Platt Holden (pholden@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 13 Sep 1997 03:32:29 +0100
In a separate message, Anders Nielsen wrote:
In my opinion, there's only Dynamic Quality (the big "NOW") and Static
Quality (which is sort of habit or memory).
Boy, I really like the comparison of Dynamic Quality to the big NOW. That's
what we experience prior to covering it over with a web of intellectual
patterns. And then we pay more attention to the patterns than to the NOW.
Since we tend to live in the past or future, NOW is regarded as a fleeting
moment, hardly worth noticing.
Pirsig has a wonderful description of the big NOW in Chapter 29: "He
stopped for a second by the beach and just stared at the endless procession
of waves moving slowly in from the horizon. The south wind was stronger
here and it cooled him. It was steady like a trade wind. Nothing interfered
with its flow toward him over the huge ocean. 'Vast emptiness and nothing
sacred.' If ever there was a visible concrete metaphor for Dynamic Quality
this was it."
We really don't see NOW as an object. We can only describe it
metaphorically. It's more of an intuitive feeling of being one with the
whole universe. In that sense it's like beauty. You can't define it, you
feel it.
Dynamic Quality, Beauty, the big NOW--all words for the same thing. If I've
learned anything from LILA it was to "stop for a second on the beach."
Anybody know what I'm talking about?
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