[MD] Betterness - 4 levels of!

[118]

Hi Ham,
Let me first respond to the first part of your post concerning Pirsig.  All
I really know about RMP is the little I have read, which is not near the
total.  So take this post in that light.  It does have some personal bias,
if you will forgive that.

Here's the deal with RMP as I see it.  He went down a path of questioning
that led to a crisis.  The crisis is described in ZMM, which as he states is
factual and therefore an autobiography.  The crisis occurred when he
realized that Truth was subservient to Quality, and that everything is an
analogy.  He was left without the foundation that he had been indoctrinated
with his whole life and succumbed.  For a while, meaning was stripped away.
 It took shock therapy to try to restore some normality in thought and
communication.

Now some may call this a spiritual awakening, some may call it a severe
paradigm shift, some may call it a nervous breakdown.  I suppose what one
calls it can be defined by what the person does with it after.  RMP decided
to write a book describing the event.  He does this in a very clever and
enjoyable way.  I remember reading it for the first time and then discussing
it with my friends.  This was shortly after it came out.  It is my
understanding that when such a shift happens to one it takes a while to
translate it for communication.

The purpose of ZMM was to describe what happened and do his best to show how
one can find more harmony in existence. Later, for whatever reason, he
decided to write a book called Lila.  Perhaps due to the success of ZMM, he
decided to elaborate on what he had iontuited in terms of a paradigm shift.
 However, that original revelation could not be put into words, so he
created a structure of some kind.  Before he wrote Lila, I had already come
to a conclusion about Quality, and it did not match that which he proposed
in Lila.  It was slightly more mystical or spiritual or Eastern or whatever.
 But I am here to learn what other's think so as to rejuvenate my old and
tired brain.

So, much of my regard of Pirsig is based on ZMM.  As far as I am concerned
once the original premise is stated, its interpretation can continue to grow
in a variety of directions.  It was a criticism of Western Thought, and has
its value.  How it is tied in with other Western philosophies is not all
that interesting to me.  I have no idea what his intentions were, but he did
have a following and sometimes that may create something foreign.

I am indebted to RMP for a reason.  This is of course my personal view and
may have no basis in reality, whatever that is.  I don't take it all that
seriously, this is a playground after all, isn't it?

I respect your point of view.  I will respond to the rest after a few more
reads.

I will also listen if other people have a different point of view concerning
this post.  It is not my intention to demean, just to provide a personal
opinion.  If I worked for NPR they would probably fire me...

Cheers,
Mark


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