Examining The Major Thread Topics => Quality, Reality, & Good Old Reality, That Are Found, In Robert Pirsig’s Book “Zen and the Art OF Motorcycle Maintenance”: By Henry S Gurr ZMMQ SiteMaster.

As You can see in the Photo Caption Copy Placed Below, The Original Idea to Study “At Depth”, Robert Pirsig’s 83 Uses Of the Word “Reality” in his Book “Zen and the Art OF Motorcycle Maintenance” , came in the process of writing up that very caption!

A Good Morning For Jogging.
.... “I get out of the sleeping bag. It’s cold and I get dressed quickly. Chris is asleep. I walk around him, climb over a fallen treetrunk and walk up the logging road. To warm myself I speed up to a jog and move up the road briskly.
.... Good, good, good, good, good. The word keeps time with the jogging. Some birds fly up from the shadowy hill into the sunlight and I watch them until they’re out of sight. Good, good, good, good, good. Crunchy gravel on the road. Good, good. Bright yellow sand in the sun. Good, good, good. .. These roads go on for miles sometimes. Good, good, good. Eventually I reach a point where I’m really winded. The road is higher now and I can see for miles over the forest. .. Good.” (Cont.Next Photo)

Dirt Logging Road, Forested Mountains, Lochsa River Canyon. ID.
....This whole passage emphasizes Quality of being alive “Good, good, good, good, good.” and implies essentially => The Narrator's continuous dependence on “Good old reality” . . .
....If fact as said in passage above, The Narrator uses the “reality” of “..speed up to a jog and move up the road briskly ” 'in the sun illuminated forest, to literally “dis-spell” any lingering dream.. “Good old reality”
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....DATE-LINE: June 24, 2021. by Henry Gurr.
EXAMINING MORE CLOSELY THE ZMM NARRATOR’S => “Good old reality”
....Somehow, from my many readings of ZMM, I got the idea that the phrase “Good old reality” (or equivalent), occurred many time in ZMM. So … in process of writing the captions (for above and previous photos) … I decided to find how many more, by > ZMM Full Text > Edit > Find > reality
....I was surprised to see ONLY the one “Good old reality” as already discussed!
EXPLANATION:
....But in the process of the above, my Edit > Find > I found 83 “reality” words, for each of which I took time to study what Author Robert Pirsig said in the surrounding paragraphs.
In Doing This => I Realized Three AHA Insights =>
....A) One of the Many Major Topic Threads In ZMM => Is Robert Pirsig covering a tremendous range of Philosophical Subjects, and in the process explains an understanding of => Just what “reality” is for us, and how we experience “reality”, how do we tell “reality” from dreams, and how we actually know what “reality” actually IS, through Robert Pirsig’s => The Action Of Quality!
....B) AND THEN I realized => I should suggest that you (Dear ZMM Enthusiast), should do as I did, so you can also see & appreciate This Major Thread in ZMM !!
....C) AND THEN I realized => This Whole “Reality” Topic Is Important Enough to have Its own ZMMQ Page Called =>
….“Examining The Major Thread Topics => “Quality, Reality” & “Good Old Reality”. That Are Found In Robert Pirsig’s Book “Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”.
NOTE: This above mentioned page, is of course, what you are reading Right Now,

'ALL THIS “REALITY” '' INFORMATION, IS TO HELP YOU =>
.... UNDERSTAND A MAJOR TOPIC THREAD IN THE ZMM BOOK.
........ PLEASE TAKE TIME TO STUDY AND ENJOY '''
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....SIDE NOTE => In the ZMM Narrator’s above passage, we should notice, “Some birds fly up from the shadowy hill into the sunlight and I watch them until they’re out of sight.” ,
....Here, as in many other Photo Captions, we should notice several Master Motifs => a) “birds fly”, b) “from shadows into light”, and c) “watch till goes out of sight”
....As has been discussed previously in these Albums => This is Author Robert Pirsig’s way of telling us Metaphorically what happens to The Narrator’s communication with Chris. “It comes up “from the shadows into sunlight, but then, “goes out of sight”, after nothing has happen! Why?
(Photo = 110-1063cz.5 ...... ZMM Page = 246 ...... WayPt = 265i8. Photo at 268w 3003ft)
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....DATE-LINE: Feb 17, 2022. by Henry Gurr.
As I was working on the following Photo Caption, I suddenly realized => This following has good content for this Quality, Reality, & Good Old Reality, Special Studies Page, which you are reading Right Now,.
…NOTE: The whole caption is placed below, without any editing.

Plants Have a Hard Time Surviving Here.
…. “The metal of these wrenches is so cold it hurts the hands. But it’s a good hurt. It’s real, not imaginary, and it’s here, absolutely, in my hand. …….. .. In his pursuit of a concept of Quality, Phædrus kept seeing again and again little paths all leading toward some point off to one side. He thought he already knew about the general area they led to, ancient Greece, but now he wondered if he had overlooked something there.” …..[Here the Narrator relates (in two pages) 1) Discuss how “Sarah Vinke had put the idea of Quality in his head”. 2) What happened when he arrived at the University of Chicago and 3) How his PhD Thesis on Qualty can not have either Substantive or Objective about it, 4) Plus details about the U. Chicago’s “Committee on Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods” ] “…. On the machine now everything is done except the oil change. I wake Chris and we pack and go. He’s still sleepy but the cold air on the road wakes him up.” (Cont. Next) <br />
5.8 Miles North of La Pine, OR. In the Narrator’s passage above we note => “It’s real, not imaginary, and it’s here, absolutely, in my hand.” Here again we notice the Narrator’s dependence on “Good old reality.“ The same is absolutely true for all of us. However, like the air surrounding us, we seldom notice it!! This explains why the Narrator repeatedly reminds us of this fact which is an integral part of his Quality Philosophy.
…And as the ZMM Narrator, repeatedly reminds us => “…The cutting edge of this instant right here and now is always nothing less than the totality of everything there is.
…Value, the leading edge of reality, is no longer an irrelevant offshoot of structure.
…Value, is the predecessor of structure. It’s the preintellectual awareness that gives rise to it. Our structured reality is preselected on the basis of value, and really to understand structured reality requires an understanding of the value source from which it’s derived.”

This Whole “Reality” Topic Is Important Enough To Have Its Own ZMMQ Page =>
… In the above “ italiced” words from ZMM, notice the Narrator’s emphasis on “ Reality, ” Here, to be really sure you get full message, please > (10 each) > Do > Page Top > Edit > Find > real And read the surrounding text.
…From this you should see the importance of “ Real, Reality, & Good Old Reality. ”
… NOTE: From the above Henry Gurr realized he should create this ABOVE => Special Study of => “Author Robert Pirsig’s Major Thread Topic Quality, Reality, & Good Old Reality, as is written into Robert Pirsig’s book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”.

(Photo = 113-1352cs ...... ZMM Page = 301...... WayPt = 358i15 ~4219. Photo at 363w 4578ft)

....DATE-LINE: March, 2024. by Henry Gurr.
,,,In going thru old emails, I found the following concerning ZMM book’s “cutting edge” , Suddenly I realized => The following has good content for this Quality, Reality, & Good Old Reality, Special Studies Page.
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ZMM Quotes Below Found By > Edit > Find > Cutting
…Each of these "cutting edge” passages, describes resulting actions, of our Problem Solving Brain as it is finding "What is best" Or “Quality, Value”, for which The J. J. Hopfield Neuron Network Model, is the best explanation! =>

"He simply meant that at the cutting edge of time, before an object can be distinguished, there must be a kind of nonintellectual awareness, which he called awareness of Quality.”

"Romantic reality is the cutting edge of experience. It’s the leading edge of the train of knowledge that keeps the whole train on the track.”

"The leading edge is where absolutely all the action is. The leading edge contains all the infinite possibilities of the future. It contains all the history of the past. Where else could they be contained?”

"The past cannot remember the past. The future can’t generate the future. The cutting edge of this instant right here and now is always nothing less than the totality of everything there is.”

"Value, the leading edge of reality, is no longer an irrelevant offshoot of structure. Value is the predecessor of structure. It’s the preintellectual awareness that gives rise to it. Our structured reality is preselected on the basis of value, and really to understand structured reality requires an understanding of the value source from which it’s derived.”

'' "The cutting edge of this instant right here and now is always nothing less than the totality of everything there is.

"Value, the leading edge of reality, is no longer an irrelevant offshoot of structure. Value is the predecessor of structure. It’s the preintellectual awareness that gives rise to it. Our structured reality is preselected on the basis of value, and really to understand structured reality requires an understanding of the value source from which it’s derived.”

"What produces this involvement is, at the cutting edge of consciousness, an absence of any sense of separateness of subject and object. "Being with it," "being a natural," "taking hold"—there are a lot of idiomatic expressions for what I mean by this absence of subject-object duality ”
" because what I mean is so well understood as folklore, common sense, the everyday understanding of the shop. But in scientific parlance the words for this absence of subject-object duality are scarce because scientific minds have shut themselves off from consciousness of this kind of understanding in the assumption of the formal dualistic scientific outlook” .

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NOTE: If you have comments or suggestions, , please send Email to HenryG__usca.edu
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NEW TOPIC: Some Thoughts & Questions, Concerning The Readings In Wendy Pirsig's Book, Published April 22, 2022, Titles => "On Quality".

…In Maech 2022, David Matos asked for some Questions, that could be presented to the Facebook Group for Robert Pirsig’s ZMM Book.
....And since a current topic, these should start off, dealing with readings in Wendy Pirsig's recent book => "On Quality"
...**********

QUESTION: What So Readers Think?
...In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality", (page 27) are Robert Pirsig’s “APHORISMS”, which are really his Summary Conclusions about Quality: These of course builds on Phaedrus’ discoveries & conclusion about Quality when he was in “Ideas & Methods” program at The University of Chicago. But some of the words from (page 27), were written when he was in Downy VA mental hospital, and in pretty bad mental condition.
…Although these Conclusions are poorly written and clumsy, and the words chosen to describe Quality, are especially poorly chosen, these still may have been a “working document” when he was writing ZMM. And this may have been the base from which, Mr. Pirsig went on to expound Quality & MOQ in ZMM, with far more clarity & precision. What do you think?

[ APHORISM NOUN A pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it. ]

QUESTION: What Do Readers Think?
..In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" (page 47-58), because of its importance to Quality & Value, Wendy chose a long excerpt from ZMM Book’s end of Chapter 15 through to near the end of Chapter 25: This covers Phaedrus’ (and the Narrator’s) important discoveries & conclusions about Quality, while teaching English at Montana State University. Unfortunately the passages Wendy choose to show just Author Pirsig’s intellectual, word based “Quality” paragraphs, and omit the dramatic Narrative about 1) Sarah Vinke’s “Are you Teaching Quality: and omits 2) The mountain climb with Chris, This is when the Narrator reveals the dramatic series of his realizations, how “Quality creates the Subjects & Objects of this world” and the wonderful mountain top climax scene where Chris shouts “Blue sky”. These omissions are most unfortunate, since some of the best of Author Pirsig’s writing, his real poetic drive and power, are NOT seen here in Wendy’s book “On Quality”. What do you think?

QUESTION: What Do Readers Think? : Do you think this is true and why?
..I.n Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" , her Part 3 on “THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY” (page 63-87)”, .Wendy’s third entry (page 65, ends with Robert Pirsig’s saying “I hope The Metaphysics Of Quality presented in [my book] “LILA”, can help people sort out some of these moral conflict. …. That have left society open to the sort of moral erosion that is distressing people everywhere these days. LILA offers some answers to this.”
..Do you think this is true and why?

QUESTION:
..In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" , her Part 4 is “DHARMA” (page 89-111).
..Wendy’s first entry in her Dharma Part 4, is from Robert Pirsig’s lecture to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. How close to ZMM Book, are Mr. Pirsig’s words here? Are they adequate to say what is relation of Robert Pirsig’s “Quality” to “Dharma”?
..Please write your own Ideas, including your understanding of Dharma. And add links to other good Internet Pages. Below ZMM Passage, is the only place in ZMM that mentions “Dharma”=>

... Phædrus is fascinated too by the description of the [Ancient Greek] motive of "duty toward self " which is an almost exact translation of the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes described as the "one" of the Hindus. Can the dharma of the Hindus and the "virtue" of the ancient Greeks be identical?
….'' Then Phædrus feels a tugging to read the passage again, and he does so and then . . . what’s this?! . . . "That which we translate ‘virtue ‘ but is in Greek ‘excellence.""
…Lightning hits! ''
… Quality! Virtue! Dharma! That is what the Sophists were teaching! Not ethical relativism. Not pristine "virtue." But areté. Excellence. Dharma! Before the Church of Reason. Before substance. Before form. Before mind and matter. Before dialectic itself. Quality had been absolute. Those first teachers of the Western world were teaching Quality, and the medium they had chosen was that of rhetoric. He has been doing it right all along.

QUESTION: In his Book Club Interviewer, Sam Leith:Click Here.. (At 23:30 min) says “Quality is pre linguistic, intuitive, not about thinking, but about experiencing. His [Robert Pirsig’s] whole thing Is about doing things with your own hands, and craft, and fixing things, and making things.”
…..How much is Mr Leith correct? Please discuss.

QUESTION: What Do Readers Think?
...In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" , her Part 3 on “THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY” ”, .Wendy’s fourth entry (page 66) from Robert Pirsig’s book” LILA”, gives us a nice & very tidy Summary of Dynamic Quality and Static Quality =>
..”Dynamic Quality is the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality, the source of all things, completely simple and always new.” …. “Static quality, the moral force of the priests, emerges in the wake of Dynamic Quality. It is old and complex. It always contains a component of memory. Good is conformity to an established pattern of fixed values and value objects. Justice and law are identical. Static morality is full of heroes and villains, loves and hatreds, carrots and sticks. Its values don't change by themselves. Unless they are altered by Dynamic Quality they say the same thing year after year. Sometimes they say it more loudly, sometimes more softly, but the message is always the same.” ….. “Without static quality the organism cannot last. Both are
needed.”
…But going to the words in book " LILA " , between the first and last of Wendy’s chosen sentences above, we see there are omitted nearly 12,000 words, approximately 2 chapters worth. Giving us scarce hint of the long and wide range and important Robert Pirsig discussion between. Thus Wendy’s ~tidy summary, although accurate, seems Cherry Picking! What do you think?

QUESTION: Is Robert Pirsig’s tidy summary true in your life? Can you give examples?
..In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" , her Part 3 on “THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY” ”, .Wendy’s entry (page 76) from Robert Pirsig’s book” LILA”, gives Pirsig’s nice & very tidy Summary of Dynamic Quality and Static Quality =>
..” To the extent that one's behavior is controlled by static patterns of quality it is without choice. [Ie determinism and no free will] But to the extent that one follows Dynamic Quality, which is undefinable. one's behavior is free.
..Is Robert Pirsig’s above tidy summary true in your life? Can you give examples?

QUESTION: Do you agree with Robert Pirsig in this, and why?
In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" , her Part 3 on “THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY” ”, .Wendy’s entry (page 82-83) from Robert Pirsig’s Letter, December 24, 1995 says =>
.."In the West, since Aristotle, the central reality of understanding has been either the “mind of God” or else “substance.” In the East the Hindus say that the central reality is “Oneness.” The Buddhists say it is “Nothing ness.” That's quite a difference, when one considers that they both mean the same thing. At that level terms lose their meaning. “Oneness” is one intellectual path up the mountain of understanding. “Nothingness” is another such path. “Quality” is a third. When a scientifically oriented mind hears the term “substance," it says, “That's reality.” When it hears about “oneness” and “nothingness," it says, “That's just empty, meaning less, metaphysical claptrap for the ‘Mind of God,' which we have already rejected for empirical reasons. Scientifically those words have no meaning.”
..The term “quality” is superior to "oneness” and "nothingness” because it is impossible for scientists to reject it as metaphysical, religious claptrap. They try, but they cannot get away with saying there are no values in the world."
Above, Robert Pirsig says The term “quality” is both equal to and superior to "oneness” and "nothingness”, which for a scientist (and most persons) are meaning less claptrap: Do you agree with Robert Pirsig in this, and why?

QUESTION: The following two letters amplify Mr. Pirsig’s December 24, 1995 Letter above: Do you agree with Robert Pirsig in these, and why?
In Wendy Pirsig’s book "On Quality" , her Part 3 on “THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY”

..”Between the Tao and the unwritten dharma and Quality I see no difference at all, and this equivalence can be a kind of Rosetta Stone for translating the meaning of some otherwise inscrutable Oriental texts into scientific language.”

..”Dynamic Quality is not the result of any symmetries or patterns but is rather the source of patterns and symmetries and is inherent in them. It is what the Buddhist understands when he refers to "nirvana" or "nothing ness," and says, “Within nothingness there is a great working.” “

NOTEWORTHY
LETTER, JANUARY 25, 1992
I have a Japanese calligraphic painting... on my wall that says, “In nothingness there is a great working.” This calligraphy was made for my son Chris by his late teacher, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and expresses a most profound concept of Zen. This “nothingness” is also what I mean by Dynamic Quality.

NOTEWORTHY
LETTER, OCTOBER 7, 2004
The Quality that is everything that exists is Dynamic Quality. It includes within it static quality, which is full! of distinctions, including distinctions between good and bad. All this, as far as I know, agrees with standard Buddhist doctrine....
The characterization of the Buddha's world as "nothingness” has been a source of Western confusion, leading some to consider Buddhist nirvana as a form of suicide. What is meant by Buddhist “nothingness" is "no thingness”-that is, “no objectivity." Since the use of the undefined term “Quality" denies objectivity with out suggesting that nirvana is some kind of vacuum, it helps to clarify what Buddhist nothingness is.

NOTEWORTHY
LETTER, APRIL 30, 1997
The fundamental formula for the relation of the Meta physics of Quality to Zen is: “Quality equals Buddha nature.” So if you want to know what Quality is, you can find the answer by learning what Buddha-nature is.

.In Wendy Pirsig’s Book "On Quality" , Her Part 3 On “THE METAPHYSICS OF QUALITY” Has The Following Four Letters That Amplify Mr. Pirsig’s Thinking: :

LETTER, DECEMBER 24, 1992
“Quality” is used [in Lila] because Sarah Vinke started the train of thought that way in Bozeman, Montana (as recorded in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). "Value” is the more customary philosophic term.

LETTER, NOVEMBER 11, 2004
..”As far as I know, “Quality” is still the best term, but “meaning" is a term I have thought about often. It's an excellent synonym for "quality" at the intellectual level, and I think it represents the first stage of the transition from Dynamic Quality to intellectual patterns. One first senses that some new experience is meaningful and then, because of that sense, tries to “understand” it-that is, contain it within existing intellectual or mathematical patterns. At the lower levels, however, particularly at the inorganic level, the term “meaning" is not as useful, since it is quite awkward to say that hydrogen combines with oxygen because it finds it meaningful to do so. At the biological level one does not scratch an itch because it is meaningful but rather because it is biologically valuable-that is, because it feels better.”

LETTER, DECEMBER 24, 1995
“The Metaphysics of Quality is valuable because it pro vides a central pivotal term that the Western, scientifically structured mind cannot dismiss. The second reason for the selection of Quality as a pivotal term is that it solves the "Two Worlds” problem of C. P. Snow, the di vision between the arts and sciences. The third is that it solves the mind-matter problem. The fourth is that it solves the science-religion problem. That atoms are static patterns of quality means that atoms can be static patterns of God without losing any of their empirical objectivity. The fifth is that it solves the esthetics problem, as shown in [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]. The sixth is that it solves the moral problem, as shown in Lila. There are many other problems solved by the MOQ but any of the above seems to me to justify it as a major philosophic system. That it solves all of them simultaneously makes it of unequalled magnitude.”

LETTER, OCTOBER 30, 1998
Reality isn't in the mind or in the external world. It's in the values that create both.
[NOTE: The above two short sentences is all Wendy shows here. ]

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