From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Fri Apr 23 2004 - 13:44:40 BST
Dear Wim,
> You CAN react to environmental stimuli when asleep!
You may be thinking of sleepwalking. I doubt if your responses to DQ are
at their peak when bumping around in the night. :-)
> But more to the point
> of sorting out the relation between consciousness and direct
> experience/Quality may be what Pirsig wrote in chapter 29 of 'Lila': 'In
> this basic flux of experience, the distinctions of reflective thought, such
> as those between consciousness and content, subject and object, mind and
> matter, have not yet emerged in the forms which we make them. Pure
> experience cannot be called either physical or psychical: it logically
> precedes this distinction.'
I think Pirsig means "pure experience" cannot be put into words because it
occurs prior to "reflective thoughts." Unfortunately, by naming it "pure
experience" he contradicts himself because "pure experience" is a
distinctive reflective thought.
> Maybe it is definition problems ('consciousness' having several
> different meanings) rather than translation problems we are having?
Possibly. The definition of "consciousness" I use is from Webster: "the
quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself."
Also from Webster, a definition of "experience" I subscribe to: "the
conscious events that make up an individual life"
Awareness, consciousness, experience -- all refer to the same phenomena,
i.e., what is happening at this moment without comment.
Best regards,
Platt
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