[MD] On Quality Awareness

[118]

"Gotta make your own rules, child,
Gotta break your own chains.
Your dreams that possess you
Can blossom and bless you
Or run you insane.

The moment is yours, child,
To lay on the line.
The past just don't matter,
Tomorrow won't mind."

>From "The Hawk" composed by Mark Isham, sung by Marianne Faithful
>From the Movie "Trouble In Mind" by Alan Rudolf.

In the halls of academic philosophy there is always lively debate on
subjects.  I have no doubt that Ant is involved in such discussions,
and in fact welcomes them.  I would think that Ant has also met his
match in the university system in terms of "understanding" MoQ.  If
not, it would only be that his discipline exists in some isolation
from the rest of the active philosophers.

There are some in MoQ discuss who stand aghast when such debate is
proposed.  This reminds one of the students in a philosophy classroom
who murmur incredulously when a lone student enters into philosophical
conflict with the well known professor.  Such student would be
considered a non-conformist, or even a wolf.  Therefore it is not
unusual for the students, who follow every word of the professor, to
be somewhat fearful that perhaps there is more to the philosophy than
what they are being spoon fed; that they may actually have to question
and think for themselves is always disconcerting.

It is clear from the autobiographical nature of ZAMM, that Pirsig has
existed as two people.  He wakes up one day realizing that much he
thought was real, at that moment, was but a dream.  He was told, that
for medical reasons he was a new personality as provided through some
extensive rebooting of his central nervous system.  He is only able to
provide vague recollections of who he was before.  At the end of ZAMM,
we are provided with the possible emergence of his original
personality as blended with his new.  However, gone is the romantic
nature of his old thinking having been replaced with classical
thinking.  In his subsequent novel, he continues to consider his
previous personality in the third person for his own reasons.

It is this awareness that was revealed to him as "Phaedrus", which he
attempts to describe as Pirsig.  From his rhetoric, this awareness is
somewhat foreign to him, but he is in tune enough to try to describe
it.  As such he begins to build a metaphysics with which to describe
such awareness.  Others who are equally smitten with this awakening
are also providing descriptions.  There was much ado about this in the
'70's.

Each one of us is aware of Quality in our own way.   The MoQ allows us
to discuss such things and progress by learning from others.  This is
a process of sharing, not of teaching.  Teaching occurs in a
classroom.  Understanding comes through discussion, and nobody can
claim to have full understanding.  It is a win-win situation.

Unless one is aware of Quality, one is simply providing a static
description based on what somebody else said.  In such cases, words
and concepts become more important than Quality itself.  One cannot
claim to speak knowledgeably about Alaska unless one has spent time
there.  Even then people come back with different impressions.
Likewise one cannot debate the metaphysics of beauty unless one has
experienced beauty.  Let us not forget what the "O" represents in MOQ,
that being “OF”.

One can logically propose a system in which Quality is paramount.  It
is yet another thing to live as if Quality is the reality.  Many are
aware that the underlying intentionality of MoQ is no different from
many other descriptions of such a thing through the ages.  It has been
called many names from the more intellectual to the mystical to the
religious, and even encompasses the dealings of an auction house.

What MoQ is, is a format in which such Quality is described in the
modern vernacular, using static concepts rather than esoteric
instructions.  Since MoQ is new, it has the opportunity to evolve
before it is consolidated as dogma.  In fact, one of the central
themes of MoQ is continual evolution.  This is not to say that MoQ
will no longer be MoQ.  For a whale and a sheep look very different,
but the whale evolved from land mammals and are thus the same thing.

The measure of a metaphysics is in its usefulness.  The better its
usefulness in describing the appearance of things, and its ability to
describe underlying phenomenon in a complete coherent puzzle, the
longer it will last.  We all love MOQ, and we should never forget from
where it came.  It is a metaphysics for something much vaster and more
personal.

Mark