine trying to do philosophy or science without
first having a language. Its impossible to even imagine how it would be
possible, no?
4. Religious rituals enable social-pattern dominated people to progress to a
higher level of awareness. Freedom from the social level comes from mastery
of those rituals, not their rejection (ie 'putting them to sleep').
DMB says: I think you've got two distinct ideas here. The first one, I
think, is about the role of ritualistic religion in the modern West.
Intellectuals tend to view such things as ignorant and backward and so they
are unmoved by the mass and things like that. But for people whose worldview
is still dominated by social values, by the mythos of their culture, ritual
can serve as a sign post pointing to DQ. I guess its fair to call this a
"higher level of awareness", but I think its important not to confuse this
kind of transcendence with moving up to the next static level. In other
words, these religious rituals are supposed to point to and reveal
unpatterned DQ, not intellectual static patterns. The second idea, that
freedom comes from the mastery of ritual, is where the difference between
East and West really comes into play. It is the Zen monk who can best find
the Dynamic within the static patterns because "unlike the Greeks, the
Hindus in their many thousands of years of cultural evolution had paid
enormous attention to the conflict between ritual and freedom. Their
resolution of this conflict in the Buddhist and Vedantist philosophies is
one of the profound achievments of the human mind." In the West such issues
never really made it to the level of a philosophy and remained a social
level mythos sort of thing. In the West both ritualistic religion and
scientific objectivity have all but blinded us to DQ. So the conflict was
not resolved properly at all. Pirsig speaks to this in chapter 30 by
pointing out that SOM can't see the difference between mysticism and
insanity, etc..
5. This resolves the paradox of ritual and freedom, for both reflect dharma
- Quality.
DMB says: OK. Both ritual and freedom reflect dharma, but so does everything
in the universe, so I'm not sure how useful the assertion really is. "Dharma
is beyond all questions of what is internal and what is external. Dharma is
Quality itself, the principle of 'rightness' which gives structure and
purpose of all life and to the evolving understasnding of the universe which
life has created." It is very much tied up with the original idea of "Rta",
the cosmic order of things. Its the oldest idea in the world, that the
physical order and the moral order of the universe is the same thing. "But
within modern Buddhist thought DHARMA becomes the phenomenal world - the
object of perception, thought or understanding." This is a rich enough vein
that we could spend lots of time on this single issue.
If I had to guess what you're getting at, what you're trying to imply, I'd
say no way. Attending mass does not make you free. It is not likely to
precipitate a DQ experience. The institutional religions of the West seem
hell bent on preventing evolution and transcendence. I'm sure Pirsig is not
suggesting we Westerners become church goers again. Enough for now.
Thanks for your time,
DMB
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