One of the two books I use in my summer web design course is Robert
Pirsig's *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*. This year,
after finishing the course, I decided to revisit his other, far less
famous (but equally, if not more compelling) work, *Lila*. I hadn't
read it since it came out (c.1991). I finished it this morning.
In ZMM, Pirsig makes the argument that the normal, rational, Western
Scientific subject/object bifurcation of the universe is false, and
that Quality is the source of everything in the universe.
In this work he extends his notion of Quality as the source of
everything by noting that there are two kinds of quality: static
Quality - things as they are - and Dynamic Quality - things becoming.
At the end of the book he surveys Quality as a concept in Eastern
Tradition (Hindu as well as Buddhist), and looks specifically at
*dharma* (one translation of which, as I understand the concept, is
"tradition"). Pirsig says:
"...you would guess from the literature on Zen and its
insistence on discovering the 'unwritten _dharma_' that it
would be intensely anti-ritualistic, since ritual is the
'written _dharma_.' But that isn't the case. The Zen
monk's daily life is nothing *but* one ritual after another,
hour after hour, day after day, all his life. They don't
tell him to shatter those static patterns to discover the
unwritten _dharma_. They want him to get those patterns
perfect!
The explantion for this contradiction is the belief that
you do not free yourself from static patterns by fighting
them with other contrary static patterns. That is cometimes
called 'bad karma chaising its tail.' You free yourself
from static patterns by putting them to sleep. That is,
you master them with such proficiency that they become an
unconscious part of your nature. You get so used to them
you completely forget them and they are gone. There, in
the center of the most monotonous boredom of static
ritualistic patterns, Dynamic freedom is found.
[Pirsig's character from ZMM] saw nothing wrong with this
ritualistic religion as long as the rituals were seen merely
as a static portrayal of Dynamic Quality, a sign-post which
allows socially pattern-dominated people to see Dynamic
Quality. The danger has always been that the rituals, the
static patterns, are mistaken for what they merely represent
and are allowed to destroy the Dynamic Quality they were
originally intended to preserve" (p.384-385).
This notion of mastering the forms (rituals) of a given practice
as a means of going beyond them is, as far as I can tell, at the
heart of all Zen practices. In *Tea Life, Tea Mind*, Soshitsu Sen
XV, notes:
The Way of Tea has undergone many generations of nurturing
and refinement. Each one of the procedures for making tea
has been polished so that it is difficult to perform in
any other way with greater skill or ease. Thus, the first
step in the practice of Tea is to learn each movement
faithfully. Gradually, you will show more and more the
result of your study of the order and manner of preparing
tea.
Once these skills are learned and assimilated, you can
then go beyond them. But at first you must learn the
steps, paying careful attention to each detail. Gradually,
after many repetitions, it is almost as if the procedure
performs itself. It becomes part of your body, as natural
as walking.
Once you have learned how to set and how to serve tea
according to the rules of the discipline of Tea, you
are free to use your mind and body at will. When you know
how to use this freedom, you can at last serve tea in a
serious manner to your guests.
- Soshitsu Sen XV, *Tea Life, Tea Mind*
For your reflection...
bj
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