[MD] Quality/Tao

[david buchanan]

> Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:33:40 -0500
> From: daneglover at gmail.com
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: [MD] Quality/Tao
> 
> Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
> Because of the hole we may use the wheel.
> Clay is moulded into a vessel;
> Because of the hollow we may use the cup.
> Walls are built around a hearth;
> Because of the doors we may use the house.
> Thus tools come from what exists,
> But use from what does not.
> 
> [http://www.vl-site.org/taoism/ttcmerel.html]
> 
> Krimel:
> 
> Quality = Tao = Undefined
> DQ = Active
> SQ = Static
> 
> Dan:
> 
> The tao is called the way but it isn't a place or a destination. The
> tao is experience. It is constantly defined yet inexhaustible. All
> that is, was, and will be springs forth from it and trickles back to
> it. Dynamic Quality is synonymous with the tao. It is not active yet
> it never rests. It is not static yet it may be defined by that very
> nature. Dynamic Quality is not this, not that.
> 
> Dynamic Quality equals Tao equals Undefined/Infinitely Defined equals
> not this, not that.
> 
> Static quality equals reality.
> 
> We know Quality when we see it.
> 
> Thoughts?


dmb says:
Yea, I like yours better, Dan. I don't think DQ ought to be defined as active even within the thought system we call the MOQ. Within the metaphysical system "DQ" is defined as undefinable and it is explained that it can't be defined because the term refers to experience prior to any conceptualizations. Besides that, Yin and Yang are active and passive, not active and static. As one half of a dualistic conceptualization, they're both static.

I think it works quite well to think of DQ itself as "the way". If putting these concepts to work in actual experience means following DQ, as I think is what it means, then "the way" is not something that we can know in advance or measure in anyway. It's just this vague sense of what's right and what's not. It doesn't even matter if you're fighting in a war or writing poetry. It just means NOT painting by numbers but by an active engagement and an openness and sensitivity to what's happening as it happens. 

There is good example from the first few pages of a book called "How We Decide". A pro quarterback has learned all the plays and signals and practiced them over and over plus he has a lot of experience with the game in general, right? Been playing all his life and he's getting the big bucks cause very few are better at it than she is. So the play is called, the ball is snapped and giant dudes are running around everywhere, with all the biggest ones on the other team doing their best to murder him. He's just got a few seconds to find an open receiver. There's no way in hell she has time to calculate or rationally decide which option is best. He's not playing chess and neither are the 300 pound linebackers who are coming down on him any second now. All he can do is scan the field and when he gets a good feeling - I shit you not - a GOOD FEELING, he let's her fly. That decision process works. If it didn't, he'd wouldn't be making millions of dollars for his ability to "decide" on the basis of a feeling. It feels right, he acts on it and it very quickly proves to have been right and yet there was no time to think about it. In a very real sense, she was just following the way. This isn't magic. It's not a miracle. It's just being groovy, in the flow, and that can't happen without the static patterns she spent so many years mastering. Same with motorcycle repair or metaphysics. DQ does not magically turn hacks and amateurs into skilled professionals. It has to be applied to whatever you're already pretty good at, you know?

You're a really great writer, Dan. Even the short stuff is elegant and powerful. You rock.







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