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Personalization

Diamond Approach

Glossary of Spiritual Wisdom

From the teachings of A.H. Almaas

What is Personalization?

Diamond Approach Teachings About: Personalization

Boundless and Unified Being with a Personal Quality

The personalization of Being is a process that goes through all the boundless dimensions of the journeys of ascent and descent. It culminates in the personalization of the wholeness of Being, with all of the boundless dimensions in coemergent nonduality with each other and all manifest forms. We arrive then at a personal Reality, boundless and unified Being with a personal quality, a Reality with which we can have a personal relationship. Yet, it is not the normal idea of relationship, for there is no separation between the individual soul and the personal Being; and the personal Being is not an entity, not a particular form, but the wholeness of Reality. One specific characteristic of the personal Being is that it includes in its coemergence the logos dimension. This dimension of creative dynamism gives our experience of personal Being the sense that it personally acts and responds. Being is what creates and sustains everything, through its logos dimension. It is what makes anything happen, what moves and transforms all manifest forms. It is the only doer. However, since it is now personalized we experience it as personal doing. In other words, personal Being acts in a personal manner, where this action is nothing but the creative display of the logos, now integrated with the personal quality of essence. In the self-realization of personal Being, we experience ourselves as the wholeness of Reality, so we do not only feel personal but realize we are a dynamic and active cosmic presence. We can actually experience ourselves, as this cosmic dynamic presence, moving the winds and the stars. We feel that all that happens in the universe happens through our personal will and intelligence. This is not the will and intelligence of the individual soul, but of the cosmic Being, the personal boundless and infinite Being.

Completion of the Process of Personalization

The realization of the Logos completes the process of personalization, which makes it possible to experience and understand the objective Personal Essence. To understand what this means we need to remember that the personalization of the various aspects of Essence leads at some point to the Integration of all these personalized aspects. We have called this overall synthesis of all aspects in the presence of the Personal Essence the “Complete Person,” and discussed the objective and formless dimensions of Essence just enough to see the main processes needed for this overall synthesis. Just as the personalization of the aspects of Essence leads to the synthesis of all such personalized aspects, the personalization of the various dimensions—the objective dimensions of Essence and the formless dimensions of Being—leads ultimately to the synthesis of all such personalized dimensions. This complete integration and synthesis of all aspects and dimensions into the presence of the Personal Essence, which is the same as the personalization of the Logos, makes the latter now objective in a very real sense of the word. This is the station of the objective person, who is not only complete but universal. One is a person, a personal presence, in all dimensions. The person is now the expression and embodiment of Reality, in all its aspects and dimensions. This objective realization, which is the fruit of the overall process of personalization, manifests in various ways and leads to many capacities.

Individuation on the Essential Level

The realization of the Personal Essence can be seen as the attainment of individuation on the essential level. The consciousness of the individual has now integrated itself not only as a living Presence but also as a personal living Presence. It can experience itself as a person of Being, instead of only as a person defined by ego identifications. This consciousness can now integrate itself further by integrating the other aspects of Essence into the presence of the Personal Essence.

Personalization Brings Anxieties and Vulnerabilities

So the development of the Personal Essence, through the personalization of essential aspects, is actually a change in the qualitative character of the personality, and hence is bound to be resisted by the established self of ego, which is closely related to it. This personality character is largely the outcome of the process of ego integration and organization, reflected in one's self-image and inseparable from the various defensive operations of the ego. Thus the process of personalization confronts the individual with very deep anxieties, vulnerabilities and conflicts that he would usually rather forget for good.

Personalization of Essence

Each aspect becomes so deeply integrated that it is no longer experienced as part of oneself, but as oneself. In other words, each aspect becomes absorbed into the Personal Essence. This process is the gradual development of the Personal Essence. It retains the qualities and capacities of each aspect, as the latter is absorbed into it. We refer to this process as the personalization of Essence, because each essential aspect becomes personal as it is integrated and absorbed into the consciousness as a further development of the Personal Essence. Joy becomes a personal Joy, Peace becomes a personal Peace, Truth becomes a personal Truth, and so on.

Personalization of the Boundless Dimensions

The second process that the soul goes through in relation to all the boundless dimensions is their personalization. The central element of this process is the transformation of the soul from a separate entity into personal essence on the particular boundless dimension. The soul learns that she is a personal manifestation of the particular dimension of true nature, as a form that expresses it while being inseparable from it. To use a familiar metaphor, in the self-realization of the boundless dimension the soul realizes that her identity is the boundless ocean. She is the ocean of Being. In the personalization process she learns she is a particular and unique wave in this ocean. She regains her form as an individual soul, but not her separateness. She is an extension of the ocean, part and parcel of it, expressing it personally, giving it the possibility to walk, talk, and function as a person.

Personalization of the Essential Self

The personalization of the Essential Self brings about a significant transformation of the Personal Essence. The sense of identity and the sense of being a person become inseparable. The Personal Essence begins to attain a sense of delicacy, exquisiteness, refinement and lively excitement about the essential life. One becomes more interested in others, and more disposed towards serving humanity. Sometimes the character is such that it purports to manifest a certain aspect, which is actually not experienced as part of oneself. In such a case the character is largely defensive, hiding a certain deficiency of character. In this situation, personalizing the missing aspect is difficult and painful, but its completion brings a singular joy, a great revelation, and results in a major change in one’s life.

Personalization of the Intelligence Aspect

Understanding ego activity brings about (among other things) the personalization of the Intelligence aspect. The Personal Essence becomes present in a precious, brilliant, exquisitely smooth and luminous form. The experience is to be, completely, with no concern or attempt to be anything. This seems to move emotional and instinctual libido towards Being. It is interesting that this state of the Personal Essence is connected to the sense of responsibility; one understands that one’s ultimate responsibility is to be. This also resolves the deep guilt that one experiences when one lets go of ego activity. One feels guilty just being, instead of doing things to help others. One feels just to be is selfish, and involves abandoning others, not caring for them. One then realizes that the best that one can do emotionally for another is to be, to be there, to be present for him. This is real responsibility. /p>

Personalization of the Supreme Aspect of Pure Being

An interesting question arises at this point: In the process of personalization of the supreme aspect of Pure Being, is it that when the personality is completely devoid of defense one realizes it is nothing but the Personal Essence with the Pure Being quality, or that the personality becomes integrated into Being resulting in the emergence of the Personal Essence in the new quality of Pure Being beyond differentiation? It is possible to see that both perspectives are accurate; in other words, there are experiences to substantiate both. There are experiences and perceptions where one realizes as the last primitive defenses dissolve that the supreme Personal Essence is nothing but the completely purified and clarified personality. One learns that the sense of separateness is completely due to the presence of subtle defenses. On the other hand, there are definite experiences where one actually feels oneself, as the personality, being absorbed into Being. As the last primitive and subtle defenses dissolve, due to objective understanding of vulnerability, one feels oneself being steadily absorbed or reabsorbed. One feels taken in, eaten, swallowed, completely integrated. There is no fear and no resistance. The deepest fear of the ego is now actualized; there is a loss of one’s individuality, of one’s separate identity. But it is experienced as a matter of fact perception, without reaction of any sort, and without a sense of loss. At some point one perceives—usually suddenly—that one is the formless oneness of Being. The supreme, pure aspect of Being is now experienced in its aloneness, without the presence of ego structures and identifications. For this reason, the issue of aloneness sometimes resurfaces just before this experience of pure oneness.

 

The Process of Embodiment of Being is a Process of Personalization

The understanding that is arising here is that ego development is part of the process of embodiment of Being. It is part of the process of Being finally learning to manifest and live in embodied existence. At birth the infant lives as Being, in a state of undifferentiation that is not linked to the body. A process then starts, of consciousness gradually cathecting the body and physical reality. This process of embodiment of Being is a process of personalization, of Being finally emerging as a person, a Human Being. This process of embodiment includes the process we have described, the personalization of Essence, in which the various essential aspects become integrated in the presence of the Personal Essence. Now we see that this process also involves embodiment of these essential aspects; for the Personal Essence is the embodiment of Being. In embodiment one is both Being and a person, a human being. One is the fullness and richness of Being, manifest as a unique person, living a human life in the world. One is both Being and the expression of the love of Being. Being is transcendent, and ultimately nondifferentiated. It is possible to see that the person is a result of Being differentiating into the various aspects, which then become integrated again in a process of embodiment, forming a new synthesis, the Personal Essence. When this process is complete then the human being has attained maturity. This maturity includes the capacity for transcendence; for the Personal Essence is in actuality a cell in the oneness of Being.

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