[MF] A thirty-thousand page menu with no food?

[Kevin Perez]

Matt,
   
  I think I see your point.  The Metaphysics of Quality IS like a restaurant where
they give you a thirty-thousand page menu but no food.  But it's one of many
restaurants in a mall of restaurants, some actually serving food.  The food is
like those things in life that sustain us, i.e., make life worth living.  The menu
  is like the expression, in language, of these life-sustaining things.  And the
restaurant is like the context of a particular person's language about life-
  sustaining things.
   
  Matt, where did the issue of language come from?  The passage I originally
quoted (Lila pp. 62-64) doesn't mention language.  Re: the mystics' position.
The operative section is,
   
       Thought is not a path to reality. It sets obstacles in that path because
     when you try to use thought to approach something that is prior to
     thought your thinking does not carry you toward that something. It carries
     you away from it. To define something is to subordinate it to a tangle of
     intellectual relationships. And when you do that you destroy real
     understanding.
   
  Of course language is an expression of thought.  But it's not the only
  expression.  I would consider the myriad behaviors that are also expressions
of people's thoughts...and feelings.  Like you said, "it is no good to work with
the tools and pictures of others."  I agree to the extent that, for life-sustaining
things to be real and meaningful, a person must work them out for themselves,
which for me means exactly the opposite of going it alone.  People who don't
  find meaning in the MOQ or the works of the great writers or anywhere...out
there...won't find it where they themselves are not intimately involved.
   
  I still say The Wizard of Oz (the film) is a good place to learn about the search
  for meaning.  It's worth remembering that the one without a brain was a key
decision-maker.  The one without a heart demonstrated true compassion.
The one without courage faced his fears and demonstrated true leadership.
  And Dorothy was never far from home.
   
   
  Kevin

		
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