The Art of Rationality

From the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"  by Robert M. Pirsig, the Bantam New Age edition October 1981.

Chapter 14, page 146 has:

"Peace of mind isn't at all superficial, … It's the whole thing.  That which produces it is good maintenance; that which disturbs it is poor maintenance.  What we call workability of the machine is just an objectification of this peace of mind. The ultimate test's always your own serenity.  If you don't have this when you start and maintain it while you're working you're likely  to build your personal problems right into the machine itself."

On page 148 he continues with:

"Actually this idea isn't so strange, … Sometime look at a novice workman or a bad workman and compare his expression with that of a craftsman whose work you know is excellent and you'll see the difference.  The craftsman isn't ever following a single line of instruction.  He's making decisions as he goes along. For that reason he'll be absorbed and attentive to what he's doing even though he doesn't deliberately contrive this.  His motions and the machine are in a kind of harmony.  He isn't following any set of written instructions because the nature of the material at hand determines his thoughts and motions, which simultaneously change the nature of the material at hand.  The material and his thoughts are changing together in a progression of changes until his mind's at rest at the same time the material's right."

Quotes are from the Bantam New Age edition of October 1981.

This edition has a new introduction by the author that says:

"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.' "

"The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.  Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of the process, to achieve an inner peace of mind.  The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon."

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Commentary - See also Ayn Rand Lexicon on "Happiness."  (Keep in mind that technology is the process of giving physical form to our values.)