Monday, May 27, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
I don't know how to put this in any other words or to summarize or highlight. In a sense, it is staying true to the book to not define it further. And so I share some excerpts.
In each case there's a beautiful way of doing it and an ugly way of doing it, and in arriving at the high-quality, beautiful way of doing it, both an ability to see what 'looks good' and an ability to understand the underlying methods to arrive at that 'good' are needed. Both classic and romantic understandings of Quality must be combined.
... people who, though stylish, don't know where to start because no one has ever told them there's such a thing as Quality in this world and it's real, not style. Quality isn't something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start.
Now it's time to further an understanding of nature's order by reassimilating those passions which were originally fled from. The passions, emotions, the affective domain of man's consciousness, are a part of nature's order too. The central part.
What really counts in the end is their peace of mind, nothing else. The reason for this is that peace of mind is a prerequisite for a perception of that Quality which is beyond romantic Quality and classic Quality and which unites the two, and which must accompany the work as it proceeds. The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
This inner peace of mind occurs on three levels of understanding. Physical quietness... Mental quietness... But value quietness, in which one has no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of life without desire, that seems the hardest.
That which turns its back on this inner calm and the Quality it reveals is bad maintenance. That which turns toward it is good. The forms of turning away and toward are infinite but the goal is always the same.
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.
... Someone who connects with Quality. He gets filled with gumption... A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around dissipating and stewing about things. He's at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what's up the track and meeting it when it comes. That's gumption.
The gumption-filling process occurs when one is quiet long enough to see and hear and feel the real universe, not just one's own stale opinions about it. But it's nothing exotic. That's why I like the word.
These false images are deflated so rapidly and completely you're bound to be very discouraged very soon if you've derived your gumption from ego rather than Quality.
Aretê implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency - or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself.
The Good was not a form of reality. It was reality itself, ever changing, ultimately unknowable in any kind of fixed, rigid way.
Along the streets that lead away from the apartment he can never see anything through the concrete and brick and neon but he knows that buried within it are grotesque, twisted souls forever trying the manners that will convince themselves they possess Quality, learning strange poses of style and glamour vended by dream magazines and other mass media, and paid for by the vendors of substance. He thinks of them at night along with their advertised glamorous shoes and stockings and underclothes off, staring through the sooty windows at the grotesque shells revealed beyond them, when the poses weaken and the truth creeps in, the only truth that exists here, crying to heaven, God, there is nothing here but dead neon and cement and brick.
In each case there's a beautiful way of doing it and an ugly way of doing it, and in arriving at the high-quality, beautiful way of doing it, both an ability to see what 'looks good' and an ability to understand the underlying methods to arrive at that 'good' are needed. Both classic and romantic understandings of Quality must be combined.
... people who, though stylish, don't know where to start because no one has ever told them there's such a thing as Quality in this world and it's real, not style. Quality isn't something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start.
Now it's time to further an understanding of nature's order by reassimilating those passions which were originally fled from. The passions, emotions, the affective domain of man's consciousness, are a part of nature's order too. The central part.
What really counts in the end is their peace of mind, nothing else. The reason for this is that peace of mind is a prerequisite for a perception of that Quality which is beyond romantic Quality and classic Quality and which unites the two, and which must accompany the work as it proceeds. The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
This inner peace of mind occurs on three levels of understanding. Physical quietness... Mental quietness... But value quietness, in which one has no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of life without desire, that seems the hardest.
That which turns its back on this inner calm and the Quality it reveals is bad maintenance. That which turns toward it is good. The forms of turning away and toward are infinite but the goal is always the same.
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.
... Someone who connects with Quality. He gets filled with gumption... A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around dissipating and stewing about things. He's at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what's up the track and meeting it when it comes. That's gumption.
The gumption-filling process occurs when one is quiet long enough to see and hear and feel the real universe, not just one's own stale opinions about it. But it's nothing exotic. That's why I like the word.
These false images are deflated so rapidly and completely you're bound to be very discouraged very soon if you've derived your gumption from ego rather than Quality.
Aretê implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency - or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself.
The Good was not a form of reality. It was reality itself, ever changing, ultimately unknowable in any kind of fixed, rigid way.
Along the streets that lead away from the apartment he can never see anything through the concrete and brick and neon but he knows that buried within it are grotesque, twisted souls forever trying the manners that will convince themselves they possess Quality, learning strange poses of style and glamour vended by dream magazines and other mass media, and paid for by the vendors of substance. He thinks of them at night along with their advertised glamorous shoes and stockings and underclothes off, staring through the sooty windows at the grotesque shells revealed beyond them, when the poses weaken and the truth creeps in, the only truth that exists here, crying to heaven, God, there is nothing here but dead neon and cement and brick.
man booker
The Booker Prize is the one literary prize I value most. No question about it (except for The Life of Pi - for the life of me I can't understand the appeal).
So, I was super impressed to learn recently that the same author won 2 Booker Prizes 3 years apart for 2 books in a series. Holy shit that's good.
Then, oh joy, I see she is making her way through Alice Miller!! And it all makes sense. Adding her books onto my list!!
So, I was super impressed to learn recently that the same author won 2 Booker Prizes 3 years apart for 2 books in a series. Holy shit that's good.
Then, oh joy, I see she is making her way through Alice Miller!! And it all makes sense. Adding her books onto my list!!
Saturday, May 18, 2013
arrested development
It's goodness and Quality* being rewarded. It's justice balancing out the wrong that was done to the Bluths. The Kardashians may be flashier, but flashy doesn't always win out. The universe every once in a while rights itself.
I saw one with Buster that just said 'hey, brother'. Genius.
* see earlier note or future entry on Quality with a capital Q
I saw one with Buster that just said 'hey, brother'. Genius.
* see earlier note or future entry on Quality with a capital Q
yuppie
Finally. A yuppie coffee shop in Hoboken.
A few years ago, on Long Beach Island, I embraced my inner yuppie. I accepted it wholeheartedly into my fold when, stranded far from civilization, I could not find anything but horrible drip coffee. I understood then that I had to be willing to own the name or else find myself abandoned by the side of a road without Quality* coffee. I could not accept that risk.
* capital Q as a result of Zen and the Art... (future entry will elaborate)
A few years ago, on Long Beach Island, I embraced my inner yuppie. I accepted it wholeheartedly into my fold when, stranded far from civilization, I could not find anything but horrible drip coffee. I understood then that I had to be willing to own the name or else find myself abandoned by the side of a road without Quality* coffee. I could not accept that risk.
* capital Q as a result of Zen and the Art... (future entry will elaborate)
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
DC in images
The Kramerbooks' window display hasn't changed in all these years. Everyone still poops it seems.
simple
Resonance around the appreciation of simplicity.
And I see shortness of books as a proxy for that simplicity.
And I see shortness of books as a proxy for that simplicity.
Monday, May 13, 2013
at home in the universe
A separate place for those I love most. My heart was racing as I circled these again and again and again. And again.
The feet grounded and strong, the bodies lifting up as the legs push down. Yoginis in that way. But they say so much more. Not silence when I look at them, but chatter - the chatter of millions, all from one place, all saying the same thing. It's the rumbling that is white noise in the background of the universe. The sound of all souls across time humming, buzzing, or, if you'd prefer, ohming.
The feet grounded and strong, the bodies lifting up as the legs push down. Yoginis in that way. But they say so much more. Not silence when I look at them, but chatter - the chatter of millions, all from one place, all saying the same thing. It's the rumbling that is white noise in the background of the universe. The sound of all souls across time humming, buzzing, or, if you'd prefer, ohming.
home again
How is it that every cell in my body tingles in a silent shout out of joy as soon as I approach this building? How did my body know I had come home? And what part is home exactly? Have I lived here in a previous life? Do I thank Pei? Or Giacometti? Calder? Rothko? Hadn't I met them all before I arrived to this place?
Is this the Quality that he talked about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? (More on that later.)
Is this the Quality that he talked about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? (More on that later.)
Saturday, May 11, 2013
on aloneness
What hurts relationships is the idea that there is someone responsible for you and that you are responsible for someone. While the practical side may work out (i.e. an agreement that one provides outside the home and the other inside the home) it does not work on the emotional side (i.e. NOT you take care of me and I give up that responsibility to myself and vice versa).
What's difficult is that at the start of the relationship you WANT to be responsible for someone, want to bear gifts, shower them with love, want to be important in their lives. And so you take on some responsibility out of a generosity that overtakes you (being in love).
And that makes the person happy and you give more.
But there needs to always be the distinction that while you give and they receive you are not responsible for their needs or their joy. They are responsible, and they may, out of that responsibility to find contentment, decide to be with you because that is where they feel safest and where their needs are met.
But they should not - I repeat NOT - hand that responsibility over to you because you are able to meet it or because it fits the job description of a role you've taken on (e.g. spouse).
It is not about being so self sufficient you decide to be alone. It is about letting go with them to let those needs be shared (vulnerability) and be met (trust) while holding onto the responsibility for yourself and leaving the responsibility for them with them. The rest will come.
From Osho:
What's difficult is that at the start of the relationship you WANT to be responsible for someone, want to bear gifts, shower them with love, want to be important in their lives. And so you take on some responsibility out of a generosity that overtakes you (being in love).
And that makes the person happy and you give more.
But there needs to always be the distinction that while you give and they receive you are not responsible for their needs or their joy. They are responsible, and they may, out of that responsibility to find contentment, decide to be with you because that is where they feel safest and where their needs are met.
But they should not - I repeat NOT - hand that responsibility over to you because you are able to meet it or because it fits the job description of a role you've taken on (e.g. spouse).
It is not about being so self sufficient you decide to be alone. It is about letting go with them to let those needs be shared (vulnerability) and be met (trust) while holding onto the responsibility for yourself and leaving the responsibility for them with them. The rest will come.
From Osho:
The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it is not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person - without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.
Thursday, May 02, 2013
the future city
Why this is intriguing, I can't say. I can't even give the artist credit because I have no idea whose work it is.
This is how we know it.
The future city.
This is how we know it.
The future city.
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
chicago
Without a doubt it's got an 'it' that's its very own.
(There's a Frank Gehry tucked away in the last one.)
(There's a Frank Gehry tucked away in the last one.)
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