[MD] The relativity of the MoQ

[plattholden at gmail.com]

Hi Steve,


On 30 Aug 2009 at 13:06, Steve Peterson wrote:

> Hi Platt,
> 
> 
> > Right. For me Quality, beauty is there all the time, all around us,  
> > in the
> > trees, the earth, the sky, the emptiness of space. It is there  
> > waiting for
> > us to rejoin it. At death it is as if we move from one side of our  
> > senses to
> > the other, from the highly filtered, highly processed world inside the
> > brain to the true unbounded universe where subjective and objective
> > coalesce.  We step out of the dense fog of introverted human  
> > perception
> > to  the clear air of reality. Where beauty is we will be.
> 
> If Quality=reality=experience then we don't need to concerned with  
> any "dense fog of introverted human perception" that stands between  
> us and the world as it really is. The MOQ perspective as I understand  
> it makes it impossible to imagine being out of touch with reality  
> since experience IS reality, so we never need to worry about trying  
> to get back in touch with it after death. On the other hand, Pirsig  
> wrote bits about the possibility of "taking off the cultural glasses"  
> that contradict this view, but I think such passages are a step  
> backward from the Quality postulate to a subject-object, appearance- 
> reality picture where taking off the glasses as a philosophical goal  
> makes sense. Maybe Pirsig would respond with something about 180  
> versus 360 Zen. I remember reading something like that somewhere. Do  
> you recall where?

I don't recall anything about 180 vs 360 Zen, but I do recall Pirsig saying 
metaphysics "pollutes" pure experience by attempting to define the 
indefinable. But, being human "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." (Lila, 5) In other words, we define to survive, explaining my 
description of "the dense fog of introverted human perception." For me 
the "MOQ perspective" cuts through the fog better than the SOM view, 
but does not substitute for pure or mystic experience which, for me 
anyway has only occurred briefly, "when Dynamic Quality all around 
(me) shone through." (Lila, 9) Perhaps, as others have testified, I will 
see the DQ light at the moment of death. 

Hope this is responsive to your comments.

Best,
Platt