[MD] dharma, the way, zazen, path, the morning fog, etc...

[kgt83dr at yahoo.com]

Hello SA.  Kudos for yet another insightful post.  I'd like to respond to the
following.
  
     Many times I have read on the MOQ.org discussions that Pirsig left a lot
     for us to realize and he didn't define much of what he wrote about or
     discussed, thereby, some may and have expressed that his philosophy is
     unfinished.  I would say they are correct, because Pirsig cannot complete
     a philosophy of life.  I think he understood that.
  
I often wonder what would be the context and title of a third book.  First came
An Inquiry into Values, a book that explored the question "what is quality?"
Then came An Inquiry into Morals, a book that proposed an answer to the
question with a comprehensive framework of reality.  But how comprehensive
is the answer?
  
According to the Metaphysics of Quality there is no reality apart from our
experience of it and there is no greater experience than that which is made
possible through the human intellect.  And that's where I have a problem with
the Metaphysics of Quality.
  
My experience of reality has taught me that there are much greater
experiences than those mediated by the human intellect.  As I see it, science
and philosophy are the limits of what the human intellect is capable of
producing.  And I think that's saying a lot.  Science and philosophy are good
and valuable things.  The problem is they're not very useful for answering
questions about faith, hope, love, forgiveness and mercy.  People have
traditionally turned to art and religion for answers to these questions.
  
If the Metaphysics of Quality were to be developed further I wonder if its SQ
hierarchy would include something higher than the intellectual level.  I wonder
how a level called a static pattern of mystical quality would fit in?  Maybe it
could be worked out in a third book, An Inquiry into Mysticism.
   
  
Kevin Perez

		
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