The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
Robert M. PirsigRead
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 a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the divine or enlightened presence can be found in all aspects of life, not just in traditional or natural settings.
In this quote, Robert M. Pirsig expresses the idea that spiritual enlightenment or the essence of the divine is not confined to nature or sacred spaces, but is equally present in technology and everyday objects. By highlighting that the Buddha resides in both digital computers and natural elements like flowers, Pirsig challenges the notion that spirituality is exclusive to particular environments. Ignoring this interconnectedness diminishes our understanding of the divine and the self.
Themes
BuddhaTechnologySpiritualityConnectednessEnlightenment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the integration of spirituality in technology, one might use this quote to emphasize balance.
More from Robert M. Pirsig
All quotes →When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.
Robert M. PirsigRead
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.
Robert M. PirsigRead
It's better not to see than to see wrongly.
Robert M. PirsigRead
The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.
Robert M. PirsigRead
You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.
Robert M. PirsigRead
Similar quotes
Call no man happy till he is dead.
AeschylusRead
In other words, we are never freer than when we become most ourselves, most human, most just, most excellent, and the like.
Os GuinnessRead
The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.
Sigmund FreudRead
Slavery and freedom cannot exist together.
Ernestine RoseRead
Late twentieth-century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines. Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert.
Donna J. HarawayRead
The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead