| “Ask Burt” - Personality and Soul |
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Dear Burt, I am C. from Ankara, Turkey. I am a regular visitor of your website. Thank you so much for such a wonderful site. The answers to questions on your site have been very useful to me, your favourite links are also quite enlightening. Well, if possible, I would like to ask you a question on Advaita which has confused me after reading Gangaji and Tolle. If you could shortly respond, I would be personally very grateful to you. Here’s the question: It is assumed that personality and soul are different (Could you please tell the distinction). Is it the soul or the personality that commits evil in the daily life? It is told that the soul is the “witness” of everything that happens within a person. Isn’t it true that soul is the intender and ‘doer’ of actions? Then how can it be untouched by the decisions and actions it undertakes? How can the soul stay always pure if it is the ‘agent’ of actions, some of which are evil? Anyway, thank you very much. Blessings, C. Dear C., Thank you for your comments and also your questions. Most people confuse between personality, soul and spirit. Once you can tell the difference between them then you’ll also find that all three are interconnected as one driving energy.
Let’s talk about SPIRIT first. Spirit is the wholeness, it is the all-in-all. There is nothing but Spirit. In fact it is Consciousness itself that appears as over 6 billion people on this earth not to mention all creatures and living plants etc. Spirit is energy as all scientists know. Physicists say, “Energy is indestructible, it simply changes form.” Therefore, (and this is very important) Spirit is like the ocean and souls are like the waves on top of the ocean. The two are inseparable. Each wave is unique from the others and if it begins to ‘think’ that it is separate from the other waves then it becomes frightened of emptiness, annihilation, isolation and death. However, if the wave recognizes that it is itself also the ocean, fear drops and ‘evil’ is no more. Now, each one of us is a unique expression of Spirit (Life). There isn’t another duplicate of you. This uniqueness is the soul and it drives towards the Spirit (Life, Love). The greatest human drive is for happiness, peace, love, joy and inner fulfillment which can’t be derived from the world but only within when there is the realization of its oneness with Spirit. The whole journey on earth is to realize our oneness with Spirit (Source, oneness, God, Life, Love etc). As we evolve into greater understanding, the soul shows in our growth of sensitivity, softness of heart, gentleness, kindness and compassion. When the soul reaches the height of knowing its oneness with Spirit then it merges into the Spirit. This is why Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (Father signifying Spirit). Now, as the soul grows in its yearning for love and wholeness (which is the NOW itself of Spirit) it exhibits its level of awareness. So-called evil is simply the word ‘live’ in reverse. ‘Evil’ therefore is the seeking of love, happiness and inner success through the world instead of getting to know itself, which is spirit. For example, unawareness automatically strives towards power (which is the wholeness of unconditional love) but since it doesn’t recognize itself as Spirit (because it is only identified with soul as apart from spirit) then it acts from an ego. Ego is a false identification with the world instead of spirit and so creates a ‘young’ soul struggling to make itself better believing it is separate. The actions and thoughts and emotions from such a soul reveal its personality. Similarly, if the soul is getting close to Spirit it expresses a wonderfully warm loving personality because the ego has died in its mergence with Spirit. The personality merely expresses its egoless state as innocence, open-heartedness and lovingness. The personality acts from its level of soul understanding. The soul understands according to its closeness to Spirit. Spirit is totality, timeless, endless and immortal. Therefore, when the soul merges with Spirit there is no longer an ego but a wholeness-feeling of being the all-in-all. This is the highest love known to humanity. Pure awareness is the witness (Spirit). In fact if I asked you right now, who are you? Try to answer it and you won’t be able unless you refer to yourself as a memory (past). This is because who you really are is Spirit – the great void, openness, oneness and yet pure awareness itself. All you can know, right here and now, is that you are HERE-NOW!! This awareness of being here-now is pure awareness or the witness. You can witness your thoughts without getting ‘caught’ in them and that’s the beginning of true soul-growth. Thoughts and emotions happen because of soul ‘development.’ When you begin to see that thoughts are just thoughts and NOT real, then your growth takes a giant leap closer to Spirit. When you can be detached from all thoughts and the world, then you are free because soul and spirit had merged – this is known as the Christ state of being. The soul, in its initial stages of growth, can ‘do’ mistakes such as crimes etc for it might misinterpret the true essence of the heart (Spirit). The human part of us (soul) is seeking, wanting, yearning, controlling and struggling for what it already IS!! When this is realized then all seeking stops and the soul (your unique expression) merges with Spirit. Actions emerge from two sources – personal ‘doership’ when there is no awareness of Spirit or from LOVE when there IS awareness of Spirit. The word ‘awareness’ implies the recognition of what is real (not from reading but from direct awareness). Thank you for writing. With love, Burt Dear Burt, Thank you soo much for your answer. I have read it many times and it has been very enlightening for me. I have come to realize that in Turkish we have a single word for both soul and spirit which is “ruh”. Therefore I have never really thought that the word “ruh” in Turkish translations of Advaita books might refer to both individual soul and universal spirit (that might have confused me). I had never really known what spirit really meant in English. I think your comprehensive explanation has drawn a very good picture in my mind as to how spirit, soul, and personality are interwoven. Yet I have to ask you one more question in order to be sure that I have really understood the main points in your answer. Spirit (A) Now there are many Bs (waves) which are on top of (or within) the ocean (B) If Bs are parts of A, then it follows that whatever Bs do (charity, benevolence, love, rape or murder) all emanate from A...Right? Because waves are of the ocean, they emanate from the ocean. All their potentialities are taking place within the bounds of the ocean. Then we can I think say that all good and so called bad things are eventually done by the Spirit. And since the souls are parts of the Spirit (and since they ARE the Spirit), therefore all 'agency' turns to the Spirit. Then why do you think most people, and many religions are talking about some bad actions in a very disparaging and humiliating way? After all, isn’t everything done by the God (Spirit)? Is this point related to the fact that they are dualists and they don't see the truth of Oneness? Some background information about me: Since 20 years old- I am now 28- I have practically believed in one single consciousness who is the source of all good and bad, however somewhat inconsistently (or consistently?) I have assumed that there is a personal responsibility. But it is sort of God’s (Spirit’s) responsibility towards himself...May sound interesting when written on page, but I have simply felt as such. However since I have not realized myself (that I am the consciousness) I fluctuate between oneness and duality, being cool about things and being judgmental about the so-called ‘evil’. In order to put these problems into an analytical framework, above, I tried to express things in a symbolic manner (i.e. the agency problem and the eventual source of all possible agency). I would be grateful if you make some comment about this A, and B. Thank you very much. By the way, I think your understanding of ‘service”’ to people reflects very well the spirit of R. Maharshi. So indirectly I am also grateful to him. I think you wouldn’t put so much time and energy to writing such long e-mails to people if you weren’t really dedicated to serving the people with love and humility. This has impressed me tremendously. And I am grateful to you for ever. I have personally been very pleased to know you and would like to keep in touch with you in the coming days. I hope I would realize myself one day and serve the people like you and your master did. Lots of love and blessings, C. Dear C., Thank you for your kind words. You are a beautiful young man.
In order to answer your questions something has to be made clear and it is this – Consciousness is all there is and therefore everything that happens is due to Consciousness. Consciousness plays one more vital part which most people miss and it is this – Consciousness has the potential of recognizing itself. This means that every human being is not only conscious but has the capacity to LOOK at himself and therefore has some choice in accepting Truth or rejecting it. This aspect of free-will has been a great perplexing problem for quite a few intellectuals. In truth there is no free-will because there is only ONE WILL called LOVE. Therefore, in our evolving consciousness we go through many stages of evolution. Initially we start out as pure instinct of adaptation and survival and therefore actions and thinking are unconsciously motivated towards survival of self. This instinct not only misinterprets the ‘high picture’ of Consciousness but actually creates the opposite. Let’s see how – Consciousness in its pure Source sense is a great void often called ‘Emptiness.’ This Emptiness is vast and is One Self appearing as billions of human forms. This Emptiness is love, joy, peace, innocence and beauty itself. It is Stillness or Silence. For example, what makes a flower beautiful except its innocent stillness and its IS-ness? What make a mountain awesome except its stillness? What makes one attracted to babies except their emptiness (innocence). Emptiness is not a vacuum but a fullness of invisible intelligent energy. One look into the face of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and one gets a glimpse of glorious emptiness. Another way of explaining emptiness is saying it is freedom, where there is no fear, no doubt, no guilt, no shame, no past and future – just here and now!! It is a beautiful Presence of love and compassion. Now, when a human is not evolved enough to know this vast void which is One Self there is the feeling as if something is missing, as if there is a vast abyss and therefore there is a misinterpretation of it known as loneliness, deprivation, isolation, separation and oftentimes a deep sadness. This happens because emptiness unrecognized is a feeling of great space annihilating the egoic sense. This feeling of space makes one realize, “I am nothing, but I want to be something or somebody...” These negative feelings of fear of emptiness are not real but a MISINTERPRETATION OF THEIR SPIRITUAL NATURE. When I ask people point-blank, “Who are you?” most people either say “Me” or “I don’t know.” The word “me” is an unconscious explanation of nothingness because there is no “me.” In the several hundred clients I have had not a single one could explain who “me” was. Therefore, such an individual upon feeling this emptiness inside which he can’t explain or reason away, starts trying to fill it up through possesions, owning another human being such as a lover or a relationshop, become extremely busy to escape this feeling, turn to drugs, escape through sexual fantasy, pornography, drinking. workaholism, wild parties and so on – anything but aloneness or silence. This will give you an idea how consciousness evolves. Therefore, although all this mayham is created by Consciousness, yet it is not directly created but only through misinterpretation of egoic perception. Actually, so-called ‘evil’ is dictated by the need for power and control over others and the world, which means that that individual is feeling inwardly powerless and wants control at all costs to make up for this inner feeling of impotence. So, we can say, that Emptiness being LOVE creates fear of itself when it is misunderstood and the individual misinterpreting creates his own reality through seeking love while afraid of it. The greatest pastime from the unawareness of space (emptiness) is sexual fantasy or spiritual fascination. These two pastimes give us a ‘good feling’ temporarily and help us escape our inner emptiness which we equate as ‘bad’ when in truth it is love itself. And, this is why most relationships are co-dependent because they want love desperately but not too keen on loving unless its returned. And, if one loves another too much, then the ‘overly’ loved one sabotages the relationship by claiming, “You’re stifling me, I feel smothered and need to get out and get my freedom,” which makes the needy one more desperate to pursue. In other words, the ego always wants what it can't have and then destroys what it does have. Such is the insanity of the ego. Now, the question is, did God create the ego? It is the freedom to choose between love and fear that resulted in egoic perception of reality. GOD IS LOVE itself and all we ever want is love, happiness and inner fulfillment. We have all that right this moment. However, we need to evolve in consciousness to recognize we are consciousness itself. Until we recognize we are this vast glorious eternal and infinite emptiness, we ‘need’ to go through fear of it. Fear is the signpost of what is needed to be transcended. Without transcending fear we can never KNOW LOVE! We cannot ‘do’ love but we can do love-making, sexual expression and emotional need of love. It is this aching emptiness that is crying out for expression that is misinterpretaed and creates all the chaos and so called ‘evil.’ But when emptiness is met with love and acceptance, we are literally transformed. If this needs greater explanation please let me know. With love always, Burt |