[MD] Dewey's Zen

[Ant McWatt]

Dan
Glover stated March 31st (in response to DMB and Ant's Dewey's Zen posts):

 Everything begins with
Quality... "In Nothingness there is great working." 
Emergent patterns
we intellectualize into music, poetry, writing, art, etc. are

responses
to Dynamic Quality but Dynamic Quality is not 'in' those

patterns.

 

Ant
McWatt comments:

 

Dan,

 

That’s
fine as far as the conventional view of the MOQ (as laid out in LILA) is
concerned but to be clear, Dynamic Quality IS a component in the (Quality)
events that include these static things. 
As I’ve just said to David Harding, DMB was talking about the “ongoing
flux of experience” rather than just (static) things in his Dewey’s Zen post of
March 28th (with the example of the artful motorcycle mechanic).

 

--------CUT---------

 

Dan
stated March 31st:

 

I
think Robert Pirsig was asked once why someone should read his books

and
he responded along the lines of: so they can become a better

person.
Oh... I remember! It was in Lila's Child... yes. He answered a

query
from one the contributors that way. If that's so, then it is

reasonable
to assume the MOQ is like a blue print for living a good

life.
This (might) entail integrating a balance of both static quality

and
Dynamic Quality in our everyday activities. There are no clear

distinctions
to be made, however, which seems the tricky part... at

least
for me.

 

Ant
McWatt comments:

 

Dan,
yes, I do have to agree that “Lila’s Child” does have one or two helpful quotes
and is essential reading for anyone wanting to better their understanding of the
MOQ but if you want to know where it’s really at, you’ve got to see the four
MOQ DVDs!  For instance, note the quote
by Pirsig below (found in “The MOQ at Oxford” DVD) where he talks about high
quality (fine) art being a mixture of both Dynamic and static elements:

 

“Well,
if you read the Metaphysics of Quality, you know there are four levels of
evolution: the inorganic, the biological, the social, and the
intellectual.  And Art is a mixture of
all of those with Dynamic Quality if it's really Art - I don't say it's
completely Dynamic Quality.  Finger
painting by a two year old is Dynamic. 
But it's a mixture of somebody who knows how to satisfy the Art traditions
of history but at the same time has a direction that he wants to go on his own
to some extent, so he's not a complete copy-cat and he's not a complete
wild-man - he's in between.  And, the
amount of Dynamic Quality should not be overcome by intellectual quality, by
these static patterns.  At the same time,
the static patterns or the intellect - the Dynamic Quality should not overcome
your static patterns to a point where it's meaningless to a person who
writes."

 

Yours
commercially,

 

Ant.