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 isthat I amlacking 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
notbelievingin 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 Gods 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 wouldnt 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 wasnt 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 didnt 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 Gods 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 Adams fault.
Later on some Jewish guy named Saul even made up a rhyme about it: In Adams fall
we all fell, or something like that. Maybe it wasn't Saul but some otherguy, I'm getting
old and I forget some of the details, so forgive me. Now, some people make a big deal
out of Adams 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 Gods 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. Weve 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
didnt. 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 Eves separate school for women.
Which he said he was doing all in the name of equality, something called Title IX, its
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, thats 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 withThe Good is The True!
Okay, class is over. Now everyonedo your homework and read the next chapter in
yourZohars.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."
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