
On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings

As far as I know, “Quality” is still the best term, but “meaning” is a term I have thought about often. It’s an excellent synonym
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Quality is a characteristic of thought and statement that is recognized by a non-thinking or intuitive process. Because definitions are a product of rigid reasoning, quality can never be rigidly defined. But everyone knows what it is.
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
But unlike the Greeks, the Hindus in their many thousands of years of cultural evolution had paid enormous attention to the conflict between ritual and freedom. Their resolution of this conflict in the Buddhist and Vedantist philosophies is one of the profound achievements of the human mind.
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
To the extent that you perceive Dynamic Quality, you make your own life, and to the extent you cling to static quality, you are the victim of fate.
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
By not knowing Quality in its “everything-state,” you will only see a part of reality, you will be trapped in a small life. You are likely to be technically and intellectually competent without an overall understanding. The idea is to go beyond intellect and to expand reason, fully to understand the total quality of everything. When you find it, it
... See moreRobert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Dharma, like ṛta, means “what holds together.” It is the basis of all order. It equals righteousness. It is the ethical code. It is the stable condition which gives man perfect satisfaction.
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Zen is, of course, a continuation of the old dhyana yoga, in which one just sits silently and allows one’s thoughts to go away by their own dead weight.
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Mu becomes appropriate when the context of the question becomes too small for the truth of the answer.
Robert M. Pirsig • On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Normally one’s ability to see what is good marches far ahead of one’s ability to produce it.