The Non-questing of Quality ...

Castle of Beynac - 1
Originally uploaded by Ben Heine
I am reading the cult-classic philosophy book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's the homework assignment for my advanced study class in our non-dual healing school. I tried reading this a little over 20 yrs ago when I was newly sober and nothing in it made sense. Sporting a different set of lenses (and aquiring another 2 decades of life wisdom) I am both delighting and wrestling with the concepts the narrator proposes as ways of looking at the world, which include the notion that everything we see is not real because each thing is a construct of our mind. Still having trouble wrapping my brain around that one.

We were assigned this book because it is the perfect companion, I feel, to our non-dual work -- with a particular emphasis on Quality.
What resonated with me in this book is the idea that Quality is neither objective nor subjective but instead is a 3rd entity. We have practices and healings in the body of our teachings which enable us to experience this "3rd thing" . We get to "it" by not questing or efforting but rather in "allowing". It often involves the holding of 2 things simultaneously, which gives way to a 3rd thing arising. This is what the author, Robert Pirsig, is suggesting through his primary character's stance about quality : to hold the idea of objective and subjective will allow for a 3rd entity to surface --- this is Quality and it cannot necessarily be defined concretely or identified sensorily. It is akin to what my teacher sometimes refers to as "is-ness".

I chose the photo for this entry in an attempt to experience the 3rd entity of quality. An objective viewer who looked at this for photo excellence would certainly deem it, I believe, as having quality. The subjective eye which is drawn to the ethereal beauty of how the photographer captured this scene would likely find this to be quality.
So ... I stood in front of this photo and held and nested these opposing forces: objective quality and subjective quality, using the words: "composition" and "beauty" . After a few minutes, the photo disappeared from the experience. A wave, a rush of feeling went from my toes, expanding my chest area ... this was still the after currents of the subjective experience of its beauty ... and then, a shimmering stillness ... the sensation I experience when engaged in impersonal movement or in the midst of a healing.

It was essentially effortless to do this. All that was required was a willingness to experience, be witness to what bubbled up to reveal itself. It lasted but a few moments, perhaps not even 30 seconds.

There is no longer an object that is my focus as I write in this moment. There is a lived experience that occupied this space that is lingering. I feel the pulsing of Life here. There is a movement that is greater than this space that I have had my big toe in.

I have no more words ...