Klarinet Archive - Posting 000348.txt from 2004/04

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] motivation
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 18:44:34 -0400

In message <Law10-F126U9NFv4MEV0000ae3c@-----.com>
"Tracy Jones" <tracyj_83@-----.com> wrote:

> I am having some trouble getting motivated to practice. Any suggestions or
> comments?

Other people have said very good things. I like Robert Pirsig's concept of
'gumption', which is what you need a decent supply of in order to bring
'Quality' to what you do.

You can read about it as part of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance",
which I've recommended here before for other reasons. The bit about gumption
occurs in chapter 26, which you can read online if you like at:

http://bonigv.tripod.com/chapters/chapter26.htm

...though it's much better to come across it in context.

Here's how Pirsig introduces the word:

"I like the word 'gumption' because it's so homely and so forlorn and so out
of style it looks as if it needs a friend and isn't likely to reject anyone
who comes along. It's an old Scottish word, once used a lot by pioneers, but
which, like 'kin,' seems to have all but dropped out of use. I like it also
because it describes exactly what happens to someone who connects with
Quality. He gets filled with gumption.

"The Greeks called it enthousiasmos, the root of 'enthusiasm,' which means
literally 'filled with theos,' or God, or Quality. See how that fits?

"A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around dissipating and stewing
about things. He's at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching
to see what's up the track and meeting it when it comes. That's gumption."

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Excuse me, I have to recharge my flamethrower.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org