A much more strictly philosophical book than ZAMM, Pirsig generally assumes that his reader has read the prior work and comes to Lila with a relatively sympathetic viewpoint. Of course this follow-up is seemingly less revolutionary than ZAMM but in fact goes much deeper into the implications of the MOQ. Whereas before Pirsig was content to introduce aspects of Quality and his path in discovering its role in our conception of reality, any further exposition requires both deeper reflection and more thorough defense. No longer is Pirsig content to leave Quality as the undefined leading edge of reality. Rather, Pirsig expounds on both the concrete and theoretical aspects of Quality. When it is all said and done the sympathetic reader is left with a drastically different understanding of the world and the formation of right and wrong.
Pirsig sees all entities striving towards Quality rich experiences and places this at the center of reality. Prior to conceptions, or names or delineations between me and you, this and that, or subject and object, are the numerous feelings of Quality that make up the present in which life is actually lived. That all things partake of this Quality means that each is a part of a larger Quality-rich continuum, thereby removing the seeming disparities of time, space and theme. While all entities are aware of the relative Quality of their environments, Pirsig tells us that our culture has become accustomed to proceed as though Quality were unimportant, or even, that it does not exist at all. Thus, it is very hard for us to conceive the role that Quality plays. But Pirsig goes even further, he says that it is nothing but this pursuit of Quality that binds all things, and provides the driving force behind the creative aspects of the world. While one species of Quality, static, makes reality understandable and gives permanence to experience, Dynamic Quality, that elusive ghost that we are all chasing, is the very cutting edge of reality. Yet, these two aspects of Quality are often in conflict with one another. Just as static Quality can be the laws and morals that bind society together, Dynamica Quality is the evolving aspects that allow for us to grow, adapt and change.
While much about this may seem to fly-in-the-face of everything we understand about the world, Pirsig argues that it is really founded in the most homespun, plain philosophy there is. Rather than set up conceptual chasms, such as the subjective and objective, the MOQ allows that all things partake and compose the same world, and that they are best understood as part and parcel of this whole system. For Pirsig a philosophy is only as good as its ability to treat with the world we experience, and Pirsig seems to convincingly argue that the MOQ more thoroughly and satisfactorily explains reality than our traditional, western conceptions (what he and others refer to as the philosophy of substance). For Pirsig all of this talk and positioning is about a pursuit of the good. Once we acknowledge that Quality exists (as he demands we all already know), then it is the pursuit of that Dynamic Quality, or the Good, that Pirisig sees as the binding aspect which drives existence forward. Certainly there is much that is good and interesting here to challenge us all.
