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into one another. Man consists of three men; each has a differ-
ent character, different nature and suffers from lack of corre-
spondence with the others. Our aim must be to organize them
so as to make them correspond. But before beginning to orga-
nize them and before thinking of a manifestation worth 30, let
us pause to see consciously that these three machines of ours
are indeed at variance with one another. They are not ac-
quainted with one another. Not only do they not listen to one
another, but if one of them begs the other very hard to do
something, and knows how it should be done, the other either
cannot or will not do it.
As it is late, we must put off the rest till another time. By
then you may perhaps learn to do!
AMERICA, MARCH 29, 1924
Essence and personality
In order to understand better the meaning of external and in-
ternal considering, you must understand that every man has
two completely separate parts, as it were two different men, in
him. These are his essence and his personality.
Essence is I it is our heredity, type, character, nature.
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Personality is an accidental thing upbringing, education,
points of view everything external. It is like the clothes you
wear, your artificial mask, the result of your upbringing, of the
influence of your surroundings, opinions consisting of informa-
tion and knowledge which change daily, one annulling the
other.
Today you are convinced of one thing you believe it and
want it. Tomorrow, under another influence, your belief, your
desires become different. All the material constituting your
personality may be completely changed artificially or acciden-
tally with a change in your surrounding conditions and place
 and this in a very short time.
Essence does not change. For instance, I have a swarthy
skin, and I shall remain as I was born. This belongs to my
type.
Here, when we speak of development and change, we speak
of essence. Our personality remains a slave; it may be changed
very quickly, even in half an hour. For instance, by hypnosis it
is possible to change your convictions. This is because they are
alien, not your own. But what we have in our essence is our
own.
We always consider in essence, mechanically. Every influ-
ence mechanically evokes a corresponding considering. Me-
chanically, you may like me, and so, mechanically, you regis-
ter this impression of me. But it is not you. It does not come
from consciousness; it happens mechanically. Sympathy and
antipathy is a question of correspondence of types. Inwardly
you like me, and although in your mind you know that I am
bad, that I do not deserve your liking, you cannot dislike me.
Or again: you may see that I am good, but you do not like me
 and so it remains.
But we have the possibility not to consider inwardly. At pres-
ent you cannot do this, because your essence is a function.
Our essence consists of many centers, but our personality has
only one center, the formatory apparatus.
Remember our example of the carriage, horse and driver.
Our essence is the horse. It is precisely the horse that should
not consider. But even if you realize this, the horse does not,
because it doesn't understand your language. You cannot
order it about, teach it, tell it not to consider, not to react, not
to respond.
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With your mind you wish not to consider, but first of all you
must learn the language of the horse, its psychology, in order
to be able to talk to it. Then you will be able to do what the
mind, what logic, wishes. But if you try to teach it now, you
will not be able to teach it or to change anything in a hundred
years; it will remain an empty wish. At present you have only
two words at your disposal: "right" and "left." If you jerk the
reins the horse will go here or there, and even then not al-
ways, but only when it is full. But if you start telling it some-
thing it will only keep on driving away flies with its tail, and
you may imagine that it understands you. Before our nature
was spoiled, all four in this team horse, cart, driver, master
were one; all the parts had a common understanding, all
worked together, labored, rested, fed, at the same time. But
the language has been forgotten, each part has become sepa-
rate and lives cut off from the rest. Now, at times, it is neces-
sary for them to work together, but it is impossible one part
wants one thing, another part something else.
The point is to reestablish what has been lost, not to acquire
anything new. This is the purpose of development. For this
one must learn to discriminate between essence and personal-
ity, and to separate them. When you have learned to do this
you will see what to change and how. Meantime, you have
only one possibility to study. You are weak, you are
dependent you are slaves. It is difficult to break all at once
the habits accumulated in years. Later it will be possible to re-
place certain habits with others. These will also be mechanical. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]