Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa - Science of Identity Foundation

Siddhaswarupananda - Our Body is Precious

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Satisfaction - Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:10:00 +0000

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Lust and Love

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:14:00 +0000

LUST
Lust is a manifestation of inner spiritual hunger. The attempt to satisfy spiritual hunger in sense pleasure is due to ignorance. The development of pure, all-expansive love within the heart satisfies one’s spiritual hunger. Love cancels out lust.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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When a person is under the influence of lust, there are many handmaidens that accompany this lust. The person does not only taste the bitterness of lust but also those of jealousy, hatred, malice, etc. The children of lust are frustration and purposelessness.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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As lust is transformed into its natural condition of spiritual love, the person begins to taste not just the sweet flavour of love, but also its handmaidens such as kindness, patience, forgiveness, tolerance, humility, etc. When a person tastes these qualities, he experiences real happiness.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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LOVE
Real love between people has become so rare that people don’t even know what it is.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Characteristics of Matter When Life is Present

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:10:00 +0000

Some of the characteristics that matter displays when life is present include metabolism, thermodynamically unstable composition, internal growth, a highly organized and sophisticated flow of matter, the potential for reproduction, active response to external stimulation, capability of self-induced movement, and complex molecular composition. These characteristics are displayed even by the tiniest microorganisms.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If a loved one of an enlightened person leaves their body, the enlightened person will understand that the person he loved has departed. He will not see the corpse as the person, i.e., his beloved.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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On a practical level, it’s a lot easier to deny the existence of other selves than it is to deny your own—you have the direct, irrefutable experience of your own existence.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Because self-awareness is a completely subjective experience, you cannot directly experience the reality of another self’s existence. Therefore, on a practical level, you cannot deny your own existence, but you find it easy to deny the existence of other selves.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Clinical Death and Out-of-Body Experiences

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 08:08:00 +0000

An out-of-body experience may help a person who is immersed in bodily consciousness, who is very cynical, who is without faith in the teachings of past sages and scripture, or who is unable to understand his nonmaterial essence through various methods of analytical study and meditation. This direct experience may jolt him out of his bodily consciousness and thus out of his false identification with the body. This, in turn, can awaken in him a sincere longing for a deep, spiritual purpose in life.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Almost everyone who has researched clinical death agrees that a significant number of individuals (about 35 percent, according to the Gallup poll) have had experiences while their bodies were clinically dead. This not only means that these people continued to exist after their bodies were dead, but also that they were aware of their existence.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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You cannot have experiences unless you exist, nor can you experience anything unless you are aware of your existence.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Most people who have actually experienced leaving their bodies and existing outside their bodies no longer identify their bodies as themselves. They know that they can and will exist without the body. They no longer view death as the end of their existence.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | FALSE PRIDE

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Proud people lack tolerance for people whom they consider lower.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The false ego uses criticism of others to build itself up. It revolts when criticized. It blooms when flattered.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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One who is falsely trying to make himself the highest by keeping his false ego intact has no spiritual life.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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A fake guru wants his followers to believe that he is God Himself—that's why he tries to impress them with his mystic powers. If the disciple of a phony guru were to express doubts about his guru's lordship, the guru would surely be angered. So how did Brahma react when Narada asked the questions, “Under whose protection are you standing? And under whom are you working? What is your real position?” And how did he react when Narada asked, “Yet we are moved to wonder about the existence of someone more powerful than you when we think of your great austerities in perfect discipline”? In response, Brahmaji was not angry. In fact, he was extremely pleased.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Narada is a perfect example of a bona fide disciple. Even though his guru, Lord Brahma, was immensely powerful, still Narada did not blindly accept him as the Supreme Lord Himself.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:06:00 +0000

Material information gets old. Spiritual knowledge is ever fresh. The more you sincerely hear transcendental knowledge, the deeper your realizations become.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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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The second mantra of the yogic scripture Sri Ishopanishad refers to karma yoga, or devotional service:

A person may desire to live for hundreds of years if he works according to this truth because that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. And there is no alternative to this way for man.

~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra Two

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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However, neither the Sri Ishopanishad nor any other Vedic literature recommends that we neglect bodily needs. Bhagavad-gita states:

There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogi, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.

~Bhagavad-gita 6:16

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The search for perfect wisdom and the attempt to live by such wisdom is an ongoing eternal challenge – and it is real. Only the most courageous people will accept this challenge. The ignorant, the fearful, and the lazy will remain as they are.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Beauty/Crime

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:04:00 +0000

It is unfortunate that people are attracted to the beauty of this world that is not real – it shrivels and dies.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The most ironic thing about a life of crime is that it is based on a lie—the lie of materialism. The reason kids in poor neighborhoods idolize the local hoods is because they think that such hoods are happy. They see that by material standards the crooks are “successful”—they’ve got nice clothes, jewelry, flashy cars, the respect of others, pretty girls, lots of cash, and so on. But if such kids knew that material wealth and false lordship were not synonymous with happiness, then they wouldn’t see crooks as successful. So it is this big lie—the materialistic concept of success—that causes many youngsters to follow in the footsteps of hoods.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Children obviously would not be so eager to emulate these hoods if they knew that crooks are not really happy. So whether you are an educator; a producer of movies, television shows, or popular music; or just a plain old mother, father, elder brother, elder sister, aunt, uncle, etc., you will really help the children if you try to teach them that material wealth and power are not synonymous with success.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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When beauty is reflected through things in this world, it is but a reminder that there is real beauty of a lasting nature.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | REALITY OF LIFE

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:03:00 +0000

Perfection means being in tune with reality. The first thing we must understand is reality – the reality of my identity ie my essence, position and function. Who am I?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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I exist … I will always exist
I am the eternal spark of life
Only temporarily in this mortal frame
The body will die
But I will never die

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If you erroneously identify yourself with your body, you will conclude that your existence will end with the destruction of your body. But if you know that you are the eternal self within the body, you know that your existence will not end when your body dies.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Your body has a beginning and an end; your body is subject to birth and death; but you, the spark of life within the body, are eternal.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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You have no beginning, nor will you have an end. The material body will cease existing, but you will never cease existing.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Suffering in the World

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:02:00 +0000

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

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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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0000

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”).

Science of Identity

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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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:15:00 +0000

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.

Siddhaswarupananda

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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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:58:00 +0000

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

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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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:54:00 +0000

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.

Science of Identity

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:48:00 +0000

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.

Siddhaswarupananda

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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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:46:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:51:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:48:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:45:00 +0000

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.

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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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:22:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:51:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:43:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:14:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (mantra) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:08:00 +0000

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