We Are Not Our Personalities

Sooner or later when you study psychology and personality types, especially from a spiritual perspective, you will learn that we are not our personalities. When I look at myself and others around me, and I think about this, I find myself wondering, “If we are not our personalities, then who are we? Our different personalities are nothing more than a personal defense system that we have created to protect ourselves from the world around us. We have different personalities because we’ve had different life experiences. What we see in others, and what we project to others, are really masks. Sometime in our life, usually in childhood, we’ve had experiences that have made us cautious, fearful, or untrusting. In worst case scenarios we've suffered some type of emotional trauma. As a result we have created, subconsciously, our personalities which are really nothing more than our false selves. If our personalities are a mask, hiding who we really are, as well as an illusion of who we think we are, who are we in reality? What is our true self? This is one of the great mysteries of our lives and the reason behind all our different spiritual journeys. Our true self is who we are in God. Our true self is our essence. Our spiritual journeys are lifelong explorations where we peel away the layers of the onion which hide our true selves. It is only by stripping away the layers of masks and illusions that we can discover our true selves. In a nutshell, we are born perfect, we become imperfect, and then we spend the rest of our lives trying to regain our original perfection. It doesn’t matter if you are spiritual or religious, all of us do this and all of us must do our inner work to discover, as the Buddhists say, "the face we had before our parents were born.