Science and the Spirit

"The first step down from Phaedrus' statement that 'Quality is the Buddha' is the statement that such a statement, if true, provides a rational basis for a unification of three areas of human experience which are now disunified.  These three areas are Religion, Art and Science....

"The relationship of Quality to the area of Art has been shown rather exhaustively...Art is the Godhead as revealed in the works of man....

"In the area of Religion, the rational relationship of Quality to the Godhead needs to be more thoroughly established....For the time being one can meditate on the fact that the old English roots for the Buddha and Quality, God and good, appear to be identical.

"It is in the area of Science that I want to focus attention in the immediate future, for this is the area that most badly needs the relationship established.  The dictum that Science and its offspring, technology, are 'value free,' that is, 'quality free,' has got to go.  It's that 'value freedom' that underlies the death-force effectto which attention was brought early in the Chatauqua."

Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

An explanation of why we left the Pre-existence for mortality.

Havel teetered on the brink between Theism and Deism.  Uncomfortable with the term "God," he used Heidegger's "Being" to describe the divine instead.  It's also important to note that his "Pre-I" was as much an invocation of the Freudian idea of the baby's consciousness in the womb as it was an intuition of the pre-existence.  His prison letters were so heavily censored that he had to resort to an almost tortured abstract philosophical tone to get out anything to his wife and friends.  Given all of these limitation, however, his time alone in prison was such an intense time of soul searching and introspection that I find it fascinating to read as an example of a man with little or no theological belief or underpinning wresting openly with his experiences with the divine. 

For example the following paragraph strikes me a useful mini-essay on why we had to leave the Father's presence for a mortal life:

"...by virtue of our 'pre-I,' we still have one foot, as it were, in the original fullness of Being and our mind has not yet emerged with sufficient clarity to make us aware of our state of separation and present to us the necessity of existence-in-the-world, and, of course, the temptation locked within it - if, then, we are not yet capable of reflecting the 'voice of Being' on that level, then only later - in the forge of living trials and through them, as we mature into ourselves - do we find ourselves in a genuinely 'alert' confrontation with that voice, in that never-ending 'dialogue' with it at the crossroads where Being and existence-in-the-world part ways, and only then do we have the real freedom to decide, over and over again, what we will pursue and what we will turn away from.  In other words: we really only discover and begin to understand, accept and fulfill our genuine responsibility 'toward' - through alert 'existential praxis,' through the trials and tribulations we undergo, and the tasks that arise - and of course through our own failures as well."

Vaclav Havel
Letters to Olga

Old Books

A precious - mouldering pleasure - 'tis -
To meet an Antique Book -
It's just the dress his century wore -
A privilege -  I think -

His venerable Hand to take -
And warming in our own -
A passage back - or two - to make -
To Times when he - was young -

His quaint opinions - to inspect -
His thought to ascertain
On Themes concern our mutual mind
The Literature of Man -

What interested Scholars - most -
What Competitions ran -
When Plato - was a Certainty -
And Sophocles - a Man -

When Sappho - was a living Girl -
And Beatrice wore
The Gown that Dante - deified -
Facts centuries before

He traverses - familiar -
As One should come to Town -
And tell you all your Dreams - were true -
He lived - when Dreams were born -

His presence is enchantment -
You beg him not to go -
Old Volumes shake their Vellum Heads
And tantalize - just so -


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 565

A Life's Work

"...I have not considered myself unworthy to make Alexander's exploits known to mankind.  That much I have discerned about myself, whoever I may be.  I need not set down my name, for it is not unknown to men, nor is my country, nor my family nor the offices, if any there were, I have held in my own land.  But this I do put on record: that these chronicles are my country and my family and my offices, and have been from my youth."

Arrian
Anabasis

Inner Resources

Reverse cannot befall
That fine Prosperity
Whose Sources are interior -
As soon - Adversity

A Diamond - overtake
In far - Bolivian Ground -
Misfortune hath no implement
Could mar it - if it found.


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 565

Spiritual Mountains

"The allegory of the physical mountain for the spiritual one that stands between each soul and its goal is an easy and natural one to make.  Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships."

Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Trust in the Unexpected

Trust in the Unexpected -
By this - was William Kidd
Persuaded of the Buried Gold -
As One had testified -

Through this - the old Philosopher -
His talismanic stone
Discerned - still witholden
to effort undivine -

'Twas this - allured Columbus -
When Genoa - withdrew
Before an Apparition
Baptized America -

The Same - afflicted Thomas -
When Deity assured
'Twas better - the perceiving not -
Provided it believed -


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 563

Craftsmanship and Peace of Mind

"...the art of the work is just as dependent upon your own mind and spirit as it is upon the material of the machine.  That's why you need the peace of mind."
     "Actually, this idea isn't so strange," I continue.  "Sometime look at a novice workman or a bad workman and compare his expression with that of a craftsman whose work you know is excellent and you'll see the difference.  The craftsman isn't ever following a single line of instruction.  He's making decisions as he goes along.  For that reason he'll be absorbed and attentive to what he's doing even though he doesn't deliberately contrive this.  His motions and the machine are in a kind of harmony.  He isn't following any set of written instructions because the nature of the material at hand determines his thoughts and motions, which simultaneously change the nature of the material at hand.  The material and his thoughts are changing together in a progression of changes until his mind's at rest at the same time the material's right."
     "Sounds like art," the instructor says.
     "Well, it is art," I say.  "This divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural."


Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Why dramatic spiritual experiences are rare...

Did Our Best Moment last -
'Twould supersede the Heaven -
A few - and they by Risk - procure -
So this Sort - are not given -

Except as stimulants -
Cases of Despair -
Or Stupor - The Reserve -
These Heavenly moments are -

A Grant of the Divine -
That certain as it Comes -
Withdraws - and leaves the dazzled Soul -
In her unfurnished Rooms -



Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 560