Hi David, & all
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I am responding to your last remark to me:
DMB says:
Make up a new map? Hmm. Either you're a ambitious genius or you're about to
get very lost. Good luck.
Gary's Response:
Hmm. Perhaps I am a genius, but my problem is that I am lacking in
ambition. Anyway. I think we are all map makers. It is built into us
whenever we try and sort out and understand reality. You could even check
out my new soon to be posted essay on this topic.
Here is the point of this post: I decided to give you all a new map! For
your enjoyment and edification. It is a MOQ-Jewish Mystical map! It is
based upon the map called by the Jewish Mystics "The Tree of Life". Before
I get into showing you the link to the map I thought I would tell you a
story. It is a Midrash. The Hebrew word Midrash is based on the root
letters DRSH, meaning to draw out. The story, the midrash, like all
midrashes, is drawn out of what was found in Torah and sometimes what was
not found in Torah. Anyway, Midrashes are wisdom tales and no one would get
burned at the stake for not believing in their literal truth.
The story is all about how the Tree of Life was made, and how everything
got messed up when Adam misunderstood the importance and the meaning of this
map. Now, I could if need be show where and how this story actually does
come out of Jewish Kabbalah texts, but that would get us really sided
tracked, so how about taking that one on faith. More importantly the story
is also all about Quality! It is a allegorical tale of the origins of
Quality. Here is the link:
http://www.geocities.com/gershomdreamer/qabalah15.html
Now, no cheating and jumping to the link without reading the story! I know
it's a little longish, but bear with me, I think you will find it
entertaining, if not edifying. So, enjoy already!
A Kabbalist tale of the story of the Metaphysics of Quality.
This is the tale of creation that the Jewish Mystical Rabbis teach.
In the beginning there was Ayn Sof. Ayn Sof is a word which represents the
true essence of the Divine. Ayn Sof literal means "No Thing", hence "All
Things" the Infinite, the Nondual. Ayn Sof is the mystery before which no
human word or thought can comprehend. Ayn Sof is without definition, and is
before definition.
Ayn Sof decide to create. And so Ayn Sof first made itself manifest. Out
of this manifestation Ayn Sof created the Heavens and the Earth. On the
Earth was created a Garden in the land of Eden. Ayn Sof created all the
trees and other plants in the Garden. Then Ayn Sof created all the animals.
In the center of this vast Garden was created one a very special tree, The
One Tree and its name was Sefirot[i]. The word Sefirot is without
translation but it is a plural feminine noun made from the root letter SFR.
>From these root letters derive the words for numbers and for writing.
After all of the Garden had been filled with plants and animals all was
ready for the home for the crowing glory of creation: Humanity.
The first child of humankind was a absolute perfect being, an Androgynous
being of unity made from the Earth itself. Then Ayn Sof divide up the
Androgynous being into two equal halves, into a male and a female.[ii] The
male was named Adam and the female was named Lilith.
Now Ayn Sof was to hard a concept for Adam to deal with and so Adam invented
a name for the Creator, Adam named the Creator: God. Now God explained to
Adam and Lilith God's plan. God wanted grand-children, lots of them.
Perhaps a few hundreds, maybe a few thousand, hey if need be the Garden
could be expanded to house happily perhaps a few million. God explained sex
and child birth. (Now back then time moved differently. So, it wouldn't
take 9 months to give birth. Perhaps a mere 9 days or 9 hours, who knows,
none of us were there back then to tell us. Adam and his wife were perhaps
too busy having sex and making babies to keep track of time.)
Anyway, Adam and Lilith liked the sex part but Lilith wasn't to keen on the
giving birth part of the deal. She realized she would be doing most of the
work. So, she slipped away from Adam and wandered off to check out center
of the Garden were God planted this special thing. Know, God didn't tell
Adam and Lilith exactly what was in the center of the Garden. Only that it
was a special place. When Lilith got there she saw The One Tree. She
realized it was not just any tree but the Tree of Life! [This is how come
we now call Sefirot by the name "The Tree of Life."] And she realized that
the Tree of Life is a map! It was a representation of the Divine itself.
Then she realized that as below so above and as below so above. That the
Tree of Life was a map of the macrocosmic Divine and the map of the
microcosmic soul within us all. With this realization came power. With
this power she became the Queen of the Night, and left the Garden.
Now Adam saw Lilith leave. He called out to God and complained. God took
pity on Adam, and was a little ticked off at Lilith for not want to play the
game of life by the Divine Rules God laid out, so God put Adam to sleep,
took out of him a rib and from this created a new partner for Adam. And God
named her Eve. Now God was certain that Eve and Adam would stick to
together.
Eve was told by Adam all that had occurred in the Garden so far and about
God's plan for them, perhaps placing more emphasis on the sex part than the
child birthing part, anyway Eve seemed okay with the overall situation.
[Now, there was this whole 'serpent thing', but who he was and what he had
to do with the whole situation is not that important right now, so will just
ignore him and what part he played in the grand scheme. I will mention that
the serpent was created for the sole purpose of stirring up trouble and
moving the plot along. The Serpent was trapped in a rigged game from the
get go , he was set up to take the fall by Ayn Sof.]
Now Adam and Eve took a walk to the center of the Garden to check out what
was so special there. When Eve beheld the Tree, she saw the true nature of
the One Tree, she "saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a
delight to the eyes [Note: It had High Quality!], and the tree was to be
desired to make one wise[iii]". So she ate from the tree and gained wisdom.
Now, as we all know, the reason we got kicked out of the Garden was all Adam
's fault. Later on some Jewish guy named Saul even made up a rhyme about
it: In Adam's fall we all fell, or something like that. Maybe it wasn't
Saul but some other guy, I'm getting old and I forget some of the details,
so forgive me. Now, some people make a big deal out of Adam's mistake. But
they are mistranslating the Hebrew word. What is translated as "sin" means
only mistake, a falling short of the mark. Be that as it may, Adam is the
culprit.
When Adam looked upon the One Tree he saw two. Adam had this mental block
and he tended to divide things up, he took things too literally. So, he
mistook the fact that there was two names, the tree of Life and the tree of
Good and Evil, as meaning that there must be two trees. And so Adam saw
two trees. Adam divided up what was originally one. He not only did that
but he looked upon the tree and rather than seeing it as a continuous
dynamic unity he saw a static hierarchy of separate parts. Adam also saw
those two trees as being something separate from himself and thereby
invented Subject - Object Metaphysics.
This really pissed God off. Adam had made a real mess of God's elegant map.
God then shoved the whole lot of them out of the Garden and told them that
henceforth there would be toiling in the fields, death and worst of all,
taxes.
Before Adam the Tree of Good and Evil, the Tree of Ethics was united with
the Tree of Life, which was the representation of the governing principle in
all things, i.e. Quality. So Adam split off Ethics from the knowledge of
governing principles. Adam tried to correct this by making a big deal out
of studying the tree of life and thereby further splitting the study of
life, which he called science, from ethics. It just went down hill from
there. Adam just get categorizing things making up more names and
separating the whole lot from each other. We've been waiting around ever
since for someone to come along and put it all back together.
Now, all this could have been remedied years ago if Adam had listen to Eve.
But, he didn't. The Rabbis, unfortunately inherited the same prejudice
about Eve that Adam had. They got it from this later descendant of Adam
named Abraham who unfortunately, truth to tell, invented male chauvinism,
i.e. 'patriarchy'. Eve had been teaching her girl children all that she
knew. This was the secret wisdom of women, but that knowledge got lost and
messed up when Abraham shut down Eve's separate school for women. Which he
said he was doing all in the name of equality, something called 'Title IX',
it's hard for me to keep the name for those laws that Adam made up. I think
this law goes something like "there shall be no separation amongst the sexes
if you want tax money."
So, that's the true tale of the Garden, the One Tree and how the whole thing
got so messed up.
[i] Gen 2:9
[ii] This is the meaning of the verse Gen: 1:27.
[iii] Gen 3:6. Now in Gen 2:9 it was stated that all trees including the
Tree of Life/Good and Evil was good for food.
One last thing: The secret understanding of the Tree of Life is that it is
all about Sex! You see Tiffereth, which is The Beautiful, which is a male
principle, and Malkuth, which is The Good, which is a female principle
interact and intersect at the point called Yesod, which is The True. This
intersecting is Sex! Thus we have: The sexual union of The Beautiful with
The Good is The True!
Okay, class is over. Now everyone do your homework and read the next
chapter in your Zohars. Tomorrow we will talk about the blessed Rabbi
Einstein.
----- Original Message -----
From: David Buchanan
To: 'moq_discuss@moq.org'
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2002 5:37 PM
Subject: RE: MD Asking why did Pirsig make his map?
Gary and y'all:
Gary said:
The map Pirsig gives us in Lila is not a map of the evolution of all
matter and life in the universe. The map in Lila is not answering how we
come to know and acquire knowledge about reality. The map in Lila is not
about the interaction of matter and energy from the fields of chemistry,
biology, ecological science, etc. If that was Pirsig's focus he would have
made a different map! At least that is what I am suggesting.
DMB says:
I think the emphasis is put upon the 3rd and 4th levels (and on DQ) simply
because the material realms are already well understood and they're already
over-emphasized in SOM. But there is no contradiction and his map is still
exhaustive. But it is about the evolution of all life and matter in the
universe. It is about all of reality in spite of the fact that he spends
less time and energy on physics and such. He just glossing over the obvious
stuff.
Gary:
Now, maybe he didn't realize that the map he made in Lila was to be used
solely for ethical discussions and was not meant to be used in other
considerations. Perhaps this was not a conscious act by Pirsig. Or perhaps
it was.
DMB says:
Yes, he focuses on morals, ethics, rightness, betterness, truth and such.
They're all just different species of the good. He puts this kind of stuff
at the center of all reality so that even atoms and galaxies have a
rightness. They exist because its better than nothingness. The whole thing
is about better and better betterness from the big bang onward. Everything
has quality, but the morals and ethics enter into it right away because some
things are better than others. Rigel was better than Lila, but the Captain
was better than Rigel. Its all about sorting the world and making
judgements. Not just life, but everything is an ethical activity. It a
vastly expanded sense of what ethics is all about.
Gary:
Which leaves up free to make up a new map when we are considering something
other than ethics.
DMB says:
Make up a new map? Hmm. Either you're a ambitious genius or you're about to
get very lost. Good luck.
-
Gary Jaron
Gary Jaron: "People shape, and are shaped by, Ideas."
Gary Jaron: "People shape, and are shaped by, Ideas."
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