David Bohm: Why do you say it’s not attention?

Krishnamurti: Because when you are not attentive you see things which you’ve never seen before.

David Bohm: Let’s get this clear. You are saying there is a perception beyond attention, which comes unexpectedly.

Krishnamurti: It cannot be invited. It’s like saying, ‘I’ll be attentive in order to receive truth.’ That’s nonsense.

David Bohm: The word ‘attention’ means basically to stretch yourself towards something. Now, you are saying that, in some sense, when you are not stretched out, something may come unexpectedly.

Krishnamurti: That’s why when you say it is attention, I say it’s not quite that.

David Bohm: But is attention still connected with thought?

Krishnamurti: No, concentration is connected with thought.

David Bohm: But there is an attention, you say, which is not connected with thought, but still it’s not what we want.

Krishnamurti: No, it’s not the whole.

David Bohm: Not quite what we need.

Krishnamurti: So there is an awareness which is not concentration, an awareness in which there is no choice, an awareness which moves—and attention. In that attention there is a stretching out to capture. That is attention in the field of reality to capture something. To me that’s not sufficient.

                        ~ The Limits of Thought

Krishnamurti and David Bohm