From: Valence (valence10@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2003 - 17:52:44 GMT
Hey Platt and DMB,
Funny that both DMB and I immediately thought of Joseph Campbell when
interpreting the Afterword. I was typing this post when his came
through....
PIRSIG (ZMM Afterword)
> "What is seen now so much more clearly is that although the names
> keep changing and the bodies keep changing, the larger pattern that
> holds us all together goes on and on. In terms of this larger pattern the
> lines at the end of this book still stand. We have won it. Things are
> better now. You can sort of tell these things."
RICK
The sections of the ZMM Afterword you have selected have always reminded my
of a particular section of Joseph Campbell's book "Myths to Live By". See
what you think....
CAMPBELL (from Myths to Live By, ch7 p 127-129)
Let us imagine ourselves for a moment in the lecture hall where I
originally presented the material for this capter. Above, we see the many
lights. Each bulb is separate from each other. Regarded that way, they are
so many empirical facts; and the whole universe seen that way is called...,
"the universe of things."
But now, let us consider further. Each of those separate bulbs is a
vehicle of light, and the light is not many but one. The one light, that is
to say, is being displayed through all those bulbs; and we may think,
therefore, either of the many bulbs or of the one light. Moreover, if this
or that bulb went out, it would be replaced by another and we should again
have the same light. The light, which is one, appears thus through many
bulbs.
Analogously, I would be looking out from the lecture platform, seeing
before me all the people of my audience, and just as each bulb seen aloft is
vehicle of light, so each of us below is a wehicle of consciousness. But
the important thing about a bulb is the quality of its light. Likewise, the
important thing about wach of us is the quality of his consciousness. And
although wach may tend to identify himself mainly with his separate body and
its frailties, it is possible also to regard one's body as a mere vehicle of
consciousness and to think then of conscioussness as the one presence here
made manifest though us all. These are but two ways of interpreting and
experiencing that same set of present facts. One way is not truer than the
other. The are just two ways of interpreting and experienceing; the first,
in terms of the manifold of separate things; the second, in terms of the one
thing that is made manifest through this manifold.
RICK
I think Pirsig was saying that though the "bulbs" burn out, the light shines
on.
take care,
rick
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