Personality

What is your concept of what the personality is and its function in man and on the path?  NJ
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Personality?

It is our most precious treasure. (I am not my personality, so my personality is a possession, no?)

I've heard it said that "you can't take it with you," but our personality is the only treasure that we can take with us (growing and evolving from one incarnation to the next)

So basically, the smart investor should invest in increasing the value of the only portfolio that counts -

JC

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JC, I dig your sentiments about the personality--but WHAT IS IT? You have dodged my question. At some point on the path it becomes important to understand the function of various components of "our" being--personality usually being a major mystery--something we use constantly but due to its ease of use, no inclination to penetrate its mystery exists. Try again. NJ.

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NJ,

You are quite correct that I dodged the question.

This is because I desired to speak from experience and not parrot theoretical concepts from the B. lessons or some other external authority. And even at that I have failed, since my previous statements about the personality being a "treasure that we CAN take with us" are theoretical as well. But since I've been trying very hard to be foolish, I shall attempt once again to demonstrate this fact . . .

Now that I've got my hypocrisy out of the way, I'll try to explain why I think it is so difficult to give an accurate, and honest description of the personality, based upon experiential knowledge:

Since "persona" means "mask", I'll try to use the concept of a mask as an analogy.

Suppose that I'm wearing a mask. This mask has eye pieces that lend a particular color and partial distortion to all that I see. This mask also has ear pieces that color and partially distort all that I hear. Also this mask has a mouth piece that colors all the sound that I make.

When the rest of the world looks at and interacts with me, they are interacting with me through that mask. This mask colors both what they see in me, and it also colors how I perceive the rest of the world.

So, if I wanted to understand this mask itself, how could I?

1) I could ask others what they hear and see, but they would be hearing my distorted words through their own masked ears, and at that they would only be seeing the "appearance" of the mask, and even at that when they would describe what they see, these descriptions would themselves be filtered through my mask as I heard or saw them.

2) I could look in a mirror, but once again I would be looking through my own distorted colored lenses into a mirror that only would be showing me the "appearance" of the mask.

3) I could read what others say about what my mask "really is", and about it's supposed inner traits. But here I would be trusting the words of others about something that I had little knowledge of myself, and even then, these words that I read/heard would be filtered by my mask.

4) I could take the mask off, and examine it with my own (un-masked) senses from both an external and internal perspective. I could then place it under a microscope (or other tool) and run all kinds of objective tests on it, etc...

Given this dilemma, it appears to me that only option (4) has a chance of really finding out what the mask is all about.

Now leaving this analogy and returning to the subject of "personality" it seems like we have 2 masks here. One is our physical body and the 5 senses, and the other is one of our more subtle bodies - our personality.

So how does one "take off" their physical body and personality body so that they can experience them from an un-masked perspective?

Looking at Tarot Key 7 (The Chariot) seems to indicate to me that we must be able to locate our consciousness awareness to the perspective of the Charioteer. Only then can we objectively examine the chariot which surrounds us.

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So ageless wisdom offers some conclusions about what our personality is, and also offers a path or process by which we can find out the facts for ourselves.

CONCLUSION: It seems to me that only one who has had the experience of so called "Cosmic Consciousness" would be in a position to really objectively experience what "personality" truly is.

So after having said all these words, I'll try to relate my limited personal experience with "personality".

Fact 1: I usually only think about "my personality" when I'm having a problem of some sort, and I can recognize that the problem "may" be due to the way that I'm interacting/reacting. Either a problem with another person, or a problem with some aspect of my life.

Fact 2: When I do think about my personality (within the context of 1 above) it is almost always from the position of achieving some desired goal (fix the problem, avoid the dragon, get the relationship, get the job, get along with so and so, etc...). I rarely have had the desire to dissect my own personality just for the innate curiosity of it.

Fact 3: The only other times I have ever had the inclination to examine my personality, are on those occasions when I have encountered a "mirror" which has shown my personality to myself. These mirrors have taken various forms. Some personality mirrors that I have encountered are: Other people Problems The Tarot Keys

So what does my experience allow me to conclude about "personality"?

1. The personality is definitely a mask which colors all that I think and all that I experience.
2. There are some things I like about this mask, and there are some things that I do not like. 
3. It's incredibly hard to see my personality objectively.
4. Am I my personality? Most of the time, it sure do feel that way.

That's it!

JC
(The Fool in the Iron Mask)