Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991) is a continuation of Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974). Phaedrus, the author's alter ego, spends his days on a boat working on philosophy. He meets Lila in a bar, has a one-night stand with her. A common friend challenges Phaedrus to explain why a woman like Lila has value.This question and the events that follow serve as the background for Pirsing to describe The Metaphysics of Quality as a theory of reality: incorporating Sophism, East Asian &amp; indigenous American philosophy.

The story of Lila

Represents a collection of the most general statements of the hierarchy of thought. What Aristotel called the first philosophy. It deals with questions like:<ul><li dir = "auto">Are the objects we perceive real or illusory?</li><li dir = "auto">Does reality exist outside of our consciousness? If so it is spiritual or material? Or both? </li><li dir = "auto">Is the universe intelligible &amp; orderly or incomprehensible &amp; chaotic? </li></ul>While a anticent part of philosophy, most scientist look at metaphysics as too mystical. As opposed to the hypothesis that natural science are an objective observation of reality.&nbsp;

Metaphysics

Pirsig postulates that everything that exists can be assumed to be a value or quality. "Quality" or "value" cannot be defined because it empirically precedes any intellectual construction of it, namely due to the fact that quality (as Pirsig explicitly defines it) exists always as a perceptual experience. The concept is very similar if not the same as the Tao from the Taoist or Zen traditions. Or God.&nbsp;Quality can be broken down into 2 forms: static quality patterns (patterned) and dynamic quality (unpatterned).

Quality Metaphysics

Value is not a subspecies of substance. Substance is a subspecies of value.

Dynamic quality cannot be defined. It can only be understood intellectually through the use of analogy.When an aspect of Quality becomes repeated, it becomes static. Pirsig defines 'Static quality' patterns as everything which can be defined.&nbsp;Everything found in a dictionary, for instance, is a static quality pattern.

Static & Dynamic Quality

Dynamic Quality is the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality, the source of all things, completely simple and always new.

Without Dynamic Quality, the organism cannot grow.Without Static Quality, the organism cannot last. Both are needed.

Pirsig then divides static quality into inorganic, biological, social, and intellectual patterns, in ascending order of morality (based on evolutionary order):<ul><li dir = "auto">Inorganic patterns: non-living things</li><li dir = "auto">Biological patterns: living things</li><li dir = "auto">Social patterns: behaviors, habits, rituals, institutions.</li><li dir = "auto">Intellectual patterns: ideas</li></ul>Evolution thus is described as the moral progression of these patterns of value. For example, a biological pattern overcoming an inorganic pattern (e.g. bird flight which overcomes gravity) is a moral thing because a biological pattern is a higher form of evolution.

Static Quality Morality

Ideas are patterns of value. They are at a higher level of evolution than social patterns of value. Just as it is more moral for a doctor to kill a germ than a patient, so it is more moral for an idea to kill a society than it is for a society to kill an idea.

In the book, the main character had his ideas written down on slips of paper. As he recalls "the main purpose of the slips was not to help him remember. It was to help him forget it."The analogy he used is that of a 🍵 tea cup. To pour new tea you have to get rid of old tea. Your head is just like a cup. It has limited capacity.&nbsp;

Write things down to forget them

In this bestselling new book, his first in seventeen years, Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, takes us on a poignant and passionate journey as mysterious and compelling as his first life-changing work. Instead of a motorcycle, a sailboat carries his philosopher-narrator Phaedrus down the Hudson River as winter closes in. Along the way he picks up a most unlikely traveling companion: a woman named Lila who in her desperate sexuality, hostility, and oncoming madness threatens to disrupt his life. In Lila Robert M. Pirsig has crafted a unique work of adventure and ideas that examines the essential issues of the nineties as his previous classic did the seventies.

Interesting Philosophy

Lila

Why is the focus on breath during meditation? Why not a sound or feeling? All are valid options, but the breath is the default because it's one action that happens unconsciously (we can breathe without thinking of breathing) but that we can also direct if we pay attention to it. Breathing is like a bridge between two worlds. In Zen this is called effortless effort.

Effortless Effort 

Mindfulness & Stoicism

Why focus on the breath when meditating

For ages the common thought was that during rest our mind is resting. But science proved that our minds are active even when we are not doing anything. This is what's called the default network. We are not resting, we are lost in thought.Our thoughts (in this default mode) focus on the past or the future and they come with an emotional baggage that build anxiety. It's like a slow drip of continuous suffering.

Default Network - the slow dip of suffering

Life happens now. But an unexamined mind bounces between anxiety caused by ruminating about the past or fearing the future.Sitting meditation is an exercise in awareness of this default mode. We sit to know the world how it really is. This awareness created the opportunity for more present living. It's an exercise in regulating our minds.You have to notice you are in a Matrix so you can start having glimpses of Reality.

Meditation is More Life

Henry recorded a series of six introductory talks about Zen meditation. You can listen to them in any order. https://www.mountaincloud.org/ All are welcome to join us for sitting and dharma talks. The link to join us is https://sit.mountaincloud.org The schedule and further information can be found at https://www.mountaincloud.org/virtual-zendo/ Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Become a member: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/ You can also subscribe to our newsletter on the website.

Henry Shukman on "Why We Sit"

The Zen awakened nature is:<ol><li>One(everything is connected) </li><li>Infinite/ Boindless</li><li>Empty</li></ol>Once this reality is not only understood, but experienced, the amount if stuff we need to become happy decreases. This observation is something other philosophical schools have reached as well but Zen focuses on the lived experience.

Being Happy With Less

<ul><li>Feels more like a marvelous loss. </li><li>Feels like being awakened from a dream, like escaping the matrix</li><li>Feels like the mind and body falls away. </li></ul>It's a state of discovering and appreciating the connectedness, the infinite and timeless existence. Awakening is not the end, but rather the begining. The beginning of the journey.

How Awakening Feels

Everyday Zen

<ol><li>Whatever you do, practice being in the moment.</li><li>Makes sure you enjoy most moments of your day.</li><li>Don’t look for happiness in other places. Find it right where you are.</li><li>Make sure you develop habits and rituals that support what you’re trying to achieve in life.</li><li>Instead of thinking, spend your life living.&nbsp;</li></ol>

5 Zen Principles To Live By

Self Improvement

Promoted

I love practical advice that you can immediately apply to your life. And Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism, is full of practical wisdom. When I tell my friends, colleagues, and people I work with that I like reading about Zen Buddhism, they often make remarks like: "When are you going to grow your hair, walk around bare feet, and talk about yoga all day?"