Thank you for your response. With respect, I must point out the problem with your assumption that the personality is an illusion. Perhaps it is a mere semantic problem, but the malleability of personality (and consciousness) does not make it an illusion. Perhaps you mean to say that the idea of a permanent personality is an illusion, and with that I agree. We grow and change, but this does not make what is changing an illusion. I am no less me because I have learned and matured over time. I am no less a self because my self is made up of multiple parts all in interaction with the world in which I am embedded. The same is true for all conscious beings. And each one of us has different experiences, interactions, and changes so each one of us is a unique self. That is wonderful! So sad that some Buddhists seek as their ultimate goal to erase the beauty that they are!!!

As I wrote, the Caretsian permanent self is a false idea, but that doesn’t mean the self is an illusion.