Lila

I recently posted about a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. I loved it. So I immediately started reading the author's next book called Lila. I finished it the night before last. The big downer in all this is that the author only wrote two books and I want to read more of his thoughts.

In Lila, the author starts out by attempting to do something that initially seemed very foolish to me. He decided to try to create a full Metaphysics of what he talked about in his first book, his concept of Quality. It seemed foolish because Quality was something he couldn't define and seemed diametrically opposed to any kind of dialectic analysis. It seems closer to ideas in eastern philosophy such as the concept of Tao, Buddha, Chi, etc. These concepts appear to be beyond the intellectual realm and so they cannot be directly understood by the mind and are not subject to the tools of intellectual analysis.

But as I dove into the book, I began to change my mind. The author was offering an intellectual analysis of something about which you can't properly intellectualize, but I began to feel that for those of us who are stuck in the intellectual world of western philosophy and science, his analysis may be an excellent way to bridge the gap. 

Although he offers some development of his thoughts, at one point, he just springs on us his fully developed metaphysical structure of Quality and claims that it is exhaustive and complete. I found this slightly annoying at first, but as the book progressed, he offered an impressive number of examples of how this metaphysics, or view of reality, offered a clearer picture and resolved issues and concerns that the classic western view tends to obscure. It was like he was saying, "I stumbled across this pair of glasses as I was wandering and I found they really cleared up my vision. Here, try them on!" And then he proceeds to show the reader just how much more clearly they can see with this new model of reality. 

His Metaphysics says that reality derives from Quality. Other words for Quality might work equally well: the One, the Tao, Virtue, Excellence, Value, the Good. This Quality may be subdivided into two aspects: Dynamic and Static. The dynamic is what eastern traditions such as Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc strive for, eliminating the individual's dependence on static patterns.

But static patterns derive from Quality too. And so he further subdivides static Quality into inorganic, biological, social, and intellectual. This is the division for which the author offers no prior development, but the more I've thought about his structure and have applied it to issues I've been thinking about, the more sense it makes to me. If there are flaws in the structure, I don't see them yet. And I'm learning a lot by wearing the glasses he offered me.

I have no sure method for finding truth, but certain principles help me recognize truth when I see it. The most important idea at work here is whether the puzzle of life fits neatly together given the view of reality you subscribe to. Does your metaphysics explain what you see or does it leave a lot of things unresolved? Does it complete the puzzle or are there a lot of pieces left out? If one pair of glasses offers a more complete explanation than another, I'll keep wearing them. So far, this new metaphysics seems to be working for me. It certainly seems to offer a more complete understanding than the Aristotelean scientific model I grew up with. 

In some ways, the book reminded me of C.S. Lewis' "The Abolition of Man". In that book, Lewis claims we are composed of three things: mind, heart, and belly. You might think of the mind as intellectual, the heart as emotional, and the belly as basic biological drives such as hunger and lust. Lewis claims the intellectual can directly influence the emotional, but not the biological. Only the emotional can control and direct the biological. But our modern intellectual world has waged war on the emotions and has extracted the heart or chest of man, allowing his biological impulses to rage without restraint, and ultimately threatening, in the extreme application of this modern intellectual model, to exterminate or abolish the essence of what makes us men, leaving us slaves to our biological impulses.

Pirsig claims that we are evolutionary creatures composed of four levels of evolution, namely inorganic (matter and energy that obey fundamental physical laws), organic (corresponding to Lewis' 'belly'), social (somewhat similar to Lewis' 'heart'), and intellectual (obviously the same idea as Lewis' 'mind'). He likewise claims that the intellectual, by attempting to solidify its own supremacy, has waged war on society by stripping it of its moral foundation. But society, as a prior evolutionary level, is the foundation on which intellect stands. If society's moral foundation is destroyed, there will be no restraint on biological forces because the intellect will be unable to directly restrain those forces. This, he claims, is one reason for the increase in crime in recent history.

Pirsig spends a lot of time on his divisions of Static Quality and that's what I've spent a lot of time thinking about as I've been reading. But near the end of the book, he comes full circle back to Dynamic Quality, which is the creative force behind the static patterns. Thus, this Dynamic is the supreme Quality. Anything that attempts to place the static patterns above the Dynamic is immoral. So ultimately, we come back to eastern traditions that set aside the static in favor of the dynamic. And although I see great value in his Metaphysics, in the end, developing the metaphysics does almost seem like a pointless exercise. You can't really describe Quality by means of a dialectic analysis because it is beyond the mind. It is at the front edge of experience; before the mind has a chance to fasten on anything, Dynamic Quality has come and gone.

As I've pondered on this idea of Quality, it occurs to me that what is needed in my life is less analysis and more living ... simply living. What I need is to allow the various aspects of my static structure to fall in line with the Dynamic life-giving force to bring about a unity of soul. The biological transcends yet relies on the inorganic patterns of matter and energy and harnesses their power to achieve its own ends. The social transcends yet relies on the organic, biological patterns and harnesses its power to achieve its own ends. And the intellectual transcends yet relies on the social patterns and harnesses its power to achieve its own ends. But ultimately, all is dominated and transcended by a Dynamic element that is not bound by any of these. As we unite with this Dynamic force, perhaps the various static patterns, connected serially to one another, will naturally fall in line like links in a chain as you grasp the chain from the top and shake.

I believe what I am seeking is a union of soul with the universe. This union is not something I understand intellectually and I can't explain it in words, but I feel a compulsion to find this Quality and unite with it. I think the key for me is meditation and quietly putting aside pre-conceived notions of reality so that I can experience reality directly as it unfolds from its source. May I find that Quality and may it fill me.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

There was a book I heard about in the early 90s that I never bothered to pick up. I'm glad I didn't. I wouldn't have understood it and most likely wouldn't have appreciated it.

I recently felt a pull to revisit it and finally finished it yesterday. It's called "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I'll call it ZAMM for short. It's not really about Zen. And it's not really about motorcycle maintenance. But at the same time, it's totally about Zen and has everything to do with motorcycle maintenance. Mostly, though, it's a book that is deep, profound, and beautifully written.

When I was in school, even in college, I rarely had a desire to read. Books were being shoved down my throat constantly and I've never been a fan of doing what someone else tells me to do. I tend to rebel. So although I would occasionally read books that interested me, I usually avoided reading completely. Being forced to read for academic areas in which I had no interest really stifled my desire to read anything at all.

After college, I began to see the value of certain fields of study that I had never enjoyed before. I started with economics, then hit history, languages, philosophy, and more recently eastern religions and philosophic traditions. In fact, I've been meaning to blog about what I've been learning about Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. But that will have to wait ...

When I heard about ZAMM, I had no background in philosophy and no appreciation for eastern traditions. Without that background, this book wouldn't have done much for me. But with that background, the author has given me insights into things I've been learning about that feel like priceless jewels. He synthesizes some of the ancient western and eastern styles of thought and offers us a glimpse into his own personal journey of self-discovery.

What I find so interesting about the story is his own misconceptions of the purpose of the journey. A major part of his journey began as he studied the word Quality. Later Excellence from the Greek Arete, which is often translated as Virtue. But Quality - what was it? He couldn't define it. This led him to deconstruct the existing classic worldview and create a new metaphysics based on Quality. This new metaphysics seemed to him to be a way to break down some of the problems created by western culture and possibly even reconcile the divide by east and west and between classical (intellectual, dielectic) and romantic thought. He was ready to offer a great thesis to the world that would break down barriers and bring people together. What it really did was break him down.

And this is the most beautiful part. His whole journey was pointless ... from the perspective of his original intention. But what it did to him made the journey worth all the effort. It broke him down and, if I read him right, led him to a fantastic epiphany of self knowledge that is akin to the spiritual experiences of ancient and modern spiritual seekers. In the process, he was deemed insane, and perhaps he was, or perhaps in that moment of self knowledge, he was one of the few sane individuals in the midst of a crazy world. And he experienced reality directly. He found his Quality.

I'm seeking this same Quality and although my journey will be different than the author's journey, I learned a few things by reading about his journey that have helped me see things a little differently and will, I think, help me in my journey of self discovery. For example, in order to find the answers he sought, he realized he would have to step outside the current mythos. He would have to become an outsider of the culture. He would have to be viewed as insane. And that was ok. Another tidbid: one of the last things he did before finding his Quality was to face his final fear. He had faced them all down and finally emptied himself. There was nothing left inside and that was what was necessary for this Quality to fill him up.

I can't possibly convey the power of this book in a short blog post. I absolutely loved it. Have you read it? If so, tell me your thoughts.