But who was the old personality whom they had known and presumed I was a continuation of?-Robert Pirsig
Robert Persig’s 1974 book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, is the story of a madman’s road trip across the country with his son in tow. There is a lot of talk about the meaning of things, and there is a lot of talk about motorcycles. So much talk about motorcycles that I was briefly infatuated with the idea of buying one after reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. But it was really the madness and how other people don’t see our insanity in the same light that we ourselves see it, that made the most lasting impression. The author’s son enjoys his company better when he is out of his mind. He is more fun when he is having a psychotic break. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was not an easy read, it is a long book and the paperback I had was a little on the brown side by the time it found it’s way into my hands. But it was well worth the effort.
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while I was going through a long phase of offbeat books about self realization. I also read If You Meet The Buddha on The Road-Kill Him at about the same time. The Silva Method of Mind Control and Superlearning were also great reads and had real meditations to play around with. In a similar, but totally different vein, The Teaching of Don Juan told me how to make hallucinogenics out of common everyday plants while on the road to enlightenment.
But the most lasting and profound effect of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has been the proliferation of the term Zen and. . .The title of the book was taken from a small Zen masterpiece called Zen and the Art of Archery, which I read shortly after reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The archery book is amazing in it’s own right and is so concise and brief that it is the epitome of Zen.
And so we have Robert Pirsig to thank for all the Zen and references-and hey, anything that gets people talking about Zen is a good thing. Even if most people think it is a joke.
