K: Do not reduce everything to creation; going to the office is not creation. What
does it mean to create, to produce something which has not existed before, say to
create a statue? What is brought into being—is it essence? There are only two
things which can be brought about: thought or emotion.
D: Bringing into being means ‘essence manifested’.
K: I ask of you: What is creation? I do not know. Is it bringing into being
something new which is not in the mould of the known?
P: Creation is bringing into being something new, something not of the old.
K: Therefore let us be clear. ‘Bringing into being something totally new’—at
what level? Watch it. At the sensory level, at the intellectual level, at the level of
memory—where? ‘Bringing into being something new’—So that you see it, so
that you can visualize it? So, when you speak of bringing into being something
totally new, at what level is it brought about?
P: The sensory.
K: At the sensory level? Take a picture which is non-verbal—can you paint
something that is totally new? That is, can you bring something into being which
is not an expression of the self? It is not new if it is self-expression.
P: If creation is something entirely new, which is unrelated to any self-
expression, then probably all self-expression ceases, all manifestation ceases.
K: Wait. Wait.
P: I will say that, because there does not exist anything which is not an
expression of the self...
K: That is what I want to get at. The man who discovered the jet—at the moment
of discovery there was no self-expression. He translated it into self-expression. It
is something discovered, then it is put into a formula. I only know that the flame
of perception has brought about the essence, and now the question is: Has that
essence any expression? Does it create anything new?
D: It creates a new perception.
K: No. There is no new perception; the flame is the perception. The flame is a
flame all the time. One moment there is the pure flame of perception, then it is
forgotten, and again the pure flame of perception, then forgotten. Each time the
flame is new.