Do We Have A Core Personality?

[Anton Rogachevski]

Is there an unchangeable core to our personality that is outside the reaches the web of belief? Or can we change completely?

What do you think?

[zazed]

We are consciousness, just being aware of all these thoughts.
When we think we are our thoughts, we have a seemingly fixed personality.

But its just random thoughts, you don't have to identify with them, nor agree with them, nor act upon what they are telling you.

[cetus]

1 minute ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

Is there an unchangeable core to our personality that is outside the reaches the web of belief? Or can we change completely?

What do you think?

Great question!  Everybody has a core person. Self evident here on the forum. How deep does each core really go? Is there an essence of that self that precedes- proceeds it? Or is it a one trick pony?

[Spiral]

21 minutes ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

Is there an unchangeable core to our personality that is outside the reaches the web of belief? Or can we change completely?

What do you think?

We do have certain biologically decided character traits that can differ from person to person, but otherwise not really, it's mostly based on our past.

[cetus]

1 minute ago, Spiral said:

it's mostly based on our past.

I base myself more on my future theses days, so that view can shift.

[Martin123]

@Anton Rogachevski It seems that we do.
Your nature is two-fold, seemingly. Divine godlike presence, and it's expression. It's expression even when purified is a personality, that reaches beyond ego.

[cetus]

 

[PureExp]

12 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

Is there an unchangeable core to our personality that is outside the reaches the web of belief? Or can we change completely?

What do you think?

A person is an illusion, just an idea in the mind. The idea is seen as a container of past events, names, relations, memories etc. In short every experience that comes via this mind-body is tagged as "I", "me", "mine" etc. And this whole house of cards becomes a person. Obviously, it keeps updating moment by moment, its a flow, not a thing. If you see it as it is, its just a body-mind going through various experiences. Its not "someone" that's going through them. Its an universal event, not individual.

Now is there a core that remains changeless? Given that there is no person, this question should not arise. But some contents of the "I" container may change so slowly that they appear permanent. But the real nature of all things is impermanence. So everything changes. The only things that does not change is the witness of the change, which is - consciousness.

[Martin123]

@Snick MORE LIKE ALWAYS U PUNK LOL GTFO

[SOUL]

Consciousness is infinite potential, awareness is manifest in us as it's genuine nature of infinite potential but becomes determined as a "personality" if we allow the infinite potential awareness in us to agree with a personality.

[pluto]

Complete presence.

[Anton Rogachevski]

I suppose that if we didn't, all enlightened masters were the same person. We can distinguish different styles of teaching.

Personality tests suggest that we have different types of personalities. Let's say if someone is an introvert, is this his fundamental nature? or is it a changeable belief?

[zazed]

12 minutes ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

Personality tests suggest that we have different types of personalities. Let's say if someone is an introvert, is this his fundamental nature? or is it a changeable belief?

It's the illusion of personality. It is something indeed, but it is not you. 
Thought processes create more thought processes, memories color thoughts, this is what appears to be us, what appears to be a personality. We think, therefor we are, is the illusion here. You can use it to predict others behaviors, and it defines how you react in most situations, if you are unaware.

If you are convinced these thoughts and ideas have merit and meaning, and they are yours, you will get in all sorts of trouble.
You will want to defend them, you are hurt if they are wrong. You also create your current behavior based on your past behavior. A powerful force is the expectancy of others in how you are going to respond. In this way they have power over you and you behave according to their expectations, within a certain paradigm of memories you have of yourself. Have you ever noticed, how on vacation you can behave quite differently with total strangers? It's because you lost a big part of your self(people who know you) on vacation, there is less expectation to conform to what others would expect of you.
Some things are harder to let go than others, i am introverted, but it's a preference of this brain/body, and i am not shy(which is a fear), just introverted by choice. Many people may think me quite extroverted in social interaction, and i can enjoy it, but i like my solitude given the choice.
This is not how i started out, i was very much afraid to be social, tho i did not admit this to myself then.
 

But it's not really a core anything, it is an amalgam of various things happening. It appears as personality, and yes, even masters still have it.
These masters were born in a culture which shaped them. You see this in the clothes they choose to wear for example.
But i would think if you spend a longer time with them, their personality would either be strange and fluid, unable to pinpoint, or very peaceful, open and unclinging.

So what we truly are is what is watching those thoughts, if you look closely, you will realize that there is something that is aware of the thoughts, something that never speaks, but sees it all, silently. That is you, and the "watcher" can dismiss thoughts as unimportant, if it is aware enough. Or ask yourself, "who is it that is perceiving these thoughts about myself?" Or go further and ask yourself "Is that me, this thought?" when something troublesome appears in your thoughts. And you can do what Leo calls going meta, and ask "Is that me, asking; is that me, this thought?". This will bring you in a strange mental questioning loop, which will make you start questioning "what exactly are thoughts?" and "What exactly is me here, where is it?". Or just stop thinking entirely, when the looped questioning becomes boring, then you end up just being, without any desire to do the next thing, or thoughts about the previous thing, just full & empty being.

If you do this in a social situation, when someone is talking, you are no longer an introvert, you forget you exist even.
There is no you to be quiet, you don't think before you speak, and you don't really care about reactions, positive or negative, because they float away in time.

[Stoica Doru]

We certainly have personalities, beyond our egos. All the masters have different ways of being (personalities), even Jesus and Buddha were distinctive. Adyashanti mentioned it in "The End of Your World", because people were afraid that once they were about to lose their ego that they'll become numb and boring beings, quite the opposite.