Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Dovetailing Your Lifestyle to a Deeper Purpose

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - On the Desire to be the Enjoyer

DISPOSABLE PLANET

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.

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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.”

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There is enough in the world to fulfill everyone’s needs, but not enough to fulfill everyone’s greed. In some parts of the world, people are dying from severe undernourishment, while in other parts of the world people are dying from obesity.

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Material Things Cannot Satisfy the Spirit Soul

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.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

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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.

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* E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 38.

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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. As the late British economist E. F. Schumacher points out:

Is there enough to go round? Immediately we encounter a serious difficulty: What is “enough”? Who can tell us? Certainly not the economist who pursues “economic growth” as the highest of all values and therefore has no concept of “enough.” There are poor societies which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: “Halt! We have enough”? There is none.*

What's really needed is to recognize the need for spiritual as well as material happiness. A society that has great material prosperity but lacks spiritual purpose is really a poor society. A body without the soul is a dead body—even if it is nicely decorated with fancy ornaments.

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*E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 25.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - What Your Senses Want May Not Be Good For You

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Wrongly Identifying the Body as the Self

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

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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.

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According to the Bhagavad-gita, when you falsely identify with the body, you use your intelligence to increase your facilities for sense enjoyment. You use your intelligence and mind to direct the brain and the rest of the body in a way that will bring you sensual enjoyment. You identify with the senses, and so believe that sensual pleasure will bring you satisfaction. Of course you are never really satisfied, nor are you the one who is really making the decisions.

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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

Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - The Particle of Life is Attractive

If you, the self, erroneously identify with the physical body—if you believe “I am the body”—then this deluded condition is called false ego.

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

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.

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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. ...

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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.

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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?

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Existence is an Integral Aspect of Your Essence

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.

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

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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.

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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

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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 - Out of Body Experiences

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).

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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.

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For thousands of years, sages have taught various methods of physical exercises and meditations that are conducive to bringing about an out-of-body experience.

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You don’t need to have an out-of-body experience in order to know that your existence does not depend on the existence of your body.

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Your Existence Doesn't End When Your Body Dies

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.

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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. 

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In the same way that the passing of the “childhood” body does not bring about the cessation of your (the self’s) existence, so the passing away of the “old” body will not bring about the cessation of your existence.

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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.

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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. 

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - The Body is A Precious Property of the Self

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

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The body is a computer/machine that needs an operator in order to be of value; and the unique nature of each and every body is that it is basically a private computer/machine. It is almost impossible for one person to use someone else’s computer/machine. I can’t operate your body and you can’t operate mine.

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Some neophytes on the spiritual path may fall into the illusion that taking care of the body is somehow evil, or a sign of spiritual backwardness. Not only may they neglect the needs of the body, but they may go out of their way to actually damage the body. Such people actually hate the body. They see it as a source of misery, and thus they take out their anger on it. This is certainly a mistake.

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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.

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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

Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Subtle Layers of Matter that Cover You

Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Are You The Brain?

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.

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*Paul Weiss, “The Living System: Determinism Stratified,” in Arthur Koestler and J.R. Smythies, eds., Beyond Reductionism (London: Hutchinson, 1969), p. 13.

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Brain action directly affects your mind—and conversely, mind action affects your brain. However, this doesn’t mean that your brain is your mind, or vice versa.

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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.

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Brahma and Narada: Bona Fide Guru, Bona Fide Disciple

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.

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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.

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There is nothing more dangerous to real religion than fanatics who seek to lord over others by force in the name of God.

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Buddhists and the "No-Self" Philosophy

Modern no-self philosophers say that when the gross body is finished, the illusion of the self ceases. The Buddhists claim that the mind is different from the gross body, and that the mind continues to exist even after the gross body has died. As long as this mind continues to exist, then there is a continuation of embodiments. So the Buddhist’s aim is for no more mind—because when there is no more mind, then there will be no gross physical body. And since there is nothing other than the mind covered by the gross physical body—no atma within or covered by the mind—that leaves nothing.

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Although both Buddhist and modern no-self philosophers contend that there is no self, Buddhist followers do not tend toward hedonism.

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Buddhists do not believe in a life of hedonism because they believe in the law of karma (that is, a person’s actions in this life will affect his existence in his next life) and because they preach that happiness can be obtained not through sensual enjoyment but only through ceasing to exist (the bliss of nonexistence—nirvana)

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The no-self philosophy has so many weaknesses, but none so glaring as its main premise—that you, the self, do not really exist. Nothing is more real to each of us than our own existence.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Impersonalism is an Absurd Proposition

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.

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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.

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Rajneesh, infamous for his advocation of “free sex” among his thousands of Western disciples, writes:

The word “brahmacharya” means that you have come to attain, you have come to know that you are the Brahman, the ultimate, the divine, that you are God Himself.¹

Satya Sai Baba, India's most famous contemporary mystic and “holy” man, says:

You have not heard Me fully; I say I am God; I say also that you are God. The difference is that I know it and you do not know it.²

The idea of the “I am God”ists is that each of us is actually the Supreme Spirit, but that somehow we forgot our true identity as God and came under the spell of ignorance. So you are supposedly God, the Supreme Being, but you are now caught under the laws of material nature. You are supposedly the Supreme Lord, but you are now bound on the wheel of birth and death. It is an absurd proposition.

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¹Rajneesh, Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, vol. 3, p. 36.

²Andrew Shaw, Words of Truth: A Second Compilation of Sayings by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd., 1998), p. 7.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - On The "No-Self" Philosophy

The no-self philosophy is made to order for people (for the most part highly educated) who really can’t or won’t make the necessary effort and sacrifice to become enlightened masters of the senses but who nonetheless wish to think of themselves as enlightened and wise.

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The no-self philosophy allows charlatans to believe (and to persuade others) that they have already gone past the search for enlightenment and successfully come out the other side. It allows them to feel they’ve answered the questions: “Who am I?” and “What is the purpose of my existence?” Their answer is: “I am nothing. I don’t really exist. Therefore there is no purpose.” Since there is no self and no purpose, there is also (so they say) no will. Will power is supposed to be the attribute of the self; but if there is no self, then “will power” is really just an illusion. So is responsibility for one’s actions. Therefore any attempt to use will to control the senses is really a symptom of ignorance. The symptom of enlightenment, on the other hand, is to go with the flow of the body—the urges of the senses—without “hang-ups.”

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Self Awareness = Awareness That “I am”

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.

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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”).

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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.

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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.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Mankind Doesn't Own the Lower or Higher Species of Life

Mankind doesn’t own the lower or higher species of life.

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The Supreme Court has ruled that genetic technology or engineering that deals with the manipulation of the bodies of living organisms is no different from any other technology that deals in the manipulation of matter.

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As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, a machine is a machine, a product is a product, an invention is an invention. There is no difference between a so-called living invention or a living machine and a nonliving machine or nonliving invention.

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The basis of ethical protest against genetic engineering on lower and higher species is respect. And the basis of our respect for living beings is our perception of a fundamental distinction between the living and the nonliving. We see life as special. Without that respect for the living, there is no basis for protesting the treatment of the living as if they were nonliving.

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If there is no self in the body, then there is no reason not to treat that body—human or otherwise—the same as we treat any other composition of matter. The no-self world view is the basis, the rationale, for the uninhibited exploitation of other living entities.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - The Life of Crime Is Based on a Lie

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.

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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.

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It’s clear that the root cause of crime—at least in the West—is not the lack of the basic necessities of survival. The root cause of our crime problem is the lack of wisdom and inner spiritual satisfaction.

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Jagad Guru Chris Butler Quotes - Materialism Is the 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.

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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.

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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.

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