Quoting Ant McWatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Platt asked September 25th: > > In today's New York Times is an article about Ayn Rand's influence on > business people. About halfway through the article is this: > > Ms. Moore, a benefactor of the University of South Carolina, spoke of her > debt to Rand in 1998, when the business school at the university was named > in Ms. Moore's honor. As a woman and a Southerner, she said, I thrived > on Rand's message that only quality work counted, not who you are. Rand's > idea of the virtue of selfishness, Ms. Moore said, is a harsh phrase for > the Buddhist idea that you have to take care of yourself. > > Is this another case of the NY Times getting the story wrong? Or is Ms. > Moore out of her mind? > > Assuming neither is this case, can anyone explain the Buddhist idea > that you have to take care of yourself? > > Ant McWatt comments: > > Though I'd agree with Ms. Moore's sentiment that it's quality work that > counts not who you are, it appears that either the NY Times or Ms. Moore is > confused somewhere along the line. Anyway, if it's any help, the phrase > The Buddhist idea that you have to take care of yourself sounds very > similar to the Pirsigian idea that: > > The real cycle youre working on is a cycle called yourself. The machine > that appears to be out there and the person that appears to be in here > are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from > Quality together. (ZMM, Chapter 26) > > Zen Buddhists talk about just sitting, a meditative practice in which the > idea of a duality of self and object does not dominate ones consciousness. > What Im talking about here in motorcycle maintenance is just fixing, in > which the idea of a duality of self and object doesnt dominate ones > consciousness. When one isnt dominated by feelings of separateness from > what hes working on, then one can be said to care about what hes doing. > That is what caring really is, a feeling of identification with what ones > doing. When one has this feeling then he also sees the inverse side of > caring, Quality itself. > > So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is > to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate ones self from ones > surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows > naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right > thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce > work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity > at the center of it all. (ZMM, Chapter 25)
Thanks Ant. This all sounds self-centered to me. It appears as if to attain a Quality perspective you try to expand the notion of yourself to include everything else in order to eliminate your normal separate self sense. Thinking or feeling "I am the world" would be, for me anyway, a most unattractive ego trip. Nor would I choose to abide by a reality as seen in a drug induced haze or in a dream as suggested in another post. But, I could be wrong. Regards, Platt ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
