A: We are still not free of habit.
K: Because you are still insisting that the door is there. You started out saying: I
know. There is a certain sense of arrogance in that. You do not say: I want to find
out.
What is total perception when the mind is free of habit? Habit implies
conclusions, formulas, ideas, principles. Habit is the very essence of the
observer.
R: It is all that we know of the ‘I’.
K: I go to the book to find out. And that is where the damage is done, the
damage established by other people—the Śaṅkaras, the Buddhas and all the rest.
I prefer this guru, I prefer that one; I argue; I will not let go because my vanity is
involved. Do you know the cartoon which is captioned: My guru has more
enlightenment than yours?
Therefore, sir, humility is necessary. I know absolutely nothing. And I am not
going to repeat a word of anything which I have not found for myself. I really do
not want to know anything more. That is all. The door which I thought was real
is not the door. What happens then? I do not move in that direction; I will find
out.
Madras
7 January, 1971