Our personalities are governed by our ahamkara; our ego. It creates our self-image, our perceptions, and perhaps our values. It is the “I” that we use to define ourselves as unique creations different from others. It's how we see the world and how the world sees us; it's the outward facade that we project onto the world.
Overcoming our ahamkara is the main tenet of Jesus’s teaching in Thomas; there are 13 logia on the topic. It's a war that we have to fight on a daily basis. And the larger our ego—the strong man (#35), giant (#98), robber (#103)—then the greater the battle we face.
In logion 37 Jesus is asked to reveal himself to the disciples.
His disciples said:
On which day will you be manifest to us
and on which day will we behold you?
They believed he was the Messiah who would lead them to a new world, a new kingdom. Jesus took the opportunity to remove these preconceptions, these dreams.
Jesus said:
When you strip yourselves of your shame,
and take your garments
and put them under your feet
even as little children,
and you trample them
He told them to remove all memories, concepts, images, and even their understanding. To become as children free of their ahamkara, with new eyes to see him as who he really was.
then shall you behold the Son
of Him who is living,
and you shall not fear
Can you leave behind memories; like a ghost? It's hard to do.
Who can so easily lay down habits and images of a way of life, ways of thinking, an understanding of the world?
Yet this is exactly what Jesus is asking us to do: to empty our selves in order that we can behold Him and be at One. We need to chip away at our own preconceptions our own ahamkara.
Here’s a little tale to help you:
A man saw a beautiful statue of an elephant
He said to the sculptor: “what a fantastic elephant,
how can you do such a beautiful thing?”
The sculptor said: “I chip away the not-elephant bits”