Many moons ago, a friend who knows me well gave me a copy of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. At first glance, it may seem like a travel narrative of Pirsig’s motorcycle trip with his son from Minneapolis, MN, to San Francisco, CA. It is this, and more. The more relates to quality of life, to western culture. In it, Pirsig also shares his interpretation of the philosophical greats: Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato.
He wrote the book over four years while working as a technical writer for Honeywell and living over a shoe shop in Minneapolis (I hope there’s a plaque on that door). When it was done, he sent it out to 121 publishers. Each one rejected him.
It takes some will to keep going after so many ‘thanks but no thanks’. But keep going he did.
He had faith.
Publisher No. 122 didn’t expect great things but something had to have resonated as they agreed to publish it. The book sold 50,000 copies in three months and would go on to sell 5 million.
The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling.
You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
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 the mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha – which is to demean oneself.
Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.
2 responses
I read this oh so many years ago and it has always resonated with me. I have few books in my personal library anymore though remains part of my permanent collection. Its best use has been lending it to those younger, searching most often for the unknown.
It’s on my list to read again. I was only thinking of you yesterday evening. Will email.