Comments on Chapter 1 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Intro

In the very first sentense, it says he is riding on a motor cycle, at 8:30 in the morning, and the wheather is already hot.

We get our first tast of Zen.

First mentioning of Chris, who will be all the time sitting at the back on the cycle.

About the truth he says: ``The truth knocks on the door and you say, ``Go away, I'm looking for the truth,'' and so it goes away.''

Indeed a good observation.

Here he states that what he writes will be about: ``What is best?'', instead of ``What is new?''. This is setting one of the central themes of the book.

The problem of technology

Shows how people precieve things in different ways. His final conclusion is given in the following:

With this statement he starts his first discourse in the book, which is about the role of technology.

Here he states about John and Sylvia's attitude towards technology: ``They want not to understand it. Not to hear about it. And the more I try to fathom what makes me enjoy mechanical work and them hate it so, the more elusive it becomes. The ultimate cause of this originally minor difference of opinion appears to run way, way deep.''

In the following paragraphs he gives an example that John does not understand the choke, and seems not to be able to understand an explaination given to him, as he makes the same mistake again. It is not due to stupidity or to laziness, but to a kind of blind spot for technical things (see paragraphs 60-71).

Later he discovered that it also applies to other things, and gives an example of a dripping faucet, which they ignored to repair, but he observed that Sylvia wasn't ignoring that faucet at all! She was suppressing anger at that faucet and that goddamned dripping faucet was just about killing her!

Here he states his conclusion, and then continues to explain how it is also reflected in many other things.

I could have been Sylvia's friend who thought computer programming was ``creative.''

Another striking observation is: You always suppress momentary anger at something you deeply and permanently hate.

And about John and Sylvia: To get away from technology out into the country in the fresh air and sunshine is why they are on the motorcycle in the first place.

He also notice that John and Sylvia refer to it as ``it'', which to them is a kind of force that gives rise to technology, something undefined, but inhuman, mechanical, lifeless, a blind monster, a death force.. It, in their though is run by technologists which speak an inhuman language.

I think that the description that is given here is very accurate. Technology is something that is not considered as human in our society. It is often depictated as something dangerous in the media, and people are totally unaware of the fact that most of our wealth is based on the results of technology. In paragraph 86 it says: And they feel that technology has got a lot to do with the forces that are trying to turn them into mass people and they don't like it.

Here he states that hatred of technology is self-defeating. He explains this in the following quote:
The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha...which is to demean oneself.

I my copy I have encircled this quote and put an exlamation mark besides it in the border. The writer does not clearly explain what he means with ``the Buddha, the Godhead''. (In Chapter 20 he makes a connection between Zen and quality.) Although, I think that Pirsig does not share my world view as a Christian, I still agree with this statement. The statement made here made me think of Chapter 5 : The Universial Presence of The Pursuit of God by Tozer.

And I equally believe that hating technology is to demean oneself.