“You say action is the outcome of the past. Such action is not action at all, but only a reaction, is it not? The conditioning the background, reacts to stimuli; this reaction is the response of memory, which is not action, but karma. For the present we are not concerned with what action is. Karma is the reaction which arises from certain causes and produces certain results. Karma is this chain of cause and effect. Essentially, the process of time is karma, is it not? As long as there is a past, there must be the present and the future. Today and tomorrow are the effects of yesterday; yesterday in conjunction with today makes tomorrow. Karma, as generally understood, is a process of compensation.”
“Karma implies, does it not, cause and effect – action 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.”
“As long as thought is caught in the process of cause and effect, the mind can proceed only in its own enclosure, and therefore there is no freedom. There is freedom only when we see that the process of cause and effect is not stationary, static, but in movement; when understood, that movement comes to an end – and then one can go beyond.”
J. Krishnamurti
Human beings have a tendency to blame their luck whenever things do not happen according to their expectations. They think luck to be something arbitrary imposed on them over which they have no control whatsoever which means there is no such thing as justice in nature. Some people blame Karma for their present situations which they consider as accumulated effects of their past actions in previous incarnations. What is Karma? Is it completely arbitrary? Or is every human being constantly generating a chain of cause and effect as he lives his life which means we are the makers of our own destiny? What is action? What is freedom? Is it possible to live without generating Karma? What is Karma-Yoga? What is reincarnation? What role does Karma play in human relationships? All such and many more related questions will be explored during this workshop. Understanding the consequences of one’s actions and living one’s daily life rightly will be the main focus of study in this workshop. It is expected that the participants will understand their life better and find out the right actions in given situations instead of blaming their luck. Various selections from Krishnamurti’s works relevant to the theme of this workshop will be provided as a reading material to each participant. Also links to the relevant videos of Krishnamurti will be provided. Each participant is expected to devote these two days fully to the study in order to benefit maximum from this workshop.