Truth is Beauty

Zen is about suchness.  East and West do find common ground.

In “Ode on a Greecian Urn”, John Keats says:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Robert Pirsig echoes Keats in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when he writes, “Is quality a part of Greek thought?” With the answer being: “Quality is every part of Greek thought.”
Pirsig then goes on to talk about building a wall, a quality wall, straight and true. It is the quality of the construction that gives the wall its integrity. Yet the quality also lends an aesthetic dimension to the wall. The uniformity of the courses of bricks, the spacing of the vertical joints, the elements that give the wall strength also contributes to a certain beauty. It looks right to us because it adheres to the law of physics and chemistry and thermodynamics.

In “Ode”, the Truth Keats reference is the true nature of things, suchness. Pirsig goes on to say quality is a method to achieve Truth. And so one might write, “(A method to achieve truth) is every part of Greek thought”. Hence, Keat’s truth and beauty of the Grecian urn.