To live consciously and to play our individual parts properly in the drama of life, we must live from that part of ourselves that is real. But this is easier said than done. In the course of living, we quickly forget the innermost centre of our true being and are never quite able to ‘be’ who we truly are! We observe people around us, and ourselves from time to time, and sense that something is not quite right in ourselves, with our thoughts, feelings and the roles we feel compelled to play. We have, in a manner of speaking, ‘fallen out’ of our true selves and have become pretenders, people who live in a world of make-believe. It is only in the eyes of very small children that we glimpse and remember that spark of life which is ‘the real thing’.
This feeling of deadness happens quite early in our lives. As the young mind awakens to the game of make-believe, it soon identifies with its outer image, and in so doing, becomes more and more removed from the reality of the true self. It forgets that the outer form is a mask through which the inner self looks out at the world. The mask then assumes undue proportions and becomes a distinct personality with strong likes and dislikes and particular idiosyncrasies. It believes it is a unique mask and separate from other masks in the world.
The problem is the identification with the mask. So strong is the illusion that we are unable to free ourselves from it and are unaware of the dire need to do so. We forget that the true ‘self’ in each of us is the silent observer and that the outer mask is a facade. We have made a king out of the mask, and in so doing, force the higher self in us into unconscious exile. The mind, with its lack of true knowledge, confines the inner life to a lie. To set the boundaries right, knowledge and discrimination is needed to put the mask and the Observer into their rightful place. It is quite simple really.
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