The owner of the motorcycle wanted the mechanics to become one physically and mentally with their work. He expected that they might care enough about motorcycles, or about their customers to lose themselves in their work. He thought they would forget about how much they were making an hour, how many minutes they had until their next break, or the end of the day. What he also expected them to do was find the problem with the bike, and fix it. Instead, they neglected to pinpoint the genuine problem, and created several more problems, effectively avoiding quality altogether. Using motorcycle maintenance as an analogy for the love of losing one's self in an interest, Persig shows that it is better to find the place where subject and object meet, than concentrate on the self.
Similarly, Persig relates his idea of quality clearly in his writing style as well. With his writing style, he illustrates for us an individual who works within quality.
"An untrained observer will see only physical labour and often get the idea that.
physical labour is mainly what a mechanic does. Actually the physical labour.
is the smallest and easiest part of what the mechanic does. By far the greatest.
part of his work is the careful observation and precise thinking. That is why.
mechanics seem so taciturn and withdrawn when performing tests. They.
don't like it when you talk to them because they are concentrating on mental.
images, hierarchies, and not really looking at you or the physical motorcycle .
at all." (cited. Zen, pg 96).
Persig's thoughts are complete, his writing style represents quality and he writes ideas about quality in a style that is quality. .
Apart from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Dancing Wu Li Masters project the idea of quality with the term Wu Li, meaning quality. The term "Wu" Li is given five separate definitions respectively; energy, self, non-being, to make a fist, and enlightenment.
