{"id":43769,"date":"2016-02-17T13:32:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T13:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=43769"},"modified":"2016-02-17T13:32:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T13:32:57","slug":"mechanistic-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcyle-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/mechanistic-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcyle-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1974, Robert Pirsig finally published Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It had been rejected 121 times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a classic of hip literature, though at the surface it seems pretty square. The book was not really about Zen Buddhism, which at the end of the sixties was a totem of all that was cool and hip. The book wasn\u2019t really about motorcycles or fixing them, either. During that period the Biker was the ultimate counter-cultural hero – with Dennis Hopper\u2019s Easy Rider defining the aesthetic of the road. But that didn\u2019t matter to Pirsig and played no part in the story. The book was really about living in the here and the now.<\/p>\n

Through the simplest of stories Pirsig invoked motorcycles and their simple mechanicity as an immaculate metaphor for a way of living with integrity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pirsig-4\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

The story goes something like this:<\/strong> a father and a son take off on a little Honda Twin from their home in Minnesota to the Dakotas, with another couple on a BMW boxer. They learn about the roads, themselves and their motorcycle. It\u2019s in that essential simplicity where the resonant beauty of the book lies. And in a time where even our beloved machines are taking on the bland aspects of the appliance \u2013 the book\u2019s lessons are more important than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book is a dissertation on the relationship between technical values and human values\u201d,<\/strong> Pirsig told an interviewer on America\u2019s National Public Radio a little after the book was published. \u201cIt was bringing up some information that I had picked up in my work as a technical writer, and some feelings I had about riding and motorcycles in general. But more importantly,\u201d he went on, \u201cit\u2019s about expressing the fact that\u00a0you should pay attention to where you are right here and right now, rather than where you are going to be in the future or where you were in the past.\u201d The metaphor for motorcycles and motorcycling is obvious. At the wheel of a car you can drift off. Just cruise. Daydream. Try to do that on a bike and you\u2019ll soon wake up rudely. \u201cThe past and the future are just an abstract idea\u201d, Pirsig said, \u201cthe only reality being the present moment.” Follow the argument through and the meaning of the book becomes clear. Riding motorcycles can awaken you to reality.<\/p>\n

Pirsig was always a brainy child, focussed on science and explanations and the seemingly unlimited possibilities of both. For him science a way of being rather than a route to other things. And the motorcycle, a crystallisation of a century of scientific enquiry at the time therefore become a metaphor for life itself, and one’s attitude to it being the way of maintenance or otherwise of the machine that is life. But more than that, the motorcycle in Pirsig\u2019s hands become a literal vehicle of intent – a construction through which one interacts with the world and engages with each present moment – a way of experiencing what Thoreau called the bloom of the present moment.<\/p>\n

\"Pirsig-5\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

\u201cI decided to talk about riding motorcycles and motorcycle maintenance as an activity that can teach you things and awaken you to the world in the same way that sitting in meditation can,” he said.<\/strong> \u201cPeople get the idea that Zen is apart from the everyday world, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s not an exotic activity. And conversely, people think that riding motorcycles and motorcycle maintenance is simply getting your hands greasy, which is not worthy of some sort of philosophical enquiry. The book isn\u2019t about Zen Buddhism, but by concentrating on everyday aspects of life you can gain understanding about the world as well as through other more \u2018exotic activities.\u2019\u201d One of the most resonant things about fixing motorbikes and learning about the realities of the real world is Pirsig\u2019s views on \u2018Stuckness\u2019. If you\u2019ve ever tried to fix your bike, you\u2019ll know what stuckness really is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get stuck fixing motorcycles, it\u2019s not a bad moment,\u201d <\/strong>he says. \u201cInstead of getting mad, I go off and get a cup of coffee. You come back and try again and you\u2019re not stuck any more. \u201cLife doesn\u2019t stop, even when you\u2019re stuck. Stuckness is non-doing. And that can be illuminative.\u201d<\/p>\n

And therein lies the beauty of the Pirsig way of being, which speaks of the beauty, in turn, of simple mechanicity. You\u2019re struggling to fix something elusive – the settings on a carburettor, the fitment of the crank case – the mechanical coupling of the throttle cable. You stop. Down tools. Walk away. Grab a coffee. Come back a little later. You\u2019re not stuck any more.<\/p>\n

The problem is that these days, you don\u2019t get stuck. You don\u2019t get stuck at all because you\u2019re handed over the workings of your car or bike to an engineer who is also not stuck. He\u2019s also going to hand over the diagnostic and the fixing of the problem to a computerised engine management system.<\/p>\n

When the mechanics don\u2019t even get stuck, you\u2019ve got really serious problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

all pictures; Pirsig<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t