Can there be only sensation and no thought?

Now, the question is whether there can be a hiatus, a gap; that is, have only sensation, and not let thought come and control sensation. That is the problem. Why does thought create the image and hold on to that sensation? Is it possible to look at the shirt, touch it—sensation—and stop, not allow thought to enter into it? Have you ever tried any of these? When thought enters into the field of sensation—and thought is also a sensation—then thought takes control of sensation, and desire begins. Is it possible to only observe, contact, sensation, and nothing else? And discipline has no place in this because the moment you begin to discipline, that is another form of desire to achieve something. So one has to discover the beginning of desire and see what happens. Don’t buy the shirt immediately, but see what happens. You can look at it; but we are so eager to get something, to possess a shirt, a man, a woman or some status that we never have the time, the quietness, to look at all this.

 

Krishnamurti, Mind Without Measure, pp 19-20