On 7 Sep 2009 at 13:19, Ham Priday wrote: > Folks, if you can't believe in your own "self", then nothing is real -- not > consciousness, not experience, not the universe, not evolution, and > certainly not Quality. Even Pirsig concedes that "experience is the cutting > edge of reality." And experience is the objective content of the conscious > self. I ask you, can it be anything else? C'mon people! How long are we > going to delude ourselves with this myth?
Hey Ham, Maybe the problem between we Pirsigians and you is in our understanding of "experience." You say "experience is the objective content of the conscious self" whereas Pirsig says experience occurs "prior to intellectual abstractions." In other words, take it one step before thoughts like "conscious self" and "objective content." Even take it one step before the thought, "experience." As Huang Po said, "Start thinking about it and you miss it." Or as one of my favorites, Kafka, wrote: "You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet." What is "it" -- this elemental reality? Pirsig says "Quality" and takes off from there, building in my opinion a rather convincing case. Best regards, Platt 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/
