An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality (nonduality), your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Would you talk more about how humans can live by instincts when what we have to do is far more complicated nowadays than what the deer in your area have to do. (Not trying to be smart or smart aleck--just trying to understand Thank you. Jonathan
F.: You were told yesterday that a discussion of the instinctual variants (or “personality subtypes”) would begin, but first, some background on personality before discussing the subtypes of personality.
The Realized have been liberated, meaning that they are free of personality. Among the non-Realized, though, they will clearly exhibit the traits of one of the nine basic personality types, primarily. Moreover, persons will exhibit the traits of other types that they have internalized, integrated to, or disintegrated to.
Add to those multiple personalities the scores of other personas that persons will be assigned or will adopt in a lifetime and it becomes more easily understood exactly why persons haven’t a clue about their True Identity and why they suffer the machinations and vacillations of a relative existence being driven by multiple personality disorder as well as the egotism that accompanies the assumption of ego-states as identities.
Understand that and it can also be understood why persons are trapped in duality (being driven by "assets" vs. "liabilities" and by "good traits" vs. "bad traits"); thus, Advaitins invite persons to be free of personality in order to be free of their relative existence which is marked by the fluctuations and uncertainty and instability of personality…of being trapped in ego-states.
Now, there are those who normalize the instinctual variants (also known as “personality subtypes”), but if the personality itself is a distortion, and if multiple personalities add more distortions, then any sub-class of such distortions cannot possibly be “normal”—that is, natural.
The three instinctual variants are usually classified as (1) social, (2) sexual, and (3) self-preservation (which can be taken to mean “false”-self preservation). To understand those three subtypes is to understand three more of the forces that blindly drive persons throughout their relative existence.
The three variants can eventually become the primary motivators of persons, especially in regards to their thoughts and actions in regards to “relationships.” (You can see if person “a” believes she/he can relate to person “b” exactly why duality is at the root of the variants). Before continuing, understand the terms as used by Advaitins in discussions of personality and subtypes:
Look at the “social” subtype for example. That subtype subconsciously and unconsciously drives programmed and conditioned persons to experience a sense of “need.” The sensation is something far beyond any natural sense of socialization. That variant can eventually result in dependency and co-dependency, an absence of the level of independence that is exhibited in nature among all except humans, and a blind drive that sets up these social types to be used and exploited by others.
Persons functioning under the control of the “sexual” instinctive variant (rather than under the influence of natural instincts) will be preoccupied with a search for intimacy and a search for “love” even though they will not have a clue about what “love” is not or about what Love is). As with the social subtype, the setup here is for a relative existence that is dominated by a sense of need and incompletion rather than by a sense of fulfillment and Self-awareness and wholeness.
The “sexual” subtype accounts for untold instances of distorted behavior in an effort to fulfill imagined “needs,” triggering the desires and fears that block Realization or that prevent clear seeing.
As with the other two subtypes, self-preservation also motivates a search…in this case, a search for “well-being.” The problem for persons being driven by this subtype is that they allow their cultures to tell them what “well-being” is supposed to look like, so they never really know what that is and they never find it. The result is a nagging sense of longing and emptiness.
All three variants, it should be seen, lead to a search, to a restlessness, to a drive to do, and to a drive to “work at being” rather than just being. All three, therefore, can generate periods of restlessness and discontentment and misery that are interrupted only by occasional periods of contentment.
All three variants become active after the natural instincts have been put on hold or have been overshadowed as a result of programming and conditioning. Realize that personality does not come naturally but results when persons are taught nonsense; similarly, instinctual variants (or subtypes of personality) do not come about naturally but are a bastardization that follows the formation of personality and the suppression of natural instincts.
If you understand the subconscious and unconscious influences of personality and variants in bringing about unnatural thoughts and unnatural words and unnatural behaviors, then you understand why Advaitins offer pointers to free persons of the effects of personality (and of subtypes).
To understand how personality and instinctual variants can replace good sense with nonsense and how they can override the natural drive for continuity of this temporary manifestation and replace it with a belief in the mythical concept of an eternal continuity for the body and mind and personality is to understand the emphasis that Advaitins place on being free of false identities and delusional beliefs. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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