Saturday, April 25, 2009

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

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

======

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.

======

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

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | BROTHERHOOD

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

======

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

======

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

======

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

Monday, April 6, 2009

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | On Living Energy

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

======

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

======

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

======

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