Personality is Real/Unreal?

The contention about the personality or self continues. It was there in the time of Buddha. It is here today. It will persist tomorrow. It will keep puzzling humanity till the end of time.

What is the personality or self?

Is it a composite?

If it is what comprise the parts?

Some philosophies deny the possibility of an enduring self and with good reason. Other philosophies defend the endurance of the self.

Still the question as to what is the self, as to its composite parts, remains to be settled?

In a recent astral conversation with Sir Paul Castagna, we discuss the reality and unreality of the self. For one thing the social self as we know it as a physical body is a temporary composite. If one says that a part of this self is eternal, still because other parts of this social construction is temporary that would mean that the self as a social unit is temporary. One perpetual part in an object does not make the object eternal.

A more serious concern is the various contributory powers which hedged the social self in and which contributes to the formation and duration of that socially known personality.

There is the genetic contribution from the parents. That was not produced by the descendant in question. There is the psychic genetic contribution which the self carried from past lives, as instincts. That was produced only in part by the self.

Sir Paul said that when one has a physical body, the attractions one feels to some other person who also has such a body, is not necessarily an attraction to the psychology of that person. There may an attraction to the genetic features of someone’s physical body. Those features took thousands if not millions of years to be produced by nature. This makes it impossible to properly assess it, even though one may superficially show appreciation for it.

If the self is not enduring, that puts to question the very reason for existing in the first place, except that currently there is a feeling of continuity. That is a projection of course because no limited being can secure eternity for another.

When stripped of memory, the self stands like a light blaring into darkness, seemingly reference-less. When stripped of an intellect, the self stands like a newborn baby with a neutral identity positioned wherever it may be. When stripped of senses, the self stands as a subjective reality but proof-less.

What then is the self?