Notes on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I've had Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig on my reading list for a while, and I didn't even know it was all about philosophy (nice coincidence with some of other stuff I've been reading). It definitely approaches the material from a different angle, so it was interesting for me to compare and contrast this with other things I've recently read.

According to the intro, it's the "most widely read philosophy book ever." I think that if I hadn't recently read a lot of meaty philosophy, I would've been pretty lost because the book tackles a lot of subjects pretty directly and without much background or help to the reader.

I enjoyed that the book read throughout like one long poem. At times, this made the philosophical parts difficult to understand, and I think that when it got really theoretical, the story elements went way into the background (very few details and plot elements in those parts). I'm comparing this book to Atlas Shrugged which also used a fictional story to teach philosophy, and I think Atlas managed to do a much better job at staying purely in the realm of the story to get the message across. Nonetheless, Pirsig's book also did a good job at having the story parallel the philosophical discussion.

At various points, I was a bit lost and wondered which story was the "real" story (I'm guessing some of this confusion was on purpose), and what really happened with the author. I did like the discussion of reason and the works of Aristotle and the importance of peace of mind and getting your hands dirty with reality and "maintenance" as opposed to just throwing your hands up in the air when technology doesn't work for you. The book also continuously made me wonder where the author stood in the end on the question of reason vs. non-reason. My understanding is that the author's point is that the concept of quality precedes that and is more useful than staying stuck in the dualistic world of reason vs. not. I just still don't have a great grasp at what he means by that in the end. He compares his monistic "quality" concept to other religious concepts like the Buddha and the Tao, but I don't think he's directly a fan of these.

Overall, the book definitely made me think (and want to go ride a motorcycle). Apparently, there's a forum at moq.org where people can learn more about the metaphysics of quality.

Intro (by author)
First person narrative
Divided personality in I: author, narrator, reader
social values vs new ideas
Heretic
Villain as real intellectual 
Phaedrus
Based on true story

Part 1
Ch 1
In car ur passive watcher of tv
On cycle ur part of it all
Being aware of surroundings and meditating on them
Not in hurry
Monotony of daily shallowness
Stream of national consciousness too broad and fast but not deep
What is best?
Not dogma
Birds tie thoughts together
Chautauqua: deep story
How much one should maintain one's own motorcycle vs competent mechanic?
Dripping faucets and suppressing anger
Some people technologists who can deal with things and fix and some don't want to think or get hands dirty and just get irritated

Ch 2
Road trip across destination
Point is the travel, not the destination
The machine
The cycle
Mechanics are sometimes sloppy, living with tech but with selves detached
Spectator to life vs caring about what you do
Not in the instruction manual
Relationship between you and life and cycles

Ch 3
Rain and storm on cycle
Do scientific principles exist? No matter or energy
Exists nowhere except in heads just like ghosts
Education as mass hypnosis
Newton's laws invented by humans
Logic and numbers exist only in mind
All existence is a ghost
Common sense is voices of past ghosts
Ideas stolen from Phaedrus

Ch 4
Packing list for road trip
4 categories: clothing, personal stuff, cooking/camping, motorcycle

Clothing
2 underwear
Long underwear
2 shirts and pants: Army surplus fatigues
1 sweater and jacket
Unlined leather gloves
Cycle boots
Rain gear
Helmet and sunshade
Bubble
Goggles

Personal stuff
Combs
Billfold
Pocket knife
Miranda booklet
Matches
Flashlight
Soap and plastic soap container
Toothbrushes and toothpaste
Scissors
APCs for headaches
Insect repellant
Deodorant
Sun burn lotion
Band aids
Toilet paper
Wash cloth in plastic box
Towel
Books
Loose paper for writing

Motorcycle
Shop manual
Children's motorcycle troubleshooting guide
Thoreau walden
Large adjustable wrench
Machinists 

Camping equipment
Sleeping bag
Ponchos and ground cloth
Rope
Usga survey maps
Machete
Compass
Canteen
Army surplus mess kits
Collapsible Sterno stove
Aluminum screw top tin
Brillo
Aluminum frame backpack
machinists hammer
Cold chisel
Taper punch
Pair of tire irons
Tire patching kit
Bicycle pump
Can of molybdinum disulfide spray for chain
Sae 30 engine oil
Impact driver
Point file
Feeler gauge
Test lamp
Spare parts: plugs, throttle, clutch and brake cables, points, fuses, headlight and tail light bulbs, chain coupling link with keeper, cotter pins, bailor wire, spare chain

Care about old driving gloves
Pick up certain feel and personality each machine has
Some depend on and Value technology but don't know how to deal with it and get angry at it

Ch 5
Camping
Son mental illness
Goethe father son ghost story

Ch 6
Phaedrus story
Purpose to bury him forever
All understanding in terms of underlying form
Mode of discussion vs appearance
Platform problem for discussion
Classical vs romantic understanding (science vs intuition)
Motorcycle maintenance vs riding
Masculine vs feminine
Control vs freeform
Two worlds growing apart
Rational
Motorcycle invented by classic minds
Power assembly: engine, power delivery system
Running assembly
Engine: housing, power train, fuel air system, ignition system, feedback system, lubrication system
Power train: cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, crank shaft, flywheel
Fuel air system: gas tank and filter, air cleaner, carburetor, valves, exhaust pipes
Ignition system: alternator, rectifier, battery, high voltage coil, spark plugs
Feedback system: cam chain, cam shaft, tappets, and distributor 
lubrication system: oil pump, channels
Power delivery sys: clutch, transmission, Chain
Supporting assembly: frame, foot pegs, seat, fenders, front and rear shock absorbers, wheels, steering assembly, control levers and horn, speed and mileage indicators, lights

By function
Normal operating functions and specially operated functions
Normal: intake cycle, compression, power, exhaust

Mode of understanding
Object of discourse
Can be dull (romantic face of classic)
Observer is missing
No value judgements
Way knife defines the categories is important

Ch 7
Phaedrus knife
Way of dividing the world and structuring it
Division of conscious universe into parts
Sand sorting vs contemplation of unsorted sand
Figure that is sorting is critical
Which part of the cycle is the Buddha? Everywhere
The one doing the analytic thought
Death birth continuity of analysis
To see insane man, own opinions get in the way
Phaedrus pursued ghost of rationality
Loved logic
High iq
No close friends
Always felt alone
No one really knew him
But did have emotions
New personality after previous personality got him into mental hospital
Old personality killed by electrical therapy

Part 2
Ch 8
Tuning machine
Should be in cool and in morning when brain fresh
Study of motorcycle maintenance is study of rationality
Not a knack
Precision instruments
Control and underlying form
Instruments designed to achieve an idea of perfection
See ideas and concepts in cycle parts
Divisions, sums of components
Hierarchy, basic structure
System
Most attack effects instead of causes
Real system is rationality and thought processes
Too much talk of "the system" and too little understanding
Motorcycle primarily mental
Steel can be in any shape you want
All shapes out of someone's mind
All nature has is potential for steel
Ghosts, all in mind
Photographic mind mechanics

Ch 9
Logic is way to navigate system
Inductive and deductive
Formal scientific method for most complex problems, lab notebook
Problem
Hypothesis
Experiments
Predicted results
Conclusions
To ensure u don't misinterpret nature
No logical slips allowed
Don't overstate what u think u know
Physical labor is much smaller piece than mental effort and model, underlying form

Ch 10
how hypotheses come into mind
Number of hypotheses growing
Lifespan of truth getting shorter
Lost faith in science
Sometimes better to travel than to arrive

Ch 11
Remembering past memories
Theoretic and aesthetic
Philosophy as highest branch of knowledge and science
Higher levels of how science works
Riding in high mountains like high country of thought
What is truth and how do I know it
What is meant by meaning
Sole agent of progress is reason
Kant critique of pure reason
Hume: if one uses logic will result in confusion
Child with no senses, innate thoughts
Hume Empiricist
But all knowledge just in head
Says knowledge doesn't arrive out of experience
A priori knowledge: time (Kant's intuition)
A priori concepts
If substance doesn't exist and only sense data, then no logical substance in knowledge
Kant rescues: a priori motorcycle concept in head
Sense data confirm the cycle but are not the cycle
Copernican revolution
Not Aristotle tabula rasa

Didn't like kants aesthetics
Reason itself ugly to him

Ch 12
Benares Hindu university
Lots of exposure
Latent images
Thou art that
Lack of division from subject and object
Didn't believe in illusory nature of life
Gave up
Abandonment of inner goals

Ch 13
Archaeological redigging of old memories
Taught at school church of reason
Church vs location
University vs building
Ppl only fanatic about that which they doubt and don't know for sure

Ch 14
Not tech that's scary but what it does to people
One does it vs one talks about how one does it
Peace of mind comes from good maintenance
Cycles aren't right or wrong
Test of machine is just ur own mind: how satisfied u r
Instruction manual writing
Not just one way to construct something; involves user and object and world
Art and technology not that different
Inadequacy of existing forms of thought
Not about abandoning rationality but about expanding its ability
Newton invented new form of reason to deal with instantaneous change
Now we need new form of thought to deal with tech ugliness
Need to expand at the roots
Topsy turvy times require expansion of reason
Present reason method is like flat earth
Classic reason inadequate for some ppl who go to mysticism and other bs
Phaedrus was Greek rhetorician at founding of reason
Like when Columbus discovered new world

Ch 15
Taught rhetoric to students
Ghost as the reality
Wanted to teach rhetoric like logic not mysticism
What is quality? How to define it?
What is the betterness?

Part 3

Ch 16
Nonmetaphysical phase first
Idea of seeing directly for self
Break evil of immigration
Comes later as result of school
Stops traditional grading
Working for Education vs degree
Those who earn good grades are often less interested in them
Grades give excuse to teachers
Creative expression in classroom vs authoritarian didactic teaching

Ch 17
Climb the mountain between restlessnness and tiredness
Each step after a while is momentous with observing every detail 
The top is what defines the sides
What does it mean when u really want to know
Taught students via experience elements of quality in rhetoric by having them vote for pieces they thought had higher quality
Each individual's internal creative goal defining what to do for self
Why should an irrational method work when rational ones clumsy?
Ego mountain climber vs selfless mountain climber

Ch 18
Aesthetics branch of philosophy
What is beauty
Refusal to define something irrational
Second wave of crystallization
How to have quality without defining it
don't need to define something if can live in world without it just the same; but can't without quality, art
Quality exists
Realism
Absence of quality is squareness
Soul is quality?
Lateral drift
Hip vs square, romantic vs classic
Find point of common understanding between both
Quality is point of cleavage between worlds
Real understanding of quality tames it and makes it useful
Reads sentence of Thoreau to son, son asks questions, then reads another sentence

Ch 19
Son trying to relate to dad
Metaphysical layer
Does quality exist in object or in mind?
Dilemma: two premises
Subjectivity, objectivity, or finding better label
Easy escape of mysticism, zen
Why can't scientific instruments detect quality
Not "just" what you like
Obeying authority vs what u like
What u like not bad as system wants u to think
Classical formalism
Emotional understanding
Scientific realism broken by reductio ad absurdum
Creation of number 0; not derived from mass and energy
Cannot exist independently of subjective considerations
People disagree about quality because some people just see and some use broader knowledge
Classic quality and romantic quality
Quality itself cleaved into two
Quality neither a part of mind nor matter but third type

World composed of Mind, matter, and quality
Three headed reality
Usually just monism or dualism
Quality in relationship of subject and object
Quality is an event Of awareness of subject of object
Subject and object subordinated to quality, created by it

Ch 20
in trinity view then tech is fun
Metaphysics is good if improves everyday life
Quality as parent of mind and matter
Copernican revolution
Present is our only reality
Only have thought from seeing tree after time delay and tree is in past
Two time aspect of quality: short and long term
Student choice of quality different based on him, previous experience, analogs
Quality response of organism to its environment
Quality is what lets us create the reality we accept
Not metaphysical trinity but absolute monism
Not hagle absolute
Not mystic entity
Like Tao from Tao te ching
Like fountainhead of all
Central generating force of all
Realizing this Phaedrus lost control

Ch 21
Practical side of the theory
Relevance to valleys of world and jobs
How to assimilate into rationality the things that seem irrational but which we yearn for

Quality is the Buddha unifies religion, art, and science
Quality base of all three
Gd and good have same root
science is not value free

Ch 22
Jules Henri pointcare
Scientist and philosopher
1854-1912 professor in Paris
Classic physics shattered by theory of relativity
Euclid's postulate of points
Proof of his postulate impossible
Lebochevsky showed there are non Euclidian geometries
Riemann geometry
Which is truth?
Math became uncertain
Axioms of geometry not self given but conventions
Which geometry true? Question had no meaning
Only question of convenience
What are facts
Which ones will u observe
Infinite hypotheses
Hierarchy of facts
Facts that are simple and likely to reappear
Seek it in the infinitely great (space) and infinitely small (cell, atom)

Ch 23
Vision of death

Ch 24
Care and quality two parts of same thing
Person who sees quality and gets it from work cares
What causes lack of hope in technology is lack of perception of quality
Quality is the Buddha and the goal of art
How to study this and make it practical? Repair of old motorcycle
Writer's block
Mind gets stuck when try to do too much at same time
Just make list of all things to say and later worry about putting in order
Mental stuckness accompanying physical one
When just don't have hypothesis, sci method doesn't help
0th moment of consciousness/stuckness
Up against great unknown
Sci method doesn't tell where ought to go or what hypotheses to try
Don't analyze stuck cycle screw with scientific method
Analyze sci method with stuck screw
Traditional method says to he objective and not include our personal evaluations but maybe including them us the key and a different form of objectivity
Subliminal choice of which facts of infinite to observe
Scientist has to care to select right ones
Not divided reality between subject and object
When just in subject object world u lose sense of quality which is what guides u in choice of decisions and hypotheses
Regain quality and regain care for tech as craftsmanship
Romantic knowledge is cutting edge of train of knowledge and leads train along quality track
Reality as dynamic, ideas that grow as you grow
Must have sense of quality and what's good in ur work to carry you forward
Not just based on intuition or innate talent but real contact with reality quality which dualistic reason misses
Government should change in response to quality
If one thing doesn't work try something better
Beginners mind, blank, stuck, at front edge of train of knowledge (good state)
Egoless acceptance of stuckness important

Ch 25
Romantic parallel to badness of traditional reason
Ugliness of technology traditional reason produced
Techne in Greek means art, never was separate
Quality doesn't reside in subject or object but in the relationship between producer and object and consumer and object
At moment of quality no subject and object separation, but unity
Getting with it
Craftsmanship
Feeling sense of identity with object
Not about exploiting nature but about combining with it and relating to it in a new way
Transcendance of separation with technology
Sharpening a knife, sewing a dress, fixing a chair
Not about just adding stylized layer that makes thing look phony
Not about overlaying romantic but about uniting it with classic
Peace of mind is not side result of work but it is the entire thing
Cultivate inner quietness so piece of mind comes through
Fishing, going for walk
Just sitting in zen
Just fixing in cycle maintenance
Calm to lose separateness of subject and object and really care about what you are doing, identification with it
Peace of mind produces right values, thoughts, actions, and proof for others of quality
Place to start for improving world is your own thoughts and actions
I just want to fix a motorcycle

Ch 26
Gumption
Memories combining with Phaedrus
Enthusiasmos: filled with gd, quality
Psychic gasoline to fix cycle and keep going
After vacation and fishing ppl often return with more gumption
Autos automotive guide: general shop manual
Critical gumption relationship between mechanic and machine
Gumption traps: anything that causes one to lose sight of quality and enthusiasm for what one's doing
2 sources: external setbacks and internal hang ups
Out of sequence complex assembly: when u miss one small part of complex job and need to redo it all
Solution: keep notebook of all steps done and details that might cause trouble later; left hand/right hand and up/down orientations of parts, color codings of wires
Spread newspaper on floor and lay out parts left to right, top to bottom
Take breaks
Watch out for gumption desperation when try to hurry up and make up for lost time
Intermittent failure, short circuit
Correlate intermittents to find cause and effect
parts setback, pricing, incompatibilities
Take old part with you to compare
Machine your own parts with lathe and welding
Internal traps
Those that block affective understanding called value traps
Those that block cognitive understanding called truth traps
Those that block psychomotor behavior called muscle traps
Value rigidity: difficulty revaluing based on rigid old values
Value creates facts; if too rigid can't learn new ones
Premature diagnoses
New fact discovery wonderful
New facts like inventions frequently discounted at first until u become value loose enough to realize new value
Track of quality preselects the facts we pay attention to
If stuck in value rigidity, slow down
Stare at the machine
Try to understand it for its own sake
Nibbles on fishing line, fishing for facts
Motorcycle scientist when get interested in details for their own sake
South Indian monkey trap to hold monkeys hand in
Tell monkey to revalue freedom over bait
Ego internal gumption trap
Isolates u from quality reality
Attentive and skeptical
Derive pride from quality not ego
Take up modesty even if not natural
Anxiety opposite gumption trap of ego
Fixing what doesn't need fixing
Read every book you can on the subject to calm down
Goal is peace of mind, not fixed cycle
Boredom gumption trap, lost quality track
Stop what you're doing, sleep
Turn routine things like cleaning into a ritual
Just sitting
What is it at center of boredom that not seeing
Impatience is first reaction
Allow an indefinite tile for new work
Scaling down: work on nuts and bolts
New perspective on patience
Put tools away neatly
Recognize value trap when in it

Truth traps
Data
Yes no logic trap
Mu Japanese term for nothing, no class
Unask the question
Buddha residing in something is not yes or no answer
Power off condition of computer makes voltage readings neither 0 nor 1 but mu state
Context of question too small for natures answer
Mu is phenomenon inspiring scientific progress and new experiments
Check your tests and restudy your questions

Psychomotor traps
Inadequate tools
Tool catalog
Bad surroundings, adequate lighting
Avoid out of position work
Mechanics feel, kinesthetic
Different forces for finger tight, shut, and fully tight
Handle precision parts gently
Live right then just paint naturally

Part 4
Ch 27
Dream of death
Phaedrus coming back
Mind divided


Ch 28
Author and Phaedrus switch places
Person guiding car dead
Dreams about himself losing to Phaedrus
Paths to ancient Greece
Systematic philosophy on quality
Phaedrus admitted to university of Chicago to study
Concept of substance and method doesn't have room for quality just like subject and object
Omits Aristotle
Revolt against Traditional education
Hutchins, Adler, Buchanan, chairman
aquinas
Aristotle as rational animal whose purpose is own life
Hutchins believed in quality and aristotelian position to define values
Phaedrus studied Greeks then condemned
Mythos (cultural traditions and myths) over logos (logic)
Man created by religion
Mythos and insanity
To understand quality would have to go insane and be outside normal mythos sanity
Mythos as collective human knowledge
Outside it is terra incognito
The mythos is insane not him
Greeks caused us to accept reality that makes feel insane

Ch 29
Loneliness highest where people closest
Physical and psychic distance
Technology gives people attitudes of loneliness through objectivity but the devices are not to blame
Dualistic view is to blame
Technology can be used to fix the problem and evil by focusing u back on quality like through cycle maintenance
Make your job an art
Quality fanning out from your work to others to world
This is how further improvement of world will happen
Return to individual integrity, self reliance, gumption
Reason subordinate to quality and not value free
Stop tendency to do what is reasonable when it isn't any good
Can't put quality under reason
Not finding massive evil in Aristotle though
Aristotle said rhetoric is system of proof with hierarchical methodology
Blind, rote education of relationships and names
Fighting with classics prof teaching Aristotle
Dialectic and rhetoric
Dialogues using logic to arrive at truths
Platonists vs Aristotelian
Find Buddha in facts vs spirit
Dialectic only usurps and controls and doesn't lead to real truth
Immortal principles, one truth, gd, numbers
Divisions of mind and matter invented later
Immortal ghosts of modern mythos
As much a creation as anthropomorphic divinities
Arguments of cosmologists
Sophists
Man as measure of all things
All relative
Independent truth, knowledge
Phaedrus hates sophists and yet quality fits sophists more
Relationship between man and his experience
Virtue implies ethical absolute
Duty to himself
Herite: Greek hero excellence
Dherma, virtue of Hindus
Greeks were teaching quality before reason
Medium of teaching was rhetoric
Excellence in Greek
Respect for oneness of life, not separate efficiency

Ch 30
Phaedrus name for dialog character
Young orator
Means wolf
Poetic imagery in speeches
Dialectic came first
Empty cement and neon of Chicago, no grass like Montana 
Crosses lonesome valley into insanity by himself
New reality as dream
Son misses old self

Ch 31
Mind divided against itself
Heretic
Just pretended in order to get out of hospital
Feels insanity coming back and wants to send son away because scared
Phaedrus comes back
Dreams of glass door in hospital
Not really insane

Ch 32
His son knew sad wasn't insane
Son was real reason to leave hospital
Having the right attitudes is the hard part

Afterword
Greek view of time
Future comes up from behind
Past dominates ahead
No deeper motives of author
Swedish word culture bearer
Bears culture on back
Written accidentally
When culture changes
Attitudes towards insanity
Involuntary shock treatment
Alternative proposed goal broader than material success
Offered what culture was looking for
Son got killed
Son he missed isn't object but a pattern
Ghosts as ideas, patterns searching for body, not weird ectoplasm
Had daughter with new wife
Pattern continues even when bodies change
Working on sequel
Children teach lessons
Approach messes with calm

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