Q: “ This is my first seminar with you and I would appreciate knowing something about your life, your background, your path, how you came to where you are. I have heard that you don’t tell, so I decided to ask myself.”
A:” Do you know your motive for coming here? Don’t be too quick; you have time. You do not have to give an immediate answer, because a quick answer may come from the mind.
Be careful. Look, really, at what is your motive to come here.”
– “I think I know; my motive is to find peace of mind.”
– “Perfect. That means you have not found it; you are looking for it.”
“Yes. Someone mentioned your name, and I decided right away to come here, without thinking.”
“Yes, it is an adventure, a risk.”
“Right. Well, I’m a risk- taker.”
“Yes, you are an adventurer. I like adventurers. Will you pay the price for what you are looking for? Any price? Are you willing to live free from the person? Do you see that the person is the biggest price?”
“Does that mean that you are not willing to share your past?”
“You can only share with me what you are fundamentally. That we have in common. That is not a relationship between personality and personality. When you pay the price of giving up the personality, then you can really share with me what we have in common. There is really nothing to ask. You would like a biography.”
“Can you further explain about the giving up of the personality that you just mentioned? Is that like giving up the name, fame, shape or whatever that one has?”
“I would say that you cannot give up the personality, because you give up the personality still from the personality. The personality can never give itself up. It is only through understanding that the personality dissolves. You must absolutely understand that the personality in itself does not exist. In certain circumstances it acts as a vehicle, as a tool.
So you must not identify yourself with your personality. Use the personality how and when the situation asks for it. Then you will have a real personality, not a constipated personality, a fixed personality.. see that the personality that you have taken to be yourself is a collection of experiences and second- hand beliefs. At least eighty percent of your beliefs are second- hand; there is very little personal experience in it. So your personality is not original, flexible, creative; it is stuck. When you see it, you will not use it anymore; you give it up, or rather, it gives up itself. You use it when life asks for it. Of course the personality is a very useful tool, but the moment you identify yourself with it, it is a very heavy luggage to carry.”
Jean Klein
Living Truth, pp. 7-9
