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Welcome to the
very first MOQ conference!
Thursday July
7th 2005
The
Westerner’s overemphasis on rationality, at the expense of
other parts of
experience,
can seem both amusing and amazing to Zen masters… “A Zen
abbot once
set before an
American aspirant two sets of small legless Japanese dolls,
one pair
weighted in
the bottom part, the other in the head part. When the pair
weighted
in the head
were pushed over, they remained on their sides;
the ones
weighted in the bottom bounced back at once. The abbot
roared with
laughter over this illustration of the plight of Western man,
forever
stressing the thinking
function at the expense of his totality.”
(Nancy Wilson Ross, The
World of Zen)
  
MOQ Conference Welcome Speech
By Dr Anthony McWatt
Many thanks to all of you (and especially those of you who have travelled
many miles!) for attending the very first conference on Robert Pirsig’s
Metaphysics of Quality! I would just like to acknowledge the following
people who have made the various events during this week possible.
Firstly, I would like to thank Robert & Wendy Pirsig (for supporting this and
the various events held this week in so many ways and Robert Pirsig for providing
the introduction which you will hear in a minute), John Middleton for introducing me to ZMM and his good advice
with the PhD over the years, Dr
Barry Dainton, the Head of Department of the Philosophy Department for kindly
allowing us to use the facilities here, Fran Ali, the Philosophy Department’s
secretary for her administrative assistance in organising a number of
items
for the above and the people providing papers such as Ian Glendinning, Gavin
Gee-Clough, Mati Palm-Leis, Professor Henry Gurr, Mark Maxwell and David
Buchanan. I would also like to thank Horse and David Boyce for reading out
various material, Paul Turner for assisting Ian (with Henry Gurr’s
presentation) and Stephen Mills for suggesting having this event. This is all very much appreciated.
Earlier this year, David Buchanan
commented on MOQ Discuss (the Pirsig
Internet group) that the MOQ was like a new black BMW convertible
sitting on the drive waiting for it’s first drive. I therefore propose
we take this baby out today for it’s first cruise!
For
more information on Pirsig’s life & work, please see the
following websites:
www.moq.org - www.robertpirsig.org
-
www.psybertron.org/pirsigpages.html
ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr
-
zamm.home.att.net
Paul Turner's Twelve Links weblog
You have an
invitation to make a reservation!
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