[MD] Distinguishing Levels (Platt's Individual level)

[Platt Holden]

Marsha,

> Platt,
> 
> How would you explain this quote from Lila, Chapter 32:
> 
> "While sustaining biological and social patterns
> Kill all intellectual patterns.
> Kill them completely
> And then follow Dynamic Quality
> And morality will be served.

I think this reiterates what Pirsig said about the mystics' objection 
to metaphysics -- that thought is not a path to reality (reality = 
morality). 

"They (mystics) share a common belief that the fundamental nature of 
reality is outside language; that language splits things up into parts 
while the true nature of reality is undivided. Zen, which is a mystic 
religion, argues that the illusion of dividedness can be overcome by 
meditation." (Lila, 5) 

As you know, Pirsig said this "pure" approach to reality was a form of 
degeneracy:

"But the answer to all this, he thought, was that a ruthless, 
doctrinaire avoidance of degeneracy is a degeneracy of another sort. 
That's the degeneracy fanatics are made of. Purity, identified, ceases 
to be purity. Objections to pollution are a form of pollution. The only 
person who doesn't pollute the mystic reality of the world with fixed 
metaphysical meanings is a person who hasn't yet been born-and to whose 
birth no thought has been given. The rest of us have to settle for 
being something less pure. Getting drunk and picking up bar-ladies and 
writing metaphysics is a part of life." (Lila, 5)

Obviously, I agree with Pirsig's reaction to anti-intellectual Hippies 
and the new  Age crowd. 

Platt