Kia Ora Diana, David and foci,
Space. There it is. Here it is
again. Space.
What do we think of between these pauses.
Pirsig introduces the concept of space on pg 7.(paperback 1992 ed.) He
points out that ' space was what this sailing was all about.' I will point
out some concepts that support his statement here. It is the core of the
journey.
In a SOM world, space, as defined by Paul Davies, is the relationship
between matter and time. What was before the big bang? If there was no
matter away from the subject then there was no distance, hence no time and
as a result no space. Nothing. There was no subject or object, no matter, no
space, no time. A sense of oneness perhaps. It is one aspect of the concept
of space but does not give insights to its potential magnitude in a values
oriented metaphysics.
What Pirsig points out is the value of space pertaining to time. 'Suddenly a
space was created in everybody's lives. An unexpected gap of time had opened
up in everybody's lives.'
This opening of time is a natural event in evolution. Let me elaborate
further. For development of any type to occur there has to be a space
created for it to happen. It has long been thought that mans dominance over
nature just evolved naturally. This is not the case. Tim Flannery, in his
book, 'The Future eaters' points out that man and his environment coevolved.
Any small advances that were made to assist with their evolutionary survival
were met by the coevolution of the surrounding environment to deal with
these advances. As a result, any spacial progress was balanced up in the
space of a few generations.
It was not until the ancestors of the Australian aborigines travelled to
other islands and escaped competition from other predators to become the
'exterminator species' that this space creating coevolution was halted. Once
they secured their place as the main predatory species and were not
themselves hunted, they were able to live quite well. A space had opened up
in their lives. In this space they were able to develop other aspects. Space
that was once devoted to survival and food foraging lead to the development
of craft skills to make hunting more efficient. They became more aware of
the space of the surrounding environment. As a result, these creative skills
gave them the evolutionary edge over their environment which marked the
beginnings of mans dominance over his environment. This can be paralleled to
the triumph of socio-intellectual Dynamic over the biological static.
This space was necessary for their advancement. 40, 000 years later, the
space has closed up. There is now no space to to move forward to the next
level. The socio-intellectual Dynamic has evolved to become predominantly a
social static force. The space that was created has now been filled with
social obligations that include family, work, education, sport and
recreation all circumnavigating a global economic rationale (intellectual
static forces). Our culture does not afford the luxury of permitting free
time (spaceto advance the human condition towards the Dynamic Quality.
People who do have space in their lives, such as the unemployed or wealthy
people, pursue static social values of full employment or greater
acquisition of rather than encourage possible Dynamic thinking strategies.
Our whole culture is devolted towards filling in space. We are not
disciplined to create space. One of the biggest problems of modern western
culture is time-management, space creation. Out technological culture which
Pirsig discusses in ZMM shows its hopelessness in being able to create
space. Technology was seen as a time saving device, but the western social
ramifications do not portray this ideology.This is also evident in social
settings. We fill gaps and pauses with conversation, mostly superficial and
meaningless. This is in stark contrast to many indigenous cultures.
Whilst Pirsig gives insights to the American indians and their ability to
create space through minimalist converstaion, there are other recorded
insights to this practice. Jean Liedloff, anthropologist who is responsible
for bringing the 'Continuum Concept' of child rearing to western culture
observed of an Amazonian indian tribe who showed the same minimalists
ability towards conversation. A stranger welcomed to the tribe would sit in
silence and eat with the others. The tribe would do the same. It was seen as
a mark of comfort and well being in their prescence. This is entirely
different to western attitudes that would see such a social event as being
too awkward and so must fill it with meaningless superficial introductory
'what's the weather, how's the trip' type jibberish.
This space that these indigenous cultures are able to create serve the
purpose to develop the steps towards enlightenment or Dynamic Quality. In
fact the use of the peyote, helps to create this space. It is this insight
that may be the reason that drug use in western culture is endemic, the
users are trying to create space for themselves. This need for space
creation is necessary to deal with all manner issues. It is in this capacity
that Phaedrus used peyote to distance himself from the intellect to see pure
DQ.
The space that is created through drug use removes the clutter of
rationality and allows 'what can be' to arise. This is of Dynamic value. The
log jam in the canals forcing everyone to sit tight for a couple of days was
another form of space creation. It is a classic example of
stuckness.Frustration emerges. Can't do anything so sit and stare. As a
result a Dynamic element emerged within the community. Not trivial
superficial stuff but "In depth". This creation of space was a portal to DQ.
Another portal to DQ was made on the first page.
In the very first sentence of the book, space is the concept. 'Lila didn't
know he was there.' A space was created by sleep. Physically he was but
subconsciously he wasn't. The dream she was having was her minds way of
creating space. Dreams are a necessary space creator for people of the late
20th and 21st century. All the problems of the outside pattern of reality
can be alleviated by the dream. The conscious world and the subconscious
world co-inhabit the mind. It is the subconscious that has DQ. It is
pre-rational, unpredictable but possesses the means to escape and create
space. What can't be enacted out on the conscious world stage can be within
the dream state. Lila was working at resolving some form of conflict in the
sub conscious in the very first paragraph. Dreams are pathways towards the
DQ, and many instances have been noted where the dreams have provided
Dynamic solutions over static patterns of value. It is releasing this DQ of
dreams from the subconscious into the realms of the conscious. This is the
mystical experience sought by yogis and gurus alike, this is the solution
for stuckness and technological hopelessness.
The creation of space.
Interestingly enough, much of what has been written over the past weekend
alludes to this. Terms such as 'expanded consciousness', 'freedom',
'order', 'empty' , 'full', 'open-minded', 'expansion of awareness',
vacation', 'nothingness', 'timeless' are all space creation terms. These
terms are used when discussing static or Dynamic patterns of values. It may
be seen that the space may be static or the space may be Dynamic.
Freedom can be seen as a Dynamic space where order is static space. Empty is
Dynamic space and full is static space.
So how can we pursue this freedom, this emptiness? It comes to awareness.
Awareness is a spacial concept. Awareness is derived from Dynamic value. It
may be said that awareness can be static or Dynamic, but it is the bridge
between the subconscious and the conscious. It is conceptual by nature and
has no hard rationality assigned to it. Awareness has value because it has
arisen from an experience. If the experience has been of value then we seek
to expand our awareness, choosing the path towards DQ requires the creation
of space.
Diana points the way to create space by identifying value:
Of all the characters in LILA Dusenberry is definitely
the one I'd most like to have round for dinner. Lila is
boring and stupid, Phaedrus is aloof and insenstive and
Rigels is a prissy snob. Ugh, not really a bunch of charmers
are they;-)
But Dusenberry is warm and friendly, sociable, yet
unconventional. He's not a caricature like the other three,
he's a real person. He's basically a social person but, unlike
Rigel, he's creative intellectually as well.
It is these characteristics of Dusenberry that Diana valued. So she would
create space for him. People would make space for this person. They would
not for Lila, Rigel or Phaedrus.
The encounter with Dynamic Dusenberry creates space of a social value, but
not all social encounters are of value. The Program slips are designed to
create space of an intellectual value, but not all of the slips are of
value. Just as sexual encounters create space of biological value, not all
are of value (no little offsprings).
It may be argued that awareness is the experential collection of spacial
concepts that build on the path towards DQ.
A space had opened up 40,000 years ago for man to emerge from the
coevolution of socio-biological pattern of values. Further movement towards
DQ needs the creation of space to emerge from the coevolution of
socio-intellectual pattern values. The MOQ points the way to create this
space. How we personally achieve it will be the test of chronological space
(time).
There is now, finally, a space in my mind. The cup that was full at the
beginning has now emptied. What will fill it? I can only dream about it.
What ever does will have Dynamic Quality.
Andrew
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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