Robert M. Pirsig has died
I read once somewhere that a reviewer said something along the lines of: &quot;He didn&#x27;t understand Zen and he didn&#x27;t understand motorcycle maintenance either.&quot;[1]<p>However I read it several times and I think that interpretation is very uncharitable.<p>It is a touching big hearted story about a fractured person struggling to put himself back together while trying to connect with his son and while trying to figure out what it means to live &#x27;the good life.&#x27;[2]<p>If what he had was metal illness, I think that he might be an example of someone putting it to the best use possible.<p>I&#x27;m honestly not sure if the MOQ holds up as philosophy or not, or even as a coherent mystical system. But I can say that I wish there were more books like it, that is to say: written by authors way on the fringe of mainstream thought.<p>[1] My critique about the Zen aspect is that Buddhism is not something you theorize about, it is something you practice.  To theorize about Buddhism would be like a guy who reads a lot about golf trivia, golf training, golf biographies, but does not play golf.  Golf is a thing you do, an aspiration to get the ball into the little hole.  It is something you have to embody and realize in yourself.  Buddhism more resembles learning a sport or a craft than a philosophy.<p>[2] Many of us should be so lucky to achieve even one of those things in a lifetime.