Ego Mask - barrier to Spiritual increase

"The mask acts like a defensive shroud
to make the inner self invisible
to both the covering world
and to the self."

- John C. Pierrakos, Md,
Founder of the Core Energetics Evolutionary Process

Mask

Most of us don't see the invisible, unconscious mask that we wear everyday for we recognize so intimately with it that we believe it to be who we are. Moreover, we feel we are happiest when this mask is expertly manifested for our friends, family and society. In such a case, our ego gives us a pat on the back, we feel stylish of and we think we're on track. There is nothing that makes the mask happier than to feel stylish of. But such so-called happiness never lasts, and so we need another fix. The mask also loves plotting, planning and scheming, and so it is enduringly seeking and striving for something, whatever this may be.

Such mind-activity is hardly noticed for the most part, because, it is our general day-to-day, moment-by-moment experience. It has become normalized. Without the mask we feel uncertain, needy, frightened, isolated and out of control. This is because without its constant preoccupations we would have to face ourselves, ie face what we don't like about ourselves. So we rarely allow the mask to drop for long. It's too uncomfortable, too painful.

The mask is very, very clever. It adapts and changes to suit circumstances like a chameleon, not unlike the film The Mask in which the magical mask turns Stanley Ipkiss into a manic superhero, signifying his alter ego, or his repressed personality. The mask is de facto a specialist showman, each person's own mask an specialist in its own unique and private way.

The wearing of this mask is a pseudo-automatic response. It can be sad when sympathy for a friend's woes is required, it can crack a joke just at the right moment to make others laugh, it can be poker-faced on the packed train to work and it can offer great, sound guidance to person who is unhappy. Sometimes the mask may have a dominant trait, a characteristic it loves to be, for example being quiet, funny, serious, dramatic, poised, intellectual, extrovert, distracted, dramatic, dominating, depressed, dutiful, respectable, deferential, self-involved or right. There are many other roles the mask can adopt to suit the given moment as it sees it. When it is being this dominant trait, or several, it feels involved, in control, and for a while we're satisfied. But never for long.

When our behaviour and thoughts are determined by our mask, we see only another's mask. It is two masks interacting, not their real selves. A mask cannot see reality for it itself is unreal. Something that is unreal cannot cognize something that is real.

The mask is a filter that keeps out everything that doesn't supplementary the ego's needs and wants. Thus the filter keeps out truth and reality - and God. It keeps out God - Divine Consciousness, Spirit, Source or whatever word you prefer - since interesting the Divine to enter into one's life is to give up one's will for the greater good (which includes one's own good). Since the ego does not wish to be displaced from its noted role it will do all it can to convince you as to why you need your needs and wants and why nothing else must take town stage. But there can be no true spiritual increase without the loss of ego. John Pierrakos, a Psychiatrist and pioneer in the holistic custom of rehabilitation and psychology said, "The mask dampens the vibrancy and buoyancy of the life center."

There are many other words that can be used for this mask such as personality, ego, conditioning, image, filter, mind-identified state, façade body, outer persona, false idenity. There are clear characteristics of the mask that can be stated as follows:

• It is not real
• It gives the illusion of control
• It has many opinions, views and beliefs about oneself and others
• It has you believe your beliefs are real
• It lacks courage and wisdom
• It is self-serving, cunning and calculating
• It is inauthentic
• It makes one dull and lacking in vitality
• It desperately seeks love and approval in others and outer things
• It is unable for the most part to think creatively
• It all the time creates suffering, whether acknowledged or not
• It leads to stress and sickness
• It changes like the wind to suit outer circumstances; it is not stable
• It is often materialistic and success-driven, or abnegates success, but whether way, it is never satisfied
• It blames others and does not take responsibility
• It denies buried, painful emotions
• It resists love, freedom, peace, passion, eternity and God

The reasons why we need the 'mask fix' is because we fear that if we didn't have it:

• we would be consumed by our own emotions
• we would not be able to cope with life
• habitancy would not like or accept us
• we would be isolated, embarrassed and 'found out'
• our world would fall apart
• we would not be able to enunciate our jobs or business
• we would not be able to enunciate our relationships

It is therefore understandable that most habitancy do not want to give it up. But on the road to becoming who we intrinsically are in terms of real Self, there is no other way. ultimately all human beings will face themselves as they are, not just face the mask itself (metaphorically-speaking) but also the vastness of their Being, which the ego covers up adeptly. Let's take a look at what the mask hides:

• Love
• Joy
• Freedom
• Peace
• Truth
• God / Source
• Creativity
• Passion
• Self-expression
• Authenticity
• Integrity
• Real, meaningful relationships
• Self-respect
• power and vitality
• Emotional freedom
• Fulfillment of life purpose
• And much more

All these lists can be added to further.

Of course we use the word mask as a metaphor, and the placing of this imperceptible mask upon ourselves on waking each day is not a deliberate, known decision but an unconscious, habitual one; it's the way we have learnt to live in this world and get by; it's our conditioning. It's said that children as young as three learn to put on their mask. It happens when a child learns that they have a name. Then they start to become 'I am John' or 'I am Sarah.' A new identity is adopted and divorce becomes the deep experience of life. One's name - necessary as it is - is just one way that we start to believe the illusion of separation. Essentially the 'me' and the greater 'I' merge and differentiation is gone. The mask is what keeps us believing that we are separate from others and so we strive ongoingly for a sense of self in externals to lessen the pain of this feeling of separation, even though this feeling is never appeased in this way. But the efforts and power used in maintaining the mask can be used instead for detaching from the need for it and medical the issues that ensure the mask remains in place.

The mask hides the truth of our very Being.

And what is this Truth? It is no less than the person we have all the time wanted to be. This is the irony of the human condition. That which we seek, covering of us in our relationships and temporary fixes, is already within us. It is our very Being. It is the Divine dimension, that which cannot be defined, that which doesn't have a 'me', or a 'my'. If we drop the ego we will see that without the thoughts we have about ourselves there is simply no 'me' or an identity. The great person we think we are is no more than nebulous thoughts! We may at some point see that the one who is doing the doing and being the being must be separate from the mask for it can witness the latter. The metamorphosis of the small self into the real Self, from the caterpillar to the chrysalis and then the gorgeous butterfly is awaiting. As the path of self-evolution progresses, the light of the True Self behind the mask is slowly revealed. The aim is not to get rid of the mask; this is not the point or the focus. The point is to stand back from the mask and see it for what it is - as simply a coping mechanism. And as we stand back, the mask pales into insignificance and can disempower us no more.

Detachment from agendas frees us up. Frees us up for what? For real love. And for creativity. For living out our passions, and playing this game of life with zest. We all have talents and passions, no matter who we are. This is where power is great directed for a life lived from our necessary Self. Thi9s is how we will witness the elusive contentment.

In abiding in the size of the real Self in our daily activities, a peace is available that is beyond the stresses of having to buy into the hamster's wheel of perpetual striving and relentless mind activity. There is no need to go sit on a mountain top to experience inner peace; we can feel it now, in the real world. Like the phoenix rising out of the ashes, the real Self is what will emerge if we allow it to. And allowing it to means simply to drop the mask and just be.

Ego Mask - barrier to Spiritual increase