Greetings, Marsha --
On Mon, 2/2/2012 at 11:54 AM, "MarshaV" <[email protected]> wrote: >> [Ham previously, to Mark]: >> Marsha has misconstrued Buddhism as a philosophy founded on nihilism, >> and this does an injustice to Pirsig's Quality thesis. I had hoped to >> see the promised outline of your ontology over the holidays, which is why >> this response is delayed. [Marsha]: > Not true. To be a nihilist, would be to believe things do not exist at > all. Things conventionally exist; they exist as patterns of value; they exist > as useful fiction (as in the tale of Nagasena and King Milinda). "Fictional things" are non-existent, and a reality of "emptiness" doesn't support their appearance, fictional or not. My problem with you, Marsha, is your tendency to reduce everything--including Quality--to nothingness, which is true Nihilism. There is nothing "useful" about such an ontology. It doesn't explain creation, space/time existence, the conscious self, or the ground of experience. The purpose of philosophy is to define what ultimately "IS". Patterns are not definitions, nor are "conventions", illusions, relations, or moral precepts. None of these terms define the Primary Source. Whatever philosophical merit there is in the Buddhist concept of a "unified" reality is lost without a primary source to support it. Pirsig's MoQ at least acknowledges the reality of Quality. But Quality (Value) does not stand on its own; it must be realized in order to exist. And, as an agent of that realization, you are living confirmation that Sensibility is real. So why would you want to deny the reality of your conscious self or the Essence from which it is derived? It may be politically correct, or even "fashionable", in our secular age to disparage believers and identify with the nihilists, but it is self-defeating and intellectually regressive. Spirituality will ultimately win out because intuitively we can't dismiss it. That's why religion and mysticism have dominated human behavior since the dawn of history. Only by applying reason to value-sensibility will mankind discover the authenticity that is his true potential. Peace to you, Marsha, and best wishes for an insightful new year, 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/md/archives.html
