From my perspective as a 52 year old, I can see how that would be. Yes, I've grown. But I'm still ME.
2007-09-12 05:45:21
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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What you are saying is partially true, the average person can't change themselves. The possibility of self development does exist though, the only thing is that it requires much knowledge and much work in a definite direction. People are the slave of their circumstances, their upbringing and education, their heredity, and other things, even things to do with the weather and other conditions. A person must overcome themselves to change, this self overcoming is a long process, Nietszche says "what doesn't kill me only make me stronger." This isn't just a quaint saying but is actually a reflection of a universal law that governs all things. Everything in life needs resistence, needs struggle to gain strength and to change themselves. The average person can change themselves very little and this would only be based on external stimuli and conditions. Most people think they are going somewhere, but in reality they can only go in a circle, they believe in their illusions and false images of themselves and remain self satisfied. When a person begins to suffer in a more conscious way this can lead to self transformation, one has to know why they want to suffer and what purpose it serves. Most suffering and struggling doesn't accomplish anything because people never are thinking along these lines, everyone wants it easy and comfortable and therefore can never change themselves. There is a way, a hidden door to another dimension so to speak, that can lead to new possibilities, but it is a long hard road out of hell.
I also must add after reading some other comments that we have separate selves within us. One you can call personality the other you can call essence. Personality is all the conditioning and education that comes from external sources, what most people take as their true self but which in reality is only a reflection of various influences. Essence is the true part of ourselves, it is our DNA, and our temperament, it is the part of us where our possibilities lie, it is the part that has been uneducated, and undernourished and is connected with our state of being. Essence and personality can be separated through hypnotism, when this occurs a person is left in an infantile state like a child usually, because Essence is so underfed and hasn't become an active force in our life. Essence is supposed to be the active force and personality the passive force, but it is the other way around, and personality is the more active of the two. This one sided development is the cause of many problems in our society.
2007-09-20 11:22:56
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answer #2
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answered by Hierophant777 1
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I guess it depends on how we define personality. I don't know how to. I seem to be a collection of memories. If the former things will not be brought to mind, I suspect I may lose a lot of personality. No one ever said I had no personality. If I wasn't a character, I probably wouldn't have any character. Character is said to change. I think science and experience says, no one changes much. But I don't look the same as an embryo. At one time I didn't seem to have a thought. With infromation we change a lot. Awareness seems to have no personality. It's just aware of all that. As I learn about another person, I seem to take them on too, if I want to. As I forget, a memory doesn't always come back. If all people were like coffee and some with more water than others, I could add more water and become someone else. I kind of like the idea of having many personalities over a lifetime, as I get bored so easily. Some traits even change. In a hundred years you can change radically. I'm not exactly trying to argue that point, just some thoughts and the temptation to think, both are true, looked at from different perspectives. Like a picture that looks like a rabbit, but looking at it longer and it looks like a goose. Both are true. One scientists see a particle and another sees a wave. The left brain sees differences, the right brain sees similarities. A change of information creates a change of attitude which focuses you on the right brain and former things are not brought to mind and when questiond do they are paired with answers and become optimism instead of just questions and pessimism. Couples are no longer two, but one. The mind is capable of seeing two sides to a story, and the blame game seems foolish, divisions disappear and a sense of oneness obsesses. Oneness and duality both exist and one alone is death. Think about the duality of both viewpoints. It's not always just arguments for and against an issue, but both are true. Oneness is necessary and deadly. Deadly to us, as we are in a duality or plurality, but that alone is death too. It's the constant subtle tension that makes it all work and all worthwhile. Sometimes, if I listen to someone elses side, I totally forget about mine. With two eyes we see two slightly different points of view. It's all good, I say. From looking at things long enough, I believe there are absolutes and apparent contradictions. We are absolutely the same personality and we're absolutely not, depending on perspective. We can see oruselves from God's view or ours. We need both. You can take the same building blocks and build different things or turn them into clay and eat them. Energy can become someone else or, if it's all the same energy, then there's no difference either. I think we can become all we want to be or something entirely different. That's why people disagree. It's a rabbit and a goose at the same time and place and arguing over it is pointless. Every sentence here is true, if we look at it that way and untrue if we look at it another way and if you carry that out far enought, oddly enough, it often really is true both ways. I'll bet electrons really are both a particle and a wave at the same time and place, and beyond time. Thinking like that is how we see what isn't.
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Rev 21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
Eccl 1:9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.
Same blocks, new combinations. No contradictions.
As if anyone reads this stuff, Atheist just have all questions. That's what the left brain does. That's it's purpose in life. The right brain just does answers. Put the two together and you have a whole person. That doesn't work with Christians, as I don't think they understand their answers. lol To be balance, questions don't require a lot of understanding. But of course that's not entirely true either, remember?
2007-09-12 18:17:44
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answer #3
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answered by hb12 7
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I have to disagree. In my opinion "personality" and the ego are the same - constructs of the mind. They are impermanent and therefore not "real". Conditioning is what creates your personality and (if your a Buddhist or Hindu) Karma. Meditation is the way to see past that conditioning to the Buddha nature contained within. That is the real essence of all life. This nature is non-dualistic. It is not separate from any other thing. That emptiness (empty of a separate self) is one of the three marks of existence along with impermanence and suffering.
2007-09-20 10:52:37
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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I don't think that personality is the best word for what you're trying to describe. Personality describes the particular tendencies and habits we possess as individuals. But, the existence of a persistent and discrete "self" is just an illusion. We're made up of the same stuff as everything else, and one day we'll all die, and decompose, and the matter that was "us" will become other things. So, our true identity is a universal one. The "me" that's really me is the same "you" that's really you, as the same "it" that is the table on which my computer sits right now. We're all the same stuff, just arranged differently.
Is that what you're going for?
2007-09-12 12:49:16
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answer #5
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answered by RabidBunyip 4
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Although I know what you are saying and I believe in an eternal soul, and that I am the unique -- I believe in the power to change.
God asks all of us to bridal our passions and change from a natural man and become more by forsaking sin and becoming a new creature.
So am who I was and always will be -- I hope also to progress and continue to progress for eternity.
D
2007-09-12 13:09:39
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answer #6
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answered by Dionysus 5
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there is no way i'm the same i was. i used to hate MEN completely. i hated how they talk to women, how they treat women, how they degrade women, and potential domestic violence. NOW, since i've sought and hold the love of God I no longer have the anxieties of interacting with men. Now, I talk to my father with respect (I used to dislike my father for the decisions he made to be an alcoholic and leave my mother and I) because it was best that he kept those sins away from us. Now, I treat my partner with respect and dignity I am grateful for him and the influence he has on my life. I would never use another man in my lifetime for money and I would never disrespect my body or existence by placing myself around men with negative intentions for me. I HAVE CHANGED MY PERSONALITY. 10 years ago I would be conceited and obnoxious now i'm understanding and modest.
2007-09-12 12:49:11
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answer #7
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answered by Benny 3
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Yes. I agree. Personality is the one thing that is changeless in the face of all change. People get their emotions, knowledge and reaction habits confused with what personality is, so they think they change, but that is usually and emotional or mindal change while they are still who they are. Personalities are always who they are, forever unique and individual among all other unique individuals.
2007-09-12 12:44:00
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answer #8
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answered by Holly Carmichael 4
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Growth is change. I have a hard time believing that the transformation that will take place when I die won't also be a change in personality.
2007-09-12 12:44:54
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answer #9
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answered by Paulie D 5
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I do not think that this is true.
Our "personality" comes from our genes, like all the other parts of us.
We have only our lives in our time.
Eternity is a human fantasy.
It really has no meaning in our lives.
2007-09-19 01:19:54
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answer #10
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answered by smkeller 7
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