The New Personality

[QUOTING]

What do we understand by "person" or "personality"? The personality is that part of the human manifestation which consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the mental body. These four aspects together are also indicated in the bodily figure. The personality or bodily figure includes a part of the soul, which is the earthly soul, or blood-soul. We will explain these aspects, as well as the soul-figure and the consciousness, in greater detail later on. What we want to point out now is that the personality, the bodily figure bound together by the earthly soul, is not acceptable to the Spiritual School any more than the soul-figure and the spiritual-figure. The personality, no matter how hard one tries, can never be the basis for a life in the Divine world order.

The personality is structurally not in a condition that is in harmony with the personality of the Original Man. The difference is not the degree of  'density', nor is it a matter of difference in vibration. There is a structural, anatomic-organic difference. As a consequence, the personality cannot enter the Kingdom of God, for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God". This is scientifically impossible.

That is why it is said to everyone who wishes to approach the Spiritual School: "except that a man is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God". The word 'water' stands for the Original Cosmic Substance or Root Substance, in the same sense as it is used in Genesis: "The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters", whereas the word 'Spirit' refers to the divine spirit-nucleus (g: the divine-spark), the universal center of consciousness, which must be 'raised from the dead'. The words of Christ refer to the necessity of the resurrection of the Original Man, if there is ever to be a re-entry into the lost Fatherland.

The Original Man is now bound to an earthly personality which was not included in the Divine Plan, which enables him to express himself in the dualistic, material world. But he is and remains of this nature and shares in its transitory character in the uninterrupted death and decay of all that comes into being. Therefore, this personalty is also mortal. It may not and cannot maintain itself. Now this is the Great Mystery:  the spirit born of God that sighs and suffers in this fallen world and is chained to the rocks of duality is obliged, for the sake of its liberation and return to obedience to God, to build another, heavenly, Original personality.

This new personality is built within the old or dualistic personality. Sometimes it is called the heavenly body, or sometimes the True New Man. Those who possess such a reconstructed personality are eligible for initiation. Initiation is the building of the structure and potential of this new personality and its expansion and exploration. This process develops under the protection and guidance of the Spiritual School.

He who is conscious of the new personality will say, as Paul does in 2 Corinthians 5: "for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our house which is from heaven". For others, Paul expresses the hope that they, too, may be found 'clothed' and not 'naked' at the death of the physical body.

There is no question here of an automatic, natural development, but of a development that must be attained through a great exertion, 'in fear and trembling'. When one has built this eternal tabernacle, then in him the words of Revelations 21 are fulfilled: "and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men". Not until then will he possess the Personality that truly is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

From "What Will Be Initiated?" - Elementary Philosophy of the Modern Rosycross - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

This is the sole duty and responsibility of every human presently alive in the physical world. You are an image-bearer of God who has been given a combination of vehicles specially-designed to assist you in accomplishing a Great Work. While enfleshed, it is your task to awaken your sleeping Divine-spark, locate the true Path of Liberation, effect a fundamental reversal of life and walk through the oh, so narrow Gate that leads back to the Original Kingdom.

If the physical life ends without your having taken at least the very first steps on the Path of Return, you can consider your incarnation to have been a failure.

~ g
.