The Human Personality

The drama of our evolution begins when the soul enters the plane of time, takes human form, and forgets her eternal essence. The soul needs the medium of the human in order to enter physical reality, but the moment she becomes limited to her human consciousness she is sucked down into the dimension of ignorance. The unique pre­dicament of the human is that he is at once the force that obscures the soul’s essence and the very apparatus through which she awakens.

In his ignorance and alienation from the soul, the human exists in existential aloneness in the realm of ego, as if abandoned. Only by realizing the true purpose behind his creation from within his human existence can he return to the realm of soul. Before the soul can awaken, the human must awaken. And so we can see that human life has two aims: completion within the personal dimension and the awakening of the soul.

The need for personal completion is mandated by the soul’s blueprint — it is necessary in order to fulfill her earthly destiny. The soul’s evolution begins within the framework of her human person­ality and runs parallel to her human awakening. Through human longing the soul awakens; through human completion the soul is freed; through human surrender the soul transcends.

the structure of the personal self

The physical, mental and emotional bodies are the outer shells of the soul, and represent the human personality. While we remain in an ignorant state these bodies have a relatively autonomous existence, operating without any conscious connection to the soul. The human personality is actually a microcosm of the collective mind chan­neled through an individual stream of experience and memory, a hologram of personal identity. Since he does not possess I am, the human borrows his sense of identity from the soul in order to create a unified sense of self from this scattered flow of psychological ele­ments. It is this reflection of I am in the mind that we translate as our sense of me, or ego. Although our human identity is devoid of any real substance while we are unawakened to the soul, there is still a definite wisdom, continuity and purposefulness in our psychological existence. Our countless incarnations are linked together by a thread of evolutionary continuance.

the force of desire

That which fuels our actions in the world is the force of desire. The three bodies of personality — physical, emotional and mental — are conditioned to seek satisfaction through their interaction with the world. The physical body seeks pleasure, comfort and fulfillment through the medium of the senses. The emotional body seeks gratifi­cation through affection, love, attention, acceptance, and recognition. The mental body derives pleasure by accumulating knowledge and understanding, and by growing in intelligence. These three bodies are fully intertwined, each affecting the performance of the other. Beautiful music or stunning scenery experienced through the sen­sory gates of the physical body creates excitement and pleasure in the emotional body, and is then registered as a positive thought in the mental body. The mind and emotions can never be fully sepa­rated; what we feel and what we think are always intertwined. Some humans live more through their emotions; others, more through the mind. But we all feel what we think and think what we feel.

We live because we desire to live. We have been drawn to the earth because this is where we hope to fulfill our countless desires. The inability to reach satisfaction in this reality is caused by the illu­sory nature of these desires, which promise so much, yet rarely bring fulfillment. Some desires are perfectly natural and in alignment with our growth, but most are generated by the greed of the mind and its perpetual state of dissatisfaction. The force of desire should not rule us blindly, for what we desire, we shall become. To live intelligently, we need to understand the nature of our desires and the potential consequences of their fulfillment. A human being should channel the energy of desire with a discrimination that is in harmony with the deeper wisdom and purpose of evolution.

the complexity of the human being

As human beings, we are clearly not able to handle the amount of self-consciousness originally allotted to us by evolution. We have become unnaturally disconnected from both the wisdom of the earth and the higher purpose of our evolution. Our spirit simply cannot catch up with the disproportionate development of our brain. An overdeveloped mind that is disconnected from its spiritual essence is at great risk of misusing its mental power for selfish and exploitive purposes, and destroying its environment and itself in the process. Our intelligence is a gift that allows us to function efficiently in the world, but with this gift comes great responsibility. The intelligence of the mind has to be transformed so that its power will serve our spiritual evolution, expanding beyond territorial instincts and the primal need for survival.

Our psychological well-being is based on a delicate balance between the movement of thinking and the stillness of silence. The moment thinking overrides silence, our consciousness becomes unnaturally agitated, and the resulting friction creates states of neu­rosis and depression.

The human being is the only creature that suffers because of his own mind. The overactive mind undermines our basic sanity, the san­ity of silence. No wonder there is so much suffering all around us. The only way to transcend this fundamental disturbance is to become more conscious, transform the mind, and gain a deeper spiritual perspective.

the art of living

The chief characteristic of human existence is a discord between the natural desire to reach peace, harmony and love, and an inability to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of their fulfillment. One of the solutions that various spiritual traditions offer to resolve this problem is the renunciation of the world. Relative renunciation is a valid option, but only for those who are comparatively mature, both in their spiritual and worldly existence. We enter the earth-plane not only to transcend it, but also to experience it fully. Although no true satisfaction can be found in the realm of illusion, to seek happiness is an integral part of our human life. To renounce and withdraw completely from the world is not the way, since we have chosen to be here, and anyway cannot escape. To exist as a human personality is a challenge that we must face from a place of wisdom, clarity, humil­ity and acceptance. If we do not pass through certain experiences and embrace the lessons they teach us, we will never become whole. Living in the world, we need to grow on two levels: psychological and spiritual. To master the art of living we must learn how to par­ticipate fully in human life while maintaining a relaxed detachment from the world and growing inwardly into the realm of the self.

free will

Thinkers have long been engaged in academic discussions over the question of free will. However, the existence of free will can neither be affirmed nor negated through linear logic or philosophical argu­ment. Only by going beyond the mind and getting in touch with deeper layers of consciousness can we discover the power of free will that is inherent to our spirit and intelligence.

Beyond the issue of the presence or absence of free will lies the far more important matter of its accessibility. The ability to access free will and its potency is determined by the level of one’s evolu­tion. Because most humans are locked in the subconscious realm, which is completely conditioned, they are cut off from the power of free will. Free will is a characteristic of higher intelligence and can­not operate within the mechanical mind. It can only operate when it refers to pure subjectivity and therefore cannot fully emerge until the soul awakens. As we get more in touch with the light of I am and the soul’s purpose, we begin to mature into the ability to access a will no longer determined by our reactive consciousness, but by the infinite will of the divine.

The mind merely imagines that it has the freedom to choose, while in truth, all of its choices are pre-determined by a combination of karma and subconscious tendencies. It is only from the place of awakened free will that we can begin to serve our highest good and initiate the process of growing into the light of the self.