Recently I was invited to Zenki Christian Dillo’s Dharma Talk at the Dharma Sangha Crestone Mountain Zen Center. Then the next think I know, I was finally able to bring my bike up to Colorado after 10 years of trying to figure it all out. This all reminded me of the bestselling book titled “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert M. Person.
I unloaded my bike from the trailer and took off. While riding in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains experiencing the joy, freedom, adventure, power and contentment, I became completely overwhelmed with enormous gratitude and the blessings that one’s life comes to offer!
One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live…and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America’s Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear — of growth, discovery, and acceptance — that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life’s fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence…and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward!
Zen was published in 1974, after being rejected by 121 publishing houses. “The book is brilliant beyond belief,” wrote Morrow editor James Landis before publication. “It is probably a work of genius and will, I’ll wager, attain classic status.” Indeed, the book quickly became a best-seller, and has proved enduring as a work of popular philosophy.
