The Personality

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Summary: A collection of statements by the Tibetan


     "The personality is a triple combination of forces, impressing and absolutely controlling the fourth aspect of the personality, which is the dense physical body. The three personality types of energy are the etheric body, which is the vehicle of vital energy, the astral body, which is the vehicle of the feeling energy or sentient force, and the mental body, which is the vehicle of the intelligent energy of will, that is destined to be the dominant creative aspect . . . These forces constitute the lower man." ( Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 8)

     "The progress of humanity is from one realized integration to another; man's basic integrity is, however, in the realm of the consciousness. This is a statement of importance. It might be remarked -- speaking loosely and generally -- that:
  1. In Lemurian times, humanity achieved the integration of the vital or etheric body with the physical body.
  2. In Atlantean times, humanity added to the already achieved synthesis still another part, that of the astral nature, and psychic man came definitely into being. He was alive, and at the same time sensitive and responsive to his environment, in a wider and more specialized sense.
  3. Today, in our Aryan race, humanity is occupied with the task of adding still another aspect, that of mind. To the achieved facts of livingness and sensitivity, he is rapidly adding reason, mental perception, and other qualities of the mind and thought life.
  4. Advanced humanity upon the Probationary Path, is fusing these three divine aspects into one whole, which we call the personality. Many hundreds of thousands stand at this time upon that Path, and are acting, feeling and thinking simultaneously, making these functions one activity. This personality synthesis comes upon the Path of Discipleship, under the direction of the indwelling entity, the spiritual man.
         This integration constitutes alignment, and -- when a man has achieved this -- he passes eventually through a process of reorientation. This reveals to him, as he slowly changes his direction, the still greater Whole of humanity. Later, upon the Path of Initiation, there will dawn upon his vision, the Whole of which humanity itself is only an expression. This is the subjective world of reality, into which we begin definitely to enter as we become members of the Kingdom of God.
  5. Upon the Probationary Path, though only during its later stages, he begins to serve humanity consciously, through the medium of his integrated personality, and thus the consciousness of the larger and wider whole, gradually supersedes his individual and separative consciousness. He knows himself to be but a part.
  6. Upon the Path of Discipleship, the process of integration into the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Souls, proceeds until the third initiation is undergone.
         All these various integrations work out into some definite form of activity. First, there is the service of the personality, selfish and separative, wherein man sacrifices much in the interests of his own desire. Then comes the stage of service of humanity, and, finally, the service of the Plan."
    ( Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 350/1)

     "It must be born in mind that the life of the personality falls into the following stages:

1. Its slow and gradual construction over a long period of time. For many cycles of incarnations, a man is not a personality. He is just a member of the mass.

2. The conscious identification of the soul with the personality during this stage is practically non-existent. The aspect of the soul which is concealed within the sheaths is for a long, long period dominated by the life of those sheaths, only making its presence felt through what is called "the voice of conscience". However, as time goes on, the active life of the person is gradually enhanced and co-ordinated by the energy which streams from the knowledge petals of the egoic lotus, or from the intelligent perceptive nature of the soul on its own plane. This produces eventually the integration of the three lower sheaths into one functioning whole. The man is then a personality.

3. The personality life of the now co-ordinated individual persists for a large number of lives, and also falls into three phases:

a. The phase of a dominant aggressive personality life, basically conditioned by its ray type, selfish in nature and very individualistic.

b. A transitional phase wherein a conflict rages between personality and soul. The soul begins to seek liberation from form life, and yet -- in the last analysis -- the personality is dependent upon the life principle, conferred by the soul. Wording it otherwise, the conflict between the soul ray and the personality ray starts, and the war is on between two focused aspects of energy. This conflict terminates at the third initiation.

c. The control by the soul is the final phase, leading to the death and destruction of the personality. This death begins when the personality, the Dweller on the Threshold, stands before the Angel of the Presence. The light of the solar Angel then obliterates the light of matter.

The "control" phase is conditioned by the complete identification of the personality with the soul; this is a reversal of the previous identification of the soul with the personality. This is also what we mean when speaking of the integration of these two; the two are now one." ( Esoteric Healing, p. 506/7)

   "This particular phrase "death of the personality", has two definite connotations:

a. It may mean the death of the physical body, which is inevitably followed by the two stages of the death of the emotional vehicle, and the subsequent dissipation of the temporary and ever-changing form which the quota of mental energy has assumed during incarnation.
b. The subjective and mystical "death of the personality". This is a phrase indicating the transfer of the focus for the distribution of energy from the personality (a definite center of force), to the soul (another definite center)." ( Esoteric Astrology, p. 17/8)

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