JONATHAN ARGUES THAT UNDIVIDED QUALITY COMES BEFORE BOTH DQ AND SQ
Hi LilaQs,
"That's the whole thing: to obtain static and Dynamic Quality
simultaneously. If you don't have the static patterns of scientific
knowledge to build upon you're back with the cave man. But if you don't
have the freedom to change those patterns you're blocked from any
further growth."
I can't claim to be the first one to have said this, but DQ and SQ have to
be reflections of the same quality. Someone (probably Walter) once commented
on my now ancient DQ=potential idea that you can't realize DQ without having
a framework (SQ) for realization. Without SQ, DQ stays UNREALized and
mystical.
Pirsig says that his MoQ is about empirical reality. You can't have
something unrealized as part of empirical reality.
The MoQ itself is a static pattern - it is supposed to provide a basis for
evaluating DQ. Otherwise, what's the point?
Quality is value and SQ provides the evaluation framework. What is value if
it cannot be evaluated?
Conversely, what is an evaluation framework if there is no value?
I see Pirsig's statement "That's the whole thing: to obtain static and
Dynamic Quality
simultaneously. . .. " not as a guide to living the good life, but as a
metaphysical truism.
Neither SQ nor DQ have any meaning without the other. The division itself is
a philosophical TOOL, and itself subject to evaluation (e.g. in comparing
philosophical positions).
The utility of the tool is in clarifying the nature of experience.
Experience has the most value when there is a good experiential framework.
but . . . no framework is so good that it cannot be bettered
Pirsig tells us in no uncertain terms that a Buddhist monk must spend a
lifetime mastering the experiential framework.
IMHO the enlightment that may result is not a mystical trance, but a
clearness of thought to see a new and better experiential framework. That's
the sort of enlightment that produced Einstein's theory of relativity and
Pirsig's MoQ.
The peope who think that one can just jump straight to enlightment are the
ones who produce all the new age crap.
That pretty much defines a spectrum, and I know to which end of it I aspire
. . .
Jonathan
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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