Zen questions

 

• What is Zen? : Webster defines Zen as a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation or a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.  Pirsig describes it as a lack of division between your physical, emotional, and mental activity.  When you are in harmony with your body, your mind, your soul.

• Explain and comment: The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth” and so it goes away. - You can be so focused on finding something that you cannot see the obvious in front of you and you disregard it, not realizing that this is what you are looking for in the first place.  Because you are not expecting it, you disregard it even though its what you are looking for.  You must remain open and receptive to ensure that you are able to recognize and appreciate everything around you. 

• What is a Chautauqua? A traveling story told by a story teller to enrich the audience’s mind and entertain the listener.  In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the Chautauqua is the story of the author and his path on recovering his former personality that was wiped after medical treatments.

• Who is Phadrus? (historically and in the book) - According to litcharts, “Phaedrus, is named after an Ancient Greek Sophist who appears in Plato’s Socratic dialogue Phaedrus." Phaedrus in Greek translated to Wolf.  Phadrus (or Phaedrus) in the book is the prior personality of the author that was wiped away by court appointed medical electric shock treatments when he was a young adult “suffering” from mental illness.  Phaedrus was a genius and a philosopher.  Throughout the book, Phaedrus’ personality returns back to Pirsig. 

• What does Pirsig have to say about:

◦ dedication - Someone is not dedicated to something that has absolute belief.  They are dedicated to something that they believe in but there can be doubt like religious or political views.

◦ Kant - All knowledge comes with experience but not out of experience.  We can use a priori to sense objects from previous experience.

◦ gumption - It is a person that does not sit and think about things.  They do things, they take action.  The person is self aware.

◦ perception - “Thou art that” meaning that there is no division between how you perceive yourself and how you perceive your outside world.  The two are one and by understanding that it allows for a greater understanding of both yourself and the perception you have on the outside world.

◦ blockages - this was caused when you were overwhelmed by the bigger picture or by already perceived thoughts.  The only way to break dow the blockages was to focus on a simple, singular task or brick and then start.  Once the single task was accomplished, you could branch out and expand as required.

• What is the real University?  The real University is more than the books and buildings that the subjects are taught in.  It is the knowledge and content, the wisdom.  The things that are able to exist without the physical constants of the physical building.  It would exist even if there was no buildings or texts as long as someone was able to continue the knowledge and wisdom onto others.

• What is a priori? “Aspects of reality that which are not supplied immediately by the senses”.  Examples are time or space.  You can’t see it, touch it, feel it but it is there.  You know it is there.  To me, Chi and energy would also fall under this category.  

• What is the difference between classical and romantic understanding?  Classic understanding focuses on the underlying details of a concept where the romantic understanding deals with feelings, looks, the senses.  The classic understanding is the logic, the rules, the details of an item.  A paint by number would be a classic example where Bob Ross painting would be a romantic example.  Although our Kung Fu has underlying Classical components, it is the Romantic part that allows someone to be a Martial Artist.  

• What is the real purpose of scientific method? It makes sure that you do not assume things causing you to go down the wrong path and thus come to the wrong conclusions.  The purpose of scientific method is to use deductive and inductive reasoning to find solutions to a problem in the quickest amount of time possible.  Both solutions (deductive and inductive) would come to a resolution but would take an extreme amount of trial and error as you work through each possible solutions.  By using both methods, you can remove possible solutions without needing to work through them, therefore decreasing your effort and time.

• What is “The Church of Reason? Pg 151 - Phaedrus explained that a church may be a building but the teachings of the church is not limited to that building.  This was the same with knowledge.  It did not come from a specific place, like a University that was a set of buildings.  It was gained from many places.  Textbooks, scholars, etc.  The focus is on knowledge, not on the building or the institution that supports this knowledge. 

• What is Quality?  Phaedrus had a hard time describing quality and his path to identifying it is the foundation to the entire book, it was what caused his spiralling into a blackhole before he was admitted to hospital to undergo shock therapy.  As Pirsig goes through recalling his Quality journey, it allows for Phaedrus to come back through memories and fragments coming together.  Prisig knew it was when something is better than something else but could not identify the characteristics that defined what “better” was.  He spent many years thinking about it.  It caused him to circle over and over on the subject, objective verses subjective, romantic verses classic, mind or matter.  Even the Oxford dictionary states Quality is “the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something” but how it’s measured and what it is measured against is all subjective, it is in the eyes of the beholder.

• Use climbing a mountain as an analogy to learning Kung Fu - I have a few issues initially with this analogy as you need to be prepared to climb a mountain.  You need to ensure you are physically in shape, have the correct gear,  plan your path ahead of time, know where physical constraints (water sources, cliffs, etc).  If I had to do all this before joining Kung Fu, I am not sure if I would have walked onto the mats.  Also I see climbing a mountain as having a final destination where learning Kung Fu is a life long event.  I guess Kung Fu could be a very LARGE mountain.  Now that being said, there are many similarities and that is what is what I will use for the analogy.  First you need to make the decision do it, either starting up the mountain or joining Kung Fu.  Once that decision is made then you need to start doing something.  Taking a step at a time.  The quickest way is to follow the paths that others have laid out ahead of you.  Understanding where others have succeeded and failed in the past.  You need to know your limitations and how to work within those limitations to continue the progress upwards.  There will be times that you will need to back track and reevaluate your path.  There will be times when things do not go as expected, things break down.  There will be times that you question why you are doing this but then you will reach a place that is breath taking.  A place that you know only a few people in the world have ever reached and it makes all the work that you have done worth it.  It reinvigorates you to keep going,  You meet like minded people along the trail, people who give you advice and ones that you will advise, both done done in a positive manner with only success in mind. The journey allows you to appreciate what is around you, what you have been given.  It challenges both the body and the soul but comes with the greatest rewards as well.  

• What is the difference between an ego climber and a selfless climber?  An ego climber is one who is doing their actions for their own purpose.  They do not have an issue with stepping on others to progress. They are centred on how things impact them.  A selfless climber is also climbing upwards but will never use someone for their own advancement.  They advance by helping others and learning along the way.  They look to see how things benefit the larger group which may or may not directly benefit them but they know it will benefit them in the long run.  The selfless climber has to find that balance to make sure that they do not get caught in a “helping”mode which could impact their progression.

• What is the difference between a good mechanic and a bad mechanic? The biggest difference between the two is Investment.  A good mechanic is invested in their work and goes the extra mile to make things are done right.  They understand what they are doing or will gain that understanding if they do not know.  A bad mechanic is one that just does what the manual says to do.  They do not feel, listen, or are invested in the work that they do.

• What effect does “peace of mind” have on outcomes?  When Peace of Mind is accomplished, it allows for the melding of your mind into your surroundings.  You are at total peace with yourself and everything around you.  In this state, it allows you to embrace your surroundings and amplifies all actions that are occurring within it.  This allows for better results when you are doing a task by being more aware of the task and the actions that are needed to accomplish it. There are no distractions, you are in the moment, therefore Peace of Mind improves your outcomes with greater quality.

• What is the best way to teach Kung Fu?  The best way to teach Kung Fu is to first make sure you understand and appreciate the history of Kung Fu and where our teachings have come from.  This will enable you to be humble as you interact with students.  Second you teach by example, showing respect, doing Kung Fu. If you want a student to learn and have it stick, you must let them have their own path with gentle guiding.  It’s like seeing someone handling, one by one, all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle whose solution you know, and you want to tell him, ``Look, this fits here, and this fits here,'' but you can't tell him. Even with gentle guiding, he  may wander blindly along one trail after another gathering one piece after another and wondering what to do with them.  You must trust that the pieces will fall together and show his picture, his path which will then be his own. 

• What is the best way to change the world?  The first step to change the world is to do something.  Find something that you are passionate about (or that interests you) and then take an action.  Make sure you have unbiased knowledge on your topic;.  Then spread the word.  Blog about it, talk about it, get others involved.  Realize that every action or inaction has the ability to change the world, for good or for bad, so you need to be aware of that as well.

• Comments. One of Pirisg’s quotes that really impacted me was “For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. The more you look the more you see.”  This has become very evident this year while training for Kung Fu.  Each time I discovered details on my movement, my reactions, my actions it showed ten more things for me to now investigate.  Instead of coming to a spot where I feel I have learnt something so throughly that there is nothing left to learn, by having my eyes opened I now see how much more there is to learn with no ending in sight.  I embrace this learning.