Page 19 - JOURNAL OF THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS

What Do You Mean by Karma?

J KRISHNAMURTI

arma implies, does it not, cause and effect—
Kaction based on cause, producing a certain
effect; action born out of conditioning, producing
further results. So karma implies cause and effect.
And are cause and effect static, are cause and
effect ever fixed? Does not effect become cause
also? So there is no fixed cause or fixed effect.
Today is a result of yesterday, is it not? Today is
the outcome of yesterday, chronologically as
well as psychologically; and today is the cause of
tomorrow. So cause is effect, and effect becomes
cause—it is one continuous movement; there is no
fixed cause or fixed effect. If there were a fixed cause
and a fixed effect, there would be specialization;
and is not specialization death? Any species that
specializes obviously comes to an end.
The greatness of man is that he cannot specialize.
He may specialize technically, but in structure he
cannot specialize. An acorn seed is specialized—
it cannot be anything but what it is. But the human
being does not end completely. There is the pos-
sibility of constant renewal; he is not limited by
specialization. As long as we regard the cause, the
background, the conditioning, as unrelated to the

effect, there must be conflict between thought and
the background. So the problem is much more