Masks
Pictured here are masks from the Kaza monastery, that children wore in a Chaam Dance on the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Chaam dance is a lively cultural festival celebrated with costumed dances by Buddhists once a year on different dates.
Masks are ubiquitous. Every face wears a mask that changes according to time, place. and circumstances. Is it because we crave a new identity? Does it arise from an inherent unhappiness of one’s current situation? Or is it something that we learn to do by subconsciously learning from society? While some have reasons to don the mask, others just don’t know better.
Whatever the reason, the truth is that we all wear masks and when the time comes to remove it we can’t do it without taking off some of our skin.
Masks can not only give us a new identity but sometimes they help to hide the unpalatable truth. I believe masks are an absolute necessity but do we really need to play this game everyday. Passing a judgement would be the wrong thing to do because behind every mask is a face and behind that face, a story.
The question that bothers some is do they love me or the masks I wear? Will they stop loving me otherwise? If you’re sincere then love has a way of removing these masks that we insist on wearing and the beauty of it is that it works both ways.
Another perspective is people are more of what they hide than what they show. Give a person a mask and they might just tell you the truth. But what happens when you wear a mask for so long and that enjoy it so much, you forget that there once was a face underneath it. The vulnerability that comes with honesty is not as comfortable as the disguises we dabble with.
After all what is life but an open to all masquerade ball.
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