Zensylvania
By Eric Adriaans
ZensylvaniaAug 02, 2022
Gumption Traps and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part Two (Episode 29)
In this episode, Eric reads and reviews several passages from Chapter 26 of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The theme of the chapter is Pirsig's concept of "Gumption Traps".
Do you engage the technologies and information available in our ever-more-complicated times by maintaining your gumption or do you give up that commitment to self-reliance and individual sovereignty and join the others in defeated, grid-locked funeral processions that shuffle back and forth, but ultimately go nowhere?
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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Gumption Traps and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Episode 28)
In this episode, Eric reads and reviews several passages from Chapter 26 of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The theme of the chapter is Pirsig's concept of "Gumption Traps".
Do you engage the technologies and information available in our ever-more-complicated times by maintaining your gumption or do you give up that commitment to self-reliance and individual sovereignty and join the others in defeated, grid-locked funeral processions that shuffle back and forth, but ultimately go nowhere?
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
An Abridged Reading of Algernon Blackwood's The Willows Part Two (Episode 27)
In this episode, Eric presents part two of an abridged reading of Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" . This is the third annual Hallowe'en episode for Zensylvania.
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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An Abridged Reading of Algernon Blackwood's The Willows Part One (Episode 26)
In this episode, Eric presents part one of an abridged reading of Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" . This is the third annual Hallowe'en episode for Zensylvania.
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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A Reading From A.N. Whitehead's Process and Reality Part 3 (Episode 25)
In this episode, Eric continues to read from Chapter One of Alfred North Whitehead's masterpiece of speculative philosophy (i.e. metaphysical lectures) titled Process and Reality.
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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A Reading of Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality Part Two (Episode 24)
In this episode, Eric continues to read from Chapter One of Alfred North Whitehead's masterpiece of speculative philosophy (i.e. metaphysical lectures) titled Process and Reality.
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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A Reading of Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality Part One (Episode 23)
In this episode, Eric begins a reading of Alfred North Whitehead's masterpiece of speculative philosophy (i.e. metaphysical lectures) titled Process and Reality.
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
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Lists and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Episode 22)
In this episode, Eric picks up examination of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with Chapter Four. In this Chapter, Pirsig touches on lists and caring.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
Ghosts and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Episode 21)
In this episode, Eric picks up examination of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with Chapters Three and Five. In these chapters, Pirsig firmly established ZAMM's position as a twentieth-century gothic story while beginning to undermine a few alternate perspectives.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
You can support the Zensylvania podcast at https://www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
Fuzzy Standards: An Incomplete Exploration of Quality (Episode 20)
In this episode, Eric talks about quality, Quality, the Metaphysics of Quality and a number of philosophical connections to Fuzzy Sets, Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism, Dewey's idea of Aesthetic Experience and Northrop's notion of an undifferentiated aesthetic continuum.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
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A Reading of Edgar Allan Poe's The Imp of the Perverse (Episode 19)
Zensylvania's 2022 special Hallowe'en episode is a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's The Imp of the Perverse. Poe is a staple of all things spooky and Hallowe'en spectacular. First published in Graham's Magazine in 1845, it is a special mix of introspective essay, horror story-telling and a kind of confessional struggle toward self-understanding by a narrator. Given our focus (so far) in Zensylvania on a particular work of "philosophical fiction", this Poe story seems very well suited to our studies. I hope you enjoy my reading of this creepy little story.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
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Footnotes to Minimalism: A Grey and Colourless Philosophy (Episode 18)
In this episode, Eric explores his personal experience of minimalism and traces connections via Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art o Motorcycle Maintenance to several underlying ideological themes that may explain some of contemporary minimalism's design ethos.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
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Footnotes to Phaedrus...and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Episode 17)
In this Episode, Eric examines Plato's Phaedrus through the lens of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
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A Reading of Plato's Phaedrus (Episode 16)
In this episode, Eric reads a translation of Plato's Phaedrus. Essential to an appreciation of Robert's Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality as displayed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila, Phaedrus provides not only the alter-ego name of Pirsig's narrator, it explores several themes that permeate those books.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
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Foonotes to On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence by Robert Pirsig (Episode 15)
In this episode, Eric examines the newly-published (2022) collection of writing about Quality by Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
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Footnotes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part Five (Episode 14)
In this episode, Eric continues to examine Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the wide variety of sources, meanings and intentions that the author may have had. The chapter leads to a few questions such as: Do you think that life ought to be approached neither fast nor slow...just steadily? Have you ever had the feeling that the various experts you experience in your life are just...uninvolved? But it also introduces an ominous and interesting theme of spectators.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/messageThank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
Living Fuzzy: An Incomplete Exploration of Fuzzy Logic (Episode 13)
In the episode, Eric begins an exploration of fuzzy logic as a day-to-day tool for living and making decisions. Along the way, there are many references to Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
You can find text versions of Zensylvania essays and stories at www.zensylvania.com
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
Footnotes to Plato: Considering The Apology of Socrates in the 2020s (Episode 12)
In Process and Reality, Alfred North Whitehead stated that all of (European Classical) philosophy may be considered a series of footnotes to Plato. Meanwhile, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Plato, Aristotle and European Classical philosophy are the targets for criticism and challenge. We're taking Motorcycle Zen all the way back to some of its earliest (written) roots to examine one of western philosophy's most ironic stories - the trial of Socrates! We're going to take a fresh look from the 2020's with as little outside influence as we can muster. And yes, we will also work in a bit of motorcycle talk. So what kind of motorcycle do you think Socrates would ride? What about Plato? In this episode, Eric reflects on Plato's The Apology of Socrates. You can find text versions of Zensylvania essays and stories at www.zensylvania.com Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
A Reading of Plato's The Apology of Socrates by Zensylvania Podcast (Episode 11)
In this episode, Eric reads Benjamin Jowett's 1877 translation of The Apology of Socrates by Plato.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
Footnotes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part Four (Episode 10)
In this episode, Eric continues to examine the first chapter of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a wide variety of sources, meanings and intentions that the author may have had. Do you find that there isn't enough time to talk? Does the noise and business of running your own cycle prevent dialogue? How much time do you think that you have lost to meaningless technology-fueled commotion? Do you think that suspicion and paranoia are inescapable features of contemporary society? To what extent do you take personal responsibility for the maintenance of the motorcycle that is your self? What motorbike would make a great contemporary homage to the original Zen-bikes?
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
Footnotes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part Three (Episode 9)
In this episode, Eric continues to examine the first pages of Chapter One of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a wide variety of sources, meanings and intentions that the author may have had. In this episode...Is much of your life…just more tv? Are there significant portions of your life where the frame is gone? Are you focused on good or are you focused on the time? Do you tell truth to go away when it knocks on the door? Is the course of contemporary society producing lost children? Do you think you are a lost child? Do you have the ability and the courage to dead reckon a way forward in your life?
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
Footnotes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part Two (Episode 8)
In this episode, Eric talks about the first few paragraphs of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a wide variety of sources, meanings and intentions that the author may have had. The motorcycle as metaphor for the self, riding as a metaphor for living, weather as a metaphor for the conditions and events of our lives, the road as a metaphor for the ideological paths we may choose. Did Eric really compare Pirsig's introduction to Tolstoy and Dickens? And more...
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
Footnotes to Hygge and Niksen: An Inquiry into Comfort and Contentment (Episode 7)
Having read Meik Wiking's "Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well" and Olga Mecking's " Niksen: The Dutch Art of Doing Nothing", Eric Adriaans talks about the ideas in these books and how they may relate to choosing comfort and contentment as a life goals rather than happiness.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://ericadriaans.com/2021/03/15/footnotes-to-niksen-an-inquiry-into-doing-nothing/
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
You can support the Zenyslvania at: www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind.
Footnotes to Tai Chi in the Morning (Episode 6)
On this episode of Zensylvania, Eric Adriaans talks about beginning a daily morning practice of Tai Chi as a method to engage environmental adversity, considers a study of health benefits associated with Tai Chi and muses on how that relates to Townes Van Zandt's song Highway Kind as well as a certain passage in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://ericadriaans.com/2020/11/25/tai-chi-in-the-morning/
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
You can support the Zenyslvania at: www.patreon.com/zensylvaniapodcast
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind.
The Hole Where the Ghosts Come In: A Hallowe'en Story (Episode 5)
Happy Hallowe'en. In this episode of the Zensylvania Podcast, I present a new story for the haunted holiday.
The story begins to investigate questions about what separates fear from horror, what separates heroes from monsters and what separates an individual from a collective experience of these concepts. The stories major themes and influences include the epic Old English poem, Beowulf and an archetypal "body snatcher" or "possession" kind of monster.
Since this is a Hallowe'en story, I recommend that you, the listener, employ personal judgement whether a story containing creepy, unsettling "horror" themes are for you. While the story may be mild compared to any number of horror entertainments available to you - only you know whether you're interested to engage.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind.
Footnotes to Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part One (Episode 4)
In this episode, Eric talks about why so many of the essays in Zensylvania are titled as "footnotes" to something and reveals that the footnotes are actually a kind of footprint. The primary essay of the episode is an introduction to several reasons why Eric has decided to devote so much time to Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle. In this essay, we look at the title and the author's note.
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://ericadriaans.com/2021/02/21/footnotes-to-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-one-title-and-the-authors-note/
Learning (Episode 3)
Have you ever faced a time in your life when events were not in your control and the only certainty seemed to be...well, uncertainty? In Zensylvania, we've found that adopting the right state of mind is an essential tool to maintaining a grounded and resilient response to those difficult and uncertain times. A key part of making it though the challenging parts of your life might just be an open and resilient attitude toward learning a leisure activity like riding a motorcycle or practicing Tai Chi.
The original version of this episode was released as a text-to-voice episode. Following listener feedback, we've replaced the text-to voice version of the essay with a complete reading. So here is the non-text-to-voice edition of "Learning".
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this episode or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zensylvania.com/2021/08/05/learning/
August 1834, Demerara (Episode 2)
In this episode of the Zensylvania Podcast, I present a chapter of a work of fiction that I began writing several years ago. The story begins to respond to the question, "What might have happened to Alfred Jingle when he arrived in South America?" Alfred Jingle is the comic figure from Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers, first written and published in 1836 and 1837. I also use the story to begin exploring the Zen concept that the "self" does not exist...
Following initial listener feedback, the original text-to-voice version of this episode has been replaced by a full reading by Eric (09/30/2021)
Do you have thoughts to share? Leave a voice message for the Zensylvania Podcast and we may include it in this or a future episode: https://anchor.fm/zensylvania/message
Thank you for visiting Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zensylvania.com/2021/08/26/august-1834-demerara/
Welcome To Zensylvania (Episode 1)
Welcome to Zenzylvania. In this episode, Eric Adriaans explains what the Zensylvania podcast is all about. Listeners are encouraged to get a feel for the kind of content and design to expect in longer episodes.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zensylvania.com/2021/08/03/welcome-to-zensylvania/
(Revised 2022/10/06)