I realize you have no referant for "what lies beyond the mind and is greater than the mind".

You'd have to silence your mind...while fully awake and conscious...to discover a referent for that. And you'd probably have to silence it repeatedly and for longer periods of time before you "got" it and discovered such a referent. That isn't easy. Most westerners have no familiarity with the concept of silencing their mind, therefore it doesn't interest them in the first place. They look, instead, for ways to keep their mind busy...(as I am doing right now by typing this stuff on Mudcat!) ;-D

If it did interest them, though, they'd still probably have to work very hard (initially) to achieve it. They'd have to stop their compulsive thinking and just observe silently...observe...listen to the silence...observe...

And how many modern people have the patience or the self-discipline to do that?

One in a thousand. Maybe less. I'm not very good at it, but I do know about it. I only know about it because I have spent much time investigating traditions in which it is practiced, and I've been around a handful of people who are adept at doing it. Did it make them better, stronger, more loving, and more effective people. You BET it did!!! I speak from experience on that. Having seen snow gleam on the far distant mountaintop, I know it is there, and I attempt to climb higher.

I will again assert, Bill, that I am not my personality nor am I sustained by my personality. My personality is created and sustained by my mind, but I am not. ;-D Now, consider this. When I am in deep and dreamless sleep, my mind is silent, and my personality is not evidencing itself in any way. It too is silent. Along with my mind, it has ceased to play any part in what's happening at that time. But I am still there because my being is still there. What sustains me is still there, fully sustaining me, by the force of my being, although my mind and my personality have both shut down during that time of deep, dreamless sleep. My state of being is still pumping blood, digesting food, sustaining the trillions of living cells in my body, and running my nervous system, while my mind and personality are totally shut down.

This indicates clearly that it is not my personality that sustains me, because when it's not there at all, I am still being sustained most effectively.

My personality is a role player that plays a certain role, that's all. It arose as an appendage to my being and built itself out of memories, cultural influences, parental influences, and so on, and it will retire from the stage at what we call death, as will my ego-mind. But in my opinion, the essential state of being which allowed my personality to come forth out of pure being will go on...and will probably allow other future roles to be adopted, and if so, those will necessitate the construction of new personality-mind identities.

That's theoretical, though. We'll have to wait and see. ;-)