pleasant—I may like to be bullied, to be beaten by my wife; but that pleasure is a
part of the structure of conflict.
R: The nature of consciousness is conflict.
K: It is not its nature; consciousness is conflict. If I have no conflict, what
happens to me?
A: You say that there is no ‘I’ if there is no conflict. Does that mean that the state
of non-conflict is non-consciousness?
R: The state of non-conflict is beyond conflict. The dimension in which we live
is conflict.
A: Sir, I said that the intensification of conflict includes naming.
K: All naming is included in this. The average man swims along till a conflict
becomes acute.
A: When conflict becomes acute, then naming starts.
K: What is naming? Why do we need naming at all? Why do I say: My wife?
Why? Investigate it.
A: At one level it is for communication, at another level it is subtle.
K: Why do I say: She is my wife?
A: Because I want a continuity in that.
K: Sir, why do I say: My wife?
A: Because of security—I want to hold on to her.
K: Look, I say the word is not the thing; it never is. The word is only a means of
communication. The fact is not the word. The fact that she is my wife is legally
true, but what have I done when I say it? Why have I named it?—To give
continuity, to strengthen the image that I have built? I possess her or she
possesses me—for sex, for comfort and so on. All these strengthen the image
about her. The image is there to establish her as mine. In the meanwhile, she is
changing, is looking at another man. I do not acknowledge her freedom, and I do
not acknowledge freedom at all for myself. So, what have I done when I say that
she is my wife?
A: You are saying that we do not like movement, that we like everything static.