R: I do not know. There are some texts in which they have said that the
perception of beauty is that moment when time, name, form and space do not
exist.
K: We are not talking of beauty. Perception implies action. I know what action is
when the observer acts—the observer, having learnt a particular language or
technology, having acquired knowledge, acts.
A: Does perception mean direct contact between the sense-organ and an object?
R: Traditionalists talk about mediate and immediate perception. Mediate
perception is through the instrument, through a medium, whereas immediate
perception does not require the sense-organ with which to see. Perhaps
immediate perception is nearer to what you are talking about.
K: You see that perception through knowledge is an action of the past. It is
different from perception which is action.
A: Perception itself is action, so there is no time involved.
K: The time interval between action and knowledge—the knowledge is the
observer—comes to an end. This action is not time-binding; the other is. So this
is clear. Then what is beauty in relation to perception?
R: It is the ending of the desire for experience. This is what the traditionalists
say.
K: Put aside goodness, love, truth. Now, what is beauty?
R: It is not mere perception, because perception can be of anything, even of that
which isn’t beautiful.
K: Do not bring in the ugly. Perception is action; perceiving is acting—leave it at
that. We are talking of beauty. You have stated what the professionals have said
about it. Let us forget what others have said. I want to find out what beauty is.
We see a building or we read a poem, and we say: How beautiful it is. So we
recognize beauty through an object.
Now put aside the object. If beauty is not in the expression, nor in the object,
where is beauty then? Is it in the beholder?—the beholder is the observer. The
observer with his past knowledge recognizes something to be beautiful because
his culture has told him it is beautiful; his culture has conditioned him.
A: The woman who gives pleasure is beautiful, and when she does not give
pleasure, she is no longer beautiful.