One of the strongest arguments against materialism (the idea that the human being is only a body and nothing more):
Imagine a materialist person tells you: "You are only a body and nothing more."
A very powerful way of replying to this is: "When you do mathematics, who is doing the mathematics? Can the physical particles which make up your body do mathematics? Can physical particles know if something is true?
Physical particles are in themselves mindless, so how can they come together and suddenly do top-level mathematics?
Yet without the reality of mathematics there would be no science. So who is doing the mathematics?
The answer is: it is your mind, not your body."
This is a very good way of realising that you actually have a mind. The mind is embodied in a physical body but it is not identical to the body.
The above argument, in a more ancient form but essentially the same, was presented by the Yoga-Vasishtha (3:75), a wonderful dialogue between Vasishtha Muni and Bhagavan Rama.
Max Planck, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, wrote:
"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter."
— Max Planck, The Nature of Matter, 1944
