K: He would have been destroyed. So the movement of becoming was a
movement of protection.
P: Then the movement of protection as time is necessary.
K: Agreed. Protection against fire is necessary; but is there any other form of
protection?
P: Once you admit protection against fire, the other protection is of the same
nature.
K: If the psychological is non-existent, is there need for protection?
P: What you say is true. If the other is non-existent, there is nothing to protect.
But we see that there is the other.
K: You accept that there is the other; you take it for granted that there is. But is
there? I need physical protection; I need food, clothes and shelter. Physical
protection is absolutely necessary; nothing else. Physical protection involves
time. But why should there be protection with respect to something which may
not exist at all? How can you protect me psychologically? And that is what we
are doing; we are doing something to protect that which does not exist; and
therefore we invent time. So psychologically, there is no tomorrow; but there is a
tomorrow because I need food.
P: If one sees that, in that seeing, is there the ending of time?
K: This is it. (pause) Shall we investigate further? Consciousness is made up of
its content. Consciousness is not separate from its content. The content of
consciousness is made up of time. Consciousness is time, and that is what we are
trying to protect. We are using time to shield a state conditioned by time. We are
trying to protect that which has no existence.
If we look at the content of consciousness, we find memories, fears, anxieties,
the I-believe-I-do-not-believe—which are all products of time. And thought says:
This is the only thing I have; I must protect it, shield it against every possible
form of danger. What is it that thought is trying to protect? Is it words, dead
memories, a formula which encourages movement, that makes it move from here
to there? And is there such movement except as an invention of thought?
The movement of thought, born of memory, is from the past, even though it
may appear to be free. Therefore, thought cannot bring about radical change.
Therefore, it is deceiving itself all the time. When you see this, is there time at all
for self-protection? If one really understood this, one’s whole activity would be
entirely different. Then one would protect only the physical, and not the
psychological.
P: Would that not mean a state of emptiness, a meaningless emptiness inside?