THE NATURE OF EXPLORATION
Dialogue 15A: All our lives we have been thinking in terms of causes, and operating on
causes, finding out the cause and trying to control the cause. But even when we
know the cause, we cannot operate on it. This is a part of our experience.
However, the Buddha discovered the cause of suffering and was liberated from
suffering. Now, you say that the cause is the effect and that the effect is the
cause, and you also point out that in this, in cause and effect, time is inescapable.
But even after listening to you, the impact of causes and the operating on causes
is still an integral part of our thinking. Can we go into it?
K: What is the question?
A: To explore the validity of the cause-effect sequence in respect of
understanding.
K: What does it mean—‘to explore’? What is the state of the mind which
explores? You say that all action has a cause, that cause effects action, and that
without understanding causes, do what you will, action will always be limited. So
you say: Explore the cause of action, understand it and, thereby, bring about a
mutation in action.
I do not know the cause of action. There may be obvious causes, and there
may be other causes which cannot be discovered by the conscious mind. I can see
the superficial causes, but these superficial causes have very deep roots in the
recesses of one’s own being.
Now, can the conscious mind not only examine the superficial, but also
uncover the deeper? Can the conscious mind ever examine the deeper layers?
And what is the state of the mind which explores? These three questions are
important. Otherwise discovering the cause has no meaning.
R: You explore when you do not know.
K: We first asked the question: What is the quality of the mind which is
exploring? Before I begin to explore, I must find out the state of the mind which
explores. You say that the Buddha said this, and that somebody else said that, but
I say that you must first find the quality of the mind that has the capacity to
explore. What is the ‘I’ which explores? Is it crooked, far-sighted, myopic? Have
you a mind that is free from conclusions? Otherwise you cannot explore.
A: We have unconfessed postulates and we see and drop them.
K: What you are doing is analysing step by step. What takes place when you
analyse? There is the analyser and the thing which is being analysed. The