Robert M. Pirsig – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

Volává mě něco, co prý stojí za to,
ale jakpak to mám uslyšet, když slyším jen ticho?
Chtěl bych mít to něco, co prý stojí za to,
ale jakpak to mám uchopit když nemá to ucho?

(Jablkoň – 5 policajtů)

Zen a umenie údržby motocyklov je údajne najpredávanejšia kniha o filozofii. Alebo filozofický spis?

Ak si lámete hlavu nad otázkami vesmíru, života a spol. a máte pocit, že vám z toho začína preskakovať, toto je kniha presne pre vás.

Ak radi cestujete a pozorujete svet naokolo, toto je kniha pre vás.

Ak niekedy veciam tak veľmi nerozumiete, až sa vám z toho chce plakať, táto kniha vám ukáže novú perspektívu.

Ak sa niekedy zastavíte a pýtate sa sami seba Čo tu robím, prečo a načo a kto vôbec som…? prečítajte si ju.

Prečítajte si ju, aj keď tieto veci pre vás neplatia. Ťažko to vysvetliť – keď sa začítate, pochopíte, prečo je to kniha presne pre vás.

Zhrnutie

Jedná sa o príbeh muža, ktorý cestuje so svojím synom naprieč Amerikou na motocykloch. Prechádzajú krajinou bočnými cestami a sledujú život ľudí, výrazy očí, meniacu sa krajinu. Medzitým rozprávač, hlavný hrdina príbehu, predostiera svoje úvahy o tom, prečo ľudia žijú a myslia tak, ako žijú. Analyzuje ich strach, ich nepochopenie…prepáčte, nestačia mi slová.

Reflexie sú prekladané príbehom a tak toho nikdy nie je príliš veľa naraz, autor vás jednoducho nepresýti. Číta sa výborne.

Pre mňa bol Zen tak trochu očistná záležitosť. Circa do prvej polovice knihy vo mne kulminoval pocit zúfalstva nad nezodovedanými otázkami – otázky, ktoré si kladie rozprávač, som sa sama seba pýtala so zvyšujúcou sa naliehavosťou celé mesiace a jeho pozorovania boli ako moje vlastné (nie že by som si chcela fadiť, ale hovoril mi z duše, hoci táto kniha bola vydaná v roku 1974) a hrozba šialenstva mi, povedzme…bola blízka. Uvažovala som poslednou dobou o esencii človeka a rozpade mysle a táto kniha bola ako chýbajúci kúsok skladačky. Podstatný chýbajúci kúsok. Ako sa kniha blížila ku koncu, postupne ma opanovával pocit uvoľnenia a úľavy, ako keď si po dlhom dni zmyjete prach z tváre a rúk.

Hoci viac než zen a motocykle rozprávač predostiera idey gréckej filozofie (nie, nie je to nuda) a princípy rétoriky a dialektiky, ktoré prepletá so zážitkami z cesty a to takým spôsobom, že predkladaným princípom čitateľ chápe, hoci stredoškolská NoSka je dávno zapadnutá prachom – viete, bezohľadu na to, čo je nosičom (tým myslím príbeh), bezohľadu na to, že je zo 70tych rokov, táto kniha je jednoducho úžasne pravdivá.

Vyvádza človeka z miery. Ukazuje mu samého seba. Hovorí o niečom záhadnom – o Kvalite. Vedie pútnika na horu – von – ale aj naspäť. A to je to, čo je dôležité – cesta dole z hory je ťažšia než cesta na horu.

Niekoľko citátov

Caring about what you are doing is considered either unimportant or taken for granted.

But what do they really know about kindness who are not kin?

We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.

When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he´s insane which is not to see him at all.

He´s here but he´s not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be further up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then it will be “here”. What he´s looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn´t want that because it is all around him. Every step´s an effort, both physically and spiritually, because he imagines his goal to be external and distant.

The idea that the majority of students attend a university for an education independent of the degree and grades is a little hypocrisy everyone is happier not to expose. Occasionally some students do arrive for an education but rote and the mechanical nature of the institution soon converts them to a less idealistic attitude.

“A thing exists,” he said, “if a world without it can´t function normally.”

If you got to ask what is it all the time, you´ll never get time to know.

Why should Quality be just what you like? Why should “what you like” be “just”? (…) Little children were trained not to do “just what they liked” but … but what? … Of course! What others liked. And which others? Parents, teachers, supervisors, policemen, judges, officials, kings, dictators. All authorities. When you are trained to despise “just what you like” then, of course, you become a much more obedient servant of others – a good slave. When you learn not to do “just what you like” then the System loves you.

The silence allows you to do each thing right.

“You look at these mountains now and they look so permanent and peacefull, but they´re changing all the time and the changes aren´t always peacefull. Underneath us, beneath us here right now, there are forces that can tear this whole mountain apart.”

“Do they ever?”

“Ever what?”

“Tear the whole mountain apart?”

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it.

To discover the metaphysical relationship of Quality and the Buddha at some mountaintop of personal experience is very spectacular. And very unimportant.

Put the two together and you get a pretty accurate basic description of modern American technology: stylized cars and stylzed outboard motors and stylized typewriters and stylized clothes. Stylized refrigerators filled with stylized food in stylized kitchens in stylized houses. Plastic stylized toys for stylized children, who at Christmas and birthdays are in style with their stylish parents. You have to be awfully stylish yourself not to get sick of it once in a while. It´s the style that gets you; technological ugliness syruped over with romantic phoniness in an effort to produce beauty and profit by 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.

Phaedrus´ mind races on and on and then on further, seeing now at last a kind of evil thing, an evil deeply entrenched in himself, which pretends to try to understand love and beauty and truth and wisdom but whose real purpose is never to understand them, whose real purpose is always to usurp them and enthrone itself. Dialectic – the usurper. That is what he sees. The parvenu, muscling in on all that is Good and seeking to contain and control it. Evil.

Aretê implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiancy – or rather a much higher idea of efficiancy, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself.

(*arete – gr., excellence)

When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog to see the sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten.

For him Quality is better seen up at the timberline than here obscured by smoky windows and oceans of words, and he sees that what he is talking about can never really be accepted here because to see it one has to be free from social authority and this is an institution of social authority. Quality for the sheep is what the shepherd says. And if you take a sheep and put it up at the timberline at night when the wind is roaring, that sheep will be panicked half to death and will call and call until the shepherd comes, or comes the wolf.

Forms and mannerisms – hated by the best, loved by the worst.