HORSE and the squad formerly known as LILA:
I'd like to differ with you on a fine point. Several others have made
the point too.
You quote Lao Tsu, "The Tao that can be told is not the enternal Tao".
And you say "the mystical experience is beyond words" and concepts. To
over-symplify just a little, the idea is essentially that talking about
mystical reality is pretty useless. Thinking about the mystical
experience is an impossible waste of time. I really do understand what
you mean, but only to a point.
It's not that words and ideas are useless in exploring the mystical
experience, its just that they are limited. Language is built by
ordinary consciouness for ordinary purposes. (Intellectual patterns
created by subject/object mind for dealing with physical and social
reality.) And all the various kinds of intellectual patterns are what
slipped away when Pirsig had his experience. In ZAAMM he describes the
scene where everthing crashes. (Others who've made the same point have
cited it recently.) His thoughts, identity, his quest, the mythos of
his mind all melted away.
But then he recovered and wrotes two books. Both use lots of words and
ideas to discuss mystical reality and the experience that introduced him
to its' existence.
Sure it's not the same as being there, but if you ever been someplace
like it you'll appreciate what he's trying to say. Or if you've read
accounts of the experience from people all through time and from
different cultures you might have some idea. Language has an ability to
be inventive and flexible. You can paints pictures of things with words
and ideas.
I love the welding images Pirsig used early in ZAAMM. Remember? He was
talking about Quality and the welder at the same time. He seemed strange
to the welder for finding so much beauty (Quality) in it and praising
him so lavishly. The welding itself is a perfect image of what he was
trying to say about Quality overall.
Picture the very center of the action. The weld is white hot. Its so
bright you can't even look at it. It would blind you if you tried. That
white hot center is Quality, where subject and object meet. Quality is a
creative event that gives rise to subjects and objects. Its not a
scientific explaination, the image has a way of penetrating the
understanding that is beyond precise, it sings. Then the words are
easier to grasp.
"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God."
DAVID B.
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