K: Let us explore. First of all, is time involved at all? If you asked how this
happened to me, I really would not know. But I think we could investigate it
together. If you asked me: Did you go for a walk last night? I would say yes.
Whereas if you asked me: How did this happen to you? I really could not say
how. What is wrong with that?
P: In itself, it is all right. But we are trying to comprehend the essential nature of
the movement in time and the movement outside time. Leaving aside the
question of how this happened to you, it is important that we investigate into the
nature of time—not at the level of chronological time and psychological time, for
we have gone into that sufficiently.
K: Begin with perception: Is seeing involved with time?
P: What happens to the brain cells in the process of seeing?
K: The brain cells, in the process of seeing, either respond in old terms or are
held back in abeyance; they hold themselves back in abeyance without the past.
P: You say that in perception which is instantaneous, the brain cells hold back. If
they are not operating, do they exist?
K: They do, as the storehouse of knowledge which is the past. The brain cells,
we all agree, are the storehouse of memories, experience, knowledge which is the
past. That is the old brain. In perception, the old brain does not respond.
P: Where is it?
K: It is there. It is not dead. It is there because I have to use knowledge to think.
The brain cells have to be used.
P: What operates then? If the brain cells are not operating, what is operating?
K: A totally new brain. This is simple. The old brain is full of images, memories,
responses, and we are used to responding with the old brain. Perception is not
related to the old brain. Perception is the interval between the old response and
the response which is new, which the old does not yet know. In that interval there
is no time.
F: There is a contradiction. In psychology, sensation is itself direct. In the
interval between sensation and perception, memories jump in and distort. So
sensation is timeless but the interval is time.
K: Let us get this clear. You ask me a question. The old brain responds according
to its information, according to knowledge; if the old brain has no knowledge, no
information, there would be an interval between the question and answer.