‘If you observe the personality you see that it cannot hide or disguise itself, for its attitude and manner, its way of giving advice at the top of its voice and demanding attention at all times, are unmistakable. Once familiar with its tricks, you are no longer ‘fooled’ but this requires constant vigilance, you must be willing to study and analyse the methods of the personality if you are ever to dominate it.

No, like a rich old lady it holds the keys to the safe, to the pantry, the cupboards; it owns stocks and bonds, bars of gold and a store of treasures still in their crude state, that is, instincts, appetites, passions, desires. The personality is strong and powerful, extremely able, talented, resourceful, but the trouble is, it wants everything to revolve round it. For all its egocentricity it must not be despised, for it is the personality that preserves us and increases our possessions. Again, the trouble is that it lacks honesty, it has no conscience, no morality or ethics, no sense of fairness, no kindness or generosity… it is entirely selfish! 

The personality is the reservoir of our potential, it is a necessary part of us… the point is, we must be more intelligent than it is, we must make it submit and obey instead of being subservient to it.

The best way is to put it to work to realize, not its ideas but ours. The personality has great power and can be enormously useful to you once you learn to use it, as man finally learned to use the forces of Nature. Before man put electricity, water and air to work for him, he was their victim; now they perform miracles for him!

You see what a lot of changes there are to make, what a lot there is to learn. How to use vanity, for instance, and anger, and sexual energy. I have discovered how to sit back and let my vanity do all the work, without my vanity I could not get half as much done, I put it to work and let it move mountains while I twirl my thumbs! Why get rid of vanity? On the contrary, I feed it and pat it and make it work for me… I never claimed to be free of vanity, I am proud of what it does for me, and the same for the other forces… I keep them busy, hard at work.

An initiate has as much personality as anyone else, but he keeps it rationed, he gives it just enough nourishment to save it from starving to death, but never does he give in to its demands, he is always in control. He will not kill his personality as did the saintly hermits and ascetics of the past, believing they were meant to live in filth, in penitence and privation, and consequently the personality was wasted, of no use to them whatsoever.

Do you leave a servant without food or lodging? You see to it that they are taken care of, but you do not ask them to run your affairs or issue orders on your behalf.’ 
To be continued…

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
Izvor Book 213, Man’s Two Natures, Human and Divine
Chapter 6, Put the personality to work