“Tear off the mask. Your face is glorious.”― Rumi
Beyond all conditioning’s of society is where your original face lies and of course eternal bliss. But what exactly is the original face? You may see glimpses of it on a good day when the day just feels right, you just feel right as you are. These glimpses are very common until your past and future orientated mind takes over again. Man is never original. Everything you do or try to be, has already happened before, you learn from people you admire, you follow a common trend a common theme, Why? Why have you not approved yourself yet as you are? Man has too many desires, but fear also that they are incompetent to achieve them, but why is that? The greatest fear man has is the fear of no-self.
No one wants to be a nobody. Everyone wants to be somewhere someday, As a child you have been bought up by parents that always wished well for you, expected you to get the best grades, be good at sport, or at least something so that they feel good, they can talk about it to friends and family etc. In your head a seed was placed, you became competitive, you became mind orientated, anxious whether you would be able to live up to your parent’s expectations and keep them happy with your efforts. Time after time you realize that everything you had done or accomplished was not for you but for your parent’s approval, who have had different set of beliefs and different perspective on life also influenced by others on how to parent etc. In working towards accomplishing their goals and desires they set for you, you forgot yourself, you started suppressing how you really feel, life became a suppression rather than an expression of one’s thoughts, beliefs, and ideologies. I’m not advising you to despise your parents because of this, I am just making you aware of where your insecurities originally came from, your close ones! Have you not noticed how many times you question yourself on your competence if you will be able to achieve or not, in the future?
In life to be free of all your fears and insecurities a positive mindset may be the beginning but it just won’t do in the long run. Be aware of the masks you use in front of people on a day-to-day basis just to get by. Why so many masks? Why can you not be original with whoever you meet or are introduced to? Why are you so closed up? What are you protecting about yourself that you don’t want others to know? Identification with your false self that you have created leads to misery in the long run and on a moment to moment basis, as you don’t know what you are doing with yourself, you don’t know who you are actually doing everything for, you say you do it for yourself, then why are you always stressed about all your actions, why is your mind more clouded, more anxious and fearful? If you are really doing it for yourself, why don’t you enjoy the process? When you directly ask yourself these questions you will realize that whatever it is you are doing, you are not feeling it, it’s all based on calculations of the indecisive mind of a secure future you are wishing for. I have seen many people every morning that go to work, you hardly see a smile on their face, even whilst they work there is no joy, no expression, it has become a chore, they don’t love what they are doing, its just a source of income that they wish to gather for a good future, which is still an optimistic dream in their head.
When you learn to love yourself totally and unconditionally, your masks begin to fall bit by bit, because you become more aware of yourself, who you are beyond the labels you have been given and have been identified with during the years whilst growing up. To love yourself first, you have to accept who you think you are, once you are past that, you will realize your certainty of who you thought you were was just an assumption, an illusion. You will start becoming more attuned to the original self, that is beyond insecurities and fears of what others may think, you will get glimpses of your original nature, you will understand truly, whatever it is you want out of life and finally you will realise for yourself what you have been suppressing all this time and break free from it.
One needs to be aware however that it is very easy to blame someone else for the state you are in, so you have to accept to learn from it as a lesson and let it go. The past is dead, you were naive then, still learning, now you are more aware and more conscious, so be happy. Always have the courage to be conscious of all your beliefs and identities you use in situations where you present yourself to other people, even if it’s your parents, see where your fear arises and observe it. What exactly is it that you are trying to protect about yourself, find that out, go to the root of that memory that constantly bothers you that you still believe to be true, be aware of all your assumptions. Move past all your assumptions of how people may view you if you follow your heart if you be original. That comes out of fear and fear is nothing but mind made exaggerations so be aware. Love yourself totally and watch your mask fall away, this will lead Man to see the original face. The experience of where for the first time you realize that God resides within and without.
“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne
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