“Personality’s advice is always destructive. Even at the slightest insult, she tells the person: “Bite him, beat him.” While the individuality advises: “Wait a little, pray for him, send him some good thoughts…” – Omraam Mikael AIVANOV
One of the main characteristics of the personality is that it is afraid of Silence, it cannot stand it, it needs noise. Noise, disharmony, riots, chaos – this is what it needs. There personality feels good, because it imagines that it is happy, full of strength. In the middle of the noise, I can finally breathe! In the Silence, on the contrary, it can no longer show itself with its tricks, arrogance, fastidiousness, whims – and it becomes paralyzed. Look at young people, for example: they love noise and excitement, because in them, above all, the personality is manifested. They do not have a sufficiently developed ability of discernment to guide them. They are attracted to pleasures and everything that gives them strong sensations and emotions, and it is in this respect that they, poor people, do a lot of stupid things. An adult who finds that the pleasures do not bring him what he is looking for, does just the opposite – he begins to immerse himself in the Silence: he meditates, ponders; remembers events from his life and draws conclusions from them.
People who have a very developed personality love noise. Today, unfortunately, we are forced to state that music is getting closer and closer to noise. When I was in Japan, in Osaka, at the World’s Fair, I was listening to an orchestra and… I was going crazy! Listening to it, I felt that this music causes a complete destruction of the human being, breaks his nervous system. Moreover, for many years the majority of artistic people – musicians, painters, sculptors – no longer know what to create. They seem to be completely exhausted and idle. They no longer know how to take the upward path, as the artists once did, to seek inspiration Above, in the heights, to catch and perceive the colors, forms and melodies that come from Heaven. And since there is also a downward path, they venture to seek inspiration underground, figuratively speaking, in Hell. One wonders if some of them are not deranged – those who have no other purpose than to drive humanity mad. It is already to some extent deranged by the activity of others, and the musicians are now only finishing it.
Now, why does personality fear the Silence? Because it can’t find the conditions favorable for the implementation of its plans. Silence is like a door that opens to the Heavenly Realms – and the person whose projects are always self-centered, who always wants to pull the rug to himself, who always wants to bite, rebel and take revenge, feels that this Silence is the end of personality’s reign, and it will be forced to vacate the place and to capitulate – which is something it does not wish! Even at the slightest insult, instead of remaining calm, personality tells the person: “Bite him, beat him.” Personal advice is always destructive. While individuality advises: “Wait a little, pray for him, send him a few good thoughts – maybe he will change, and you will win a friend; otherwise, you will gain another enemy… Don’t worry, no one can destroy you, Eternity belongs to you. Just try to have a little more Light and Love!” Such are the advices of individuality. But personality is so noisy with its fanfare, drums and trumpets… It insists day and night in this way, so that at last a lot of people will tell themselves: “Okay, okay, I have to do it. If it insists, then it has the right.” While the individuality speaks quietly, without insistence, and one can barely hear its voice. That is why people almost always follow personality.
There is only one thing that I envy the personality of: that it is tireless. Everything else about it is terrifying, but it has this quality: it is tireless. Look at the hooligans, bandits, criminals – they are tireless because their diabolical intentions do not give them peace. While kind, peaceful, sympathetic people are always tired. They don’t have that urge to steal, to kill, to take revenge – therefore there is not much left to do and they rest, they are satisfied with themselves.
Thus, the personality does not like Silence because Silence suffocates it. This is precisely the purpose of all the practices in the Schools of Initiation: meditation, concentration, prayer. The aim is always to limit the space of the personality in order to give the individuality, the Spirit, greater and greater opportunities for expression. In catalogs and advertisements now everywhere you read: “Take this, take that, and you will be happy!” but what is recommended is always to satisfy the personality. They offer nothing, absolutely nothing, to feed and satiate the individuality – the Divine within us. Everything is always for the personality to be guarded and pampered: comforts, pleasures, etc.
And now people are so fed up that they became terrible. This is normal because they only feed their personality. Just look at movies, novels and plays – it’s all about personality; and for individuality, for true intelligence and reason, for the Spirit there is almost nothing anywhere. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised that nothing works. People only feed on the personality, and it then spits them out, pollutes, destroys and ruins them – and no wonder, because it is what it is.
Personality does not like Silence… What does this mean – Silence? Now let’s take a very young person as an example: he gets fired up easily, everything in him goes wild: whirlwinds, tornadoes, storms. That is why the Divine in him cannot blossom. But after years, the Silence finally prevails and his good qualities begin to show. Earlier they could not. Also look at what happens in nature with vegetation. Sometimes it happens that the plants sprout prematurely – that is, before the end of winter. And if, unfortunately, everything freezes overnight, they die. The power and energy of the plant cannot truly manifest as long as conditions remain unfavorable. Well, this is exactly what happens in people’s lives: while they are being tossed by tornadoes and storms, they cannot hear the inner voice of Wisdom, the voice of the Angels. The passions must settle down – then there are already conditions for all their good qualities to blossom.
For today, remember above all that you will never be happy letting yourself be guided by your personality. All those who want to always pull the rug to themselves, to be the center of the universe, imagining that the whole world must revolve around them, to serve and bow to them like princes and princesses, are preparing an existence for themselves, full of disappointments and sufferings. We have to be servants. That is the only way we will end the personality and it will disappear. But who wants to be a servant? Everyone admires the one who knows how to arrange his life and even achieve success at the expense of others, and say: “That’s a smart, intelligent person!” No, this is not real prudence, real intelligence – people take cunning for sanity, but they themselves are not very clever as long as they attribute any sanity to these frauds.
One day, if our Teaching spreads, it will put everyone in the place they deserve. All those who have managed to get there, to the top, by dishonest means, and are now flaunting it, will fall from their pedestal. Yes, this Teaching is capable of causing all people who have occupied places they do not deserve to leave them. Moreover, they will be shaken to the core: they will no longer be able to bear these Truths and will be so disgusted with themselves that some will refuse to continue “fishing in murky water” Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, you may not believe me, but sooner or later it will be so, for Heaven has decided it. Everything will be stirred and shaken: when this Teaching reaches the people, it will stir all minds. The teaching, my dear brothers and sisters, is a Light, a majestic, outstanding Light.
Don’t rely on the personality’s promises. It pushes you to do many things, making you believe that you will be happy, and you continue to follow it. Sure, you’ll get some satisfaction, but very soon after that the branch you’re sitting on will break – and whoop!, there you are on the ground. The personality is like a tosser who only tricks you into getting into his car. It may even achieve much in the field of beauty, music, poetry, dance. Personality is so adorable and it’s just amazing what it’s capable of! But its goal is to eat you. It knows how to dance, or to cast amorous glances. It also knows how to capture you, how to flatter and caress you – and all this looks so magnificent, charming, poetic and beautiful! Yes, but you are the eaten, you are the entangled in the webs of personality. Why is it so beautiful? To obsess you better. Yes, you didn’t know that. In individuality there is also poetry, music and perfumes, but there it is different: its purpose is not to eat you, not to bind you, but to free you, to resurrect you, to make you more beautiful. This is where the essential difference is – in the goal. Until one knows what the purpose is, one cannot express himself. When a man gives jewelry to a young girl, does she know why he is doing it? On the face of it, it looks great, gorgeous… And the goal? Well, it’s just easier to seduce her, to take advantage of her.
The personality is not that stupid, – it can shoot down stars from the sky to convince you that you should not continue to do good, that you should stop your spiritual work. It will convince you because it is not alone: it has scientists, artists, intellectuals, dancers… It is a whole world that is teeming from within. Oops! And I haven’t told you everything yet…
Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice that you have this Light, this discernment, which will enable you to rule over personality. It is very capable, very rich, but you must be its master.
From:
“The Main Key To Solve All The Questions of Life”, Omraam Mikael Aivanov
