TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sat, 01/19/2008 - 21:05 — admin
“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.TABLE OF CONTENTS
Science of Identity Foundation – Chris Butler Speaks
| PREFACE INTRODUCTION The problem THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS The argument from design The causal proof Natural laws Harmony in nature The creation of the universe Will The cause of all causes is a person Intelligence Scattered attributes ASCENDING AND DESCENDING INFORMATION Methods of epistemology The ascending process The four defects of the conditioned soul The descending process THE PROBLEM OF EVIL The 'problem' defined Why has God created a world in which there is suffering? PHILOSOPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE FOUNDING ACHARYAS Shankara Vishnu Swami Nimbarka Ramanuja Madhva Sri Krishna Chaitanya THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL: GOD OR SPARK OF GOD? CAN IGNORANCE AFFECT GOD? Ignorance-the cause of bodily identification Who is affected by ignorance? Shankara's concept of ignorance The Gaudiya Vaishnava concept of ignorance The Gaudiya Vaishnava concept of the world THE PATH TO RUINATION Mayavadis don't achieve the goal of life The mayavadi philosophy leads to materialism WHY SHANKARA PREACHED IMPERSONALISM Atheism in disguise Shankara's mission: an historical perspective Shankara: devotee in disguise THE NATURE OF THE SUPREME BEING The all-pervading person Anthropomorphism? A summary description of the supreme person's form Brahman realization Paramatma realization Bhagavan realization APPENDICES Appendix 1 Appendix 2 GLOSSARY OF SANSKRIT WORDS AND TERMS SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY |
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