From: Dallas Van Winkle (dallas.vanwinkle@gmail.com)
Date: Thu May 12 2005 - 21:02:20 BST
The way I see it, pre intellectual dynamic quality is almost an alignment of
the body with dynamic quality. The mind and body act in a way that gives no
room for self doubt or intellectualization. Sure, the senses are a
biological pattern, but they are of high dynamic quality. Let's look at an
athlete in "the zone", I consider "the zone" to be of extremely high dynamic
quality. Instead of breathing in a specific pattern, the athlete
subconciously tunes his breathing to the perfect tempo for his situation, a
most likely organic, extremely dynamic tempo as opposed to a static, more
"mechanic" like tempo. His mind is not focused on strategies... or anything,
really, his mind is perfectly aligned with dynamic quality and it's as if it
controls him as he plays the game.
So, if I am understanding this correctly, the answer is yes, we have
biological patterns but they are of extremely high dynamic quality.
-dallas
On 5/12/05, Michael Hamilton <thethemichael@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been musing over ZMM for a year, and over Lila since the autumn, and
> there's just one part of the MOQ as formulated by Pirsig that strikes me as
> inconsistent. I'd be surprised if it hasn't come up over the years of
> discussion that have been taking place on the MD, so I apologise if I'm
> going over old ground.
>
> According to Lila, Dynamic Quality has driven the evolution of inorganic
> patterns into biological, social and intellectual patterns. To me, this
> doesn't tally with ZMM's central thesis that pure (Dynamic) Quality is the
> flux of pre-intellectual awareness supplied by our senses. I accept that
> social and intellectual patterns "filter" our experience into something more
> static and less bewildering, but surely our senses are a *biological
> pattern*, and also filter the Quality reality, before the social and
> intellectual patterns get involved. I would stipulate that the ineffable
> Quality reality is infinitely more complex than that which is presented by
> the limited range of our five senses (following Kant's phenomena/noumena
> distinction, and supported by Pirsig's 4 static levels thesis).
>
> I propose softening the idea that pre-intellectual sensory awareness is
> Dynamic Quality, suggesting instead that said sensory awareness is the most
> Dynamic experience available to us (due to the fact that it hasn't been
> filtered by static social and intellectual patterns). "Most Dynamic
> experience available" may not be the best way to phrase it, because I do
> accept the possibility that static biological (sensory) filters can also be
> bypassed by meditation techniques, and that it therefore may be possible to
> experience pure Quality. Perhaps this is what Pirsig in fact intended, but
> in his writings I get the distinct impression that the pre-intellectual
> awareness, with which he equates DQ, is sensory.
>
> I realise that my proposed modification somewhat undermines ZMM's thesis
> that "Quality is the primary empirical reality" (if that's not a direct
> quote then it's definitely an accurate paraphrase), but that's the only way
> I can see of making the MOQ and the four levels coherent - how can the
> senses not be a static biological pattern? Even as I write this, doubts are
> creeping in. Am I letting the static intellectual categorisation system of
> the 4 levels take precedence over indefinable, empirical Dynamic Quality?
> Perhaps I've merely exposed a flaw in the division of Quality into four
> static levels? (Pirsig himself says that this is an arbitrary division, but
> that it has high quality as an intellectual pattern due to its usefulness.)
>
> I'd very much appreciate your thoughts on this dilemma.
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
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