Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Pirsig

 

I first read this masterpiece of fiction when I was fifteen, I remember clearly it was 1980 and I spent days in my room trying to understand the big words and attempting to figure out all the characters Pirsig would reference, Kant, Hume, Poincare, and the ancient Greeks.  Since we were well before a simple Wikipedia search, it would be years before I would hear most of their names again.  What I do know very clearly is that when I emerged from my room I knew I was going to college to become a Mechanical Engineer.  I had long since forgotten why I came to that conclusion until I relieved my young experience on page 176 just a few days ago.  It was my third reading of this book.

My second reading came in 1992, I was 28.  In those days I was brash, arrogant, and full of gumption, as Pirsig would call it.  I knew a lot more about philosophy and theology and engineering at that time.  I also owned a motorcycle and had completed an active duty tour in the military.  I was working as a systems engineer for the DoD and was in school working on my second Master’s degree.  The book still made sense… a lot of sense.  At that point I knew it had nothing to do with Zen and even less to do with motorcycle maintenance, but Pirsig has always told us that up front.

Fast forward sixteen years…a family, a company, a new career, a fresh read.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is still every bit the masterpiece it was back in 1974.  But ultimately what is it about – if it’s not about Zen or art of motorcycle maintenance?  Certainly much has been written over the past four decades attempting to define exactly what Pirsig was trying to tell us.  No need for that.  Read the book, Pirsig will tell you.  No matter what you may hear, no matter what you may think, this book defines for us that which can never be expressed through words and rational thought alone.  It must be experienced.  Experience is the life changer, not thoughts or deeds.  Experience this book and understand why.