K: What is the material upon which experience leaves a mark? Is there such
material? Obviously it is the brain; the brain cells are the material on which every
incident, conscious or unconscious, leaves a mark. The brain receives
information all the time: I see that flower, and it has already registered. The brain
is constantly recording; the racial inheritance and the personal inheritance all
leave a mark on the brain.
B: The mind is energy.
K: The registration of the brain is part of energy. The whole thing is energy. The
brain is the repository of all recording—sensory as well as non-sensory. That is
the tape which has been collected for centuries; and that is knowledge. If you did
not know where you lived, you would not be able to go home. Because you have
been there, you know the way.
Knowledge does not necessarily free the mind from conflict. We see that.
Without introducing the ātman, which is part of the traditional knowledge that I
have acquired, what will free the mind? Though I may call it the ātman, it is the
same field of knowledge.
C: How is the ātman within the field of knowledge?
K: Unless I think about it, there is no ātman.
C: Thinking about it is not realizing it. It is not within the comprehension of
thought.
K: Thinking about something is still within the field of thought. A man who
thinks about the ātman is still within the field of thought.
C: The men who talked of the ātman never thought; they realized it. The only
argument that they cite is: When you wake up after a sound, deep sleep, how do
you remember that you have had a sound sleep?—for in deep sleep the mind
does not work.
K: How do you know when it does not work? The brain cells are working day
and night. Only when you get up the next morning do you know that you are
tired or that you have had a good sleep. They are all the functions of the brain. So
the ātman is within the field of thought. It must be. Otherwise you would not use
that word. We are saying that the ātman is part of the brain. Because thought
cannot solve the problem through thought, it therefore says that there must be the
ātman.
C: But they have said that the ātman is outside experience.
B: Explain the material of experience.