Questioner: Can there be thinking without memory? Krishnamurti: "In other
words, is there thought without the word? You know, it is very
interesting, if you go into it. Is the speaker using thought? Thought,
as the word, is necessary for communication, is it not? The speaker has
to use words, English words, to communicate with you who understand
English. And the words come out of memory, obviously. But what is the
source, what is behind the word? Let me put it differently. There is a
drum; it gives out a tone. When the skin is tightly stretched at the
right tension, you strike it, and it gives out the right tone, which you
may recognize. The drum, which is empty, in right tension, is as your
own mind can be. When there is right attention and you ask the right
question, then it gives the right answer. The answer may be in terms of
the word, the recognizable, but that which comes out of that emptiness
is, surely, creation. The thing that is created out of knowledge is
mechanical, but the thing which comes out of emptiness, out of the
unknown, that is the state of creation." - J. Krishnamurti
