Finding My Zen (Zane Mandell)

1.   Quality is the framework of how everything is, yet it will always be undefinable because it is in the nature of the idea. Quality is the central concept behind how we perceive everything in reality. Quality is the key – “A real understanding of Quality captures the System, tames it, and puts it to work for one’s own personal use, while leaving one completely free to fulfill his inner destiny” (283). Quality can be discussed through the perception of the classical thinker but can only be truly realized by the romantic thinker. Yet one needs to have a deep understanding of this duality to be able to realize the entire picture and see Quality.

2.    We are all subject to bounds within the way we must think. It is said that the Church of Reason emphasizes the inability of the learner and not so much the ability. The Church of Reason is still vital to the process by which we deduce how things are. If we were not limited in one set way to think, then there would not be resultant repercussions of those who think outside of the box. The Church of Reason serves its highest value in the attacks that we make against it. It is the format by which we can chip away at the old to understand the new.

3.      The classic clash between Romantic and Classical Thought – the “Subject-Object Duality” (517). Where Quality is the midway point between these two: reality, romantic falls under the pre-intellectual study and classic falls under that of the intellect (317). Classical then can be subdivided further into studies that are subjective and pertain to the mind and the object which pertains to the ‘matter’ of things. Romantic Thought will follow under the emotions of the body that is why it is considered pre-intellectual, and the classical though than focus on what goes on after the pre-intellectual. Quality is the solution to this classic problem.

4.  The Internal Struggle within the narrator connects everything in the book; it is the foundation that Pirsig lays in order to voice the philosophy that is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The struggle that the narrator is having within himself is not evident at first but slowly builds as we learn about the nature of the subject that the narrator jumps right into. The struggle is shown though throughout the book, right under the nose of the reader but does reveal itself until the end. The whole reason for the trip that the narrator is taking across the countryside is in order to find his Zen. The old vs. the new, the fear of the rise of technology, parenthood, and the feud between Phaedrus and Institutional Authority all exemplify the struggle of the narrator.