Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | Awareness & The Search for Wisdom

However rudimentary the awareness of bacteria may be, it does exist. Bacteria also have a sense of self-awareness, as indicated by the fact that their observable activities seem to center on survival.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation


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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”).

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation


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Awareness refers not to the stream of mindstuff (thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, forms, etc.) but rather to the inherent characteristic or ability that enables you, the self, to perceive the stream of mindstuff.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation


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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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler | Quotes | What is you essence?

What about the seer? What about you? This is the crux of the matter. Even if scientists can determine how electrochemical impulses translate into such varying forms as a golden sunset, a red truck, or a flower, the main question still remains: Where is the self who is looking at those forms and images? What is this self made of? In what part of the body or brain is it? In other words: What is your essence, and where are you?

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.