Jagad Guru Chris Butler Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa

Satisfaction - Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa

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Siddhaswarupananda - Inner Craving

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Peace in the world - Siddhaswarupanada

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Karma Yoga - Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa

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Siddhaswarupananda - The Body is Always Changing

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Siddhaswarupanada - Prejudice and Bigotry

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Material Sense Gratification Cannot Satisfy the Spirit Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:29:00 +0000

“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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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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Understanding Our True Identity

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:27:00 +0000

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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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

Siddhaswarupananda

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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 | Material Sense Gratification Cannot Satisfy the Spirit Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Sun, 10 May 2009 06:47:00 +0000

If you know that you aren’t your senses, you won’t automatically conclude that what your senses want is what you want. You’ll know that what your senses may want may not be good for you.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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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Nor is sense gratification considered “bad.” Sense gratification comes and goes as a natural occurrence of the senses. For example, one cannot eat without tasting. The point is that a life that is centered around sense enjoyment, that makes sense enjoyment the goal, is a wasted life. Economic development is necessary for the maintenance of the body; so therefore it cannot be neglected. But to seek economic development simply for the sake of endlessly increasing sensual pleasure is foolish. No amount of sensual pleasure will ever really satisfy a person, so no amount of economic development will ever be considered “enough.” 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.

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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Common Need for a Harmonious Society

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:57:00 +0000

You should not judge a person by his race, weight, height, sex, genes, and so forth.

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.

Siddhaswarupananda

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In the same way that we do not befriend or reject somebody just on the basis of the type of clothing he is wearing, we should not feel prejudice nor bigotry towards others just because of the type of body that they are wearing. We should know that we aren't our bodies and thus not relate with others according to their temporary bodies.

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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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 Chris Butler | Quotes | Different-Colored Bodies are Just Like Different-Colored Shirts

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Racism is the identification of a person/self according to the race of the body that self is in. This is like identifying people with their shirts. If you walk along the street, you will see many different-colored shirts. If one of those shirts is purple, you don’t see the person wearing that shirt as a purple person; you see him as someone who merely is wearing a purple shirt. Racism is based on the inability to see that different-colored bodies are just like different-colored shirts.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The body is yours—but it is not you. The body is a garment that you are wearing, a machine that you are using, a vehicle that you are driving. The body is your possession. Just as a person does not identify himself as being the shirt 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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The false identification of the body as the self leads to more than just racial conflicts. International conflicts, religious conflicts, sexual conflicts, and many other conflicts are rooted in this false identification.

Siddhaswarupananda

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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

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Sense Gratification does not Satisfy

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:37:00 +0000

No matter how much sensual pleasure people have, no matter how much they consume, they always want more. This endless personal craving manifests as ever increasing material consumption.

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

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In reality, the glossy picture of the “happy rich person” that most people hold in their minds is simply an illusion. Money can buy sense gratification, but not actual happiness or satisfaction.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | An Enlightened Person Fully Understands His Identity

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:22:00 +0000

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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An enlightened person sees the body as a garment that he is only wearing and using temporarily.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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An enlightened person fully understands his identity as an eternal particle of life, unborn and undying.

Siddhswarupananda

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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 Chris Butler | Quotes | False Identification Leads to Bondage and Unhappiness

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:39:00 +0000

It is natural for us to want to be happy, satisfied, and free. But due to ignorance of our true identity, our natural longing becomes misdirected and leads to further bondage and unhappiness.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Most of us—whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, civilized or uncivilized—are struggling to enjoy our senses. This is due to false identification with the body.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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.

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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History has shown us that our tendency to colonize and exploit other regions has always backfired. This planet can be made a happier, more peaceful place to live in, but the change will have to come from within the hearts of all of us living here.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Value of the Body

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:47:00 +0000

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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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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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

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Without the self to operate the body, that body—as complex and organized as it is—is of no more value than a bag of chemicals.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The body and individual body parts are valuable only so long as a self can use them. If there is no self who can use the body, then it is of no value.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Siddhaswarupananda Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Discovering your Real Identity

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

Siddhaswarupananda

Siddhaswarupananda

The Search for Perfect Wisdom

The search for wisdom is a great challenge; to act on wisdom is an even greater challenge. To accept that you are spiritual in essence, that you are an eternal spark of life force, is to open the door on a whole new life. There are many questions now, and there will be many more questions ahead. There are many internal and external pressures against accepting and acting on this truth, and there will be even greater pressures in the future. So yes, it is challenging—just like running the Boston marathon is challenging, or trying to climb Mt. Everest is challenging. But unlike such “sporting,” “part-time” challenges, the search for perfect wisdom and the attempt to live by such wisdom is an ongoing eternal challenge—and it is real. Thus, only the most courageous people will actually accept this challenge. The ignorant, the fearful, and the lazy will remain as they are.

Siddhaswarupananda

History has shown us that our tendency to colonize and exploit other regions has always backfired. This planet can be made a happier, more peaceful place to live in, but the change will have to come from within the hearts of all of us living here.

Siddhaswarupananda

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | The More Your Senses are in Control the Less Free You Are

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:15:00 +0000

If you wrongly identify yourself with your body—your senses—you will erroneously conclude that you can achieve happiness through material sense gratification.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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The more your senses are in control, the more you are in the position of being controlled by them. Therefore the less free you are.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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 yogi’s interest is inner peace and self-realization and social harmony.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:57:00 +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

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Watching Your Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:55:00 +0000

Watching Your Dreams

Tonight, as you are lying in bed almost ready to fall asleep, watch your body fall asleep. Mentally say to yourself, “I am aware that my body is falling asleep.” As you fall deeper and deeper into sleep, there is a good chance that you will begin dreaming. In this state you will be half-awake, half-asleep. Watch these dreams. Mentally say to yourself as the dream begins, “I am aware that I am dreaming.” By persisting in this practice, you will eventually be aware that you are dreaming, even in deep sleep. But this ability is only a side benefit; the real point is to experience yourself as the viewer of the stream of mindstuff.

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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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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Awareness is your natural attribute—indeed, your essence—that makes this witnessing and observing possible. As such, awareness cannot be separated from you, the self.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Siddhaswarupananda Teachings

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:26:00 +0000

Cultivating Knowledge

The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge, and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.

~ Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra Ten

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.

(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.

Siddhaswarupananda

Dangers of “I am God”ism Philosophy

The chief historical proponent of such “I am God”ism philosophy was Sripad Shankaracharya. Shankaracharya lived and preached throughout India in the eighth century. The preaching of Shankaracharya and his followers was so strong that, practically speaking, it drove Buddhism out of India. Today, throughout India and the world, Shankaracharya's teachings (or slight variations of them) are still having a tremendous influence on people.

In Calcutta, India, for example, we can see the ridiculous sight of a starving, sore-infested man meditating on the side of the road: “I am God. I am God.” In America and Europe, you'll find many so-called yogis and gurus who are directly or indirectly in Shankaracharya's line of “I am God”ism teachers.

Siddhaswarupananda

Sense Pleasure does not bring Inner Satisfaction

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.

Siddhaswarupananda

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | The Search for Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:27:00 +0000

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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Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.

~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra 9

Unfortunately, most of humanity spends the majority of its time in the culture of ignorance. We cultivate ignorance by serving our tongue, belly, genitals, and other senses like obedient slaves. The vast majority of our energy goes into this mad pursuit of sense pleasure. Left with frazzled nerves, frustration, anger, jealousy, envy, greed, hate, loneliness, and confusion; we seek an escape in alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and a myriad of other legal and illegal consciousness dimmers. This is the cultivation of ignorance.

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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Masochism can never lead to spiritual perfection. The body is actually a most precious property of the self; it enables the self to engage in various devotional activities that can bring about a change in consciousness. A person's external activities affect his consciousness, and his consciousness affects his external activities. Knowing this, a bhakti yogi consciously chooses to engage in particular external activities in order to bring about the desired spiritual happiness and wisdom.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Ignorance of Our True Identity Is the Cause of Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Criminals, whether rich or poor, are criminals not because they are poor or rich, but because they are in the illusion that material things—material sense enjoyment—will satisfy them. And, of course, the reason they are in this illusion is because they erroneously identify their body as themselves.

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

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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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The fact is that the crime rate will continue to remain high as long as people are ignorant of their true identity and are bombarded with the message that more sense gratification will equal more satisfaction and happiness. As long as success in life is gauged by the amount of material goods amassed, the crime problem cannot be solved.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | The Higher Taste of Spiritual Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:34:00 +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 :: Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:12:00 +0000

Root Cause of Crime

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

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

The Yogi and the Hedonist are Exact Opposites

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

Jagad Guru

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Dovetailing Your Life to a Deeper Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Hudson) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Everyone is engaged in action. The law of karma means that there are reactions to every action and that a person must endure the reactions to his actions.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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This 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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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