The Composition of our
Personality
Virtual Circle Lesson April 21, 2002
Our Heavenly Father,
Your Name is
Sanctified, In the Heavens and so in Earth. Your Will Be Done.
On Earth as it is in Heaven. Amen
We
have mentioned something about our Selfhood both as our Eternal Divine Nature
and as its temporary expressions in the Worlds of Existence as our Human
Nature. Our Divine Nature is immortal and unchanging. However, our Human
Nature is mortal and as a personality we are constantly changing. Understanding the composition of our mortal personality and
bringing it under our control is the third branch of study for the Researcher
of Truth. This requires a serious examination of our life as a personality in
an enduring pursuit to find the true cause of our confusion, pain, and
suffering. Then using reason we untangle ourselves and ascend the ladder of
the relative truth to Self-Realization.
This is not always an
easy thing to do because eventually we will have to face our greatest enemy of
all time. Cunningly, our enemy cloaks itself and stalks us from the shadows
like the true predator it is. Its greatest advantage is in its ability to
keep from being detected. This enemy is our self-created personal egoism.
Make no mistake - it is a real and present devil in our lives. It is the cause
for ALL the misery, confusion, and suffering in our lives on the
material plane, the psychical planes, and the lower noetical planes. At times
it may be very difficult to discover and face this devil but it must be
done. Egoism must be dismantled and exterminate completely to make way for
greater measures of contentment, peace, and love. Thus cleansing and
purifying
our personality in preparation for its assimilation with the Soul in Self Realization.
How can we face such
an enemy as egoism, which is always masquerading as an Angel of Light? By
diligently using the so-called “golden keys to the kingdom of the
heavens.” These are the practices of
Observation, Concentration, Contemplation, Meditation, and Introspection . The Mind
has been given to us all and we can use it as reason to free ourselves
from the influences of egoism. This is the best and most effective way
to come out of the confusion and chaos. There is another way which Daskalos
called the “Whip of Destiny”. Christ referred to this way as: What
you sow, so shall you reap. Scientifically we could call this the Law
of Relativity – the Law of Cause and Effect. In India they call this way
Karma Yoga and the Buddhists speak of it in their teachings about Milarepa.
The Whip of Destiny is
the hardest way of all. Where does it lead? Eventually after long and
painful experiences, we get our fill of suffering and wanting it to end we
begin to reason our way out. This is part of the message in Joshua’s Prodigal Son Parable. In this
parable, the son is given his inheritance from his father, the king, and squanders
all of it. He ends up so broke that he must eat the food intended for the
pigs he is hearding. He suffers such hardships and hunger that he begins to
reason, saying: “How many of my father's hired
men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out, go
back to my father, and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of
your hired men.'"
So he got up and went to his father. But
while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed
him.
In both approaches, it is
still reason that is used to correct our mistakes and return us home to our
Divine Nature. It seems however, that the vast majority of humanity prefers the
slow and painful Whip of Destiny. Yet, we are free to choose either way.
Obviously using reason before receiving the Whip of Destiny is preferable.
For the Researchers of Truth this is not only preferable but it is absolutely
necessary. Instead of habitually following the Trial and Error
path of spiritual evolution with its vague aims and dead ends, we employ
reason. We begin to think like a person of action and act like a person of
thinking. We contemplate and study deeply our aims and desires prior
to acting. You have heard that our actions speak louder than our words. Yet,
it is our motivation that speaks louder than our actions and it is our intent
that speaks loudest of all. Studying and understanding the true motivations
and intent of a desire empowers you. Contemplating logically the anticipated
outcome
(whether they are fulfilled or not fulfilled)
of our desires provides
insight and understanding.
This understanding then provides us a greater measure of control in the course of
events. Instead of being blown around by the winds of Karma like tumbleweeds,
we begin to gain self-mastery.
Using the golden keys of
Observation, Concentration, Contemplation, Meditation, and Introspection
to understand our
Human Nature what will we find out? We discover that our personality is
composed of all our thoughts and emotions which are the elementals in varying degrees
of quality. Thus the quality of one’s personality is completely dependent
on the quality of the thoughts and the emotions he or she expresses. A house is
built brick by brick, piece by piece and similarly our personality has been
constructed elemental by elemental. If you are a diligent researcher, you
can trace how most of these elementals have been created by us or have been
accepted by us from our time-place environment and energized in this current
lifetime. They are stored in one compartment of our Sub-Consciousness and
over time surface for expression in order to sustain their existence. Yet,
even if we traced all these elementals as our desires, concepts, and
interests in life, we will also find other elementals as pre-existing
conditions:
predispositions, talents, and inclinations. Their cause cannot be
traced to this lifetime. For example, Mozart’s talent and ability to write a
symphony at age eight cannot be attributed to developmental learning alone.
I know a very
accomplished artist whose painting skills rival a Dutch Master. One day he
took me to his childhood home in rural southern Indiana to meet his mother.
In this tiny four-room house, his mother still had some of his earliest
drawings. His father had passed over and his mother raised him alone. They were
poor and there was no money for art supplies (or art lessons). Most of his
works were executed on the back of old wallpaper. They were incredible. The
work of this six-year-old master-artist depicted animals in life and death
struggles all rendered accurately in a dramatic perspective that truly
conveyed the power of the events. He was so talented and so young that when
he tried to enter his work in a school contest or the county fair he was
always disqualified. His abilities were so far beyond his peers that no one
could believe he did the work himself. Eventually he became a painter by
trade. One day I asked him to carve a complex statue from stone. This was
his first stone carving and it came out flawless - the subtle facial
expression, the grace of the posture, and the entire composition was museum
quality. Yet, he had no training or experience in stone carving in this
lifetime. There are so many similar stories of child prodigies
manifesting their incredible talents at an incredibly early age. You
cannot explain these occurrences by heredity or environmental learning.
How is this possible? There must be a means for recording/storing
developed skills and experiences in one lifetime, and something that makes
them available in successive
lifetimes.
Eighty percent of our
personality is composed of the elementals that can be traced to this present
lifetime. The other twenty percent is carry over from previous incarnations.
This twenty percent applies not only to the positive talents but to negative
predispositions as well. This twenty percent is the total of all our past
life experiences distilled and stored within our
Permanent Personality. They
are all accurately recorded within the
Permanent Atom as lessons learned (strengths)
and lessons to be learned (weaknesses). Within the Permanent
Personality, we have this
twenty percent as a nucleus. Surrounding it like a garment is the eighty
percent associated with the expressions of our present-day personality of this current
incarnation. This eighty percent of our peronality is active, but the twenty
percent comes to us more as potentiality, which can either be actualized or
ignored. We do not remember much if anything of the twenty percent
containing the past life
experience because our center of focus is fixed on receiving impressions from
the eighty percent within the present day personality’s self awareness. It
is also God’s mercy that we do not remember events form our past lives.
Sometimes in our present
life, we make mistakes, if they are serious mistakes, they can be
difficult to forget, forgive and move beyond. Can you imagine the burden of
remembering all your past mistakes, errors, and wrongdoings? It is a blessing
as well as a protection that most of us do not recall our past lives. As it
offers us a fresh opportunity to progress, free from the remembrance of our
past transgressions. Yet the moment we evolve to the point where
we can remember
events from past incarnations without it being a hindrance, we do. For
each one of us the eighty
percent and the twenty percent are different.
As personalities, we each
have our own unique mix of good and bad qualities from this incarnation as
well as past incarnations. This means that no two personalities are exactly
the same. The clash and conflict of these qualities between people creates
the sense of separation and division so often felt in relationships. Yet, the
true reality behind the temporary sense of separateness is that we all are
one within the Common Logoic Selfhood. This is the foundation of Joshua’s statement: “…whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Once, Mother Teresa went to visit the
derelicts in the Bowery of New York City. She looked out at all the
alcoholics, the mentally unstable, the homeless and the helpless. Speaking of
the oneness of humankind, she said to her suffering audience: “When I look at you, I
only see Christ in distressing disguises.”
In a Stoa Lesson
once, Daskalos mentioned this Common Selfhood referring to the Divine Law
of One. He spoke of how Joshua Immanuel the Christ never broke the Divine Law
of One when dealing with people no matter how they behaved to him. Daskalos
went on to point out that when we complain about, criticize, or judge others
that we are breaking the Law of One. We become entangled in the illusions of
separateness, miss the reality of our unity, and break the Law of One.
Breaking the Divine Laws unerringly brings a consequence. A good friend was
attending this lesson and wanted to know more about the Divine Laws. So,
after the lesson he followed Daskalos down the street from the Stoa to his
home. He approached him and said: “Daskale, what other Divine Laws are we
breaking?” Daskalos looked at him and simply said: “All of them!”
Love to all,
Daniel
4.21.02
|
An Exercise form the
June 23, 1993 Stoa Lessons
by Daskalos |
Now, we'll make an exercise.
Relax completely. Relax all the
muscles in your body, but feel you are in it. With attention - not tension.
Just feel you are in the body. Breathe deeply and with comfort, and say with
your mind: "Absolute Infinite Beingness, the Logos, our Father, who are in
heavens and in us, in our being-self and in our bodies - everything is yours.
We are yours, our self - even sinful - is part of Your Selfhood. We are in
Your Oneness. We don't ask you to clean us, we ask you to help us to clean
ourselves for your sake. We'll try to clean this self of ours, our present
personality, so that it will not be a stain of dirt in Your own Selfhood. Help
us clean ourselves to deserve saying that we are one in You and with You."
Breathe deeply. "You are in the
breath I am breathing, You are the life of my bodies, and You are the
Life-Light of my personality. Help me understand you. I'll clean myself and
you clean it also, so that I'll not be a stain in Your Selfhood. Inspire me
and help me to love all human beings." (Because, if you call them evil, bad,
good or very good, they are as such in your selfhood.) "Divine Father, have
mercy upon us". Feel God in the pulse of your heart, He's present in your
bodies. You are never alone.
~ Daskalos
T O P
|
Daskalos Exiting the Stoa
|
|
We said that the Beings are passing
through the Logos Selfhood. The Selfhood is common. As we have our material
body and we have blood cells, atoms, molecules and everything else in our
body, so we have our Self in what we call the Logos Selfhood. We are little
cells in the Logos. In It. That's why Joshua Emmanuel the Christ, feeling
Himself being the Logos, a pure ray of the Logos, was feeling that everybody
around Him was part of Himself. And He gave that in a parable. So, Joshua
Immanuel the Christ (as a human being also, but mostly as the Logos Himself)
was feeling being inside everybody, in the Self of every other human being,
in the common Logos Selfhood. That's why He was expressing so much
compassion towards all human beings. Because - we are in Himself.
Now, this is rather difficult to understand, the difference between the Self
and the common Selfhood. Likewise, as I said, each Archangel of any order is
feeling its individual Archangelic Self, yet, is one with the Archangelic
Selfhood of his order. Not only that - one with the Archangelic Selfhood of
all the other Archangels. To understand this we have to understand the
difference between being enslaved in the Worlds of Separateness and being in
the Whole.
That's very difficult to understand
indeed. To understand it, you must find through introspection, that you are
that real Self Spirit-Soul-Ego which is one with the Self Spirit-Ego of
every other one in the Logos. Then you'll say "I and you, I and everybody
are one." Then you'll understand what I mean by one-ness, through (what I
call) at-one-ment. These are stages of consciousness on higher and higher
levels
~DASKALOS
Previous Lessons can be accessed online at:
http://www.researchers-of-truth.org/CircleLessons/
Observation, Concentration Contemplation, Meditation and Introspection
See:
http://researchers-of-truth.org/ET_Framset.htm |
