From: radams@cerritos.edu
Subject: Re: Blue Print of Happiness --- part 4 of 7
Organization: Cerritos College, Norwalk CA
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 06:52:14 GMT

In Article: <1992Apr7.080529.2611@iitmax.iit.edu>
v111q3r9@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Yi L Chiang) writes:

>Soul or self is philosophical conception of an immaterial part of man which
>survives and endures death and destruction of the body.  Science today does not
>support this legendary belief but recognizes the existence of the human ego or
>personality, as an aspect of the mind.  

Science once thought the sun revolved around the earth and that the earth
was flat. They still have a ways to go. If something immaterial does exist,
how do you expect science to discover it in test tubes?

>	This mind process, being a constant feature of our lives, is often
>interpreted as a soul or spirit.  It is now known that the soul illusion grew
>out of primitive man's dream experiences.  Seeing departed friends and
>relatives, in the mind's eye during sleep, must have suggested to him that they
>were living a spirit existence in a spirit land.  However primitive this belief
>is and though science has discarded it, we still find many people hanging on to
>their souls and selves with even more tenacity that their primitive ancestors.

>	The Dharma and modern science, both teach the same fundamental; that
>man is composed of MIND and BODY; nothing else.  

The term "modern science" gives me a chuckle. It is just another religion to
think that whatever scientists say is law and what they don't recognize with
their instruments doesn't exist; as if science is complete in its investigation
of all things. This reminds me of the story of the chemist who was an atheist 
that went to visit Swami Sri Yukteswar (guru of Paramahansa Yogananda) and 
after a short while the man was dismissed with Sri Yukteswar saying "So, you 
have inexplicably failed to isolate God in your test tubes!" :-).  In the
_Autobiography of a Yogi_, Paramahansa Yogananda describes the resurrection
of his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar. After Sri Yukteswar's Mahasamadhi (a great
master's exit from the body), his body was cremated. Some months after this,
Sri Yukteswar appeared in physical form to Paramahansa Yogananda and looked 
the same as before, and Yogananda held the arm of his guru and saw that
it was indeed real (in the physical sense) and then his master explained that 
he created the body using some of the atoms (from ashes) of cremated body
and transforming them. So, you say the mind-body is all there is because 
science hasn't discovered anything beyond? Surely they would have found it by 
now, right? What instrument would they use to explore non-physical and 
unmanifest reality? Can something non-physical be seen by the five senses
or with instruments that merely extend the parameters of the five senses?

Yogananda also tells of the story of his master (prior to his passing)
materializing and then dematerializing his body (creating a whirling noise
when the atoms dematerialized) in front of his eyes, not without first having
a pleasant conversation. There is a lot yet to be discovered by scientists.
The yogis already know these things through inner science and inner
discovery through this ancient science of yoga. The scientists will have to
turn their spotlight of attention inward to understand that which cannot
be seen by the five senses. The _real_ primitive attitude is not thinking
that we are eternal [of course the ego-self is temporal but that which
we really are has no beginning and no end and therefore eternal] but rather 
thinking that reality is confined to whatever you can trip over.


	Roger Adams
	radams@cerritos.edu               To those in whom love dwells,
	Cerritos College                  the whole world is one family.
	11110 Alondra Blvd                             A Hindu Proverb
        Norwalk, California 90650
	USA        		          292 Dwapara :-)
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