THE INTERNAL DIFFERENCE
Dr. A. D. Beacham of the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Franklin Springs, GA sent us this item he found in Henri Nouwen’s The Genesee Diary (Doubleday, Image, 1981, pp. 24-25) in which Nouwen quotes from Pirsig as indicated: r30639 During the day I often thought about a passage in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Wm Morrow, NY, 1974, pp 211-12) where Pirsig makes a distinction between ego climbing and selfless climbing. It seems a very important passage for me, worthwhile quoting here. Trying to explain why his seven- year-old son, Chris, is not enjoying a camping trip to the ridge of a canyon, Pirsig writes: “To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climbers place one foot in front of the other. Both breathe in and out at the same rate. Both stop when tired. Both go forward when rested. But what a difference! The ego-climber is like an instrument that’s out of…
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