[MD] Definitions.

[david buchanan]

Ant Mcwatt said to Marsha:
..It's ["the world of the Buddha"] a phrase of Robert Pirsig's that he often used in my correspondence with him which he has, in turn, borrowed from East Asian literature.  It relates to the Zen "mountains and rivers" poem: Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers;  While  you are studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers; [This is the "World of the Buddhas"]  But once you have had enlightenment mountains are once again mountains and rivers again rivers.


dmb says:
Right. So the middle phase, where mountains are no longer mountains, is also known as 180 degree enlightenment. I like that image because you can see this half-way enlightened perspective, if effect, is a matter of turning your back on the static, conventional world. It's a rejection of ordinary life. I think this is where Marsha finds herself; in a half-baked state where mountains aren't mountains anymore. That's why I've posted this quote against her dozens or maybe even a hundred times:

"In the past Pheadrus' own radical bias caused him to think of Dynamic Quality alone and neglect static patterns of quality. Until now he had always felt that these static patterns were dead. They have no love. They offer no promise of anything. To succumb to them is to succumb to death, since that which does not change cannot live. But now he was beginning to see that this radical bias weakened his own case. Life cannot exist on Dynamic Quality alone. It has no staying power. To cling to Dynamic Quality is to cling to chaos."

The radical bias that was weakening his own case is, basically, the radical bias to which Marsha continues to cling (with white-knuckled ferocity). 

She might accept this from you, Ant. Why don't you just come right out and say it? 

Seriously. Why are you not saying what needs to be said?