Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Suffering in the World

2009-06-30T01:02:00.000-07:00

SUFFERING IN THE WORLD

Everyone is suffering. Everyone experiences birth, disease, old age and death. Everyone experiences fear, loneliness, emptiness, confusion, mental agitation, and heartache. Yet a fool, despite the fact that he keeps getting his teeth kicked in, never thinks twice about the whole thing. An intelligent person sees he is suffering and wants to know why. He thus becomes motivated to seek a solution to the problems of life. He seeks liberation. That is the beginning of spiritual life.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The search for wisdom is a great challenge; to act on wisdom is an even greater challenge.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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We all want freedom, but real freedom is possible only if we understand our true identity.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Existence is the only reality for the self. As water cannot be separated from wetness, so you, the self, cannot be separated from existence. Existence is an integral aspect of your essence.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | You, the Seer

2009-06-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

What about the seer? What about you? This is the crux of the matter. Even if scientists can determine how electrochemical impulses translate into such varying forms as a golden sunset, a red truck, or a flower, the main question still remains: Where is the self who is looking at those forms and images? What is this self made of? In what part of the body or brain is it? In other words: What is your essence, and where are you?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The senses (whether they are the “normal” senses or “extra” senses) are really just channels by which information from the external world travels to and is impressed upon the mind. The self, then, perceives or views that information as it appears on the mind.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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“Awareness” refers to that inseparable, essential, inherent attribute of yours, the self, which enables you to perceive thoughts, feelings, the world, etc., and indeed your own existence (self awareness = awareness that “I am”).

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Awareness refers not to the stream of mindstuff (thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, forms, etc.) but rather to the inherent characteristic or ability that enables you, the self, to perceive the stream of mindstuff.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | There Is Nothing Wrong With Differences In External Appearance

2009-06-20T01:15:00.000-07:00

Each body has a multitude of different labels and characteristics. This in itself isn’t bad; just like it is not bad for people to wear different-colored clothes. What is bad is that due to identifying the body as the self, we wrongly consider the person to be the labels that are on his body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Being unable to see past the labels to the person himself, we end up in a world of barriers and conflict.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Your behavior toward another person should not be based upon his external skin color or whatever, but on his behavior.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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There’s nothing wrong with differences in external appearance, labels, and external function. In fact, such differences are necessary and valuable. The problem arises when we falsely identify with our bodies and all the bodily labels and functions.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | We Cannot Have the Consciousness of Animals and Yet Have the Peace of Humans

2009-06-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Mystic yogis, by the practice of mystic or psychic powers, can do things that ordinary people consider very wonderful and miraculous. Such yogis then exploit the people, claiming that they are God Himself. And millions of foolish people believe such charlatans and blindly follow them. This is very unfortunate.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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There can never be harmony if we live like animals. We cannot have the consciousness of animals and yet have the peace of humans.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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There's a saying: “Misery likes company.” So-called religious fanatics are so miserable that they want to create as much havoc in society as possible. They want others to join them in their misery.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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For the world to be peaceful, we have to be peaceful within ourselves.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | on Impersonalist Yogis

2009-06-15T00:54:00.000-07:00

An impersonalist yogi can be very dangerous because he may try to take the position of the Supreme Lord, believing himself to be the Supreme dominator and enjoyer of all that he surveys. This is the darkest region of ignorance. He may try to act on the illusion that he is God and that the world is his playground. He may become, in other words, a “super-hedonist.” One such “I am God”ist, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), formerly a professor at Harvard University, declares that no one exists except oneself, and that after merging with the impersonal Brahman, one returns to the world and is the world and is everyone.

If you come back into form from having merged with God ... you fill the forms [bodies] though there is no one home, it is just more lila, the dance of God.1

The late Swami Muktananda, a well-known “I am God”ist who had thousands of followers, wrote:

Assuming physical bodies, He appears as separate entities.2

According to the “I am God”ist, the apparent existence of others is just a hallucination. And since you are God, you are the creator of the laws of the universe (or as Ram Dass puts it, “You are the laws of the universe!”).3 And since you are the laws of the universe—since you are God—then there is no higher person or law to which you must subject yourself. Your will, your desire, is God's desire—God's will—so there is no need whatsoever to check or control your desires or actions. As another “I am God”ist, Werner Erhard puts it:

What you're doing is what God wants you to do. Be happy.4

So according to the “I am God”ist, since you and I—each of us—is God, whatever you and I and others are doing is what God wants us to do. You can be engaging in the most illicit or the most heinous activities, but since you are God, you are doing the will of God. Your will is God's will. In other words, he believes his will is God's will because he wrongly believes he is God.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

1Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill (Santa Cruz, CA: Unity Press, 1976), p. 166.

2Swami Muktananda, Siddha Meditation, p. 59.

3Ram Dass, Remember, Be Here Now (Albuquerque, NM: Lama Foundation, 1971), p. 86.

4Quoted in Adelaide Bry, est (Erhard Seminars Training): 60 Hours That Transform Your Life (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), p. 66.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | The Passing Away of the Body Does Not Mean the End of Your Existence

2009-06-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

The body you have at any moment in time does not last long—it is soon replaced by a new body made of new cells, molecules, and atoms. The “baby” body is replaced by the “child” body, which is replaced by the “adolescent” body, which is replaced by the “young adult” body, which is replaced by the “adult” body, which is replaced by the “middle-aged” body, which is replaced by the “old” body. Yet throughout all these complete changes of the body, you—the self—endure. You remain as the unchanged, untouched witness of all the different changes of your body as well as the changes of your mind.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Every one of us continues to live, even though our childhood bodies have long disappeared. Your “baby” body and “childhood” body have ceased existing, but you have not ceased existing.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Those who claim that the self can continue to exist only if the body continues to exist must explain how come they and other selves exist despite the fact that their “baby,” “child,” and “adolescent” bodies no longer exist.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The fact is that you know you existed five years ago, and you know you exist today. Although you still exist, you know that the body you had five years ago does not exist today. Therefore, you know that your existence is not dependent on the existence of any one body you may have on at any particular moment—whether it is a “baby” body, an “adolescent” body, an “old” body, or whatever.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If the passing away of the body meant the end of your existence, then you, the self who existed along with the “childhood” body, should have ceased existing when that “childhood” body ceased to exist; and you, the self who existed along with the “adolescent” body, should have ceased existing when your “adolescent” body ceased to exist. The fact that you continued to exist, even though your body (bodies) did not, proves that your existence does not depend upon the continuing existence of a body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Becoming Free of Bad Habits By Tasting a Higher Taste

2009-06-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

A person who tries to be a goswami is careful not to engage in those activities that are harmful to his spiritual development. For example, he refrains from taking intoxicants (including all sorts of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and so on); from having illicit sex; from gambling; and from eating meat, fish, and eggs.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If a person engages in the process of bhakti yoga and yet continues to engage in activities that are detrimental to spiritual progress, his spiritual progress will be very slow. This does not mean that a person must be completely free of all bad habits before he can even begin the process of bhakti yoga. For example, in the Philippines, one teacher saved many young people who were addicted to heroin and other drugs by teaching them the process of bhakti yoga. It took some time before they could completely give up all drugs; but eventually they did.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Sometimes a person is still addicted to cigarette smoking or meat-eating. If he follows the process of bhakti yoga, then gradually he will be able to give up such habits. It is a question of tasting a higher taste. If a person engages in the process of bhakti yoga, he will gradually begin to taste the higher spiritual happiness, and he will be able to give up all vices naturally. After he gives up such bad habits, then his progress will be very rapid.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | SIMPLE LIVING

2009-05-04T22:51:00.000-07:00

By nature’s design, the material body has built-in sensual urges, which are difficult to control even in nonhedonistic societies. But in a society where the message to “enjoy yourself” is everywhere, the task of exercising such control is enormous. It’s much easier to “go with the flow” (follow the urges of the senses) than to try to “control the flow” (redirect the senses).

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Most people are not concerned about the problems we are creating on earth. Our whole attitude towards this planet is that it is disposable. Everyone thinks that they can take anything they want, exploit it, and then conveniently throw it away. So many things have become disposable, not only diapers, towels, plates and spoons, but babies, wives, husbands and old people too.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If there is understanding of the difference between the body and the soul then, just as we don’t neglect to supply the physical with food, similarly, we don’t live in the illusion that our inner craving or emptiness can be satisfied by endless material consumption.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Economic and Spiritual Well-Being Must Go Hand in Hand

2009-04-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

There is more than enough food, water, fuel and so on to satisfy the actual needs of everyone on the planet. But there is not enough to satisfy everyone's greed. Even if it were physically possible for you to consume all the food, water, and fuel in the world, you still would not be satisfied. “Material food” cannot satisfy spiritual craving. Since the materialist is never satisfied, he never feels that he has had enough.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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In his book Small Is Beautiful, noted British economist E. F. Schumacher wrote:

Insights of wisdom … enable us to see the hollowness and fundamental unsatisfactoriness of a life devoted primarily to the pursuit of material ends, to the neglect of the spiritual. Such a life necessarily sets man against man and nation against nation, because man’s needs are infinite and infinitude can be achieved only in the spiritual realm, never in the material.*

It is a fact that no matter how much sense gratification a person gets, he will never be satisfied. Material food, material things, material sense gratification cannot satisfy the atma (spirit soul). Just as the body needs material food, so the spirit soul needs spiritual food. To try to satisfy one’s spiritual craving with material things leads to endless consumption, greed, envy, violence, and war. Western people have as much sense gratification as one could ever want, yet they are not satisfied. Why? Because they are spiritually empty.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

* E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 38.

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Economic and spiritual well-being can and must go hand in hand. A yoga master is not against material prosperity or development, but sees it in the correct context. He is not against any knowledge that can lead to economic development, but neither does he believe that such material prosperity will bring complete satisfaction to the people. Therefore he is offering the science of the soul to the educators with the humble but firm request that they please add it to their curriculum.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | BROTHERHOOD

2009-04-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

Common in each of us, among other things, is the desire for peace. But this is not possible as long as we are not recognizing the fact that each of us is equal. If we do not see beyond the body, we will not see our absolute equality. When we see that each of us is an eternal, spiritual entity – relatives and brothers in the truest sense – then we will become peaceful individually and also as a society. There is no other way for human society to be peaceful.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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A society of people who see eternal living beings, and not blacks, whites, Asians, Americans, Hindus, Jews and so forth, will be peaceful and cooperative. A society based on recognition of our common identity as spirit soul will be a society characterized by unity, harmony and brotherly love. It will be a society totally devoid of what is known as racism and prejudice.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The great yoga master, Bhaktivinode Thakur, once stated, “Party spirit is the greatest enemy of mankind.” Our loyalties, our love, our sense of duty are all in connection with those of “our team”. You see everyone within the team as your brothers or your relatives therefore you don’t hate them.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The best team, however, is the team which includes everyone, all living beings, where you don’t feel that anyone is outside your team. This is true brotherhood.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | On Living Energy

2009-04-06T02:22:00.000-07:00

We may think we are attracted to the beautiful body of a woman, but actually it is the spark of life which attracts us. When Marilyn Monroe “died”, when the life force left the material body, the body was no longer attractive. All that was left was a lump of unattractive matter that was thrown in the dirt. So is it logical to think that material energy is all-attractive? No. Life force or spirit is the attractive element.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If life is materially based, then why don't we see it springing from matter in the natural world? And why can't we create life from matter in our laboratories?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Work has been done regarding the life force present in plants. In one typical experiment, electrical wires are connected from an electro sensitive meter to a plant. After a stable reading is obtained on the instruments, a small twig is cut from the plant. Invariably, at that moment, a significant response is perceivable on the meter, indicating that the separation of the twig has disturbed or agitated the plant.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Many Chinese and Japanese acupuncturists (possibly out of a desire to “prove” the existence of chi to skeptical Westerners) have invented all sorts of electrical technological gadgetry to monitor the flow of chi through the meridians and to precisely locate the acupuncture points. So although chi cannot be perceived directly, its presence can be detected by a meter that monitors electrical activity.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | On the Root Cause of Crime

2009-03-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

Criminologists and social scientists have almost completely overlooked the fact that materialism is the root cause of crime. False identification of the body as the self leads people to believe that sense enjoyment will make them happy and satisfied; and most crimes are directly or indirectly connected with the attempt to find satisfaction in sense enjoyment.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Since no amount of sense gratification is ever enough to satisfy us, we always feel we need “more.” From the poorest person to the richest person, from the slum-dweller to the person who lives in a mansion, everyone wants more sense gratification and thus more material wealth. If you are poor, you feel you need a color TV to be happy; if you’re rich, you feel you need a new yacht. No amount of material wealth is ever enough.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The fact that there are at least as many “wealthy” criminals as there are “poor” criminals effectively destroys the materialists’ theory that the root cause of crime is poverty and that the solution to the crime problem is to make everybody rich. Obviously, if poverty were the cause of crime, then no wealthy people would commit crimes. Besides, the term “poverty” is relative. A poor American, for example, would be a wealthy Ethiopian.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | The Subtle Coverings Over You - The Life Particle

2009-03-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

First, as a yogi, you understand that you are the self within the material body. You consider your body to be like a suit of clothes.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The Bhagavad-gita describes eight different layers of material energy. Going from gross to subtle, they are earth, water, fire, air, ether (sky), mind, intelligence, and false ego (the tendency to identify with matter—the body, mind, and so on).

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The subtle layers of matter that first cover you—such as the mind, intelligence, and false ego—are like underclothes. Then, over the subtle material elements come the grosser material elements (going from the more subtle to the more gross), which cover you, the self, layer by layer. The layer of ether or sky covers over the mind, intelligence, and false ego; then the element air covers the element ether; the element fire then covers the element air; next the element water covers over the element fire; and finally the element earth covers over the element water. So in this way, you, the self, are covered by these eight primary subtle and gross layers of material energy. Thus, just as a man may have different layers of clothes over his naked body, the self also has eight layers of “clothes.”

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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According to the science of yoga, you, the life particle are seated in the heart (but not inseparably—you can remove the physical heart, but you will not be removed with it). Your influence spreads throughout the body by means of this vast network of channels (nadis) that carry the life force to every cell of the body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | The Yogi and the Hedonist are Exact Opposites

2009-03-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

Yogis have a meditation technique that helps them to realize that they are not the body. All day long they say to themselves, “I am aware that I am doing such-and-such.” By doing this they experience a type of detachment from their body and its activities. While a yogi is eating, for example, he’ll say to himself. “I am aware that I am eating … I am aware that I am tasting something sweet.” He doesn’t dive into the taste—rather, he is a little apart from it. He gradually becomes detached from all the body’s activities, sensations, feelings, and so on. He is aware that things are happening, but he’s untouched by it. He’s free from the movement of the waves of sensations, thoughts, and so on that pass over him. He’s the calm center of the storm that rages all around him. Such a yogi and a hedonist are exact opposites in consciousness. The yogi stands apart from the body and the hedonist dives into it—trying to savor every pleasant sensual tingle. And by diving into the sensual gratification, he is diving into the material senses—that is, he is becoming more deeply immersed in false bodily identification.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The negative social results of a society populated primarily by hedonistic people should be obvious to anyone. A society of self-centered, animalistic people who have no other interest than their own sense enjoyment cannot be at all peaceful or progressive—either materially or spiritually.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Silent Witness Meditation

2009-03-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

Silent Witness Meditation

Relax, and sit or lie in a quiet place. Don’t attempt to control the thinking process by trying to think certain thoughts and not think others. Instead, let your mind think about whatever it may. Now watch your mind and become aware of how you are actually aloof from the thinking process. Say to yourself, “I am the silent witness. I make no effort to think, but thoughts come automatically. I am watching thoughts flow through my mind, but I am aloof from them. I am the silent witness to my mind’s activities.” In this way, you’ll be able to experience that you are separate from the mind.

You can also watch the passing emotions, feelings, desires, fears, and so on as they rise to the surface of the mind and then pass away. The stream of mindstuff thus flows along, and you are the viewer of it. Just as a person sits by an ever-moving stream, so you, the self, sit by the stream of mindstuff. Just as a stream may be very clear or very polluted, so the stream of mindstuff may be very clear or very polluted. In either case, you are the witness of that stream—not the stream itself.

You may not be content to watch the stream of mindstuff flow freely, but instead may try to control it, redirect it, or stop it completely. But the very fact that you can try to redirect or control your mind, combined with the fact that it is so difficult to succeed in the endeavor, further shows that you, the self, are not the mind or stream of mindstuff.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If the mind is to be controlled, who is to control it? Who is trying to control the mind? It is the self. You, the self, try to control your mind. The mind is your possession. It is not you.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Your Mind is Like a Filing Cabinet

2009-03-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

When you close your eyes and watch your thoughts, it is the mind that you, the self, are viewing, not the brain. The stream of mindstuff (the stream of thoughts, feelings, and so on) is all within the mind. The mind, not the brain, is the storehouse of memory.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The mind is the seat of all material desires.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The mind is intricately linked to the brain, just as the brain is linked to the rest of the body. The mind is also intricately linked to you, the self. The mind (and the intelligence) connect you to the brain and thus to the rest of the body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Because your mind and brain are intricately “hooked up,” if your brain is stimulated in a particular place, it may cause certain forms, images, memories, and so on to come to the surface of your mind. These are then viewed by you. Your mind is the filing cabinet where all memories, desires, and so on are stored.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | "False Ego" is a Deluded Condition

2009-02-24T22:16:00.000-08:00

If you, the self, erroneously identify with the physical body—if you believe “I am the body”—then this deluded condition is called false ego.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Just as the cells that make up the various organs in your body are not the same cells that made up those organs a few years ago, so the atoms and molecules that make up the various cells are not the same as a few years ago.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The atoms and molecules that made up the cells within your body of five years ago (including the nerve and brain cells) now make up so many other things. On the other hand, not long ago the atoms and molecules in your present body were part of other objects or bodies.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If there is no self in the body, then there is no reason not to treat that body—human or otherwise—the same as we treat any other composition of matter. The no-self world view is the basis, the rationale, for the uninhibited exploitation of other living entities.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Life is Attractive

2009-02-03T04:24:00.000-08:00

We may think we are attracted to the beautiful body of a woman, but actually it is the spark of life which attracts us. When Marilyn Monroe “died”, when the life force left the material body, the body was no longer attractive. All that was left was a lump of unattractive matter that was thrown in the dirt. So is it logical to think that material energy is all-attractive? No. Life force or spirit is the attractive element.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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When we are attracted to a person, what we are really attracted to is the particle of life, i.e., atma. Without the presence of this atma, without life, you see a body for what it really is: just a hunk of blood, guts, flesh, bones, teeth, stool, mucus, hair, urine, bile, and so on—a bag of chemicals. The monetary value of this bag of chemicals called the material body is about $9. ...

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Life attracts life.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The material body is valuable only when the infinitely valuable person is present within the body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The real value of the body lies not in the organization of its components, but rather in the self, in the person who operates and uses that body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Spiritual Craving

2009-01-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

Most people are not concerned about the problems we are creating on earth. Our whole attitude towards this planet is that it is disposable. Everyone thinks that they can take anything they want, exploit it, and then conveniently throw it away. So many things have become disposable, not only diapers, towels, plates and spoons, but babies, wives, husbands and old people too.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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There is more than enough food, water, fuel and so on to satisfy the actual needs of everyone on the planet. But there is not enough to satisfy everyone's greed. Even if it were physically possible for you to consume all the food, water, and fuel in the world, you still would not be satisfied. “Material food” cannot satisfy spiritual craving. Since the materialist is never satisfied, he never feels that he has had enough.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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In his book Small Is Beautiful, noted British economist E. F. Schumacher wrote:

Insights of wisdom … enable us to see the hollowness and fundamental unsatisfactoriness of a life devoted primarily to the pursuit of material ends, to the neglect of the spiritual. Such a life necessarily sets man against man and nation against nation, because man’s needs are infinite and infinitude can be achieved only in the spiritual realm, never in the material.*

It is a fact that no matter how much sense gratification a person gets, he will never be satisfied. Material food, material things, material sense gratification cannot satisfy the atma (spirit soul). Just as the body needs material food, so the spirit soul needs spiritual food. To try to satisfy one’s spiritual craving with material things leads to endless consumption, greed, envy, violence, and war. Western people have as much sense gratification as one could ever want, yet they are not satisfied. Why? Because they are spiritually empty.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

* E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 38.

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People cannot remain as materialistic, selfish people and have peace and harmony in the family, society or world.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | The Body is Constantly Changing

2009-01-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

The physical body is made up of countless numbers of tiny material particles called molecules and atoms. These material particles are constantly being replaced by material particles from the outside environment (in the form of food, water, air, and so on). Over a period of five to seven years, this process of metabolism brings about a complete change of the matter that makes up your body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Recent studies at the Oak Ridge Atomic Research Center have revealed that about 98 percent of all the atoms in a human body are replaced every year. You get a new suit of skin every month and a new liver every six weeks. The lining of your stomach lasts only five days before it’s replaced. Even your bones are not the solid, stable, concrete-like things you might have thought them to be: They are undergoing constant change. The bones you have today are different from the bones you had a year ago. Experts in this area of research have concluded that there is a complete, 100 percent turnover of atoms in the body at least every five years. In other words, not one single atom present in your body today was there five years ago.*

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

* Taken from Guy Murchie, The Seven Mysteries of Life (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1978), pp. 321-22.

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Many people believe that a person is the brain or some part of the brain. You may be one of them. If so, the following should boggle your mind:

Recent studies on the turnover of the molecular population within a given nerve cell have indicated that ... their macromolecular contingent is renewed about ten thousand times in a lifetime.*

In other words, the matter making up each brain cell is completely renewed every three days.
Your brain—that mass of matter which is contained in your skull today—is not the same brain that was in your skull last week.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

*Paul Weiss, “The Living System: Determinism Stratified,” in Arthur Koestler and J.R. Smythies, eds., Beyond Reductionism (London: Hutchinson, 1969), p. 13.

Science Of Identity :: Excerpts

2009-01-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

Impersonalist Philosophy: Am I God

Rajneesh, infamous for his advocation of “free sex” among his thousands of Western disciples, writes:

The word “brahmacharya” means that you have come to attain, you have come to know that you are the Brahman, the ultimate, the divine, that you are God Himself.1

Satya Sai Baba, India's most famous contemporary mystic and “holy” man, says:

You have not heard Me fully; I say I am God; I say also that you are God. The difference is that I know it and you do not know it.2

The idea of the “I am God”ists is that each of us is actually the Supreme Spirit, but that somehow we forgot our true identity as God and came under the spell of ignorance. So you are supposedly God, the Supreme Being, but you are now caught under the laws of material nature. You are supposedly the Supreme Lord, but you are now bound on the wheel of birth and death. It is an absurd proposition.

Science of Identity

Karma

According to yoga, every action, good or bad, produces some karmic reaction. Actions that are “bad” create bad karmic reactions. A person who engages in heinous criminal actions or who lives simply like an animal, exploiting others, will have to eat the bitter fruit of such actions in the future.

Science of Identity

Unfortunately, a person who is materialistic, greedy, and self-worshiping wants to take the place of God. He sees himself as the center of the universe. He sees everything and everyone—the world, people, his family, animals, plants, the environment—as revolving around him. He sees everything and everyone as meant for his enjoyment. The world is full of such exploitative people, and they cause so many problems.

Science of Identity

Siddhaswarupananda | Wisdom

2009-01-11T23:18:00.000-08:00

Materialistic Society

Because our materialistic society considers the acquisition of wealth and power to be the goal of life, the more wealth and power you possess, the more “successful” you are considered to be. If you are materially poor, you are considered a failure in life, whereas if you are wealthy and powerful (regardless of how you acquired such wealth and power), you are considered a great success. So obtaining material wealth is not only essential for your direct sense gratification, but also for your feelings of self-worth. In other words, you feel only as valuable as the things that you possess and control. Lacking appreciation of your real value as an eternal, blissful spark of the Original Cause -- falsely identifying the temporary body as yourself—you try to achieve feelings of self-worth by acquisition and control of material things. To achieve such economic development, you may end up engaging in illegal activity—in other words, you might become a crook.

Siddhaswarupananda

The Need for Spiritual Happiness

This is why people in modern Western societies are still not satisfied, even though they are so economically advanced and thus have so much facility for sense enjoyment. They always want more. As the late British economist E. F. Schumacher points out:

Is there enough to go round? Immediately we encounter a serious difficulty: What is “enough”? Who can tell us? Certainly not the economist who pursues “economic growth” as the highest of all values and therefore has no concept of “enough.” There are poor societies which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: “Halt! We have enough”? There is none.*

What's really needed is to recognize the need for spiritual as well as material happiness. A society that has great material prosperity but lacks spiritual purpose is really a poor society. A body without the soul is a dead body—even if it is nicely decorated with fancy ornaments.

Siddhaswarupananda

*E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 25.

Spiritual Hunger

If you believe that you are your body, you will strive endlessly to give your body sensual pleasure. You will struggle to fill up your inner emptiness with fleeting sensual flashes. But no amount of sensual pleasure will satisfy you. No matter how many taste orgasms, sexual orgasms, and other kinds of orgasms you may have, you still won’t be actually satisfied. You’ll always have a never ending desire for more.

Siddhaswarupananda

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Characteristics of a Wise Person

2009-01-11T04:05:00.000-08:00

For a person who cultivates wisdom or true knowledge, the results are inner peace, satisfaction, patience, respect for others, freedom from duplicity, compassion, joyfulness, remembrance of his spiritual identity, freedom from the fear of death, freedom from anxiety and depression, and so on.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If you are wise, you can see the person or atma within the body, and relate to the person, not to his body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Concerning a wise person’s feelings toward the body left behind by a loved one: First, unlike the materialist, he is not attracted to it as though it were the person. Second, he is not afraid or repelled by it because he sees it for what it is: a vehicle, or type of clothing, left behind by the one he loves.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If you are wise, you are free of prejudice, racism, sexism, class consciousness, and so on.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Searching for Wisdom

2009-01-05T04:08:00.000-08:00

THE SEARCH FOR WISDOM

The search for wisdom is a great challenge; to act on wisdom is an even greater challenge.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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A person who understands that (1) one day the body will cease existing, and that (2) he himself will not cease existing, naturally becomes less interested in material gain and material pursuits (which he knows will be taken away one day) and becomes more interested in making spiritual advancement—advancement in wisdom, love, and compassion.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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It is the presence of the life particle—the person-- that makes the physical body valuable. If this atma is not present in the body then it has no real value. As soon as the person, the atma, leaves the body, the body becomes worthless. The closer you are to this understanding, the closer you are to wisdom and sanity.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Sense Pleasure Does Not Bring Inner Satisfaction

2008-12-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Often people try so hard to find happiness through sense pleasure that they may attempt to gratify several or all of their senses at the same time. For example, you may simultaneously be watching TV, listening to the radio, munching potato chips, sipping beer, and smoking a cigarette. Perhaps you may have your arm around the shoulders of your girlfriend or boyfriend. You may also have a magazine at your side, which you look at during commercials. You try to fill up every sense; yet still you’re not satisfied; still you want something more.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If you identify your body as yourself, you will try to satisfy yourself by trying to satisfy your body. You’ll think, “I am the body and I want to be happy, I want to be satisfied.” Thus, you’ll try to satisfy the belly, the tongue, the genitals, the ears, the eyes, the nose, and so on, believing that this will bring you the inner satisfaction and happiness you crave.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Sense gratification does not satisfy. This is further evidence that you are not the body. No matter how much sense pleasure you have, you are still never satisfied within.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The fact that the body can be full or satisfied while you still feel empty is evidence that the body is not you.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation