LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)

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LIBERATION (Attaining Freedom from Personality via Realization)

“After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions [false identities] are by hearsay.”

--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Traits, “Assets,” and “Liabilities” among the Nine Basic Personality Types

[TYPES 2, 3 AND 4 ARE CENTERED IN THE HEART, IN FEELINGS, IN IMAGE]

2

THE HELPER

WHEN HEALTHY: Demonstrative, Sensitive, and Generous. WHEN NOT: People-Pleasing, Martyr-like, Manipulative, Hysterical, and Possessive.

3

THE ACHIEVER / THE PERFORMER

WHEN HEALTHY: Adaptive, Energetic, Optimistic, Assured, Excelling, Goal-Oriented, Driven. WHEN NOT: Image-Conscious, Vile-Tongued, Narcissistic, Pretentious, Vain, Superficial, Vindictive and Overly-Competitive.

4

THE INDIVIDUALIST / THE ROMANTICIST

WHEN HEALTHY: Expressive, Strong Feelings, Warm, Dramatic, and Perceptive. WHEN NOT: Self-Absorbed, Depressed, Guilt-Ridden, Moralistic, Isolationistic, Stubborn, Moody, and Temperamental

[TYPES 5, 6 AND 7 ARE CENTERED IN THE HEAD, IN THINKING, IN FEARS]

5

THE INVESTIGATOR / THE OBSERVER

WHEN HEALTHY: Analytical, Persevering, Wise, Objective, Perceptive, and Innovative. WHEN NOT: Secretive, Intellectually-Arrogant, Stingy, Distant, Critical, Unassertive, and Negative.

6

THE LOYALIST / THE QUESTIONER

WHEN HEALTHY: Engaging, Responsible, Loyal, Caring, Compassionate, and Practical. WHEN NOT: Anxious, Suspicious, Controlling, Unpredictable, Paranoid, Defensive, Rigid, and Self-Defeating.

7

THE ENTHUSIAST / THE ADVENTURER

WHEN HEALTHY: Spontaneous, Energetic, Optimistic, Versatile, and Lively. WHEN NOT: Distracted, Scattered, Impulsive, Histrionic, Undisciplined, Self-Destructive, and Restless. 

[TYPES 8, 9 AND 1 ARE CENTERED IN THE GUT, IN INSTINCTS, IN ANGER

8

THE CHALLENGER / THE ASSERTER / THE BOSS

WHEN HEALTHY: Self-Confident, Direct, Self-Reliant, and Decisive. WHEN NOT: Willful, Confrontational, Controlling, Domineering, Aggressive, and Self-Centered.

9

THE PEACEMAKER

WHEN HEALTHY: Receptive, Good-Natured, Reassuring, and Agreeable. WHEN NOT: Passive-Aggressive, Complacent, Lazy, Spaced Out, Obsessive, Judgmental, and Users w /  a Sense of Entitlement.

1

THE REFORMER

WHEN HEALTHY: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, Realistic, Conscientious, Productive, Honest, Orderly, and Self-Disciplined. WHEN NOT: Extremely Perfectionistic, Judgmental, Inflexible, Dogmatic, Obsessive-Compulsive, Critical, Overly-Serious, Anxious, and Jealous.

If you notice that all nine types are centered in some areas that are not especially conducive to being at peace and at ease (IMAGE, FEAR, OR ANGER) then one can understand the rationale behind the statement that:

The less we are influenced or driven by personality, personas, ego, or ego-states, then the greater chance we have of becoming truly free and truly happy or content;

additionally, it can also be said that those who are healthy and integrating can exhibit “the best” of all nine types and those who are unhealthy and disintegrating can exhibit “the worst” of all nine types.

The Relative Effects of Personality: Fears, Desires and Interrupted Happiness

Many questions raised by protégés over the years originated from that which is as far removed from full realization as possible: body, mind, and/or personality identification.

Questions or comments about “fear of death,” about “the well-being of the body,” about "religious and spiritual concepts and beliefs," and about their desires for “the eternal continuity of the body and mind” have revealed just how absorbed persons are in their false identities.

The “self” is always about body-mind-personality, and the body-mind-personality is always about self . . . self-absorption, self-centeredness, and self-concern.

One therapist who uses the Enneagram method to teach her clients their personality types has been asked by some why they need that awareness. She explains,

“Because if you do not abandon the belief that your personality has anything to do with What You Truly Are - and 95% never will - then it will be the force that will blindly drive you through life, that will determine what you do and how you feel, and that will cause that misery which brought you to this office to continue.”

In fact, it is the phenomenon of personality that sustains the belief in duality and prevents the realization of the truth of non-duality. All “personal assets and liabilities,” and all notions about the “good qualities and bad qualities of people,” are actually dealing with nothing more than personality traits which are always dualistic by definition;

thus, legitimate non-dual guides always include certain pointers about personality (along with an invitation to abandon all belief in personality - and personas - while abandoning body and mind identification as well).

While on a trip through Europe, much discussion was overheard as people talked about the content of a report released at that time from the United Kingdom that studied “the reasons that women over 40 have sleepless nights.” In the order of importance, the results showed their lack of sleep resulted from the following fears:

1. Children's future - 55 %
2. Health risks - 45%
3. Financial difficulties - 43 %
4. Breast cancer - 36 %
5. Rising crime - 27 %
6. Immigration - 19 %
7. Threat of terrorism - 12 %
8. Menopause - 12 %
9. Losing their partner - 11%

So what does each of those really deal with?

1. Fears about "Children's future" deal with BODY AND MIND AND PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION: (Reproduction is a BODY function. “The Mother,” which automatically becomes “The Super Mother” once the role is assumed as an identity, cannot exist without children, so MIND and PERSONAS are also involved.)

2. Fears about "Health risks" deal with BODY IDENTIFICATION

3. Fears about "Financial difficulties" deal with PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION AND MIND IDENTIFICATION

4. Fears about "Breast cancer" deal with BODY IDENTIFICATION

5. Fears about "Rising crime" deal with BODY IDENTIFICATION

6. Fears about "Immigration" deal with BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION

7. Fears about the "Threat of terrorism" deal with BODY IDENTIFICATION

8. Concerns about "Menopause" deal with BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION

9. Fears about "Losing their partner" deal with PERSONALITY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION

So much for “True Love,” partners. The women surveyed admitted that they are five times more concerned about losing their children than about losing their partners, four times more concerned about losing money than about losing their partners, and three times more concerned about problems with their breasts than about losing their partners.

And if men answered honestly the same types of questions in an anonymous survey, the priorities of men would be just as focused on body-mind-personality “issues” and therefore just as “self”-centered as the women interviewed in the study cited above.

Belief in one’s personality / personas results in not knowing Who / What You Truly Are. That, in turn, results in the dualities revealed above . . . and all duality then results in delusional fears and unmet desires.

And of course all fears and desires result in dis-ease. While realization cannot guarantee that the realized (living out an AS IF existence) will never witness any relative existence happenings that will provide opportunities to observe feelings as they rise and fall, the absence of realization will guarantee that persons will be absorbed in the types of emotionally-intoxicating issues which are causing the women surveyed to lose sleep and to have their relative existence dominated by preoccupation with fears and desires. 

The same applies to men. Worry and fear and desire are merely the toll to be paid when body-mind-personality identification exists.

During that same trip to Europe, a travel partner had scheduled a visit with a man named Russ who is known internationally as a leader in the study of personality. That provided an opportunity to discuss with him the role that the nine personality types play in fostering fears and desires in personas (and thereby preventing true happiness from happening among those driven by their various personality types).

Yes, personality typing amounts to nothing more than another set of concepts, but since Advaitins employ thorns to remove thorns - concepts used to eventually remove all concepts -use of the Enneagram methodology can stimulate the realization process among protégés.

Too, it was observed during certain satsanga sessions in the past that the pointers offered to one personality type about her / his basic desires and basic fears were ignored as irrelevant by those present whose personalities were among the other eight types and who had different fears and desires that were driving them. Thus, the basic fears and the basic desires of each of the nine personality types will be discussed.

By the end, each should have discovered the single most basic fear and the single most basic desire that is driving him or her, that is interfering with realization and happiness, and that is supporting the attachment to personality identification. To identify the source of the dis-ease is the first step to eliminating that source and the dis-ease.

By comparison, the colon cancer that had manifested in this space was not addressed and removed until its presence and nature were diagnosed and understood. Freedom from cancer followed understanding the exact nature of the problem . . . it did not precede that understanding.

So it is with personality and the fears and desires that personality identification generate: freedom from the relative effects of fears and desires cannot happen until persons are aware of the illusions surrounding their personality type, are aware of the effects, and are freed of the false beliefs about personality that will otherwise drive all of their relative existence behaviors and “feelings.”

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.

THE EXPLANATION

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.

"That is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the 'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

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"

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away."

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places

but are states of mind, nothing more than

concepts dreamed up by men."

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell."

--Pope Francis, the current pope

in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record

teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.

[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.

And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?

Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?

The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)

With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.

The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.] 

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