From: MarshaV (marshalz@i-2000.com)
Date: Thu Dec 16 2004 - 19:40:43 GMT
At 12:19 PM 12/16/2004 +0000, Sam wrote:
>Mystics are those who know the tradition so well that they are free to
>develop or change it; or, to bring out and make explicit those Qualities
>within the tradition that had previously been hidden. It's what Pirsig
>talks about when he describes the welder, or when he describes the art of
>motorcycle maintenance - the motorcycle and the mechanic are one, and
>there is a complete fluidity, a complete absence of constraint - but it is
>*specifically* built on all that has gone before. I think this is also
>what Mark Maxwell is talking about when he describes the 'sweet spot' of
>coherent static patterns. Which is why I don't think you can get to that
>stage unless you have first attained some sort of mastery of the
>accumulated static patterns; it would be like a novice mechanic getting
>'with it' and shearing the threads off a screw because he hadn't yet
>acquired the basic 'feel' for how tightly to twist it. Such a novice
>mechanic, if they then turned round and claimed to be 'with it, going with
>the flow, in tune with the cosmos etc' would be considered a right prat -
>(we're back to my spiritual masturbation point again) - in other words
>there are always criteria for assessing the Quality of what is claimed to
>be mystical.
Dear Sam and Chin,
I don't agree with the master/novice analogy. It's more being in total
awareness. That can happen to a novice with very little training, if he's
in total concentration, or mindfulness. You don't necessarily need many
years, or a teacher. But they might help a lot if one tends to overthink
everything. Do you think their are levels of mystical experience?
MarshaV
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