1.4.2 Can we develop a framework, a context, in which to understand the interaction between the personality and reality?

Such a framework can be established, but not by the traditional Western technique of presenting a structured argument which states Its premises, develops its reasoning based on these premises, then leads to Its logical conclusion. Any such intellectual approach is inadequate to the task of understanding reality. Understanding can only be based on experience; the function of the intellect is to assist in organising one’s understanding of experience, nothing more and nothing less.

Instead, the traditional Eastern technique of starting with a presentation of the central point will be used. A function of this book is to provide a teaching, the practice of which will lead to an understanding through experience of the central point or goal. When the practical instructions are followed and the framework within which the consequent experiences unfold is understood, then, at one’s own pace and in one’s own way, understanding will develop.

The central point, the goal of the teaching, is to achieve an understanding through experience that: reality is a process which devours the personality. The personality is a defence against the corrosive effects of reality on the ego, the limiting and relatively illusory sense of the individual ‘I’.

To understand the truth of this requires a perspective, located outside the constraints of the personality, on one’s life experiences, which are an integral part of reality. To attain this perspective, one’s focus of awareness must move, quite naturally and at one’s own pace, from the individual ego-based constraints of the personality to the freedom of the transpersonal self. When the focus of awareness settles in the self, the resulting serenity, clarity and quiet joyousness is the psychological state known as enlightenment.

Once the psychological stage of enlightenment has been reached, many aspects of the personality are understood in a different light. Gradually, one comes to realise that the experiences of one’s life have taken place within a meaningful context. All one’s experiences and sufferings are now understood to have a purpose; but it should be kept in mind that the understanding of meaning and purpose after the psychological enlightenment is different in nature from any such understanding held in the context of normal consciousness.