Existence - Siddhaswarupananda - Jagad Guru Chris Butler Science of Identity

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler) © 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Siddhaswarupananda - Prejudice and Bigotry

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler) © 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Siddhaswarupananda - Respect

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler) © 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Peace in the World - Siddhaswarupananda

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler) © 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Acting on Wisdom - Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler) © 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes on 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

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

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - The First Thing We Must Understand is the Reality of Our Identity

A famous football player in the United States who recently retired was discussing the particular event that made him decide to quit playing. He had been running with the football toward the goal, with two tacklers chasing him. As his legs started giving out, he thought, “Come on, you old legs—don’t give out on me now!” This is like a race car driver who talks to his car: “Keep on going, Betsy—don’t let me down now!” In other words, you use your body as a type of vehicle; but like all vehicles, it is bound to break down sooner or later.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The material body can be likened to a computer/machine. Each person operates his own private computer/machine, and when he is finished using his machine, it no longer has any value because no one else can operate it. When the operator is present, the value of the computer certainly exceeds the net worth of its ingredients. Without an operator, however, a computer has no useful function, and is worth no more than the scrap value a junk dealer will pay for its component bits of plastic and metal.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Perfection means being in tune with reality. The first thing we must understand is reality—the reality of my identity, i.e., my essence, position and function. Who am I? Just as a person does not identify himself as being the shirt that he is wearing, he also should not identify himself with the body that he is wearing.

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

~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 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

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - The Life Force

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

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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 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


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Subtle Coverings of Matter Over You - The Atma

As a yogi, you see the body that covers you—the pure atma or self—as being made of layers of material energy, from the subtle to the gross.

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 - Science of Identity Foundation


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - An Advanced Yogi Uses the Body Knowing That He Is Not the Body

Contrary to popular belief, hatha yoga exercises are not designed to make fat people thin or to make the body immortal, but to help unblock the gross and subtle nervous systems so that the “life air” can flow freely through the body (specifically, from the base of the spine to the top of the head).

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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An advanced yogi wants to use the body in accordance with his knowledge that he is not the body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Just as there is no perfectly simple way to explain a complex principle of physics or biochemistry to a layman, so there is no perfectly simple way to explain the subtle material technology known to the yogis.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Life Attracts Life

Life attracts life.

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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What are you worth? Your physical body made of various chemicals is not really worth very much. It may be worth $5 or $10, but is that all you are worth? Is that all your wife or your child, or your friend, or your mother, or your father are worth?

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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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 (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Learning from History

LEARNING FROM HISTORY

In this world, people are always fighting over property. They want to stake their claims of ownership on both the living and the nonliving. According to the Sri Ishopanishad, these people are like thieves fighting over stolen loot. If we look at the question from the relatively short-term view, we may find it hard to accept that no one is really an owner of anything. But if we adopt the point of view of the Sri Ishopanishad—which sees the universe not in terms of decades, centuries, or even thousands of years, but in terms of many millions of years—then we can understand this point.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If you understand that you are not your body, then you’ll understand that a life of false lordship and sense gratification will not satisfy you. Therefore, you will not see the gaining of material wealth and power as the goal of your life. You won’t feel that you need things that in fact you don’t really need. Therefore, you won’t be driven to try to get something “at any cost”—including the cost of your life, someone else’s life, or imprisonment.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Why does a person claim ownership of a thing or of another person? To control it or them. And why does he want to control it? Usually because he wants to be the enjoyer of it.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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If a person sees himself as the Supreme Enjoyer, he will automatically live a life of exploitation. He will not respect others or the environment, nor will he care for the well-being of others. He will lead a hedonistic life of unrestricted sense enjoyment, lording over everything and everyone. Although human in form, he will be no more than an animal who lives by the philosophy “might makes right.”

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Deep Purpose in Life

If you know you’re not the body, then you will probably have deeper, more spiritual goals in life. This will make you see the desires of your senses as something to control, not succumb to. Because you’ll see your material desires as distinct from your true desires, you’ll make an attempt to curb your material desires so they don’t get in your way.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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So a person's entire lifestyle can be dovetailed with his deep purpose in life. Such a person is the controller of his body, not a slave of his senses. Most people are servants of their senses and minds—they are godas (go means “senses”; das means “servant”). A bhakti yogi, however, strives to be a goswami (swami means “master,” and so goswami means “master of the senses”). A goswami is not dragged around by his senses, but instead uses his senses for his own desired purposes. Although goswami is also a title, in fact the real meaning of goswami is controller of the senses, whether one is externally with the title goswami, brahmachari, householder, or whatever.

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 (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - The Mind

The mind is the seat of all material desires.

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

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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


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Root Cause of Crime

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

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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


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Karma

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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Hatred and conflict are often rooted in differences between people of different races and religions. We all need to respect people of different races as well as people of different faiths and religions. We need to unite by recognizing our common desire and need for a harmonious society—a society in which we and our children and families and friends and communities can all live our lives in peace and harmony. Regardless of our race or religion, we all want and need such social harmony.

Without respect for people of different races or ethnicities or religions, how can we have a peaceful and harmonious society or world? And without a harmonious society, how can there be the necessary economic development and atmosphere conducive to spiritual happiness and self-realization?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation



~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - WHO ARE YOU? DISCOVERING YOUR REAL IDENTITY

“Who am I?” Maybe you’ve never even asked yourself this question. You might think you already know who you are. Unfortunately, however, it’s likely that you don’t know who you are at all. And if you don’t know your real identity, you’re in trouble. You’ll spend your life in a kind of dream state—you’ll falsely identify yourself as something or someone you aren’t. Then, on the basis of this false identification, you’ll determine the goals of your life and the purpose of your existence. You use these goals to gauge whether you are making “progress” in life, whether you are a “success.” And you are aided and abetted in this delusion by a complex network of relationships with other dreamers. Of course, at death (and sometimes before), the whole thing turns into a nightmare.

So knowing who you are is a very practical necessity. The question “Who am I?” is not a philosophical football meant to be kicked around coffeehouses by pseudo-intellectuals. It’s a real-life question. Nothing is more important and more relevant than to know who you are.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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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You can eat so much food that your belly aches—yet you still want more! Even though your belly is filled to the point of physical pain, you, the self, are not full; you still desire to consume more. 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


~ Jagad Guru (Jagad Guru Chris Butler)
© 2008 Science of Identity Foundation