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A THREAD on key ideas from the book "Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig:
1/
The pencil is mightier than the pen.
1/
The pencil is mightier than the pen.
2/
Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV it's a shame more people don't switch over to it.
Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV it's a shame more people don't switch over to it.
3/
Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts.
Law of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts.
We see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and...
Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts.
Law of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts.
We see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and...
... Jefferson and Lincoln, on and on and on.
Isaac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best.
Your common sense is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past.
Isaac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best.
Your common sense is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past.
4/
The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself.
The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself.
5/
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts.
Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts.
Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.
6/
Of the value traps, the most widespread and pernicious is value rigidity.
This is an inability to revalue what one sees because of commitment to previous values.
In motorcycle maintenance, you MUST rediscover what you do as you go.
Rigid values makes this impossible.
Of the value traps, the most widespread and pernicious is value rigidity.
This is an inability to revalue what one sees because of commitment to previous values.
In motorcycle maintenance, you MUST rediscover what you do as you go.
Rigid values makes this impossible.
7/
You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge.
You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge.
8/
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
9/
We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk.
The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.
We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk.
The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.
10/
Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitudes. It's having the right attitudes that's hard.
Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitudes. It's having the right attitudes that's hard.
11/
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.
12/
The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.
The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.
13/
We have artists with no scientific knowledge and scientists with no artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at all, and the result is not just bad, it is ghastly.
We have artists with no scientific knowledge and scientists with no artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at all, and the result is not just bad, it is ghastly.
14/
If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government.
If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government.
15/
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow.
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow.
16/
When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things.
When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things.
17/
When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.
When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.
18/
Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom. This is Zen. This is my motorcycle maintenance.
Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom. This is Zen. This is my motorcycle maintenance.
