The Mask | Zen Practice To Reach Our Original Face

As we gather knowledge and experiences in life, we shape into a certain personality. I call that acquired personality together with something, even more, deeper, a false sense of ‘Who am I’ as ‘The Mask’. We keep on wearing the Mask 24x7, 365, without realizing it. The essence of Zen tradition can be summarized as a quest to take this Mask off, and come to the realization of true being. This meditation session is a safe space to put the mask off and aside. Format: Talk & Guided Meditation

Transcript

Hi,

This is Dhyan Se and you're listening to Dhyan Se Meditation Podcast.

This meditation session was given on 18th of March 2019 in Basel,

Switzerland.

In Zen tradition,

They say,

Meditate until you find your original face.

What is this original face?

This is exactly what I discuss in detail during this meditation session.

Last week was fastnacht.

I hope you had a chance to enjoy the carnival.

One of the beautiful things about this carnival is that you put on a mask and you go out in public.

You can choose whatever mask you like.

If you want to be a clown,

You wear the mask of a clown and go out.

Be the clown,

Be the mask,

Whosoever you want to be.

And that's how you interact with everyone wearing that mask.

Nobody knows who's behind that mask.

Good thing is you go out of this festival,

You put your mask off and then you go back to your normal life.

But we all wear a mask all the time.

Not the mask of the carnival,

But in our life,

We wear constantly a mask which is so thick,

Which is so heavy.

And yet we do not know what this mask is.

We do not know who the person behind this mask is.

We do not even know that we are wearing this mask.

Just ask yourself right now,

Just right now take this moment to ask yourself,

Are you sitting here wearing a mask or are you sitting here not wearing a mask?

Meditation is that opportunity,

Is that chance where we can take our mask off,

Even if it is for a few minutes.

When I say this mask,

What do I mean by this mask?

When we are small children,

We go through a lot of learnings in school,

From the parents,

From the culture,

From society,

From so many different sources,

We gather this learning which forms a mask layer by layer on us.

In other words,

In English we can call it personality,

Persona,

Mask,

Costume,

Anything,

House,

Whatever you want to call it.

But this is something which gathers,

We gather this at such an early age,

Even before we know who we really are,

We gather this and then we carry this on throughout our lives without giving it a chance to take this off.

Without knowing who is behind this mask.

And we continue to function with this mask throughout our life,

Trying to know who we really are through the mask,

But not really looking behind who is really behind the mask.

We try to fulfill our desires,

Our wishes,

Our searches for happiness,

For meaning through the mask.

We try to fulfill the mask and not the person who is behind the mask.

In 90s there was a movie by Jim Carrey called The Mask.

It was a very entertaining movie.

I'm reminded of this movie because what this movie depicted was that the person is an ordinary person,

He's powerless,

He's having lots of flaws,

But the moment he puts his mask on,

He becomes empowered.

He can do anything that he wants.

He has special abilities.

To me,

In reality it's the other way around.

When we put the mask on,

We are ordinary.

When we put the mask on,

We are limited.

When we put the mask on,

We are full of flaws.

But behind that,

If you take that mask off,

You are limitless.

You are flawless.

You are already perfect the way you are.

But we don't know who is behind this mask.

We don't know how to take this mask off.

We have even forgotten in our daily lives that we are having this mask on.

In Zen tradition,

When a meditator comes to a monastery,

He comes in the process of learning what is meditation,

Learning what is spirituality,

How to lead life.

He comes to a Zen master asking for teachings,

And the Zen master says,

Go find what's your original face.

And the student is let out to meditate over this one sentence,

One koan,

One question,

What is my original face?

And the meditator spends years just meditating on this one question,

What is my original face?

He or she,

Whenever he finds an answer,

He goes back to the Zen master and tries to answer what his original face is.

And the Zen master with a look knows whether he has found,

Whether he has realized his original face or not,

And he sends the student back.

Only when the student comes back to the Zen master,

And the Zen master sees a complete silence,

A complete awareness on the face of the person,

On the face of the meditator,

He knows,

He knows the meditator has realized,

He knows the meditator has been to a place where he should be,

And then he lets the meditator go.

There is no further teaching given.

There is no further anything further imparted to the student.

He's allowed to go back into the world.

So simple.

One question,

What is my original face?

Such a simple question.

Such a simple process.

Takes years,

Takes lifetimes.

What I would like to dedicate this session to today is for you to take few moments out of your life,

Doing so many things coming out of different backgrounds,

To take this moment to come together with me here,

To unmask oneself,

To try to see what our original face is.

To take layer by layer each aspect of what we think who we really are.

We think we are the body.

We think we are the mind.

We think we are our names,

Our descriptions,

Our identifications.

Today,

Just for a few moments,

I would like you to put your name aside,

Put your descriptions aside,

Put your title aside,

Your country,

Your religion,

Anything that you think you are,

Your mind,

Your thoughts,

Even your body.

Take this moment to put that aside and see what is left.

What is left when all what you think you are is put aside.

Even the notion of what we think who we really are,

Because we have gone through so many learnings in life,

Most of us are also interested in spirituality,

In spiritual quests.

We have gathered so much knowledge,

Experiences.

I would like to request you to take this opportunity to even put that aside,

To say whatever I know about who I am,

Whatever I think I am,

Just for a few moments,

I put it aside and let's see what happens.

This meditation we'll do in three parts.

The first step is to identify this mask,

To collect all what comes to our awareness as we think we are,

Put it aside.

Anything that comes without exception,

Whatever you think you are,

Whatever comes to your mind,

Whatever comes to your awareness,

Put it aside.

By putting it aside means building a certain distance from it,

For a moment,

Not identifying with it,

For a moment,

Letting it go.

Second step is how do you see who you really are?

When all of this is gone,

How do you see who you really are?

You see who you really are in the mirror of your consciousness.

That's the only way you see who you really are.

Your consciousness,

When it's completely pure,

When there is no content in your consciousness,

No thought,

No emotion,

No identification,

When you put that aside,

In that mirror,

In that pure consciousness,

What you see is who you really are.

Don't try to answer this question.

Be receptive.

Take a step back,

Stay in silence,

Stay in awareness,

And see what comes up.

Keep this question in your mind if you want.

Don't answer it.

And in that silence of this question,

In the depth of this question,

Whatever comes up,

Let it come up,

Let it go.

Even whatever comes up,

Even let that go as well in the second step.

When you're completely empty,

When nothing comes up anymore,

Is the time to go to the third step,

Which is to sit in pure silence,

In pure awareness.

Very simple three steps.

These are the crux,

The essence of what meditation can offer you.

This is a simple process which can be practiced in this session and also throughout your life.

You can make this as a contemplation throughout your life to give yourself those moments of contemplation,

Introspection,

Where whatever is your mask,

Whatever is your costume,

Whatever is your skin,

You put it aside and ask yourself who you really are and be in that space,

Have the courage to be in that space because out of that space,

Your true nature emerges.

Your true self,

Your true being emerges,

Which is already the case,

Which is already perfect,

Which is already loving,

Which is already happy,

Which is already joyful.

All you need to do is take the mask off,

Take the costume off,

Take whatever you think you are,

Whatever you think you know who you really are,

Also off for a few minutes.

I'll guide you through these three steps.

The guidance will be minimalistic since we are a smaller group today.

It's a good opportunity to remain silent as deeply as possible without having to have too many words,

Too many guidance.

With that,

I would like you to close your eyes,

Sit in a comfortable upright posture with your back straight,

Shoulders down and gently breathe in from the nose and breathe out from the nose.

Allow yourself to be in this moment here with all your awareness.

For these moments,

Let go of the world outside and turn your awareness inwards.

As your body settles,

And your mind settles,

Take a few moments to contemplate about your mask.

Start by becoming aware of your body.

Let go of the world.

You are in the body.

You are not the body.

Let the body settle.

Let go of the world.

Give awareness to your breath.

The breath is there.

You're not even the breath.

Let go of it.

Let go of the world.

Let go of the world.

Let go of the world.

Let go of the world.

In your awareness,

What you hear is not you.

Your senses are not you.

Let them go.

You turn inwards and remain silent.

Allow your awareness to settle.

Settle.

Settle.

All your thoughts are a part of your mask.

Let them go.

They're not you.

Settle.

Whatever rises in your awareness is not you.

Settle.

Settle.

Move deeper in silence with awareness.

And whatever comes in your awareness,

Let it go.

It's not you.

Let go.

Let this sense of I melt,

Dissolve,

And only silence and awareness remain.

Let go.

Let go.

Let go.

Stay in your depths.

Don't try to return to the surface.

Let go.

Let go.

Let go.

Stay silent and aware.

Let go.

Let go of everything that rises in your awareness.

Let go of who you are,

Where you are,

What you're doing.

Just remain silent.

Go in your depths with awareness.

Let go.

Let go.

No more movement.

Let go of all movements.

Let yourself fall in the silence with full awareness.

Let it all go.

Let go.

Let go.

In this moment,

You have no face.

In this moment,

You have no shape.

In this moment,

You have no mind.

Let go.

No face.

No face.

No shape.

No mind.

No face.

No shape.

No mind.

No face.

No shape.

No mind.

No face.

Breathe in the silence.

Breathe with full awareness.

Stay like this.

No face.

No face.

No face.

You are not.

Only silence and awareness.

The eyes gone.

No face.

Stay like this.

Breathe in the silence.

Bring your awareness to your breath.

Notice your body at rest.

Notice your mind at rest.

Notice how you are right now.

That gently bring your awareness to your body.

And when you're ready,

If you like,

You can stay with your eyes closed,

Or you may open your eyes.

And take the next couple of minutes to just absorb the experience.

Reflect on yourself.

On your inner state.

On this moment.

In this moment of reflection,

Of meditativeness,

Just ask yourself very slowly and gently.

Once again,

If you had your eyes closed,

You may open your eyes.

Okay.

Good.

Last couple of minutes for you all to share,

To ask if there is any question,

If there is any doubt,

About this meditation session,

Or your practice of meditation in general,

If there is anything to be brought up right now,

Now is the time.

Say that again,

Please.

For you,

That's something that you.

.

.

Explain.

I can give you two answers to it.

One,

Yes,

You need a stable posture that comes by practice,

That comes by maybe using the right setup to sit down.

That's the easier part,

Because everyone can sit in this posture if it's practiced long enough.

I mean,

If you start today in three weeks of every day sitting upright like this,

You would not need any other support.

That's the posture part.

But I think for you,

It's not the posture.

It's,

If I may open this up,

It's a bit more than the posture.

It's something where you don't want to let go.

And until you let go,

It becomes that chicken and egg problem.

What you want out of the meditation is only when you will let go,

Only when you are ready to lose in that sense,

If there is that control,

That fight,

Internal,

You have to let go.

Just for even a few moments,

You can do it alone,

Or you can do it with me,

Or you can do it with anybody else.

But that,

If you would do that,

You will see that even right now with the posture that you have,

You would not be struggling at all,

Because that struggle is not physical.

That struggle is on many levels where you have a lot in place,

A lot invested in to be released,

To be opened up.

That's how I feel it right now.

And I hope that when you are sitting on your own alone,

Maybe that would be the time to maybe give it a thought and try it.

Thanks for asking.

Anyone else?

Yes?

I feel that if I just try,

This was a very,

Very interesting experience,

To shed one layer up from the other,

Because I've lived long enough to,

Or lived very long,

It's been like that,

To have experiences,

Of course we always meet people throughout our lives,

You know,

Different countries,

And sometimes we meet people who mean a lot to us,

Or we haven't seen for a long time,

And then very often I've had experiences that people tell me,

You've become the person I thought or hoped you would become,

Or I've always thought you would become,

And yet this is just an image I give out,

You know,

That people see you in a different way than you see yourself.

And that always makes me think,

But I think,

Well I'm all these things,

You know,

I'm the person you believe I am,

But basically this is not me,

And I'm sitting and then shedding one layer after the other,

After the other,

I have an experience of nothing in the end,

You know,

As if I was melting,

Melting into my environment as something,

Nothing,

Nothing,

I'm a shape,

Just an existence,

Well I am something,

My consciousness perhaps,

Melting,

I'm not also you,

And I'm not this person,

I'm not even the little girl I used to be,

I'm just a being melting into my environment,

I think it's marvelous,

This is the only way I feel it is wonderful,

And I'm even just existing as something,

Melting into my environment,

Do you understand?

Yes,

I follow you.

May I extend that?

That last part,

That I am and I exist,

If you also drop that,

That's the tough one,

Because one struggle you already overcome,

Where what everyone wants you to be in,

You let that go and shed all of that,

And then you are somewhere in a state where you say I am,

That's half the journey,

That's dropping the persona,

The personality,

But to be aware of yourself means that you drop the I as well,

Only then,

Only then,

And then the experience is complete,

Before that the experience is half,

Try that,

And see what that brings to you,

To even in those moments when you are shedding of the rest,

Don't be shy of even letting go of that I am,

Not just intellectually,

But in those moments,

Everything,

That's the message from this session today,

That's the message from this experience of meditation,

From,

It doesn't matter which type of meditation,

Which type of practice,

This is one common message,

That when you reach to a point where all that you did not want is not there,

But there is still something,

You even have to let that drop completely,

Then the meditation is complete,

Then you are there,

Finally you are there,

Until that time that I am,

Which is there,

That's a substitute,

That substitute is still there,

And you need to put the substitute in its right place,

Even for a few moments,

You can pick that back up,

You can put on the mask again,

All that is still available,

It doesn't go anywhere,

It still remains if you want it to remain.

Thanks for sharing.

If there are no more questions,

I would like to close the session by deeply thanking all of you to be here with me in meditation,

In silence,

In patiently trying to sit in your full awareness,

In your silence,

I hope you can practice this back at home as well.

Namaste.

Reviews

It is like wrestling an alligator and my ego is the alligator. I have much work to do. Thank you for this wonderful practice. 🩷

I appreciated the longer meditation today. It took a while for me to let go into the silence and then I kept coming out of it, though I realised it never went away but continued to flow despite my mind’s tugging.

Beyond beautiful. I life was played back from the present to the childhood. The thing that I was left with once i removed the ‘I’ was to experience myself as a mass of energy.
Namaste 🙏