Marsha and All -- > Maybe this is wanting to be enveloped in the whole > without regard to the individual jigsaw pieces.
What a marvelous statement, Marsha! It captures the DQ of Pirsig's philosophy as well as the cosmology of Essentialism in one simple sentence. Indeed, all experience is the "envelopment" of individualized awareness in the value of the Whole. When we intellectualize this value we perceive it as SO reality--as the self participating in a world of objects and events. But when we sense it directly, stripped of its objectivized constructs, we become absorbed in its essence and lose our sense of self-estrangement. This is why music and art has the power to "move" us; not because it's an intellectual phenomenon, but because we can surrender our selves (and our intellect) to it. In moments of rapture, we literally identify with the undifferentiated value-sensibility (Pirsig's "pre-intellectual experience") which is our primary Essence. We are then no longer just an observer "outside the loop" of reality, we are "at one" with it. Of course such experiences are finite in time, yet even that limitation does not intrude on our value realization. I submit that only human beings have the capacity to appreciate esthetic value in this way, to bring it into consciousness as a creative abstraction and enjoy it sensually rather than as just another object of our experience. All this talk about "mind" attaching to "intellect" at various levels to produce SOM is a circular analysis with no way out. Life as a human being is an experiential manifestation of Essence, a coming together of sensibility with its estranged undivided source. The "Quality experience" is one where individual sensibility is enveloped in the Oneness from which all difference is perceived, without regard to time, space, and otherness. Man is a valuistic creature. As I see it, the purest form of human sensibility is the appreciation of music and the arts. As artists, you, Platt, and some others here will understand this concept; unfortunately for others, the essence of reality will always lie in numerical probability, intellectual patterns, or objective matter. Happy New Year to you all! --Ham 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/
