The mind-body-personality split is a dumb name for some thoughts I've had about what is the 'self'. This might be a slightly crazy ramblings but the thoughts are intesting to me and are a byproduct of watching videos on the guru Ram Dass.

You Aren't The Body

1.) The self cannot be the body, because the body can act without us choosing it to, and can influence our actions

2.) We learn to control the body, so it is not our innate self (the baby learning to pilot a flesh suit)

3.) Since the body may influence our actions, and its state affects our thoughts, the relationship is not one of master and slave

You Aren't The Personality

1.) Many people see themselves as a self, with a personality that decides how they act and influence their body

2.) A person's personality is a system that decides how they react to events, causing emotions

3.) Emotions influence our thought

4.) Since emotions can be resisted (you may be mad but if you know it's wrong you can resist the feeling) they aren't you, they are an external force influencing you

5.) Since emotions are the result of personality, and emotions aren't a part of us, it suggests that we aren't our personality in the way we think

So What Are We?

We must be the mind, but we aren't our personality

1.) The mind is what rejects emotions, through logic and choice

2.) The mind is influenced, but never influences us

3.) The mind controls all other systems (the body obviously, and the personality through resistance and forced exposure)

What Does This Mean?

What this means is that we can see our personality and our body as influences external to our self. These influences can be controlled, and as such are not constants.

Just because today you are someone who hates rock climbing, doesn't mean you can't resist the pain and the emotions and force it to bring joy (from success or otherwise).

Just because today you react negatively to some thing, such as a pride event, doesn't mean that you can't resist those feelings and choose to accept those things

By realising the separation between our minds and our personalities we can overcome and change the facets of our personality that we most dislike, becoming better people with better systems.

Simply put, the automatic mind can be changed and resisted by the conscious mind. The automatic mind is the vessel for the body to control you too, and can be resisted by the conscious mind (though with more effort), e.g. dieting is a small form of resisting the body and overcoming its signals that usually control us and influence our action.

By learning to have control and refusing the automatic 'personality' and body singals we can become better.

We are the mind, being influenced by the body, and with an illusion of personality manipulating our actions.