TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Excerpts from the book entitled FREEDOM from BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and "No-Belief-ers") will continue with a discussion of the way that personality-invoking "-ism's" are another source which generates a plethora of distortion-riddled beliefs:
"-ISM'S" and Beliefs Rooted in Personality
("-ism's," Part "F")
It has been shown how the seeds of personality are sown in children as they attempt to adjust to the familial dysfunctionalism which all children are now exposed to and how the primary personality type is usually in place as early as the age of six.
That personality, and the others which exert influence over thoughts and words and actions, are reinforced by the "-ism's" that are dreamed up by cultures around the globe.
To be "liberated" is to be liberated from belief in personas and the concepts and ideas ("beliefs") which are propagated by the plethora of "-ism's" that are so pervasive in societies all over the planet.
Here and elsewhere, one tool that is used by willing seekers to advance the cause of liberation is the Enneagram test, accompanied by an analysis of the test results that are shared with the seeker - a process which can require only about two hours in most cases.
Additionally, background information is being shared via these postings which will allow seekers to see how personality came about and why these teachings - and the understanding they offer - are required for seekers to understand completely how (on a universal basis now) . . .
a. persons become trapped in the personality trance and how
b. stress leads to psychic deterioration (and to totally-predictable behaviors among the mentally and emotionally unhealthy as their personality types unconsciously drive thoughts and words and actions).
So, to review some of the main pointers offered so far:
1. At some point, it was seen by the most observant people in their community that all persons were being driven by one of nine dominate traits or "passions," that is, by whatever they were seen to be "most passionate about."
2. It was also seen that their behaviors were "textbook" in the way that those behaviors manifested so consistently and unwaveringly and in how unsurprisingly foreseeable and predictable their thoughts and words and deeds were going to be in any given situation.
3. Thus it was realized that "distinctions" and "dualities" were born with personality. "Differences" and "personal characteristics" were noted.
4. That gave rise to "self"-ishness which, in turn, blocked the original sense of Self and sense of Oneness. (The same happens around the age of two when a child - previously identified totally with its mother - becomes aware of its own body, becomes conscious of itself, becomes self-absorbed, and is thus said to be "A Terrible Two."
Indeed, once one loses a sense of Self and identities with body and mind and personality, then the results, relatively speaking, could indeed be said to be "terrible." Such is a microcosm of what happens planet-wide as persons are separated from a sense of Oneness, replace the innate sense of "Is-ness" with a false sense of "self-is-ness" / selfishness, develop a primary personality type, and eventually assume dozens and scores and hundreds of false personas as actual identities throughout the relative existence.)
5. It was Evagrius who discussed the early Greeks' version of the nine passions (or the "nine obsessions" or "nine dominant personality traits and types").
6. He showed how those passions (i.e., dominant personality traits / types) distorted human perception and limited the human search for the essence and the True Self.
7. Religions further limited the search to the confines of their buildings and texts only and became the most prolific source of some of the most rigid false personality identifications ever.
8. People were dissuaded by their religious / spiritual leaders from seeking answers scientifically or objectively and told to accept unquestioningly the answers that were provided via dogma and "holy texts" only.
9. With the few remaining seekers who used the non-duality teachings to uncover the root of all personality-driven disharmony and emotional instability and chaos, early teachers discussed the way that everyone developed a primary "point of view" from the list of nine possibilities.
10. It was seen by some that it is those "views" or "passions" or "primary personality traits / types" that mark and mar the human condition. The patterns of thoughts and words and behaviors associated with the passions now align with the nine personality types of the Enneagram.
11. Those separated from authenticity will be blindly driven by their dominate and secondary personality types and will be ruled by unconscious but habitual responses as well as the hidden agendas of their personality / personalities.
Now, to continue:
Those lost in the trance of personality / personalities will be driven by the passions or personality traits of either wrath and resentment and anger; or pride; or deceit; or melancholia and jealousy and envy; or greed and avarice; or panic and cowardice; or conceit and gluttony; or lust; or indifference and laziness.
Moreover, each of those passions aligns with one of the nine personality types identifiable via the Enneagram method of personality identification and analysis. For the dedicated Advaitin seeker that is attempting to
a. understand the extreme (and extremely-adverse) effects that personality has played as it has controlled all thoughts, all words, and all deeds and to
b. understand the degree to which an assortment of the nine personality types has bastardized the relative existence and to
c. understand why personality must be transitioned and to
d. understand how to accomplish that transcendence,
then it must be seen exactly which of the passions (or personality traits) have been driving the seeker; it must be seen exactly to what degree that has happened; and it must be seen exactly how to be free of personality identifications and their effects.
So here is some of what is revealed when the Enneagram and the non-dual enlightenments regarding personality come together and uncover which passions or traits align with which types when they are psychically unhealthy and driven by the agendas of personalities / personas:
Personality Type Ones are especially driven by wrath and resentment and anger;
Personality Type Twos are especially driven by neediness;
Personality Type Threes are especially driven by pride and deceit;
Personality Type Fours are especially driven by melancholia and jealousy and envy and escapism;
Personality Type Fives are especially driven by greed and avarice;
Personality Type Sixes are especially driven by fear or anxiety or panic and dependency and cowardice (and occasionally reckless courage when they shift to a counter-phobic phase);
Personality Type Sevens are especially driven by conceit and gluttony;
Personality Type Eights are especially driven by lust (their primary lust being for power and control and their secondary lust being sexual . . . but even their sexual drive is about power and control and dominance); and
Personality Type Nines who are especially driven by indifference and inertia and avoidance and laziness.
Most persons that have lost contact with the essence and the True Self will be driven by a combination of at least four of those types. Some are driven by even more than four;
furthermore, without their concrete personality test results before them in black-and-white, most will move through the entire manifestation without a clue about the personality-based motivators that subconsciously drive them to think what they think, to think how they think, to feel or emote the way that they feel or emote, to talk how they talk, and to behave the way they behave.
Which of those types have been driving you? To what degree? In what order should they be focused on to remove the most "detrimental obstacles to seeing Truth" first? Which specific desire and fear of each type is most adversely impacting your relative existence and contributing to your misery and suffering?
Most will never know. You can. There is the opportunity for that to happen either here or via one of the many other venues that offer an insight which will finally - for the first time ever - allow persons to understand:
1. why they have done what they have done throughout the relative existence, even when much of it made no sense and proved to be most harmful relatively speaking;
2. why they continue to make the same mistakes over and over;
3. why they repeat the same unhealthy patterns in one relationship after another;
4. why they have felt totally powerless and helpless and have been unsuccessful when they try to change; and
5. why they are driven by fears and desires which also make no sense at all.
To be continued.
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