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
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.
Interpretation
Inner peace is a multi-layered concept involving physical, mental, and value quietness.
In this quote, Robert M. Pirsig describes the journey toward achieving inner peace, which unfolds across three levels: physical quietness, mental quietness, and value quietness. He suggests that while physical quietness may be the simplest to attain, true inner peace involves deeper and more challenging levels where one must quiet not only their surroundings and thoughts but also their desires, ultimately leading to a state of action without craving.
In practice
During a meditation retreat, I reminded participants of the importance of inner peace.
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.
When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process.
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.
It's better not to see than to see wrongly.
The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.
You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.
Men of principle are sure to be bold,_x000D_ but those who are bold may not always be men of principle.
Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.
And I am still alive-what though, my damnation is eternal. A man who deliberately mutilates himself is truly damned, is he not? I believe that I am in hell, therefore I am.
To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation - is that good for the world?
As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.
The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.
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