It is quite difficult to be wholly impersonal; in fact it is almost impossible in a world of human personalities where everyone is concerned about his own self and the selves of others, and lives only to develop and perfect self. This means that personality and self are closely allied—if they are not the same. Most students and thinkers deem them synonymous, and we will so consider them; for the personality is what the world considers to be the self of a person, is that which distinguishes and characterizes the man.

Then to be wholly impersonal would mean there must be no evidence of self of any kind, no concern about self, no self interest, no seeking or striving for self. Instead the interest should be altogether away from self and from personalities.

This could mean only that to be impersonal one (1) must be above self, (2) must live above the interests of self and of personalities, (3) must see past and through appearances to the soul of things, (4) must know that what appears is not real. An impersonal one is then wholly unconcerned about personalities and their interests, and about the things of the outer world.

To the ordinary person all this seems impossible of attainment; and for such it is impossible. But for students and thinkers the impersonal state must be attained at least in some degree before any progress can be made toward self-mastery, and before one can have any real Spiritual growth. For without the ability to rule self and to be able to do what he wills as a Spiritual being—man’s true estate, one is bound and subject to his lower nature and is ever held down to the outer, material world, which means to a limited and uncertain existence.

Let us consider then these four attributes of the Impersonal Life.

(1) To be above self can mean only to be above selfishness. To be above selfishness means never seeking anything for self and instead always keeping in the background, coming forward only when there is a need, and then doing what there is to be done quietly and unobtrusively.

(2) To live above the interests of self and of personalities, means that one must thoroughly understand human nature in all its personal phases, through having mastered his own personality; and he thereby knows that all men are not their personal natures but are in the process of overcoming the forces of their lower