Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Discovering Your Real Identity

WHO ARE YOU? DISCOVERING YOUR REAL IDENTITY

What is your essence? Is it matter—a mere collection of material atoms and molecules? Or is it something else?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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You are your body, right? You are chemical in essence ... right? At least, that’s what one of America’s most influential scientists claims:

I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules called Carl Sagan. You are a collection of almost identical molecules with a different collective label.*

Like Sagan, most people believe that they are their body. So if you ask them who they are, they think and respond in terms of bodily labels.

“I’m Susan. I’m blond, 29 years old, a mother, and still 36-24-36!”

“I’m Henry. I’m a white American male and proud of it!”

“I’m John. I’m a lawyer. I’m 40 years old and getting older every day.”

“I’m Alice. I’m a female student. I’m fat and I’m a Methodist.”

Name, race, age, sex, religion, nationality, occupation, height, weight, and so on—all these are bodily labels. Therefore if you consider your body to be yourself, you automatically identify yourself with such labels. If your body is fat and ugly, you think, “Woe is me! I am fat and ugly.” If your body is 60 years old and female, you think, ”I am a 60-year-old female.” If your body is black and beautiful, you think, “I am black and beautiful.”

But is the body really the self? Are you really your body?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

*Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), p. 127.

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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.


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2009 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - A Society of Self-Centered, Hedonistic People Cannot be Peaceful

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

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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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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(On the other hand,) the positive results of a society populated mostly by people who are serious about cultivating wisdom and spiritual understanding should be clear. If the citizens are peaceful, satisfied, respectful of others, compassionate, selfless, and so on, then society will be progressive both materially and spiritually.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2009 Science of Identity Foundation