>From: "glove" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: MD Zen and the Art of Controlled Folly >Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 11:46:02 -0600 > >Hello everyone, Regarding the devil's , "I am going to let him organize it." >We organize "pieces of Truth" every waking second of our lives, but it seems >to me the real problem arises when we try and put the truth into our >pockets, holding onto it with smug certainty that it is indeed the truth. >The parable above is wrapped around the notion of good and evil that is >prevalent in Western culture, and the deterministic way that we have all >learned to label truth and falsity with pre-conditioned certainty and it >contains a warning. When we walk around looking for the truth, and picking >up a piece of it here and a piece there, that seeking may seem a good thing >on the surface as we pocket the truth and ignore the rest of what we find, >labeling it lies and deceit and leaving it to lay. > >But woe to him who tries to organize those little pieces of truth without >considering the whole picture of reality. >To me, that is the practical value of Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality. It >gives us a table on which to lay little shining pieces of truth that we >happen to find lying about. >Glove: > >I don't believe the Metaphysics of Quality is about changing any of our >feelings of ethics or values. Those feelings are way too deeply engrained in >us to be changed so easily. The Metaphysics of Quality, to me, is the >controlled folly of picking up little pieces of truth as I find them and >using it to organize them into a more coherent picture of the place that I >happen to find myself at this moment. > >Seriously though, the way I see it, the four levels are only little pieces >of truth and as such, are impossible to consider into an organized whole in >themselves. Instead of examining only the four levels of which we are aware >of, we must also learn to consider that which we are unaware of, which from >a normal prospective of reality is impossible to do. This is not something >that can be taught in any fashion, though certain practices seem to shove us >individually in that direction, such as zazen, martial arts, the Japanese >Tea ceremony, meditation, yoga, and art. Because we are locked into static >quality everyday reality, we will not go that direction willingly, but it >seems as if once we're shoved, momentum takes over and we just go. That is >why Dynamic Quality is of higher value than static quality. Yet still all we >have really are those little pieces of truth we find. They cannot be >discarded! > >To me, this is the power of the Metaphysics of Quality: What we are unaware >of contains higher value than that which we are aware of. This is the >harmony between J. Krishnamurti and Robert Pirsig. Krishnamurti writes: > >"Throughout the world it is the same problem. Religions have failed, and >education also. Passing a lot of examinations and putting the alphabet after >your name has not solved your problems. No system, educational, economic, >political, religious or philosophical, has solved our problems � which is >obvious, because we are still in conflict. There is appalling poverty, >confusion, strife between man and man, group and group, race and race. >Neither the Communist nor any other social or economic revolution has solved >this problem, or ever will. Because man is a total entity, he has to be >taken as a totality � not partially, at different layers of his existence. >The specialist is only concerned with a particular layer � the politician >merely with governing, the economist merely with money values, the >religionist with his own creed, and so on. Apparently nobody considers the >human problem as a whole and tackles it, not partially, but wholly. The >religious person says, "Give up the world if you really want to solve the >problem; but the world is inside oneself. The tears, the innumerable >struggles and fears, they are all inside. Or the social reformer says, >"Forget yourself and do good", and you may work to forget yourself; but the >problem is still there. All the various specialists offer their own >remedies, but no one apparently is concerned with the total transformation >of man himself. All they offer is various forms of thinking. If you leave >one religion and go to another, you only change your mode of thinking. No >one seems to be concerned with the quality of thought, with the quality of >the mind that thinks." > >I don't know if the Metaphysics of Quality is really about the total >transformation of man, in fact I doubt that seriously. But it is an attempt, >in my opinion, at concerning ourselves with the Quality of thought and mind >in its totality. Can we agree on this? Yes, that total transformation of man, is exactly what the MOQ, IS ABOUT, and is why COSMOTHEISM, as I have often stated before, is The Solution to Man's confusion, about his Place and Purpose and Identity in the World. NO OTHER RELIGION, OR MOVEMENT, IN HISTORY, HAS SEEN THE TOTALITY, THE WHOLE, THE CONTEXT, REALITY, THE WAY COSMOTHEISM CAN SEE IT, today. It is as if the Whole of Humanity has been stumbling in the dark for centuries, and then a spark, then light, and a Path of Life, showing us the way! As for the article below, Perception is Reality! Best regards, Paul. > >DOES THE LANGUAGE you speak affect > the way you perceive the world? Jules Davidoff, a > psychologist at Goldsmith College in London, claims > that it does. > > > "The effects of culture are being > underestimated," says Davidoff. > >And here is the homepage url of New Scientist. Maybe it will work better: > >http://www.newscientist.com/home.html > > >Best wishes, > >glove > > > >MOQ Homepage - http://www.moq.org >Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com MOQ Homepage - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
