dmb says: Wow! Nice work, Andre. You nailed it. In just a few short paragraphs, Buddha, Northrop, James and Pirsig are all connected on the same essential point. Thanks.
> Andre: > Hi Marsha, not sure he was doing this. At least, this is not what 'legend' > says about his quest. > He was deeply concerned about questions relating to the meaning of life in > the process of living it. He wondered what the point of it all was amid the > sickness, old age, death and human suffering he saw all around him. > He had been exposed to the various religious and philosophical > explanations/views about this and saw (for example)in the Hindu ritualistic > religious (soteriological) practices an overemphasis on the determinate (SQ) > rather than the indeterminate (DQ)nature of life. Rituals are to > 'reveal'/'safeguard' Quality, not obscure it. The Buddha, put simply, saw, > and was disillusioned by, this notion that Quality was replaced by static > representations of it. (needles to say, all of the 'Western' and 'Middle > Eastern' religions have fallen prey to this). > > To quote Northrop:'Thereby, the root insight of Brahmanism, the true nature > of the divine,that is,the compassionately moving, indeterminate aesthetic > continuum, had been lost'(p380). > > This is what set the Buddha on his path and I doubt very much that he applied > his 'rationality' or his 'scientific observation' to 'study the mind'. > > He came to devote his time and energy to 'finding a way to extricate > himself from the universal despair that seemed to form the very ground > of human existence...And then, while seated under a tree, Gautama > experienced enlightenment. At last he thoroughly understood the human > problem,its origin, its ramifications, and its solution'. ( Hagan, p6-7). > > To finish with Northrop: ' The important point, however, is that the > Buddha, for all his return to and more insistent emphasis upon the > primacy of the indeterminate, immediately experienced, all embracing > Nirvana, was the starkest of realists. It is precisely because of this > realism with respect to, and his fellow feeling for, the immediately > experienced pains and sufferings of men and animals and plants that he > has attached unto himself and deservedly earned the name of the > compassionate Buddha'(ibid). > > It is not difficult to make the link to both James and Pirsig in this > regard ( i.e their insistence on pragmatism and radical empiricism) as > this appears, to me at least, to point to the essence of the MOQ that > Pirsig was talking about and the link to Eastern 'mystical' insights of > the indeterminate aesthetic continuum i.e. Quality > > To paraphrase Pirsig: if a metaphysics doesn't in some way seek to > improve the world, then forget about it. > > For what it is worth. > Andre > > > > > 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/md/archives.html _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail accounts with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multiaccount&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_4 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/md/archives.html
