| The unconscious and the conscious are the known. The unconscious is the part which the conscious does not know, but the whole content is the known. The whole content of consciousness is the known, in which is included your gods, your super-cosmic entities, and everything: knowledge, time, thought, racial instincts – all that is included, which is all the known. The known then says, ‘I must pay attention,’ but the known is the root of all consciousness, is the motive of all action. That is, the past, the known, is the motive, and that motive dictates your attention, and therefore that attention is not total. If this is clear, then the question is: how to inquire, how to pay attention without a motive. That is, to be negatively attentive. When we are attentive, it is a positive attention with a motive. But we know that the motive is the past, the whole content of the known, and that attention is partial and therefore not total. But to pay attention totally, there must be negation, that is, no motive. From Public Discussion 2, New Delhi, 9 February 1962 Read more | 