The Meeting of East and West a la Pirsig

Michael Novak in his book The Experience of Nothingness anticipated our new networking of consciousness more than 25 years ago, long before the Internet and the new technologies: "The new consciousness has technology at its foundation. It places technology in the context of, and at the service of, human consciousness." (Novak, The Experience of Nothingness.) 

We are at work on the technology of ourselves, if we mean by technology, the extension of human consciousness. As we witness the unfolding of new technologies, they often are associated with a de-materializing of of the artwork and the artistic process. The "materials" are held in an electronic "consciousness" ready to respond to our summons. Notice how technology has also shrunk our perception of the world, and in some ways perhaps tended to homogenize cultures into a world culture. 

Robert M. Pirsig in Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance focuses the problem of the meeting of East and West in a new context, of an industrialized Western World intersecting with the metaphysics of Eastern modalities, of a different knowing of reality: "The real cycle you're working on is the cycle called 'yourself.'" "The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon." 

The motorcycle is a metaphor for Western industrialized culture and technology encountering a process of deep knowing and involvement emanating from the East. Within his quest for excellence and quality, Pirsig confronts the demons of himself, and helps us share in his personal, inner "Chautauqua." Chautauquas were tent shows which once "moved across America...in an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer." Now you are calling yourself to your own Chautauqua...your own quest (questioning)... ...your own discovering in the workshop of yourself.