From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Aug 08 2005 - 22:30:02 BST
We are sympatico, Kevin
I asked:
> > Is it kosher to compare DQ with spirit? Can a
> > response to DQ be considered
> > a religious/mystic-like experience? Or vice-versa?
> > I think so.
You answered:
> I do too.
> Spirituality is a word near and dear to my heart. The
> following words are
> from the late Henri Nouwen. "To live a spiritual life
> we must first find
> the courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and
> to change it by
> gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of
> solitude."
Reminds me of this beautiful passage from Lila, Chapter 30:
"The Metaphysics of Quality says that what sometimes accidentally occurs
in an insane asylum but occurs deliberately in a mystic retreat is a
natural human process called dhyana in Sanskrit. In our culture dhyana is
ambiguously called "meditation." Just as mystics traditionally seek
monasteries and ashrams and hermitages as retreats into isolation and
silence, so are the insane treated by isolation in places of relative calm and
austerity and silence. Sometimes, as a result of this monastic retreat into
silence and isolation the patient arrives at a state Karl Menninger has
described as 'better than cured.' He is actually in better condition than he
was before the insanity started. Phaedrus guessed that in many of these
'accidental' cases, the patient had learned by himself not to cling to any
static patterns of ideas-cultural, private or any other.
"In the insane asylum this dhyana is underrated and often undermined
because there is no metaphysical basis for understanding it
scientifically. But among religious mystics, particularly Oriental
mystics, dhyana has been one of the most intensely studied practices of
all.
"This Western treatment of dhyana is a beautiful example of how the static
patterns of a culture can make something not exist, even when it does
exist. People in this culture axe hypnotized into thinking they do not
meditate when in fact they do.
"Dhyana was what this boat was all about. It's what Phaedrus had bought it
for, a place to be alone and quiet and inconspicuous and able to settle
down into himself and be what he really was and not what he was thought to
be or supposed to be. In doing this he didn't think he was putting this
boat to any special purpose. That's what the purpose of boats like this
has always been . . . and seaside cottages too . . . and lake cabins . . .
and hiking trails . . . .and golf courses. . . . It's the need for dhyana
that is behind all these.
"Vacations too . . . how perfectly named that is . . . a vacation, an
emptying out . . . that's what dhyana is, an emptying out of all the
static clutter and junk of one's life and Just settling into an undefined
sort of tranquillity."
You added:
> And the following words are attributed to the Dalai
> Lama by Richard Rohr.
> "If you can possibly avoid a spiritual path, by all
> means do so! It will
> take your whole life away."
> <http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/Papacy_printfriendly.html>.
>
> Spirituality's defining characteristic is
> transformation. Pirsig seems to
> be saying the same thing about Dynamic Quality.
Ah yes. Transformation is the word. That's what "born again" refers to.
Only it doesn't necessarily mean you become a religious fundamentalist. I
was born again the first time I heard live in concert Rachmaniov's 2nd
Piano Concerto. Others are born again on riding a motorcycle. Still
others when getting high on psychedelic drugs. Whatever the moment when
spirit (DQ) surrounded you (described in Lila as one's first reaction to a
wonderful song) , one never forgets it.
It's an intensely personal, individual experience, which is one reason
among others that I celebrate the single, solitary person. Without
individuals like Shakespeare, Pissarro and Robert Pirsig, we end up " . .
. swishing old tea around in (our) cup(s)." (Lila, 3) and evolution grinds
to a halt.
Best,
Platt
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