F.: Even those seekers who have only begun to explore the Advaita Teachings likely know one of the most basic tenets: body-mind-personality identification is at the root of blindness and unawareness. What some might not yet recognize is this: each assumed persona generates the additional assumption of several other personas, and it is that ever-growing accumulation of multiple personalities that create the mass of darkness that prevents persons from seeing Who/What They Truly Are. And what greater example of ignorance or insanity can exist than not knowing who you are or than thinking you are someone or something that you are not?
When persons are not Realized and don't know the True Self, then they will be driven to adopt not only the false personas that they have been set up to assume but will also adopt other roles/personas that are offshoots of their already-adopted personas.
For example, an insecure man with fears of abandonment, taking himself to be “Husband,” will internalize the personality of “His Wife.” His fears will drive him away from being true to Self and he will internalize “Wife” in order to please her and reinforce her false identities, thereby sustaining his “Husband” identity. Fear of loss, combined with a desire to sustain his own false identity, will drive him to become a male version of "her."
That practice does allow many "relationships" to continue for a time since persons embroiled in their ego-states are so egotistical that they can only "love" self. If they see, as in this example, an opposite-sex version of themselves, they can continue the illusion that they are "in love." They are, to the degree that they are "in love" with their false self/selves, and they will be attracted to any thought, word, deed, or image that helps to support the continuation of their illusions and delusions.
Note how the assumption of one false self inspires the assumption of another: to sustain "Husband," the insecure man also becomes "Wife" by adumbrating her every thought, word, and deed as he reflects her image back to her. Of course, the same applies regardless of the gender of the parties involved: wives reflect husbands; lovers reflect lovers; parishioners reflect priests; abusers reflect abusers; radicals reflect radicals; the prejudiced reflect the prejudiced; ad infinitum.
Another example of this relative phenomenon was witnessed recently. A consulting contract was signed with a business that wanted its staff members to understand the ways that personas were negatively impacting performance. The owner of the business recognized that his employees were being driven by their primary personality types, that they had disintegrated into the worse of several other types, and that the fact that they were being driven by personality was disrupting the harmony in the workplace as a result of their also being so far removed from awareness of the Authentic Self.
The work with one company employee showed this: three months ago, that employee (who is a Personality Type Four) tested high as a Personality Type Two. In a recent re-test, his Type Two score was his lowest and his Type One score was his highest. Such shifts are generally unheard of or are very rare if the questions were answered truthfully during both testings. After studying the situation, several factors were revealed:
1. He is a Four but he had internalized his hero/grandfather who is a Type Two. One role, "The Good Grandson," inspired the assumption of another role, "The Helper." Further, his employment has an element whereby helping is supposed to happen, so that drove him away from his own basic personality type and allowed the liabilities of a Type Two Helper personality to manifest. One role generated more role-playing and prevented the manifestation of peace that only comes with authenticity.
2. But what accounted for the major shift from the Two to the One? After taking the first test, that employee spent the next three months under the supervision of a Type Four who had disintegrated and was exhibiting the worst traits of a Type One Perfectionist. As with the insecure man who had assumed his wife’s personality in the earlier example, this insecure employee assumed the personality of his supervisor. Because his supervisor/mentor is only showing the worst of Type One traits, this employee had assumed (after only three months of exposure to that supervisor's influence) the false persona of perfectionist as he modeled/mirrored his supervisor in order to sustain "The Employee" role.
Another example of this relative phenomenon was witnessed recently. A consulting contract was signed with a business that wanted its staff members to understand the ways that personas were negatively impacting performance. The owner of the business recognized that his employees were being driven by their primary personality types, that they had disintegrated into the worse of several other types, and that the fact that they were being driven by personality was disrupting the harmony in the workplace as a result of their also being so far removed from awareness of the Authentic Self.
The work with one company employee showed this: three months ago, that employee (who is a Personality Type Four) tested high as a Personality Type Two. In a recent re-test, his Type Two score was his lowest and his Type One score was his highest. Such shifts are generally unheard of or are very rare if the questions were answered truthfully during both testings. After studying the situation, several factors were revealed:
1. He is a Four but he had internalized his hero/grandfather who is a Type Two. One role, "The Good Grandson," inspired the assumption of another role, "The Helper." Further, his employment has an element whereby helping is supposed to happen, so that drove him away from his own basic personality type and allowed the liabilities of a Type Two Helper personality to manifest. One role generated more role-playing and prevented the manifestation of peace that only comes with authenticity.
2. But what accounted for the major shift from the Two to the One? After taking the first test, that employee spent the next three months under the supervision of a Type Four who had disintegrated and was exhibiting the worst traits of a Type One Perfectionist. As with the insecure man who had assumed his wife’s personality in the earlier example, this insecure employee assumed the personality of his supervisor. Because his supervisor/mentor is only showing the worst of Type One traits, this employee had assumed (after only three months of exposure to that supervisor's influence) the false persona of perfectionist as he modeled/mirrored his supervisor in order to sustain "The Employee" role.
That scenario plays out across the globe: persons subconsciously mirror "The Boss" in order to reinforce "The Employee" role. It happens on the national level as staff members/"Yes Men" become mere reflections of the president they serve; it happens in most work situations; it happens in "personal relations"; it happens in churches and schools; it happens in homes. Mirrors are reflecting mirror images, so authenticity is nearly extinct on a planet where 95% or more of the population is living a lie.
Rather than living in touch with Reality, persons are living in the mirror instead, but only a few will ever reach the point of admitting, "I don't even know who I am" or the point where they say, "I'm so disgusted with the phoniness that is dominating my existence that I am going to find what is Real."
If persons do not Realize, they will function as “human soybeans” and will take on the flavor of whatever they are next to. They will be robbed of choice as a result of being driven blindly by their self-generated fears as well as their desires to sustain their assumed ego-states. New ego-states will spring up to try to protect other false identities.
The result is a relative existence marked by multiple personality disorders, by chaos, and by persons being true to others' false selves rather than to their own True Self; thus, a relative existence results that is marked by flux, change, turmoil, self-deception and instability as persons try to be all of the things that they are not in an effort to try to sustain personas that they also are not.
All consciousness is in movement. Only the Absolute is stable. To avoid a relative existence that is marked by an addiction to chaos and that is dominated by layers of darkness that prevent being enlightened to the truth, even the consciousness must be transcended and abidance as the Absolute must happen. The "journey" to Realization only takes seven steps, but most will never find them; therefore, most will never be free of being driven by personality. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
If persons do not Realize, they will function as “human soybeans” and will take on the flavor of whatever they are next to. They will be robbed of choice as a result of being driven blindly by their self-generated fears as well as their desires to sustain their assumed ego-states. New ego-states will spring up to try to protect other false identities.
The result is a relative existence marked by multiple personality disorders, by chaos, and by persons being true to others' false selves rather than to their own True Self; thus, a relative existence results that is marked by flux, change, turmoil, self-deception and instability as persons try to be all of the things that they are not in an effort to try to sustain personas that they also are not.
All consciousness is in movement. Only the Absolute is stable. To avoid a relative existence that is marked by an addiction to chaos and that is dominated by layers of darkness that prevent being enlightened to the truth, even the consciousness must be transcended and abidance as the Absolute must happen. The "journey" to Realization only takes seven steps, but most will never find them; therefore, most will never be free of being driven by personality. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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