Robert M. Pirsig
Robert M. Pirsig
Robert Maynard Pirsigis an American writer and philosopher, and the author of the philosophical novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valuesand Lila: An Inquiry into Morals...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth6 September 1928
CountryUnited States of America
achieve art inner mental motorcycle peace primarily study
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.
self inner-peace mind
Cultivate peace of mind which does not separate one's self from one's surroundings. When that is done successfully, then everything else follows naturally.
understanding inner-peace mind
This inner peace of mind occurs on three levels of understanding. Physical quietness seems the easiest to achieve, although there are levels and levels of this too, as attested by the ability of Hindu mystics to live buried alive for many days. Mental quietness, in which one has no wandering thoughts at all, seems more difficult, but can be achieved. But value quietness, in which one has no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of his life without desire, that seems the hardest.
tops
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
deep eyes heretic inside knows saved
What I am is a heretic who's recanted and, thereby, in everyone's eyes, saved his soul. Everyone's eyes but one, who knows deep down inside that all he has saved is his skin.
future mountain sides sustain
To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
independence individual return
We do need a return to individual integrity, self-reliance, and old-fashioned gumption. We really do.
goes knocks puzzling truth
It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling.
complete confidence dedicated people political religious rise shouting sun
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...
arrived simple solutions
The solutions all are simple -- after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are.
people
People are all at sixes and sevens with each other. They're always quarreling. They never somehow resolve anything.
produces
It's the dualistic ways of looking at things that produces the evil.
buddha circuits computer cycle gears resides
The Buddha resides 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.
people until
Up until my first book was published, I had all this potential, people would say, and I screwed up. After it, I could say: 'No, I didn't screw up.'