Are you awake or hypnotized by your personality?

“The important thing is to set aside some time each day to re-establish a deeper connection with our True Nature. Regular practice serves to remind us over and over again that we are hypnotized by our personality. (The Wisdom of the Enneagram)

Reading these words this morning reminded me how easily I identify myself with my personality. “I am my beliefs. I am my insecurities. I am my self-judgments and inadequacies. I am my painful emotions. And sometimes the opposite: I am my confidence. I am my capabilities, my talents, my skills, my accomplishments. I am my vocation. I am my successes.”

But none of that is the truth.

I am a Divine Spark, a Soul. I am awareness. I am ‘something’ that is ‘no thing’, infinite and indefinable – yet enclothed within the finite structures of time and space, bringing me constantly changing spiritual, mental, emotional and physical experiences. My personality is a construct. It’s origins are somewhat mysterious. But it’s only that, a construct, not a reality. It’s a set of patterns through which I experience and express my Essence. In many respects it’s arbitrary. So I can divest myself of the parts that don’t serve me and develop the parts of it that do. But I am bound by none of it. My personality is not me. I am not my personality. I can choose to recreate my personality in ways that work for me, and not against me. My personality is my chariot and I am the rider. I can direct it where I want it to go. I can use it to be of service.

My personality is useful to me – it offers me ways to relate to others and to the world around me. But it’s not my True Nature. I am a Divine Spark, a Soul. I am awareness.

My personality has a powerfully hypnotic effect on me, but I choose not to live my life under hypnosis. I choose to be free, to be awake.