K: No. We are not talking of seeing rightly or wrongly, nor of what you see—the
chair, the rope, the snake—but of what perception is.
A: Is there a difference between seeing and knowing?
K: Seeing, knowing and seeing the object. Seeing the object through the image,
through the symbol, is entirely different from seeing. What do they say about
seeing?
R: They do not discuss it this way.
K: Hunger is in itself; it is not related to food. You eat food because you are
hungry, but the nature of hunger is hunger. What is seeing, perceiving to you?—
not seeing the object, but the quality of the mind that perceives. Seeing the object
with the eyes is one thing, seeing with knowledge is another. I am talking about
seeing in itself. Is there a seeing without knowledge, without the object? I see
that cupboard. Seeing that is with the word and with knowledge; the word being
associated with the cupboard. So we have a seeing which is the seeing of an
object through knowledge, through the image, through the symbol, through the
word, that is, through the intellect. Now, is there a seeing without knowledge and
the image, that is, a seeing without the object?
A: What is seeing without an object? One can see without knowledge, as you
say. There is a cupboard. Even if we had no image of it, it would still be there—a
cupboard. Which means, it is an object.
K: There is the little sapling and, whether I see it or not, it will grow into a tree.
It is independent of my seeing. I can call it ‘a mango’ and, therefore, associate it
with the species mango; but the mango will grow even if I do not see it.
R: Its existence has nothing to do with seeing—
A: The object exists without our seeing, but can such a perception exist without
the object?
K: That tree continues to exist.
A: In Buddhist meditation they have referred to the sky when they talk about
perception without an object. The sky is an object and yet not an object.
K: The dictionary meaning of ‘perception’ is ‘to become aware of; to
apprehend’. You see the cupboard, you have a preconception of it; and the mind
identifies it as a cupboard. Is there seeing without preconception?—To look
without the previous accumulation of prejudice, of memories of hurt, pleasure
and pain. Only the mind that has no conclusions can see; the other cannot.