New Insights from Zen and the Art

I had mentioned that I bought a new copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and am rereading it to see how I relate to it now that I am older and I think I have to make a few clarifications right up front from the get go.

I had always said that book had a profound influence on my life growing up although I don't think I ever read it. I liked motorcycles and I liked Zen. I think that's as far as I took it. 

As for a complicated definition of quality, I don't think that ever entered my mind. I do remember the beginning of the book which talked about how when you are driving a car you experience your surroundings from the outside like you are watching them on TV. While on a motorcycle you are in the frame experiencing it first hand. 

I agree. That's kind of zen. Experiencing it instead of talking about it. For me it was about traveling and camping while riding a motorcycle. Ted Simon wrote a book Jupiter's Travels. 

He rode a motorcycle literally around the world. I totally respect that. For me it was about seeing new places and meeting new people. Elspeth Beard wrote a book Lone Rider about her motorcycle trip around the world before cell phones and GPS. I actually did an interview with her. 

In my mind that was impressive. That was living the dream. Robert Pirsif added a more complicated literary and philosophical twist which can ad to or distract from the journey.   

For example, I recently mentioned how in the introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig mentioned how things can be hidden from the reader when the book is written from the First Person narrative. This is where we get into literary works as opposed to motorcycle journeys.    

He mentions Phaedrus and the narrator and the struggle between the two. Yet Phaedrus represents him and he is the narrator. Confused? Well seemingly Robert Pirsig was at one time institutionalized for schizophrenia and under went shock therapy for it. So his book and his motorcycle trip was a way for him to process his trauma. Which brings us back to the wind therapy mentioned in the Florian Knights documentary.

In that movie they conducted an experiment. They hooked the riders up to electrodes and measured their brainwaves. They discovered that as you ride a motorcycle, other distractions or worries tend to disappear and you tend to focus exclusively on the road ahead. This is why wind therapy is good for processing trauma. That's about as far as I go with it.

I'm not on a Monty Python quest for the meaning of life because I found it. Life is simple. Be good, do good. As you sow so shall ye reap. Life does not end at death. Families are important. No other success commitments for failure in the home. 

Our greatest joy in life can be found in spending time with your family. That's not to say people who are single and don't have kids can't experience joy. Not at all. Be good, do good. Martin Luther King said anyone can be great because anybody can serve. When we serve others we forget our problems and become healed. So it's really that simple. 

Zen can apply to anything - Buddhism, Christianity, even the game of Tennis. The inner game of tennis was simply a text about right brain versus left brain in sports. 

As for Buddhism, Buddha was a rich kid who left the ivory tower and saw suffering in the world. As a result he was filled with compassion. Thus the term the compassion of Buddha. There's no conflict or struggle between Buddhism and Christianity. The golden rule exists in all religions. 

Kal Dosanjh recently made a post on Linkedin of a group of small minded white guys doing a deranged version of the Haka in the face of a Sikh gathering. It was very disturbing because they appeared to claim to be Christian but their actions were far from it. First of all the Haka comes from Maori tradition. Those while trash expropriated it for a bad purpose. 

Second of all, Christ said love your neighbor. When asked who is my neighbor he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. Christ chose someone from a different race and a different religion the locals hated. Then said this guy did good. He is a better neighbor than you are. I have a hard time with Christian intolerance. It's very hypocritical. 

The book Zen and the Art is an inquiry into values. You don't need to have a religion to have morals. The purpose of religion is to aspire to something higher and raise our morality. 

Obviously I would see the struggle Robert Pirsig mentioned between Phaedrus and the Narrator as a profound allegory of the mainstream media and I'm going to set the schizophrenia thing aside because they's far beyond me. Life is simple and so am I. Ride hard, die free. Don't let life pass you by.