June 2, 2006
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Individuality versus Personality
I often hear others speaking about improving their personality. Do you think you should improve your personality?
Personally, I think we should spend our time and energy in discovering our individuality instead. Individuality is something that is given to us at birth. It is our nature, our essential being. It is original and authentic. It is rooted in us. Personality is a plastic. It is a phony. It has no root. It is a mask that people have put over us.
Personality may repress individuality. But individuality will call us again and again. It will not be in peace. We can pretend not to hear it for a time, but know that nature has ways of asserting itself. There will be conflict. This conflict will divide, create a split, schiz, and eventually we will breakdown. Then, we will find that we spend all our time and energy engaging in the warfare within ourselves from money to relationship to sex. We can never find inner peace when there is a split.
We don’t need to add more layers of personality. It’s time to let it go. We can save a lot of headaches, lies, and deceits in our relationships if we just find the courage to take the mask off. Love and respect yourself. Be proud of who you are, whatever you are. Just ”be”.
Comments (10)
Very interesting idea. I’d never thought of it in these terms before. I’m not sure I totally agree with it but at the same time, I can sort of see it. I guess I need to understand better what you mean by personality.
I believe we can change who we are by changing how we think. This changes personality. I believe that we are what we think. Thoughts control everything about us: self concept, actions, attitudes, how we perceive the world. (Is this what you are refering to as essential being?) If so, than it has the ability to change. If not, then I’m not sure what you’re saying. I do think it is important to understand yourself and not define yourself by what other people or institutions say you “should” be. That would mean things such as likes/dislikes, priorities, values, interests, etc. Is that what you mean?
aaahhh.. but all the greats wore masks.. Zorro, lone ranger, batman… I dont know what or who I would be without my mask…
::)
If the “who” we are is just a construct created by our minds, then if we change ourselves, we’re not really changing anything. So, I guess it would be better just to drop the whole concept of “who” we are and just “be.”
:_) :_) :_)………….
BelinaRising: Think of it this way: personality is what we have been conditioned since we were children. It is society’s voice and not yours. It is the voices of your parents, teachers, priests, politicians, friends, me…:) You should do this… You shouldn’t do that…This is better for you…That is not good for you….In time the voices of authorities drown out yours. You didn’t have a chance to even know yourself. Discovering the individuality is the process of self-knowledge. It is a process of peeling off layers of personality. Other teaching proposed the concept of peeling onions. I like my concept of eating an artichoke. You want to get to the heart of the artichoke because it tastes sweet and tender. Like the heart of an artichoke, individuality is sweet and tender.
Ynottw: You are right. The greats wore masks with their individualities. Their authentic individualities give them the courage to be silly in public. They don’t care if others tease their silly costumes.
ronlawhouston, what a “be”autiful insight! The “who” is the personality. The “be” is the individuality. So drop the ”who” personality and we ”be” individuality.
ryc: thank you:) and.. I will let you know about the “other” thing.
Have a wonderful weekend. And dont try on any masks.. you may enjoy it too much!
Yeah, so I can take off my Shrek mask now and just be me….
I totally agree, have a good Friday.
Wash yourself of yourself – Rumi.
Okay. I think I may understand what you’re saying. I remember a time when I went out to the lake by myself and spent the entire day asking myself basic questions that I oddly didn’t know the answers to due to my environment. Things like: What is my favorite color? Do I really believe “x,y, or z”? Are my academic goals really mine? If not, what are my goals? Are my writings expressions of me or of what I think others will like? Is that the type of thing you mean?
It is said that we are all God’s force individualized into being….