NATURAL INSTINCTS VS. INSTINCTUAL PERSONALITY SUBTYPES, Part Three, The Conclusion

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hello, Floyd. Art here (I’ve written before but not in a long time). After further reading about a series you wrote on nine personality types, I came across a term referring to three instinctive subtypes, sexual, social, self-preservation. I am lost. It seems from what you say, we need to be rid of the self to “live naturally” but if self-preservation is instinctive, wouldn’t that make it natural? (I know—maybe too much analysis but it’s only for fun anway, right?)

F.: Just as yesterday’s post showed that the drive for sex can be (a) natural or can be (b) unnatural if "mind" and personality are involved, so too can the drive for preservation be (1) natural or can be (2) unnatural if "mind" and personality are involved.

When walking through the woods and startling a bird, the bird will typically fly away and light on another limb of a tree. That behavior is the result of a natural instinct for preservation. Even in a bird, the consciousness is conscious of its presence even though the bird will assume neither personality nor a "mind." It truly is merely being, naturally.

By contrast, when a person attends meetings, talks to imaginary powers that are thought to reside in other worlds, and gives away money—all in the hope that a body and mind and personality will be preserved and rewarded for eternity—that is not the result of a natural instinct. That is a result of being programmed, conditioned, enculturated, and fooled. That is the result of the influence of an "instinctual personality subtype" that you asked about in your e-mail.

Are you seeing the difference in being in touch with the inner resource, the inner guru, the sixth sense, the intuition, and the natural instincts as opposed to being driven throughout the relative existence by instinctive personality subtypes?

It is one thing to seek out food, clothing and shelter in order to facilitate the preservation of the body-cum-consciousness-that-is-manifested-for-a-limited-time. It is quite another when persons are driven to preserve the false self (or selves) that are mistakenly taken to be the Self.

It is one thing to seek out clothing and shelter in order to facilitate the preservation of the body-cum-consciousness, but it is quite another when persons are driven to accumulate designer clothing and larger-than-required residences in an effort to fabricate and maintain an image rather than abiding as the Authentic Self. Those driven to accumulate are typically driven by a desire for false-self preservation rather than by natural instincts.

It is one thing when the instinctive sex drive manifests, but it is quite another thing when sexual urges are being driven by personality disorders, by warped programming, by distorted conditioning, by cultural influences, and by the desire to preserve one or more ego-states.

It is one thing for the sex drive to manifest; it is a far different thing when sexual dysfunction occurs as a result of the abnormalities of the corrupted “mind” and assumed personalities rather than any physical abnormality.

It is one thing to engage in natural social arrangements, but quite another when such arrangements are engaged in to preserve images and false identities.

Finally, Art, no “self” can be "preserved" and no Self-ness will last either. That Which You Truly Are is beyond both beingness and non-beingness…beyond self and beyond any individualized Self and beyond individualized Self-ness as well. There is nothing to “preserve”...nothing to be "saved." There is only THAT Which Was, Is, and Shall forever Be. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:

Click LIBERATION

and

Click IT’S ALL BULLSHIT

[The book entitled LIBERATION is a guide to elimination of personality; the BULLSHIT book is, among other things, an invitation to reject cultural influences to accumulate, including the accumulation of money and excess property and personas and more and more religious beliefs and/or spiritual knowledge and co-dependent entanglements that are intended to provide “happiness”]

and

Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY

and

Click WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

and

Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)

NATURAL INSTINCTS VS. INSTINCTUAL PERSONALITY SUBTYPES, Part Two

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hello, Floyd. Art here (I’ve written before but not in a long time). After further reading about a series you wrote on nine personality types, I came across a term referring to three instinctive subtypes, sexual, social, self-preservation. I am lost. It seems from what you say, we need to be rid of the self to “live naturally” but if self-preservation is instinctive, wouldn’t that make it natural? (I know—maybe too much analysis but it’s only for fun anway, right?)

F.: As surely as the masses are driven by personality, so all persons (all of the non-Realized) are also driven by one of the three instinctual variants (or subtypes) of personality: self-preservation, sexual, or social.

Most persons display the traits of multiple personality types, and many can be driven by more than one subtypes; however, one of the three instinctual biases typically operates from a dominant position in combination with a dominant personality type.

When the two work in tandem, imagine the (relative) force of the “mind” as it exerts control over the setting of priorities as well as over the thought-word-deed continuum.

Many site visitors who have written lately have used various wordings to complain about one real relative issue, namely, continuing to be trapped in a repetition of the same, often destructive, patterns of behavior.

How can persons possibly be grounded in the very essence of being if blocked from an understanding of their fundamental nature and an awareness of what natural living really looks like? Programming and conditioning and enculturation create the blockage and result in relative behaviors being driven by personality and personality subtypes.

While the subtypes are often labeled as “instinctive subtypes” or “instinctive variants,” they are associated with, but not the same as, natural instincts. There is a natural, instinctive drive for sex, but the instinctive sexual variant of personality is an unnatural drive that is the product of programming and conditioning.

When the instinctive sexual personality variant is driving behavior, it is often mistaken by persons to be the natural sexual instinct that is driving behavior, but that is not the case. A true and natural instinct has nothing to do with instinctual variants or subtypes of personality. That which is rooted in the false must also be false. Just as the personality is false, so are the personality subtypes, though the impact and effects are certainly observable in a relative sense.

Consider the man referenced in yesterday’s post. Though it might appear that having 300 affairs was related to that man’s strong and natural sex drive (which was his macho “spin” on his activities), that conduct was really rooted more in personality and in the personality sexual subtype. Here’s part of the description of his case offered earlier on the site:

“…his most basic identity amounted to ‘I am my body.’ Driving his conduct, however, was also a ‘mind’ and multiple personas. The male sex drive aside, far more was at play with that man’s conduct.

“He reported the following: after his father disappeared, he was rejected by his mother who gave him to his grandmother; a short time later, his grandmother rejected him and gave him over to the state.

“As a child who was wanted by no one, he felt a sense of ‘loss.’ His thought-life was one that said, ‘You are not good enough; you will never be good enough; therefore, you will never have enough…of anything.’ Behind those kinds of beliefs, excess will always be assigned great value.

“His desire was to be accepted by two women during his childhood years, but since he was not, he was driven during his adulthood years to hear as many women say ‘Yes’ as possible; to hear as many women as possible say ‘You are good’; to have women fulfill his self-ish desires; to use women in his effort to negate his fear of being rejected by supposedly being ‘accepted’ time and time again (as if paying someone for something could even remotely mean that they ‘accept you’).

“His rationalized claim that ‘I just really love women’ was eventually shown to be nothing more than deception and self-deception. He was shown that he actually hated women and that the repetition compulsion was in full bloom and manifesting through his childish conduct. He was eventually shown that he was doing to as many women as possible what the first two women in his life had done to him: he ‘had’ them, and then he rejected them.

“His was a selfish mission of revenge on one hand and a self-centered mission of seeking the acceptance he never had as a child on the other hand. In the process, he had also rejected his wife, yet he was egotistical enough to be angry at her when she was finally driven away and delusional enough to think that his wife had rejected him. Though in his 30’s, his behavior was that of an early teen at best, driven by the dualistic beliefs of a five to seven-year old.”

Trapped in his false personas, he was driven by personality and by the instinctive sexual variant of personality, but neither had anything to do with the natural instinct for sex. Are you seeing the error of the conclusion drawn in your e-mail, Art, when you wrote: if self-preservation is instinctive, wouldn’t that make it natural?

Neither the instinctive personality variant of self-preservation nor the instinctive variants involving sex and socialization are natural, generated by personality as they are. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:

Click LIBERATION

NATURAL INSTINCTS VS. INSTINCTUAL PERSONALITY SUBTYPES, Part One

FROM A SITE VISITOR: Hello, Floyd. Art here (I’ve written before but not in a long time). After further reading about a series you wrote on nine personality types, I came across a term referring to three instinctive subtypes, sexual, social, self-preservation. I am lost. It seems from what you say, we need to be rid of the self to “live naturally” but if self-preservation is instinctive, wouldn’t that make it natural? (I know—maybe too much analysis but it’s only for fun anway, right?)

F.: Hello, Art. Sure, the topic can be discussed for fun, especially since the site employs the nisarga system of yoga to point toward natural living. By definition, actions that are generated by instinctive drives differ from learned behavior among humans that follows the formation of a “mind” that is capable of recalling events from memory. Relatively speaking, are there variances in the typical behaviors of members of different species? Yes.

To use the three terms you mentioned, some non-human species in “the animal kingdom” are more sexually active than others; some are more social than others; and some are more wired for the fight and for self-preservation than others. In one fictional novel with an interwoven message of non-duality, the lead character is discussing the fact that some persons are “more destructive” than others and that even “human nature” manifests with variations. The Native American Chief responded thusly:

“…very common variations are not just limited to human nature. Note the differences in the nature of birds: that heron there, like a hermit thrush, lives a fairly solitary life, while those ducks as well as warblers flock together. Waxwings eat fruit, while those hawks over there kill other birds to survive. Grackles like the city, but the cuckoo likes the woodlands. Listen to those noisy birds in the distance, calling attention to themselves—like human narcissists—while the buntings are very shy. Those blue jays and mockingbirds by your condo are territorial, and fight for their province, while swallows and sparrows migrate, without attachment. Such is the way of “this world”…but disparity is all in the relative. As for the Absolute, no differentiation exists. There is no duality, there is but One.”

In the relative, more and more variances seem to occur as more and more experiences are embedded in the genetic coding and passed along to subsequent generations of humans via archetypal messaging. Some of what was “truly instinctive” among earlier humans is not that which is now instinctive among humans…because of archetypal images that have been accumulated for millions of years and because of the continuous warping, or blocking of, pure consciousness. While those messages are intended to facilitate “the survival of the species,” they contribute to the warping of the consciousness because they are rooted in duality:

Day is safe (“good”) but night is dangerous (“bad”); “up” is “good” but “down” is “bad”; “this is the right way to behave in order to survive but that is the wrong way to behave in order to survive,” etc. The dualities that are part and parcel of all dogma are rooted in duality, driving persons to claim that they “know instinctively that there is a heaven and a hell.” That is not an accurate awareness that is accessed via the inner guru or inner resource but is actually a learned (non-innate, non-instinctive) concept.

While certain instincts drive various species to behave in certain ways that are different from the behavior of members of other species, that which is innate and unlearned and inherited is obviously not that which was instinctive to the earliest humans. Thus, the sex drive is normal, but the “sexual personality subtype” is not.

Tomorrow, an example from an earlier posting which recounted the sexual exploits of a man who attended a session in the summer of 2007 will be offered by way of contrasting the difference in instinctive sexual behavior as opposed to sexual behaviors that are driven by a personality subtype. (He reported having engaged in over 300 extramarital affairs during the years he was married.)

Between now and tomorrow, you are invited to give some consideration to the difference in behavior that is driven by the “modern instinctive sexual personality subtype” as opposed to behavior that is generated by the “true, instinctual drive for sex.”

Consider the three basic drives for water, food and sex. What role might the warping of the consciousness play in distorting the “truly natural instinct for sex” and the "instinctual personality drive for sex"?

As you consider what might have been at play with that man to understand why something other than the basic sex drive drove him to engage in 300 affairs in a seven-year period, ask, “What might be at play if someone overeats? What might be at play if someone over-drinks? What is happening when instinctive drives for ‘survival’ become personality-based instinctual drives for excess?”

“While some conduct is affected by, or driven by, prior human experiences, what current human experiences might be warping the instincts so that they become dominated by unnatural personality subtype influences regarding sex, socialization and preservation rather than driven by that which is truly natural?” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

OUT-OF-TOWN TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY TO CONDUCT A SEMINAR

F.: Responses to e-mails will continue Friday with a discussion of instincts vs. personality. If you are visiting the site for the first time, postings appear daily except when offering Advaita retreats and seminars. There are nine other postings on this page that you are invited to read, and there are nearly 900 postings total that you can access via the monthly archives listed to the right.

At www.floydhenderson.com, there are books dealing with the Advaita subject matter that provide information ranging from those that are appropriate for seekers just beginning to explore the Advaita Teachings to the most advanced seekers who have an interest in the Reality even beyond SELF-discovery. (Discounts are available when sets are ordered.) Here is…

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOKS IN THE ADVAITA COLLECTION:

The books are presented in the recommended ordering for reading. They may be ordered individually, or in one of three sets, or in their entirety. [The Entire Advaita Collection: all twelve books + the CD $187.00 + S&H]

THE MEDITATION GUIDES

These books can be read in either order since each stands alone. The entries each day provide an excerpt from a non-duality book, followed by one or more considerations for that day. Some read the books from beginning to finish while others use them on a daily basis. Either way, they offer hundreds of pointers that are intended to allow those in the early stages of seeking to begin consideration of pointers that deal with something other than the body and mind issues that dominate most persons. Reading all of the entries in either or both guides will allow the consciousness to begin processing subject matter that is beyond the phenomenal. That will prepare the consciousness to receive the Advaita pointers at the end of the volumes and that continue in a progressive order throughout the remaining books on the list. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

IT’S ALL BULLSHIT (And Why Knowing It Sets You Free)

This book contains a series of “propositionalities” that would be worthless except to the extent that they prepare all seekers to become willing to question the sacred cows of your culture. Ultimately, this all deals more with the relative than the Absolute, but one cannot abide sanely as the Absolute without first seeing the insanity of the relative. If one can question his/her core beliefs that are generally held sacred by the masses, then discarding all of the other nonsense of the culture might become easier. That alone can begin the "journey" toward total freedom and total peace. Few will ever be able to discard the minor cows, much less these six sacred cows, but this book is an invitation to begin questioning what is usually taken for granted after years of programming and enculturation. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost)

This book is for the 6 billion+ persons who have been programmed with the dogma of the planets’ religions, especially the three outgrowths of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is also for those who are playing a spiritual role or who have become spiritually intoxicated (which prevents moving beyond all role-playing and Realizing Fully). Its intent is to allow persons on the "path" to transition beyond the religious and spiritual identities that are assumed at the third step of the "journey." The focus is on those three since their dogma has programmed—and corrupted the consciousness of—most persons on the planet, but the overall message reflects the truth about all religions and all “spiritual” programs or movements as well. The content reveals the 16 tenets common to those religions which evolved from the killing of virgins; exposes the contradictions of those teachings; discusses the glorification of suffering; catalogues and exposes the false promises that are made in order to attract and control the masses; explains the way that their leaders' addiction to power drives them to manipulate their followers; exposes the lies upon which those institutions are based; identifies the results of religious and spiritual intoxication; and uncovers the mental disorders that result from strict adherence to the dogma and ideology. If you have been exposed to any religious or spiritual indoctrination, or if you live in a culture where the leaders have been indoctrinated by religion, this one should be read. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

[The four volumes above + a CD are available as “The Advaitin Beginner’s Package”: The Meditation CD, two Meditation Guides, Bullshit, and Spiritual Sobriety $62.00 + S&H]

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace if You’re Out of Your Mind)

This book leads to the next level of freedom, allowing seekers to transition beyond the mind. The content explores the history of the human brain, including the fact that for millions of years, human and human-like beings functioned without any mind. The book uncovers the ways that the brain evolved over the ages and developed an ability to store and retrieve memories. It then shows how the original memories were used constructively but how programming and conditioning changed all that and created a "mind" that most often overrules the brain and generates relative-existence harm and destruction. Similarly, the book shows the way that personality develops during childhood as a means for survival and adaptation but later becomes a liability when those childhood personality traits continue to drive adult thinking and behavior.

Ultimately, the content of the book shows why Advaitin sages for centuries have correctly identified the "problems of the planet" as being rooted in body-mind-personality identification and offers suggestions for being free of all of that nonsense via Realization. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

LIBERATION
This book, used in tandem with THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND,” helps remove the next barrier to Realization: personality. After being freed from body-mind identification, transitioning into the next step begins the process of being freed from identification with personas and being unconsciously controlled by personality traits. This book studies the nine most basic persona types as identified in the enneagram method and offers the way to be freed of the influences of personality. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

This book offers the opportunity to shift to the next level of understanding, the level at which you come to realize that you cannot die since you were not born. Fears generally begin to fall away after reading this work. The Foreword offers this: “If you find the answer to ‘What happens when I die—what happens after the body ends?’ the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.” To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

This book is used by many as a primer and companion piece to FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. “PART ONE” includes answers to frequently-asked questions and provides an overview of terms used during the teachings. “PART TWO” provides information for those who are “close” but haven’t yet “gotten it.” "PART TWO" moves the seeker to a depth of understanding that sets the stage for the final message in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

[The four volumes above are available as “The Mid-Level Seeker’s Package”: Peace of Mind, Liberation, What Happens When I Die? and The Essence of the Teachings $54.00 + S&H]

FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

Most of the so-called “Spiritual Masters” addressed all of the steps that must be taken, in a very exact order, to shift from identifying with the false “I” to abiding as the Absolute. All of the steps (or “stages” to use Maharaj’s term) have been discussed for centuries, but this is the first time that the steps have been offered and explained in simple language in the exact order in which the seven steps must be taken in order to move from “the lie of the I” to Full Realization. Most of the content of this book contains the complete set of transcripts from audio tapings of a series of satsang sessions that guided the participants from step one to Realization. Some have said that by reading the questions from seekers and the immediate responses by floyd (all offered in their original easy, conversational format), they have felt as if they were present in the room, actively engaged in the satsang along with fellow seekers. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

Recommended: Use in conjunction with FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE the CD entitled SPIRIT JOURNEY TO YOUR TRUE SELF in order to have an experiential awareness of the seven steps as you read about each. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute)

After following the “path” as outlined in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) in order to Realize, the next step is to understand the difference in consciousness and awareness in order to abide as the Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation and then be totally free. "The Final Frontier" of the Advaita Teachings is transitioned when the Nature of Reality is understood and when the Advaita Teachings are "applied" on a daily basis even in the absence of any “Applier.” The Nature of Reality cannot be understood until the differences in Consciousness and Awareness are understood. Understanding the Nature of Consciousness allows for abidance in the I AM, but what of THAT Which Is beyond, and that which is beyond the beyond? To be at perfect peace on a daily basis, abidance as the re-purified Consciousness must be transitioned and abidance as the Absolute Awareness must happen. Only abidance as the Absolute allows for the remainder of the manifestation of Consciousness to happen in Perfect Peace. This book will distinguish between Consciousness and Awareness, will define the exact Nature of Reality, will offer explanations that will allow fixation in the Full Realization to happen, will allow for an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality, and will assist all earnest seekers to find the way to fixate in a state of peace from NOW until the Consciousness Unmanifests. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS

This book, the third in the “Advanced Seeker’s Package,” is only for Realized Advaitin seekers. The recommendation is that both FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS be read (in that order) and that the pointers in both of those books be understood before reading FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS. An understanding of the pointers offered in this book can allow the advanced seeker to shift even beyond SELF-Realization, even beyond an understanding of Consciousness and Awareness, and to an understanding of that which preceded the Absolute. The content of this book can, in fact, allow the advanced seeker to truly comprehend the Reality of “no concept,” of “no duality,” of “no something,” and even of “no nothing.” The Advaita Teachings offer an invitation to be free of all concepts, all beliefs, and all ideas in order to be totally free. Yet how many reach that "state," and how many who reach that "state" are able to fixate in that understanding and truly be free and thereby at peace? This book will offer details of the way that can happen. To order, visit http://floydhenderson.com/order.htm

[The three volumes above are available as “The Advanced Advaitin Seeker’s Package”: From the I to the Absolute, Consciousness / Awareness, and From the Absolute to the Nothingness $45.00 + S&H]

For more information on books that address all of the seven levels of the “journey” offered via the Advaita Teachings or that discuss in detail each of the seven steps, visit:

ADVANCED

http://floydhenderson.com/nothingness.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/consiousnessawareness.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/iamabsolute.htm

INTERMEDIATE

http://floydhenderson.com/theessence.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/whenidie.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/liberation.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/peaceofmind.htm

BEGINNERS

http://floydhenderson.com/spiritualsobriety.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/bullshit.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen1.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen2.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/spiritjourney.htm

PERSONALITY AND RELATIONSHIPS AND ADDICTIONS

http://floydhenderson.com/twelvestep.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/castinglight.htm

ADVENTURE / MYSTERY NOVELS WITH AN ADVAITA MESSAGE

http://floydhenderson.com/boardofdirectors.htm

http://floydhenderson.com/twicestolen.htm

YES, WE SHIP INTERNATIONALLY. New rates by the USPS went into effect on 14 May 2007. You may visit http://ircalc.usps.gov/ to calculate rates and view options. (Select your country, then in the “weight” box, estimate 1 pound per each book ordered.) Add $5 to cover package preparation, the assistant's trip to and from the PO, and the time for completion of international shipping forms.