LS Dharma


Diana McPartlin (diana@asiantravel.com)
Thu, 30 Jul 1998 18:46:44 +0100


Donny, Keith and squad

In the eleventh hour of the D/S debate I think I might be getting it.

Just to recap, making a crude generalization I said that static quality
is the western idea of truth while Dynamic is the Eastern idea. Keith
put it another way saying that static quality is Pirsig's nod to the
scientists and dynamic quality is a nod to the mystics and Donny
compared them to maya and nirvana. But then we all agreed that the MoQ
considers that both DQ and SQ are real, or to be more precise, good.

Then Keith said that Dynamic Quality takes on the role that undefined
Quality had prior to the division. This is the way I had always thought
of it and it fits to a certain extent. But when you try and add morality
into the equation, it doesn't to fit. And the more you try and do it the
bigger a headache you'll get;-)

I said:

>> From the position of sitting on a hot stove, getting off is definitely better.

and Keith said

> True, true, getting off is better. But if "worseness" exists (and in the
> hot stove example, if getting off the stove is better, then staying on
> the stove must be worse, right?), where does it exist? Our choices are:
> Static Quality, Dynamic Quality. If it's Static Quality, then anything
> new and Dynamic is always better. Maybe that's the case. I don't know.
> But then why is Static Quality necessary? Pirsig says it's to latch the
> advances made by Dynamic Quality to prevent degeneration (end of Chapter
> 9, Chapter11). What would lead to degeneration if everything new and
> Dynamic isn't always better?
>

Well I think the answer is in chapter 30.

In chap 30 (and I strongly encourage everyone to reread this very
carefully) Pirsig acknowledges this conflict between dynamic and static
morality and offers rta (arete) or Dharma as the solution.

He writes:

" this identification of rta and arete was enormously valuable, Phaedrus
thought, because it provided a huge historical panorama in which the
fundamental conflict between static and Dynamic Quality had been worked
out. It answered the question of why arete meant ritual. Rta also meant
ritual. But unlike the Greeks, the Hindus in their many thousands of
years of cultural evolution had paid enormous attention to the conflict
between ritual and freedom. Their resolution of this conflict is one of
the profound achievements of the human mind."

And he goes on to show that static and Dynamic are integrated in the
concept of Dharma.

He writes:

"Dharma is Quality itself, the principle of 'rightness' which give
structure and purpose to the evolution of all life and to the evolving
understanding of the universe which life has created."

I think this is what Donny was getting at in his descriptions of
Mahayana buddhism:

> The latter form of Buddhism (c. 1st cen AD) is called Mahayana, the "Big
> Fairyboat." This is what expanded Buddhism from a fairly small sect to a
> big world realigion present throughout the East. The diffrence is that
> Mahayana focuses on the identity of *samsara* (the realm of maya) and
> nirvana. Once you trancend all opposits you trancend this distinction as
> well and so the reality and the illusion are one in the same. There is
> no fundamental distinction between DQ and SQ. Only there is. There is
> and there isn't. *Mu*. So it's like: First you encounter DQ and say
> "This is it! This is the Absolute." But you're not done yet. You also
> have to look at SQ and say, "This too is the Absolute."
> There's a point where you go beyond SQ to encounter pure,
> nameless, formless, uncatagorical DQ. But then there's a point where you
> leave DQ for just Quality. Maybe that's the best way to express it.
>

And that's it. Quality is Dharma: the principle of rightness, which
integrates dynamic and static without conflict. DQ is included within Q
not vice versa, so DQ cannot be just everything. By elevating DQ to
something unattainable we overestimate its importance and then we miss
the real point which is Quality itself.

Diana

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