TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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LIBERATION
(Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)
Various “non-dualists” use various approaches (or various yogas) for guiding protégés to realization and liberation, some because they don’t have a clue regarding what the non-duality message is really about and some because they are wise enough to understand that three types of learners: auditory, visual, and kinetic.
Also, the three body types among humans call for different approaches for different persons. The first body type is contemplative while a second type is more active. The third type includes those who are driven to be vigorously active (often assuming the false identity of “The Super Seeker” and others being driven by their obsessive nature and obsessive minds).
A variety of approaches are justified as attempts are made to provide methods which take into account the variety among seekers and their varied learning methods.
In October and November of 2021, a series was offered which discussed certain common terms used among non-dual seekers and others, terms which are totally misunderstood, including:
Continuity and WHO-ness and / or who-ness and “SELF-Actualization and “realization” and “SELF-Realization and “self-realization” and liberation and enlightenment and awakening and spiritual awakening and “the Spiritual Malady” and karma and “Infinite Self” and “Supreme Self” and “Eternal Self” and many, many others.
When the term “liberation” is used, it is often almost as misused as what might be the most misunderstood term above, namely, “realization.”
To clarify, while “realization” means - per Maharaj - being free of belief in all learned ignorance (and all beliefs in general), “liberation” actually refers to being freed from being driven by a specific and limited influence, namely, the hidden and unconscious and subconscious agendas of every personality assumed as an identity. More often than not, those agendas involve either “fear” or “desire.”
Being Trapped in Personality vs. Being Realized and Free
Personality is (1) that which is generates any persona (false self) is assigned or assumed and (2) that which allows the thoughts and words and actions of others to be taken personally ("persona-lly").
A persona is an assumed social role or a character played by an actor, the term having been derived from the Latin word for “mask” or “character.” Personas are all of the false identities/ false personality identifications which persons think define “who they are.” In fact, they define everything that one is not.
“Taking anything personally” can only happen when a persona is assumed as a false identity and then takes offense at the words or actions of another when an assumed identity thinks that it is being hurt, interfered with, or threatened.
What conclusion can be drawn from knowing that? All instances of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable or in pain originate from assuming false identities and then wanting to defend or protect those false identities.
Therefore, to be free of feeling hurt, interfered with, threatened, fearful, desirous, miserable, in pain or defensive requires being free of personas . . . being free of the entrapment in personality.
Thousands of personas are assumed by persons: husband, lover, homeowner, employee, employer, wife, son, ad infinitum; however, as a result of genetics and environment and other factors, all persons develop one dominate persona while assuming scores of others. Often, that dominant persona is overlaid onto (or combined with) all other assumed roles.
Only nine primary personality types exist, and since persons become most driven by their type, most separated from authenticity and reality and clarity by that type, and most absorbed in “self” via that type, then the “journey” to liberation can begin with an effort to be rid of the influence of the dominate personality type. Then the secondary types and personas might be abandoned more easily.
Why Understand Personality Types?
Psychotherapist and Trauma Specialist Marie Lachney explains it this way: “You may as well learn all that you can about your primary personality type as well as the related types which influence you. For most people, it will determine everything they think and say and do and everything that drives them to be emotionally-intoxicated throughout their entire lives. Only a small percentage will ever be liberated from the dominance of personality.”
Dictating Behavior
Of course among each humans every “individual” is supposedly “unique,” but unless people understand the way that personality type dictates behavior, then they will never fully understand why they do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel.
Nor can they understand why others do the things they do and why they feel the way they feel - which can be quite different from person to person - depending on personality type. Nor can they ever break free of unconscious influences.
Personality Formation
Early in life, some children learn to feel safe (and learn to cope with unhealthy family situations and circumstances) by developing a strategy based on natural talents, genetics, and abilities; thus, the three-year old granddaughter and the five-year old granddaughter I visited with last week have two totally different, primary personality types and two totally different strategies which they use to try to navigate through their often strange and already challenging and confusing culture.
Personality’s Power over Behavior and Emotions or Feelings
People of the same type have the same basic motivations, the same basic liabilities and assets, and the same basic view of the world in some fundamentally similar ways. It’s almost “textbook” the way people demonstrate the exact traits of their type.
It is amazing to see how infrequently people consciously choose to do the things they do and how often they are predisposed to certain behavioral patterns.
(When you add in the effects of programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing and indoctrination and the effects of trauma to the mix, “free will” and “choice” become reduced to the level of theory.)
The Benefits of Knowing and Understanding Your Type
This understanding can provide release, if not comfort, in knowing that millions of people who share your personality type have the same coping strategy as you and have done exactly what you did when faced with the same circumstances.
But by understanding personality, millions have also been able to say, “Oh my gosh! So that’s why I do what I do!” and then they have become free of the overwhelming influence of personality / personalities which has unconsciously driven them. At some level, “That’s totally insane” can give way to “That’s perfectly understandable, all things considered.” Blame and guilt and anger directed at self can end and a shift toward sanity can begin.
The more persons sees the insanity of being driven by personality, the more receptive they might become to considering the “path” to liberation (and eventually the path to full realization) in order to attain freedom from personality via that “journey” and thereby allow full liberation and then full realization to happen.
To find your actual type, how that type drives most persons’ thought and words and actions, what your type’s assets and liabilities are, what type you will be most compatible with, and a wealth of other information, you might read and contemplate the content of this series of posts and / or visit the “services” link at floydhenderson.com.
Tomorrow: What is the Enneagram and What Are the Nine Basic Personality Types?
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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The Advanced Seekers' Series (344 pages) is an anthology of four books that share Advaita-based, non-duality pointers that can guide seekers to abide as their original nature. Included in the anthology are
"From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality");
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“What BLISS is and what BLISS is not”
“There’s No Such Thing As Peace of Mind (There’s Only Peace If You’re ‘Out of Your Mind’)”
“Liberation (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)”
“Freedom from Shifting Between States of Happiness and Unhappiness”
“Why You Must Be Empty If You Would Be Full”
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“When REALITY Is Overlaid on the RELATIVE.”
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
