SW: It has lost all sensitivity.
K: Do look at what happens inside you. In reaction to the externalizing process
you withdraw, you become a monk. What happens to the mind when it
withdraws?
SW: It is incapable of spontaneity.
K: You will find the answer, if you really look. (pause) What happens to your
mind when you withdraw or when you are committed? What happens to the mind
when you withdraw into your own conclusions? In place of one world you create
another, which you call the inner world.
SW: The mind is not free.
K: Is that what has happened to your mind?
SW: It remains committed.
K: The mind is committed to outward phenomena, and the reaction to that is the
inward commitment, the withdrawal. The commitment to the inward, to mystical
experience, to your own world of imagination, is a reaction. What happens to the
mind that is doing this?
R: It is occupied.
K: Is that what is going on? She says that it is occupied. Is that all? Put your guts
into it. The mind externalizes its activity and, then, withdraws and acts. What
happens to the quality of the mind, to the brain which is withdrawing and
externalizing?
A: It does not face the fact.
R: There is a great fear. It becomes dull.
SW: It is not free to look.
K: Have you watched your mind when it is externalizing its actions, both
outward and inward action? The inward and the outward movement are the
same—like a tide going out and coming in. What happens to the mind which is
going outward and withdrawing inward?
A: It is becoming mechanical.