Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: 25th Anniversary Edition Review

Overall Rating

Excellent book about esoteric thinking, so it is the effect on you that matters.

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig over 25 years ago. It was recommended by a teacher.

Little did I know what a powerful influence it would have on me. It is about a metaphysics which is a big word for what sounds good. In our society it is to do with science, what sounds good about science is our societies metaphysics. This book is about quality, so what sounds good about our values. The metaphysics of quality is important, as value is the front edge of our experience. We live in a society that does not want this to be the case however.

This is then an instruction manual on making our values the front edge of our experience. It will be about your own values, so esoteric knowledge. This overcomes the value of what sounds good about science, and is a much, much better thing to value. Value what you want to value and not what science wants you to value.

The book does this by describing the sights and sounds of a long motorcycle trip taken by the author and his son some time in the past.

I would recommend this book as a excellent introduction to knowing your own mind: it is the effect it has on you that matters.