Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

     "What I wanted to say..is that I've a set of instructions at home which open up great realms for the improvement of technical writing.  They begin, 'Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind.' "
     This produces more laughter, but Sylvia and Gennie and the sculptor give sharp looks of recognition.
     "That's a good instruction," the sculptor says.  Gennie nods too.
     "That's kind of why I saved it," I say, "At first I laughed because of memories of bicycles I'd put together, and of course, the unintended slur on Japanese manufacture.  But there's a lot of wisdom in that statement...
     "Peace of mind isn't at all superficial, really," I expound.  "It's the whole thing.  That which produces it is good maintenance;  that which disturbs it is poor maintenance.  What we call workability of the machine is just an objectification of this peace of mind.  The ultimate test's always your own serenity.  If you don't have this when you start and maintain it while you're working on you're likely to build your personal problems right into the machine itself."

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"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself."

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"The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.  Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind.  The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon."


Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Heaven

"Heaven" has different Signs - to me -
Sometimes, I think that Noon -
Is but a symbol of the Place -
And when again, at Dawn,

A mighty look runs round the World
And settles in the Hills -
An Awe if it should be like that
Opon the Ignorance steals -

The Orchard, when the Sun is on -
The Triumph of the Birds
When they together Victory make -
Some Carnivals of Clouds -

The Rapture of a finished Day
Returning to the West -
All of these - remind us of the place
That Men call "Paradise" -

Itself be fairer - we suppose -
But how Ourself, shall be
Adorned, for a Superior Grace -
Not yet our eyes can see -


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 536

The Best Students

A portion of the middle of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a meditation on education.  The following scene stands out in a way that encapsulates Phaedrus' educational journey:

"...every teacher tends to grade up students who resemble him the most....Well there's something wacky here,"  Phaedrus had said, "because the students I like the most, the ones I really feel a sense of identity with, are all failing!"
    DeWeese had completely broken up with laughter at this and left Phaedrus feeling miffed.  He had seen it as a kind of scientific phenomenon that might offer clues to new understanding, and DeWeese had just laughed.
     At first he thought DeWeese was just laughing at his unintended insult to himself.  But that didn't fit because DeWeese wasn't a derogatory person at all.  Later he saw it was a kind of supertruth laugh.  The best students always are flunking.  Every good teacher knows that.  It was a kind of laughter that destroys tensions produced by impossible situations....


Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Time and Eternity

Some - Work for Immortality -
The Chiefer part, for Time -
He - Compensates - immediately -
The former - Checks - on Fame -

Slow Gold - but Everlasting -
The Boullion of Today -
Contrasted with the Currency
Of Immortality -

A Beggar - Here and There -
Is gifted to discern
Beyond the Broker's insight -
One's - Money - One's - the Mine -


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 536

The Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world

I've often speculated that the word "through" in D&C 84:46 might not just mean that the spirit enlightens men throughout the world, but also that the spirit uses our experiences in the world to enlighten us if we will allow it.  Vaclav Havel has something similar to say -

"And here we encounter, in a new form, the profoundly paradoxical nature of human existence: the "I" can only approach the kind of Being it longs for (i.e., in the fullness of being) through its own existence-in-the-world, and the manner of that existence.  It can neither skip over that existence, nor get around, nor avoid it nor ignore it."

Vaclav Havel
Letters to Olga

Some Sayings of the Buddha

• "Few among men are they who cross to the further shore.  The others merely run up and down the bank on this side."
• "He whose senses are mastered like horses well under the charioteers control, he who is purged of pride, free from passions, such a one even the gods envy (hold dear)."
• "He who holds back arisen anger as one checks a whirling chariot, him I call a charioteer, the rest just hold the reins."
• "Conquer anger by love, evil by good; conquer the miser with liberality, and the liar with truth."

I chose these sayings from Rahula's selections from the Dhammapada because of their resonance with scriptural truths I have found to be important.  The first and fourth evoke some sayings of the Savior.  The middle two bring my mind to Alma's exhortation to his son to "bridle his passions."

Books!!!

Unto my books - so good to turn -
Far ends of tired Days -
It half endears the Abstinence -
And Pain - is missed - in Praise -

As Flavors - cheer Retarded Guests
With Banquettings to be -
So Spices - stimulate the time -
Till my small Library -

It may be Wilderness - without -
Far feet of failing Men -
But Holiday - excludes the night -
And it is Bells - within -

I thank these Kinsmen of the Shelf -
Their Countenances Kid -
Enamour - in Prospective -
And satisfy - obtained -


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 512

I do find my books, my own "small library" augmented temporarily by borrowings from the four library systems that I have access to, indeed brings solace to "far ends of tired days."  Sometimes the very sight of a book's countenance (whether leather or not) can "enamour in prospective" of future reading pleasures.  This blog is a small glimpse into the satisfactions of that reading.