Jeremy -- here is that email I told you about concerning the book we
discussed. I know this is pretty long, but I think well worth the read.
I'm definitely interested in the book, so if you get a hold of a copy,
let me know. Take care,
Boone
----Original Message Follows----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 22:50:13 EST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: MD Lila Companion Novel?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ROGER SHARES A NEW FIND WITH THE LS
Squad:
I just found the companion novel to LILA.
Yea, I found the real Lola.
Actually, I went to the Barnes and Noble to get a new copy of Lila,
because the one I have has had the words worn out from excess reading
and highlighting. I went to where the book should be... Hmmmm, nothing
under philosophy... Let me try Eastern Thought... Ahhhhh, here we go
Zen and The Art of MM. Hey , what is this beside it? No, not Lila, but
a new book titled AN INQUIRY INTO THE GOOD.
Intrigued? You know I was. But in picking it up, I saw that it wasn't
written by Pirsig... It was written by Kitaro Nishida. And it was
written in 1911.
Nishida was a Zen Buddhist who was influenced by William James' theories
of Radical Empiricism and Pragmatism to transform mystical Zen
experience into a metaphysical philosophy. To quote the author "I
wanted to explain all things on the basis of pure experience as the sole
reality."
His Pure or Direct Experience is virtually identical to the personal
definition of DQ that RMP uses. And the philosophy Nishida develops has
the following as essential components:
1) Pure Experience precedes the subject and the object( the self and the
universe)
2) Pure Experience is active , constructive and creative. It brings
forth reality.
3) Pure Experience is undifferentiated oneness with reality.
The major distinction between RMP and Nishida is that the former seems
more focused externally and metaphysically, while the latter is focused
internally. Nishida embraces direct experience similar to Pirsig, but
he flatly rejects any DQ other than direct experience. He views any DQ
other than actual pure experience as an abstraction of reality...in
other words, as a static pattern. Per Nishida, consciousness, self,
matter, subjects, objects, time and space
are all static patterns created out of Pure Experience.
I am no philosopher, but to a Westerner this seems at first like
Idealism... But to a Buddhist, what he is explaining is that pure
experience creates the self and the universe. Without the self the
universe doesn't exist, and vice versa.
A few months ago, Diana , Walter, Horse and others started pointing out
that we were dealing with two distinct definitions of DQ Different
names or interpretations were given, including personal and universal;
and formative and contributive. Nishida seems to be saying that only one
of these two exists. No, actually I think he would say they are the same
thing and that the universal is personal. However, Nishida was
criticized by his contemporaries as being forms of solipsism and tainted
with psychologism. I would fault him primarily for being before his
time!
To a certain extent, I would say RMP and Nishida were saying similar
things within the contextual framework of their societies.
Two other clear distinctions between these philosophers:
1)Rather than four levels, Nishida divides reality into three slices--
Nature (our 1st two), consciousness, and socio-intellectual (our last
two). He doesn't divide them per se in AN INQUIRY INTO THE GOOD, but it
is clarified as part of his later philosophy in a foot note.
2)It is much more religious and inspirational and rooted in Buddhism
I do not know if Pirsig has ever read or heard of Nishida, but they
certainly seem to have come to complementary metaphysical truths.
Nishida has given me new insights in how to approach the MOQ.
Below are some quotes I had my wife pull from the book. Sorry I can't
lead you to a decent web page on what I read , but his later writings
seemed to get less focused and to backtrack on several of his own ideas.
Perhaps missing the full definition of DQ left him uncertain and forced
him to degrade his philosophy away from the MOQ, which he almost found.
Regardless, between his
drifting later in his life, bad translations, and possibly
misunderstanding of his concepts, everything I found on this guy over
the net stunk.
Just Sharing With Friends,
Roger
SELECTED QUOTES FROM KITARO NISHIDA=92S "AN INQUIRY INTO THE GOOD":
On Direct Experience Creating Reality:=20
<<it is not that there is experience because there is an individual, but
=
that
there is an individual because there is experience.>>
<<reality consists only of direct experience. Any other notion of
realit=
y is
simply an assumption>>
<<Materialists consider the existence of matter an indubitable,
self-evid=
ent
fact, and from this starting point they attempt to explain mental
phenome=
na as
well. With reflection, though, we see that their approach puts the cart
before the horse.>>
<<that which is without qualities or activity is no different from
nothingness.>> =20
<<The unifying power at the base of our thinking and willing and the
unif=
ying
power at the base of the phenomena of the universe are one and the
same.>=
> =20
<<God=92s power is felt as a fact of direct experience.>>
<<Reality is established by contradictions.>> =20
<<When these contradictions disappear, reality disappears as well. On a
fundamental level, contradiction and unity are simply two views of one
an=
d the
same thing.>>
On Abstraction And Consciousness:
<<Meanings or judgements are an abstracted part of the original
experienc=
e.>>
<<activity of thinking constitutes a kind of pure experience>>
<<The primary function of thinking is to manifest truth. Although there
=
is no
true or false in pure experience as the intuition of one=92s own
phenomen=
a of
consciousness, thinking does include a distinction between true and
false=
.>>
<<Which ideas are true and which false? In a given system a perception
=
is
correct when it fits well with the system=92s purposes; when it runs
cont=
rary to
them, it is in error.>>
<<What we know is not the mind itself but the activity of knowing,
feelin=
g,
and willing.>>
On Materialism:
<<Assumptions regarding such a reality are abstract concepts formulated
s=
o
that thinking can systematically organize the facts of direct
experience.=
>>
<<Material phenomena are abstractions>>
<<The so-called objective world is not apart from our phenomena of
consciousness. Rather, it consists of these phenomena unified by a
kind=
of
unifying activity. When the phenomena are universal--when a unity
transcendent of the limited, individual consciousness is maintained--we
r=
egard
them as constituting an independent objective world.>>
<<atoms=85are abstract concepts formulated for the sake of explanation,
a=
nd they
cannot actually exist.>>( I believe this was prior to quantum physics)
=20
<<Pure matter has no positive qualities that we can grasp; it possesses
=
only
purely quantitative characteristics such as spatial and temporal
movement.
Like a mathematical concept, it is nothing more than a completely
abstrac=
t
concept.>>
<< What we call space, time, and material force are simply concepts
established in order to organize these facts and explain them.>>
On Side Benefits Of SOM:
<<The history of the advance of learning over the past several thousand
y=
ears
traces the path by which human beings have discarded subjectivity and
pur=
sued
objectivity.>>
ON Levels:
<<Let us take, for example, a bronze statue=85.. We cannot view the
sta=
tue as
a mere lump of bronze, for it is a work of art that expresses our
ideals=85=85.The unifying activity of the ideals and the physical and
che=
mical
laws that control the raw material belong to different spheres, and in
no=
way
do they clash with each other.>> =20
<<The goal of thinking is truth, and the laws that control the linkage
of
ideas in thinking are the laws of logic.>>
On Mind Matter:
<<the idea that there are two realities: mind and matter. This is a
tota=
l
mistake.>>
On Mysticism:
<<it is the artist, not the scholar, who arrives at the true nature of
reality.
<<Artists are people who most excel in this kind of intuition. They
disc=
ern
at a glance the truth of a thing and grasp it=92s unifying reality.>>
=20
On Communication:
<<Our feeling and volition allow for communication and sympathy between
individuals; they have a trans-individual element.>>
<<True reality, like the true meaning of art, is not something that can
b=
e
transmitted from one person to another. All we can transmit is an
abstra=
ct
shell.>>
On Yin/Yang Complementary:
<<there must be a third thing to join the first two and enable each to
function with respect to the other. For example, when the motion of
mate=
rial
object A is transmitted to object B, there must be a force acting
between
them. And in the case of qualities, when one quality is established, it
=
is
established in opposition to another. For instance, if red were the
only
color, it would not appear to us as such, because for it to do so there
=
must
be colors that are not red. Moreover, for one quality to be compared
wit=
h and
distinguished from another, both qualities must be fundamentally
identica=
l;
two things totally different with no point in common cannot be compared
a=
nd
distinguished.>>
<<Reality is established by contradictions.>> =20
<<When these contradictions disappear, reality disappears as well. On a
fundamental level, contradiction and unity are simply two views of one
an=
d the
same thing.>> =20
<<Because there is unity, there is contradiction, and because there is
contradiction, there is unity.>> =20
<<The most powerful reality is the one that most thoroughly harmonizes
an=
d
unifies various contradictions.>>
<<The fundamental mode of reality is such that reality is one while it
i=
s
many and many while it is one.>>
Death:
<<When it is fixed in a single state, and cannot switch to opposing
state=
s it
dies.>>
Value?:
=20
<>
<<For an infant, all initial sensations are directly the universe
itself.=
>>
Evil:
<<At the same time, that reality is a unified whole, it must include
opposition.>>
<< Conflict is an indispensable aspect of unity, for it is through
confl=
ict
that we advance to an even greater unity.>>
<<Why, if this is so, we encounter falsehood, ugliness, and evil in the
w=
orld?
When we consider this problem deeply, however, we see that in the world
t=
here
is neither absolute truth, beauty, and good, nor absolute falsehood,
ugli=
ness,
and evil. Falsehood, ugliness, and evil always arise in our viewing
abstractly just one aspect of things while we are unaware of the whole,
a=
nd in
being partial to just one facet of reality and thereby going against the
=
unity
of the whole. (As I said in Chapter , falsehood, ugliness, and evil are
=
in
one respect necessary for the establishment of reality; they are
generate=
d by
a principal of opposition.)>> =20
<<Evil is merely the privation of essential qualities.>>
<<Evil arises from the contradictions and conflicts of the system of
reality=85..they are based on the differentiating activity of reality
and=
are a
necessary condition for the development of reality. Again, reality
devel=
ops
through contradictions and conflicts.>> =20
<<A tranquil, uneventful world with no sin and no dissatisfaction would
=
be
extremely mundane and shallow. Those who do not know sin, cannot truly
=
know
the love of God, and those who have no dissatisfaction or anguish cannot
comprehend the depths of spirituality. Sin, dissatisfaction, and
anguish=
are
necessary conditions for the spiritual advancement of humanity; a true
pe=
rson
of religion does not see a divine contradiction in these experiences,
but
rather feels God=92s infinite grace.>>
On Morality:
<<To unite with the true reality of the self is the highest good.>>
<<Our self is the very unifier of the universe.>>
<<When we are in a position of unity, we are active and free. In
contras=
t,
when we are unified by another, we are passive and controlled by the law
=
of
necessity.>>
<<Virtue is to function in accordance with the self=92s own nature.>>
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