Drop the Mask

Because in our culture we overvalue the intellect, we imagine that to become enlightened demands extraordinary Intelligence. In fact, many kinds of cleverness are just further obscurations. There is a Tibetan saying: “If you are too clever, you could miss the point entirely.”
    Patrul Rinpoche said: “The logical mind seems interesting, but it is the seed of delusion.” People can become obsessed with their own theories and miss the point of everything. In Tibet we say: “Theories are like patches on a coat, one day they just wear off.”

Glimpse After Glimpse

Sogyal Rinpoche

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People get all messed up on the damnedest theories and labeling: I know I have because, at one time or another, I’ve described myself as a Marxist; Democrat; Republican; Democratic Socialist; a Back-to-the-Earth-Free Land commune member; peace activist; anti-nuke activist; a Free Market Capitalist; Atheist; Agnostic; Born-again Christian; Buddhist; Anarchist; alcoholic, addict; and anything but a human being. Everything I took the label of made fore an intricate weave of ideals and propositions creating a veil that shielded me from seeing my own face. The mask of the true believer is profoundly illusionary. I suppose that the only thing I can say about myself is that I haven’t been afraid to flip over the cow-turds to see what was on the other side.

    I have watched enough folks go to their death bed with ideals such as these and seen them shed it all as the hour approached. Even Jesus Christ is said to have called out: “My God, why have you abandoned me?” and, for the simple truth expressed by this cry, it is the most potent one of all the Gospels. The real work I have been presented is to drop the mask and to actually see who is there.

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