Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | Sense Pleasure Does Not Bring Inner Satisfaction

Often people try so hard to find happiness through sense pleasure that they may attempt to gratify several or all of their senses at the same time. For example, you may simultaneously be watching TV, listening to the radio, munching potato chips, sipping beer, and smoking a cigarette. Perhaps you may have your arm around the shoulders of your girlfriend or boyfriend. You may also have a magazine at your side, which you look at during commercials. You try to fill up every sense; yet still you’re not satisfied; still you want something more.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Sense gratification does not satisfy. This is further evidence that you are not the body. No matter how much sense pleasure you have, you are still never satisfied within.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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 | Discovering Your Real Identity

What is your essence? Is it matter—a mere collection of material atoms and molecules? Or is it something else?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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“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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Let me ask you a few simple questions: Do you exist at this moment? Did you exist five years ago? Are you your body? Most people would answer “yes” to all three questions. But if you identify your body as yourself, and simultaneously accept that you exist now and also existed five years ago, then you have a problem: The body you had five years ago does not exist today. There is a dynamic turnover of atoms and molecules which make up your body. There isn’t a single particle of matter—not one atom—present in your body today that was present five years ago. The body you have today is not the same body you had five years ago. It’s not that the body you had still exists but has now changed somewhat. No. The body you had is gone. That collection of atoms appearing as flesh, bone, blood, hair, and so on no longer exists. Yet you still exist.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | The Search for Perfect Wisdom

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

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Hatred and conflict are often rooted in differences between people of different races and religions. We all need to respect people of different races as well as people of different faiths and religions. We need to unite by recognizing our common desire and need for a harmonious society—a society in which we and our children and families and friends and communities can all live our lives in peace and harmony. Regardless of our race or religion, we all want and need such social harmony.

Without respect for people of different races or ethnicities or religions, how can we have a peaceful and harmonious society or world? And without a harmonious society, how can there be the necessary economic development and atmosphere conducive to spiritual happiness and self-realization?

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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History has shown us that our tendency to colonize and exploit other regions has always backfired. This planet can be made a happier, more peaceful place to live in, but the change will have to come from within the hearts of all of us living here.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Quotes | The Machine and the Operator

A famous football player in the United States who recently retired was discussing the particular event that made him decide to quit playing. He had been running with the football toward the goal, with two tacklers chasing him. As his legs started giving out, he thought, “Come on, you old legs—don’t give out on me now!” This is like a race car driver who talks to his car: “Keep on going, Betsy—don’t let me down now!” In other words, you use your body as a type of vehicle; but like all vehicles, it is bound to break down sooner or later.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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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.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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Without the self to operate the body, that body—as complex and organized as it is—is of no more value than a bag of chemicals.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation

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It is the nonmaterial self who is valuable.

Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Science of Identity Foundation