Few ServiceSpace friends met for a wonderful dinner last night.  In our shared space of deep listening, Ilyas shared this Islamic notion of aesthetics as ethics; Richard built upon it with his own experience in interviewing artists. I remembered that notion of connecting beauty and ethics when I first read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.   "Quality" is how Robert Prisig refered to it, in reference to fixing his motorcycle. Nipun reminded  of this passage in particular:   "I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not to talk about relationships of political nature, which are inevitably dualistic, full of subjects and objects and their relationship to one another; or with programs full of things for other people to do. I think that kind of approach starts it at the end and presumes the end is the beginning. Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then to work outward from there. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what i have to say has more lasting value."