Alright so made a new blog takes 20 seconds for future reference
To start us off;
A theme addressed frequently in Lila is a protest against the objectivism in academic fields, specifically anthropology. How can you study a culture from an unbiased perspective when you are a product of your own culture? How could that study be anything other then a comparision between two cultures?
The problem of objectivity isn't specific to anthropology. How can you learn anything other then from the lense of your own perspective? Not just learning as in academics, but the way all of your experiences are processed.
So what I am really asking; is all of our experience completely original because of how anything we do is interpreted by our whole lives? And if this is true, can anyway relate communicate anything to anyone on a pure level?
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So I was gonna write a comment about objectivity and causality and all sorts of assumptions and stuff, but I've been beating myself in the head with it for two months in philosophy and I need a little break. But I've been reading Lila and just got a notebook to start writing in. Thoughts from yesterday (while pondering aikido):
ReplyDeleteQuality presents itself especially (for me, at least) in physical movement; there may be a biological component to this, as quality movement would ensure survival and the ability to thrive (instead of survival of the fittest, perhaps survival based on quality). Martial arts are a good example of manifest quality, as "masters" are those with more/higher quality movement. But the mind/body emphasis is huge in the martial arts, so quality of thought (maybe not the best phrasing) is hugely important as well. What all masters seek (or should seek) to cultivate is the "nen" of Zen Buddhism: not emptiness, but presence. Emptiness implies duality (we can talk more about that later), but quality (nen) is absent a reference point. When a martial practitioner begins to reach this manifestation of quality, he makes the first move into the "art" that is often forgotten. While watching people practice you can, like at any other time, sense quality (or the lack thereof, in the case of most of the people in aikido class) in their movement; for me it manifests itself not as an observation but as an almost visceral feeling and recognition of beauty.
NVC is quality manifested socially; it seeks to remove duality in favor of nen/quality, because without duality there is no conflict. This is also the ultimate goal and aim of aikido practice: to remove the conflict. The word "blending" that people often use to describe what happens in both of these practices is not blending (assimilation), but the elimination of duality/conflict; no duality, no conflict.
I wrote in my notebook that Quality is the bridge between sport and philosophy, but as I read a little further in Lila I realized that Pirsig seeks to make quality the bridge between philosophy/metaphysics and everything else. In elite sport, athletes often describe a "zone" that they can enter where everything just "happens," almost without effort. This is quality realized.
This is win. I have to take a nap and smoke some meth but I promise I will post after. btw whats Lila?
ReplyDeletetrue. Joseph Campbell also calls his highest moments of transcendence when he was a nationally ranked runner in college. When his mental Yoga and Tai Chi being such crucial elements of eastern religions.
ReplyDeleteQuality as nen. Quality as presence. If we hold this to be true, quality as presence, then it would also explain why I consider some of our better conversations as quality situations. Because when you are directly appl;ying your whole mind to something and just spewing pure originality then you really are in the golden moment, the zone, because what you do is without effort.
It's fitting that you equate quality with physical movement, as much of your interests dwell in the body, nutrition, crossfit.
I like it. I want to ponder how I see quality manifest in my own life. There is nothing to refute and good points matt.
I accidently wrote over myself and forgot to edit. THis is how the first paragraph should go.
ReplyDeletetrue. Joseph Campbell also calls his highest moments of transcendence when he was a nationally ranked runner in college. When his mental and physical beings were being directed at the same goal. This would also explain yoga and tai chi as being such crucial elements of eastern religions.
I would like to contribute by suggesting another aspect in your model of quality. Just as nen describes presence I submit to you that the word chi describes intentionality. When a master of martial arts, or a master of anything really, hones his chi he is developing an intentionality of motion. Where a novice thinks that throwing a punch is merely a thrusting of the fist in the direction of an opponent, a master knows, in his body and his mind, that a "qaulity" punch entails not only movement of the hand but movement of the shoulders, hips and feet; furthermore he knows specifically what he wishes to accomplish with the punch. The master harness's much more power by focusing his chi. In this way we can hone our chi in all aspects of life, we can maximize the achievement of our goals if we learn to intentionally approach every detail of our method. I really like eastern spirituality, it seems much more grounded than western philosophy a lot of the time...
ReplyDeleteps: do you think you have achieved quality in martial arts matt? Does quality exist beyond a threshold or is it an extreme on a spectrum? could one apply the principles of quality to smash bros(rhetorical question :P)?
ReplyDeleteNathan, I totally agree with your analysis of intention as chi. The cultivation of chi, then, is the same process as developing somatic consensus (agreement of intention in the whole mind/body continuum). This is what NVC seeks to develop; the first step in clear communication is identifying exactly how you feel and why you feel that way, and then communicating with the intention of resolving conflict. I feel like there is a connection here between Quality and intention, but I don’t know how to explain it yet. I pondered earlier that enlightenment is the total realization of dynamic and static Quality. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteMartial arts: I may have realized some Quality in practice, mainly in sparring (which, when manifested in this form, is an interesting blend of static and dynamic). I think there is a lot of static quality in kata/forms performance, because the pattern of movement is preconceived. Sparring has a defined element to it (based on the style of marital art), but someone can recognize Quality manifested in sparring outside of their style, implying a dynamic Quality. And to clarify, I don’t believe (thoughts, Ben?) that there is a “threshold” for Quality in anything, only varying levels of presence (although levels make it sounds measurable, which it is not).
I would love to hear where people find Quality manifested in their own lives; if anyone’s fuzzy on what exactly that means, it might be useful to further describe Quality for the sake of further conversation. One way to look at it: at what points have you sensed a total absence of conflict and embrace of intention in your life (personal or experienced)?
A few things that I can think of;
ReplyDelete-When I am hammered
-When you dance completely with music
-Sex
Other specific moments
-When we rode outside of the car first roadtrip, into city of rocks. Picture on facebook captures the exact moment
thats the only one that comes to mind ... I am sure there are others.
I was joking with a friend of mine, troy yesterday about this eastern religions class he is taking - the conversation went as follows
B; "its, like we are trapped in this like spinning, growing, cosmic mind fuck of samsara man. its like morpheus says man just free your mind ... man"
T; "but samsara is nirvana man."
Samsara as Nirvana. I remember talking to Alex Nazarian over the summer about prayer and meditation. I was really into zazen, which is this psuedo-zen meditation practice of staring at a wall to find oneness. His response - "thats the stupidest thing ever, it completely takes you outside of the world. A better practice is just walking around and being like holy shit! That fucking tree! Theres nothing like possible! That blade of grass! Its completely unique!"
To bring this all together - I think that the quality you experience is the quality you are willing to recognize. Thats what all of this talk of mindset is. Taking a bike ride can be tiring and sweety or it can be exercise in total body movement and mental alignment. Driving cross country can be 8000 miles of sitting in a car or the adventure of a lifetime.
BAM. Good point. Samsara as nirvana... i like it. I think I've been starting to recognize this lately. Emotions and feelings that we usually call "negative" (like grief, sadness, anger) can actually possess (not the right word) high degrees of Quality. In times when I've experienced these feelings recently I've had a simultaneous recognition of beauty; the two sides of the coin. This looks like duality, but it manifests itself mutually (as one). Recognizing a mind or a set at all can greatly inhibit dynamic living. Fuck the dualism. Be quality.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletethe correlation between quality and intention is that intention is an aspect of quality--an aspect that is usually overlooked--intention in fact may be the paramount variable in the production and realization of quality. it certainly for me has been a main focus of the reshaping of my identity--and the producing of my art
ReplyDelete