Hello All,
My question relates specifically to the subject of this title but am
wondering if links/clarifications could be applied to our
discussion/understanding of the relationship between DQ and sq.
In ZMM Phaedrus talks about awareness and consciousness and how the
knife separates them:
"I should talk now about Phaedrus' knife. It'll help understand some of
the things we talked about.(remember that by 'knife' Phaedrus means 'an
intellectual scalpel') The application of this knife, the division of
the world into parts and the building of this structure, is something
everybody does. All the time we are AWARE of millions of things around
us-these changing shapes, these burning hills, the sound of the engine,
the feel of the throttle, each rock and weed and fence post and piece of
debris beside the road-AWARE of these things but not really CONSCIOUS of
them unless there is something unusual or unless they reflect something
we are predisposed to see. We could not possibly be CONSCIOUS of these
things and remember all of them because our mind would be so full of
useless details we would be unable to think. From all this AWARENESS we
must select, and what we select and call CONSCIOUSNESS is never the same
as the AWARENESS because the process of selection mutates it. We take a
handful of sand from the endless landscape of AWARENESS around us and
call that handful of sand the world.
"Once we have the handful of sand, the world of which we are
CONSCIOUS, a process of discrimination goes to work on it. This is the
knife. We divide the sand into parts. This and that. Here and there.
Black and white. Now and then. The discrimination is the division of the
CONSCIOUS universe into parts...."
"Classical understanding is concerned with the piles and the basis for
sorting and interrelating them. Romantic understanding is directed
toward the handful of sand before the sorting begins.
"About the Buddha that exists independently of any analytic thought much
has been said-some would say TOO much, and would question any attempt to
add to it...".(Pirsig's emphasis)
(ZMM, p75-7)
The classical/romantic distinctions have, in LILA been replaced with the
concept of 'static patterns of quality. These are the result of the
DQ/sq 'interplay': Sq abstracted from DQ (Quality)
Back to the awareness Phaedrus talked about.
Question 1:Is the 'awareness' mentioned, this 'endless landscape'
similar to MOQ's Quality? MOQ's Quality? Similar to Northrop's
undifferentiated aesthetic continuum''? William James''flux'? Similar to
(Phaedrus hints at this) the subject matter of all of the perennial
philosophies: Nothingness, Suchness, Spirit, Zen's 'Primordial Face',
the Christian's 'God', etc?
I am aware that in the MOQ Quality is experience.
Question 2: Following from this can we state that static patterns of
value refer to or are indications of levels of 'consciousness'? Where
organic patterns of value experience events/are conscious of events and
react to these experiences organically, according to the laws of nature?
And, further up the levels (social, intellectual) with increasing
consciousness of freedom. (I have excluded the inorganic level because
the MOQ states that consciousness is intellectual patterns of quality).
(see Annotn 32)
And that to return to this awareness one must 'kill all intellectual
patterns' i.e. detach from them. The injunctions for 'reaching' this
state as laid out in the various perennial philosophies are unanimous in
this. In that sense they are termed 'trans-mental'/trans-intellectual
which can be read as 'above' or perhaps as 'pre-intellectual'. I am here
of course talking about prayer, meditative and contemplative practices.
Perhaps seeing it in this way explains the intuitions, the 'dim
apprehensions through a weakening/shattering of static patterns because
the 'endless landscape of awareness' has been overlaid/covered up with
piles and piles of static intellectualization. Therefore this 'endless
landscape' has never been absent (you are already enlightened, you just
do not realize it) Remove the intellectualizations and in a flash
Quality will be revealed (the Dharmakaya Light)...push one 'level'
farther and it will be revealed that you are that (tat tvam asi) meaning
you are those patterns-not just a select bundle you call your 'self' or
'ego'. No, all of them. And realizing this, all is just as it is. Very
normal...360 degrees....Quality perceived through static patterns.
Realizing the harmony at the center of it all. (Anthony's PhD, p38)
Timeless, space-less...because prior to time, prior to space.
" Misty rain on Mount Lu,
And waves surging on the river Che:
When you have not yet been there,
Many a regret surely you have:
But once there and homeward you wend,
How matter of fact things look!
Misty rain on Mount Lu,
And waves surging on the river Che.
-Su Tung-Po
I have taken some liberties here and there and wonder if this is in
agreement with the MOQ? If not, please point me to my misapprehensions.
And apologies for the length of this post.
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