Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceMaintenance

By Robert G. Pirsig

Sudeep D’SouzaRahul Sharma

“Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.”

The Analytical Knife

“A very deadly knife, an intellectual scalpel so swift and so sharp you sometimes don’t see it moving”

e.g. the feedback mechanism which includes the camshaft and cam chain and tappets and distributor exists only because of the unusual cut of the knife.

We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness and call that handful of sand the world. We then further divide the sand into parts.

"The more you look, the more you see"

The Storyline…

People Places Technology Quality

“And what is good Phaedrus, and what is not good, need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”

The narrator

Chris

John Sutherland

Sylvia

Phaedrus

The roads, highways, and

countryside

MinneapolisTo the

San Francisco

The motorcycle, the breakup into parts and functions

Routine maintenance.

"The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality."

Quality…the beginning of all things

"The difference between a good mechanic and a bad one, like the difference between a good mathematician and a bad one, is precisely this ability to select the good facts from the bad ones on the basis of quality."

Stuckness

A mental stuckness that accompanies a physical stuckness of whatever you are working on.

For e.g, a screw sticks on a side cover assembly. You check the manual and all it says is “Remove side cover plate”. You’re stuck.

However, no matter how hard you try to hang on to it, the stuckness is bound to disappear. Your mind will naturally free and move towards a solution.

Stuckness is a good thing. The more you remain stuck, the more you see the Quality reality which gets you unstuck. The cause of the stuckness becomes the object of focus and that comes with a willingness to expand your knowledge.

"We just have to keep going until we find out what's wrong or findout why we don't know what's wrong"

Gumption “…the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going.”

“If you haven't got it there is no way the motorcycle can be fixed. But if you have got it then there is no way in the whole world that the motorcycle can keep from getting fixed.”

Gumption Traps

External Circumstances – “Setbacks”

Internal Conditions– “Hangups”

Out of Sequence Reassembly – The Notebook and the NewspaperIntermittent failure – Watch and fixParts Unavailability – build your own.

Value Rigidity – “you’re sure you know what the trouble is, and then when it isn’t you’re stuck.” . The Fix – just stare, go over the same ground.Ego, Anxiety, Boredom, Impatience.Truth Trap – Yes(1), No(0), MuPsychomotor Traps – Environment, “Mechanic’s Feel”

“The real cycle you’re working on is the cycle called yourself”

Final Message

"- Will you show me all of them?- Sure- Is it hard?- Not if you have the right attitudes. It's having the right attitudes that's hard"