Premis:  We are beings of energy who don a physical form and personality in order to experience the physical plane and learn existential lessons.

I have no problem with this premis, or philosophy (if you will). It’s the basis of many religions and philsophies. The rub comes from one group who says that our goal in life is to shed the personality (maybe not all at once; it can be done one layer or trait at a time) until we are “perfect” and no longer controlled by our personality, but only by the essence or soul.

This is what I have an issue with. If we chose the pesonality traits because we wanted to experience physical life (with those traits), then how can our goal be to shed those same traits that we selected? And if we do shed them, then we are no longering experiencing life as the person we chose to be. Now, we are experiencing life as some sort of impersonal demi-god (think ascended beings, those of you who are Stargate fans).

It is personality that creates the dramas we call life. If we had no personality traits (such as impatience, greed, arrogance, self-destruction, martyrdom, and the like) then we wouldn’t want to participate in any of life’s dramas. After all, without personality, the dramas have little meaning. Think about it — If you weren’t impatient, would you care whether the person in the front of the line was taking forever to pay for their stuff? If you weren’t greedy, would you care if you didn’t have all the power, or all the control, or all of the money? Essence (or your soul, if you prefer) doesn’t care if it’s rich or poor, powerful or powerless, that’s why there’s the need to take on personality traits in the first place. The soul isn’t corporeal, so it isn’t intensely involved in the physical plane and the little day-to-day dramas. If you add a body without personality traits, you have a corporeal ascended being — it walks and talks and can be seen on Earth, but it still has little connection with what is occurring. Now, add a body and some personality traits, and you have a human being — a human being interested in taking part in and creating their own bits of drama.

It’s the addition of the personality that makes you human. It’s the personality traits that add the individual foibles, desires, and needs, and thereby enables you to participate and create the individual dramas that are a part of everyday life.

So, why remove the humanity that gives us our purpose, that supplies our experiences, and provides our lessons? Isn’t it better to recognize what your particular personality traits are, and so note when you react to them or with them in a negative way? (And I’m not particularly referring to man’s laws here, but more the pandimensional rules that keep life — all life — in balance.) For instance, if you’re dealing with greed and someone has something that you decide you absolutely MUST have, recognize that your trait of greed is reacting, and try to make sure that you act in a positive way. Don’t give in to the temptation of simply taking what you want, or cheating the other person out of what you want, but rather try to find a way to obtain your desire while dealing fairly with the person who has it. (Balance).

Perhaps you’re feeling impatient, and you want to simply cut into the front of the line, but is that the best way to handle things? Couldn’t you simply ask the manager of the store to open another register?

Of course, it’s not easy to think fairly or logically when you’re in the throws of one of your personality traits (I know, I deal with my impatience all the time), but then that’s the lesson, isn’t it? Learning how to cope with the personality traits that you selected, without creating imbalances. So, if life is supposed to be a series of experiences and lessons, and the personality is what gives us those experiences and lessons, why would our goal be to remove our personality?

Just something to think about ;-)