Читать книгу Mysticism from A to Z. A clear introduction to the deepest and most complex spiritual issues - Нго-Ма - Страница 8

This chapter is going to present one very important issue, that often could be insinuated – it is the issue of personality, and I know that many of you would be interested in it, and many of you wait for it for a number of reasons. How does Free Away define a personality? Does personality disappear as the result of awakening? These are questions that are endlessly confusing.

First of all, what do we call a personality? I believe that the main problem, as I see it, is that the word «personality» often means «individuality», sometimes «person», and therefore some confusion arises. «Ego» is also sometimes referred to as «person», and so some speculation begins that the personality is equal to the ego. It is a very big mistake to equate personality with the ego: then it turns out that the personality must disappear, dissolve, as the ego structure dissolves. This is how such speculations begin: «I am no longer a personality, I have no personality!», which in turn frightens off sincere seekers, because sometimes they have a greater sobriety than those teachers who have dissolved their individuality, personality, or for whom everything has disappeared altogether.

I would like you to hear this message, which sounds like the following: a personality has nothing to do with the ego, nothing at all, a personality is a social instrument, a social body that is formed within the social environment. To make it clearer, I will give a more detailed explanation of what a personality is. A personality who is brought up within the framework of a social environment becomes a member of society, this way it gets habits, skills, and certain qualities that it acquires within the framework of social education. All our values, all the skills and habits are acquired, ranging from «just wearing pants» and ending with our interaction within social structures, as well as all our ideas about what is good, what is bad and how to behave, to interact. An infinite number of skills, habits and various character traits are obtained in the framework of education in the social world, in the social environment. Consequently, a person is a body, the same body as a physical one, it is a social body, therefore the correct understanding is the following, there is a society, and there is a social body, and this social body is called a personality. The only thing is that it is not congenital, as physical, but acquired, because all bodies participate in its formation: the emotional-sensory, physical, and mental, and the body of sensations – they all participate in the creation of another body – the social one.

Therefore, the personality has nothing to do with the ego-structure. Personality is your ability to communicate, interact – it is a set of skills, habits, characteristics and habits acquired in society. And they don’t disappear, and you continue to function as a personality. There is a completely different story: it is a story about false personalities arising in the mind or in other words some false personalities appear in the imagination, on which the ego structure parasitizes. For example, such as: «What would I like to be?» «What kind of personality should I be to receive love, attention, and recognition?» All these are games into certain personalities, which I am not in fact, and it is these false personalities that arise as subpersonalities, as pseudo-personalities that have been modeled in your mind, in your imagination, and to which a sensual response appears. So, through the ego they are opposed to your natural personality.

Your personality is formed throughout your whole life, all sorts of events have an impact on it, and it could be a subject to correction. For example, if you lived in one social environment, and then moved to another country, then it imposes some changes on your personality. I would like you to understand me correctly on this issue: just as you grow up to 20—25 years old, the same way the main formation of the personality took place before the age of 21. This way, at the very end, your global social ties are built, such as, for example, understanding your role in the social environment, in the society, because it is during this period the relationship to the Fatherland is laid and that is why people serve in the army in age between 18 and 20 years old.

The main, basic fundamental attitude is formed at the very, very early age, when a personality just begins to realize itself as a part of this society, begins to adapt to it, acquire certain qualities, while the global attitude develops at the end. For example, an attitude towards a woman is formed somewhere at the age of 12—13, when puberty occurs, and during this period the way is formed how you will interact in this very environment in the framework of communication with the opposite sex. It’s all the personality, do you understand? You can’t be a person on a desert island. On a desert island, you will enter a society, for example, of monkeys, and you will have some rudiments of personal interactions at the level of a monkey society. Like Mowgli, who was not a personality, and therefore, when he faced people, he did not know how to behave, he did not know what to do, he was not trained at all, so the first thing I would like to convey is that personality has nothing to do with the ego. The second is that false personalities, arising in the imagination and competing with your natural personality, have opposed it. These false personalities have been already colored by the presence of the ego-structure, which opposes them and parasitizes on this opposition. Therefore, when I am asked the question – what does it mean to go through a personal matter? – then I point to several stages and one of them is letting go of all your false personalities, namely everything that you have thought about who you should be, or how you will be accepted, how you are supposed to be, and so on. These are all false identities that have arisen in your imagination. Since these false identities torment people very much, because they cannot correspond to them, it is necessary to return to their natural personality, which was formed within the framework of up to 21—25 years old with all the fundamental postulates embedded in it.