[MD] Emotions

[mark_maxwell at talktalk.net]

RMP:

For a person who is not yet enlightened the way to avoid… confusion may be
to ask of each desire, ‘Is this a common ego desire? Is this a common sensual
desire?’ If not, then maybe the quality which stimulates the desire is Dynamic.
If it is a common sensual or egotistic desire, however, then one should wait a few
days and see if the desire weakens or goes away. Sensuality and egotism have a
way of waxing and waning in the manner of the emotions, whereas Dynamic
Quality tends to be steady and patient, in the manner of Gandhi’s favorite
Christian hymn, Lead Kindly Light


In the third box are the biological patterns.
These include the functions, structures and processes of biology (such as
reproduction and DNA) studied by geneticists, microbiologists, botanists and
zoologists. Instances of biological quality include health and physical pleasure.


The social patterns in the next box down include such institutions as family,
church and government. They are the patterns of culture that the
anthropologist and sociologist study.

For the sake of clarity, it should be noted that the social patterns, denoted by the
MOQ, tend to refer only to behaviour that is learnt through imitation (such as rituals and social customs) rather than ‘hard-wired’ genetic behaviour (as, for instance,
observed in ant colonies). As with his definition of ‘intellectual’, Pirsig justifies this
‘cutting-off’ point on the grounds that if the term ‘social’ is expanded too far, it
becomes meaningless.

It appears that the evolutionary purposes of social patterns of value (such as ritual
and custom) were developed to preserve and improve biological patterns. To the
extent that social customs and institutions reproduce, preserve, and protect the
relationships within a given society for the good of that society, they may be
regarded as ‘social quality’.

(1) The MOQ seems to classify compassion as a pattern of social cohesion driven by
strong biological emotions. When these two are combined with intellectual patterns of
quality the result is a strong force for the good, as in the abolition of slavery. When
compassion opposes intellectual quality, however the result can be foolishness or even
evil.
(2) Genuine compassion and talk about compassion often have different purposes.
When compassion is talked up intellectually there sometimes emerges a certain aroma
of unction and piousness that makes me suspicious. Some preachers use compassion
the way Uriah Heep [Heep is a character in Dickens’ David Copperfield] uses humility, i.e.
to advance themselves.
(3) The narrative of ZMM is dominated by the compassion of the narrator for his son
even though he doesn’t talk about it as such, and when Phædrus says Lila has quality
he is speaking compassionately and is held in contempt for this by Rigel [the lawyer
character epitomising social values in LILA]. Rigel is arguing that Phædrus’ compassion
for Lila is damned foolishness. Phædrus struggles in subsequent chapters to show that
it is intellectually sound.