To have no personality

[Honza]

Am I right in my understanding of the I AM teachings that I AM has no personality?

I would have assumed that God is FULL of personality. That He is ALL personalities rather than NO personality.

How could anyone actually WANT to have no personality? It sounds crazy. Don't you respect your personality? Or the personality of others?

Here again is a big difference between the East and the West. The West reveres personality and individual personalities. I'm not sure that the East holds much respect for it.

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Your personality may be important. It certainly is to your friends and family.

Does I AM have personality or not? That is the question. God actually DOES! God has a great personality to those who know Him. So does Christ if I'm not mistaken.

But as for the Eastern Gods I'm not sure.....

[andrew g]

I think there is a balance to be found. Yes there is individuality and uniqueness, but then there is also a lot of pretense, falsity and trying to BE someone. If we were all just able to relax I think the individualness and uniqueness would naturally shine.

I'm not sure how your last thought/question about eastern Gods having no personality is relevant to I AM since I AM isn't about Gods?
I think you have an idea of God being something or someone with a personality.
I AM is not a particular being, it's all that is.. the world/universe/life is it's personality.

[Perspective]

I'm thinking similar to Elijah.
Also, if you believe in some kind of pre & post existence (ie reincarnation) then you probably believe that although our personalities may change, our essence... maybe more like our character - doesn't change, besides the learning/evolving process. So maybe that is with God... except on a much larger scale?

[psychoslice]

Personality as such is false. The word "personality" has to be understood. It comes from persona; persona means mask. In ancient drama the actors used to wear masks. Those masks were called personae - personae because the sound was coming from behind the mask. Sona means sound. The masks were apparent to the audience and from behind the mask the sound was coming. From that word persona has come the word "personality."

All personality is false. Good personality, bad personality, the personality of a sinner and the personality of a saint - all are false. You can wear a beautiful mask or an ugly mask, it doesn't make a difference.

[Honza]

Originally Posted by psychoslice

Personality as such is false. The word "personality" has to be understood. It comes from persona; persona means mask. In ancient drama the actors used to wear masks. Those masks were called personae - personae because the sound was coming from behind the mask. Sona means sound. The masks were apparent to the audience and from behind the mask the sound was coming. From that word persona has come the word "personality."

All personality is false. Good personality, bad personality, the personality of a sinner and the personality of a saint - all are false. You can wear a beautiful mask or an ugly mask, it doesn't make a difference.

I'm sorry Robert, but I find that idea or concept very cold and clinical. You are conceptualising yourself into a big fat zero!

[psychoslice]

Originally Posted by Honza

I'm sorry Robert, but I find that idea or concept very cold and clinical. You are conceptualising yourself into a big fat zero!

That's Ok, I thought it would go right over your head lol.

[SeaZen]

Originally Posted by Honza

I'm sorry Robert, but I find that idea or concept very cold and clinical. You are conceptualising yourself into a big fat zero!

If you would like a less cold clinical conceptual approach, I recommend the wonderful Dr Seuss book "I AM SAM, SAM I AM"

BTW Honza, I must admit that you have a most wonderful animating personality!

[Chrysaetos]

We humans have been used to seeing stuff made from our early days. Thus, we grew up with the idea that everything has a creator.
We then make the conclusion that there must be a upper-creator, that has created the universe. So we conclude that since we have personalities, the upper-creator must have one too.

Man created God in man's image.

Which personality would be God? There are so many personalities. All these Gods are just cultural phenomena.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Chrysaetos

We humans have been used to seeing stuff made from our early days. Thus, we grew up with the idea that everything has a creator.
We then make the conclusion that there must be a upper-creator, that has created the universe. So we conclude that since we have personalities, the upper-creator must have one too.

Man created God in man's image.

Which personality would be God? There are so many personalities. All these Gods are just cultural phenomena.

Our human gods would seem so one-dimensional the way you seem to be looking at it. Something that big (even if only in our imaginations) has to have more facets than just going whiz-bang and here we all are...and if a (and I get that you don't believe in a creator ~ or am I mistaken on that?) creator has the power to do all this, how is it that IF there were a creator or creators, how logical would it seem that this creator is some cold calculating robot or something? Gee hmm i wonder.