[MD] Navigating Quality

[Khoo Hock Aun]

Dear All,



Its been a long while. Here is a short reflection on navigating Quality (or
getting a grip on Reality).



Between Chaos and Order is a place where patterns of static quality are
best used as griphandles when we weave from point to point across the
multiverses of Dynamic Quality. Our consciousness constantly projects both
these experienced and created static patterns from the everchanging
dynamic, to seek an explanation for the Chaos.


We all navigate to get somewhere in each of our realities and sometimes
mistake these griphandles of static patterns as ends in themselves. We can
actually end up in the grip of the griphandle. The truth is that none of
these griphandles ever last, formed for our purposes, dissolving after we
are gone and our need passed, but perpetuated by a humanity in search of
something that is permanent.

An order of things, or if you like, patterns of static quality, have been
constructed to navigate the oceans of seeming chaos. The order of things
that emanates from our primary griphandle; that of a static self, is
regarded the only reality we know as long as our self exists. This sense of
self persists even as the set of energy patterns that make up our
biological person change constantly. No one second are they exactly the
same.


What is the "us", then that does this navigating of the dynamic multiverses
? The Hindus would have us as the smaller souls seeking the Greater Soul,
or generalising, little pockets of dynamic quality seeking return to the
Source. In the Eastern worldview, the "self" is but the epitome of only the
social level. It diminishes when the idea of community emerges. It
dissolves when the idea of universality takes hold.

The Western worldview sets the individual "self" as the height of the
intellectual level; because it’s our "self" that does the thinking of
thoughts, the basic building blocks of all intellect. Sounds terribly
Cartesian, but as a static grip handle, it has persisted and been
perpetuated.

In the Eastern worldview, the individual is a temporary grip handle,
incidental to the intellect. The intellectual level transcends the person.
The thoughts once expressed belong to humanity. The personal fortune or
destiny of the individual thinker is not a function of the intellect. No
individual self determination here. It’s all karma, and thoughts find the
thinker, creativity becomes synchronicity, when the universes conspires
with you to come together.

Yes, human rights belong at the intellectual level, but not at the expense
of humanity or the planet for at the hands of a social greedy acquisitive
individual for that matter. Some may argue the free enterprise economic
system is the best evolved template for human progress. Yet it has not
eliminated universal human suffering, nor caused a major treatise on human
happiness to be written. Maybe with the possible exception of the
Metaphysics of Quality.



At the physical level, energy is not equally distributed among static
patterns. At the biological level, complex self sustaining systems compete
to draw energy from the physical world. At the human level, evolving power
structures are social static patterns competing for limited resources. The
thoughts of the intellectual level of the Western world are everywhere in
chains, bounded by the levers of the levels below. For all our great ideas,
injustice prevails everywhere on the planet and self serving systems ensure
that the world's resources are in the hands of a few.



Even as these are the subjects for political or social discourse, left or
right, socialist or capitalist, the intellect may have a field day amongst
those who have the most faculties, but is of little help for the individual
interested to navigate the projections of static quality in the quest for
dynamic quality to achieve equanimity, harmony and peace.



He or she would be more interested in a guide for navigating Quality. Maybe
the Tao of Grip handles may work. : )



Is there a way to wean the individual from his or her dependency on static
patterns and to consider them only as stepping stones on a pathway ? I can
understand on MD Discuss we use the currency of commonly understood static
patterns. In discussing Dynamic Quality we fall short and fear the fall
into the Chaos. Its the fear of flying, you see.


But seriously, in the combined worldview, would not the individual "self"
of the intellectual level transcend each of our own lives and across our
lifetimes connecting the dots amongst the multitude that would otherwise be
the Chaos that engulfs us all. Because you are not attached and prepared to
let go, the imagery of this everchanging interdependent lattice of
griphandles keep you from falling and helps you straddle the comfort of
Order and the calamity of Chaos.



A mastery of what static qualities are and how to navigate them is
essential. Thinking of them as griphandles requires us to know which ones
to clutch, how long to hold on to them and when to let go as we hurtle It
follows that the strategic goal is not a vaultful of static qualities, but
using them adeptly to get to the next point in indeterminate environment of
dynamic quality. Pirsig has already designated static quality the lesser of
the two. Static quality serves the purposes of those who cannot grasp the
fluidity of change. Dynamic is preferable to static for an advanced soul
seeking the Source. But how do we get to Dynamic when we can’t say what it
is ?



One view shows you nothing but Chaos, another, nothing but a static rigid
Order. As a human on the cusp of awareness, in all likelihood,
enlightenment could be when these projections of Order dissolve away, and
with them, our fear of Chaos. Welcome, then, to the World of the Buddhas
Regards
Khoo Hock Aun

-- 

khoohockaun at gmail.com
6016-301 4079