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The word "Person" comes from "Persona" (latin) and "Persona" meaning mask, a mask that we have to wear sometimes in society. Sometimes we have to be political, we have to use this persona.
The question is: Who are you? Who is your persona? Who do you think you are and what you are forced to do to behave so you can survive in the society.
Love
Paulo
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I am searching “listening, touching, tasting, smelling, looking” for the signs.
I am trying to learn, understand, read between the lines.
I ware a mask so falsely now, dont know who I am.
I can be insecure, fallible. I will however always remember the importance of being positive, to become my true self, my Soul eternal.
It is important not to forget who we are……thanks Paulo, for reminding us to be conscious of who we are.
Carol
I can’t seem to be able to find the answers. When I tried to answer these questions, my mind is everywhere. I can’t decide which am I. Myself or the persona.
Imagine what will the world become if everyone were to leave their persona at home? Everyone will put their thoughts up front, their REAL self outside. Sure there is no mask but is it actually good? Freedom to behave is non existence if you want to strike a balance with peace. If everyone were to behave freely, what will happen to our society? Not all restrictions are bad I believe.
We can’t leave that the other side of the coin behind. We are stuck back to back. You are yourself when you are with your thoughts but the thing is you are never alone. I think they co-exist, you and your persona. You can’t split them. They balance us I supposed.
Aditya,
Thank you for your words, and most of all for reminding me of Khalil Gibran another one of my favorite writers. And “The Madman” he talks about it is me nowadays, now when I shed some “masks”.
I give love and receive it constantly, what I was talking about was my “mask” that sometimes did not stick to the truth, so just to avoid unpleseant situation I would prefere nice lies.
I do not criticise as it is not part of my being but I do tell my opinion now. Before, I did not dare to say it when I was asked and knew that truth will hurt, even told with simpathy and love.
Thank you for considering me worth of your thought and help.
I think that love is uniting us and help us to clear misunderstanding.
Love
Luce
have tried all masks before… love to wear no mask these days. People dont see differences when you match their mask.
hi Paulo… i read your last post on your blog… i find it very interesting and something to reflect on… can i share it on my blog??
Howewer… it’s too simple to say… i am what i am or i’m a true person ever… unfortunately we are too often how other people see us… in the way they want to see us… i think that our Persona, our “mask” is created by the others… and it’s so difficult to take off when we are in society; we are an image mirrored in the others’ opinion… so… i don’t know well who is my Persona… i could try to show a better Persona… but this will be another mask…
definitely and unfortunately even if we think to be in a determinate way… at the end who say what Persona we are is only the mask of the person we have in front of…
congratulations for all your works… bye… Emilio
The question you ask happens to be appropriate cause people like us often have to do things which are not in our characteristics but as we live in a society we have to do those things against our will.
I often have to wear a persona to be a social person who is bound to please the society and it’s ways….
Sometimes even when you feel messed up,you have to push yourself to the limit to force a smile and you know that the person that is smiling is not you but the society force you to do so…..
So we all are such two-face miserable creatures because of the ways and binds created by our ancestors and ourselves……………
Every morning, I wake up, I take the same roads, I interact in all sort of ways feeling like a severe hypocrite! As I long for freedom of this “personna” which I am not, the person in me tortures me on the inside trying to break free, asking me to release his harness… The thing is not me trying to hide myself, but the others not accepting. This dilemma between all these social hypocrisy that supresses women in a lot of societies and all the needs i have, all the things i wanna be and do leave scares upon my soul, turning me into a dead spirit. I have learned to look beyond the image, to see what people are saying behind their weak voices and expressions. It is dear paulo a struggle having to be what we are not and denying ourselves…. we do mask all sort of feelings, all sort of values, we call our unability to revolve perseverence and our pain purification, and a lot of us dont like themselves… I am so taken by this question because it is so important, in me i have a thousand people, some of them i use to be accepted and get to certaain purposes, and the real me i turn her away simply to soften the truth!!!
My few sincere thoughts to Paulo Coelho,
True.We are necessited to wear a mask, either of constant laughter or seriosity.Maybe for now we do need these masks of politeness which resemble our highest education, in order to create an acceptable ambient that moves us forward without having us hurt eachother. Then again one can’t stop to wonder how these same masks that claim to protect us from one another,have brutalized humanity through wars and the lowest of behaviors. But not a worry, as masks were introduced by the ancient, one day their only place will be on our walls, as ornaments for us to reflect on the sweet dark past.
If a person is always the same, how can she change? Throwing all the masks away may suit for someone with a strong sense of destiny.
Masks allow us to explore unknown areas, seek contact with different types of people and experiment with our skills. Masks know people who could never interact with each other but for the owner of the masks they all are important.
Say, you are in an open-for-public arts class. Enter a well-mannered, likeable man, whom everybody takes an instant interest to. He can’t much paint, but because of his good nature everybody loves him. What other students learn to know about him is that he has family and works in an office. Sometimes he goes out with the other students and they enjoy liveful conversations in shabby bars.
He is a CEO of a big company, but he chose not to tell this to the other students. Leaving the role of CEO outside of the class he took the first steps on the path which has been his life-long dream – to become a painter. To his surprise he got to know other people alike him, although he had never before been able to imagine that he would have anything in common with a 23-year old waitress, mason and school teacher. Yet, these people seem to be ones who truly understand his aspirations.
He entered the class with a mask and met people who will change him and thus help him on his path.
Or did he enter the class as himself and is wearing masks at work, at home, at his kids’ soccer practises?
If he is himself at the arts class and decided to be that person all the time, in everything he does, he would loose his job, his kids would be bullied and the family would need to move somewhere else because of the financial strain. Why would he do this?
If he felt he has a divine duty to fill he would not hesitate. But right now, the needs of his family and hundreds of employees come first. He’ll continue wearing the masks, the same masks that made it possible for him to become happy.
As for the arts class – he has realised it has had an impact on him as a CEO as well. Perhaps one day he understands what his real calling is and feels free to drop all of his masks.
What if your mother decided to stop wearing masks and you realized she is not the person you thought she was?
I am weak and ignorant, hence I need the masks to become stronger.
chaps !
when we are discussing personna, and it’s important that we get a hang of it, if we are to ever ‘know’ the real ‘us’, i feel the following by Kahlil Gibran may be a good ‘input’ to ‘ponder’.
How I Became a Madman
You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long
before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my
masks were stolen — the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven
lives, — I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, “Thieves,
thieves, the cursed thieves.”
Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses
in fear of me.
And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a
house-top cried, “He is a madman.” I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed
my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my
own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted
my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, “Blessed, blessed are the
thieves who stole my masks.”
Thus I became a madman.
And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the
freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who
understand us enslave something in us.
But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail
is safe from another thief.
LUCE u have said
“People ask me why I changed when I answer their questions honestly and frankly, not nicely packed and politely embelished.” one must understand that “Truth without love creates criticism” ( Laotse). If u find your ‘truth’ see as criticism by others, maybe love is lacking, if u find your ‘truth’ resulting in criticism from others, maybe love is lacking. many of us tend to beleive that its enough to speak the truth, but in ‘sankrit’ there is a saying which means “speak the truth, speak endearingly, better not to speak if one can not speak endearinly” there is a reason for such an injecture, many a times we try to ‘shoot’ down others firing our salvaos from the sholders of ‘truth’. hope u r not hurt, by this, see i have nothing to gain by saying this here, two annomymous charecters, u & me, communicating in a fleeting moment. if u ponder over what i have said, maybe the alone and lonely stuff may become clearer.
love
aditya
MR.PAULO COELHO im a big fan of the words you write word by word i jst feel it deep in my heart i dont know if anyone else feels these but the way u talk about the universe is just so beautifuland inspiring the first book i read was the alchemeist by accident and i read it many times trying to figure out why when we are so sure and passionate to do something with a big emotion being sure ill result it just drops to a big dream and in our insides we just say naaa its not pssible i mean i think that wathever i want i can do it if i do it with a good and positive attitude butthen we get to a point where we just see the world spinning around and wat we think is ,is not and thats where we go to the outer world with this mask trying to show that wer happy and that we have everything we one but is just a lie cause deep inside you u know its not true and theres that big dream stuck
im sorry for writting so much but theres just so many things i want to say but is hard for me to explain what i feel in words i get confussed trying to say so much and i mix it all up
it was my absolute pleasure writting in your blog for the first time and i feel your words deep in my heart thanks for cheering me up
Marianella Subia
The mask I wear is one of confidence. I’ve applied the mask so well, it appears I’m no longer putting on an act to survive in the play of life, however, when alone, the mask comes off and I experience the dark side of insecurities and uncertainties. I wear the mask to adapt to what society accepts of me (in the corporate world). I wear this mask to be accepted (in my family).
Slowly but surely I peel away the mask when I feel its safe to reveal parts of my true self without fear of being rejected. So my mask is yes an illusion even to me. A defense mechanizm of sorts.
HOLA Q TAL…
ME GUSTARIA PRIMERO QUE NADA LA POSIBILIDAD DE UNA PAGINA EN ESPAÑOL QUISEIRA DECIRTE MUCHAS COSAS… ME ENCATA ESCRIBIR Y LEER TUS FRASES Y CADA PALABRA ME SUSPIRA PARTE DE MI VIDA….
QUIERO COMPLETAR ALGO IMPORTANTE EN MI VIDA YA QUE ME DIAGNOSTICARON UNA ENFERMEDAD Y QUISIERA Q ME AYUDARAS A ESCRIBIR MI PROPIO LIBRO…
I don’t actually always know who I am. I have to admit that my own reactions to certain things surprise me. I think sometimes you don’t know until you are put in certain circumstances.
Times when I may wear a mask is when I used to go into work and not like particular people but had to get along with them otherwise possibly lose my job, acting like everything is okay when I’m angry or hurt – for the sake of peace. Sometimes you just need to put on a mask. You can’t always show your true feelings. Being polite to people who I’d like to say a thing or two to but refraining so as not to hurt another loved one i.e. my beloved nephew’s cold and distant and absent father.
Kathleen xxoo
Am an angel,the chosen one of God ,but i wear the mask of human to understand them better,and myself better.To survive one has to wear mask,not necessarily to hide the real self but to understand the destiny of mine.Human mask gives the freedom to act in certain way which we can’t so without.
love hope
To survive the socity is to survive ourself. With a mask noone survive
My mask is me, and its invinseble, and thats makes it easy to see others masks…Unfortantly, but I live in paradise so i dont care, like a newborn baby…
Just thought, but an answer…:)
Interesting question, yet tricky one..
hmm.. I think, our personality built by our surrounding society and environment. It built our character, our way of thinking, how to make decisions, and also our ways to ADAPT at different situations.
Profesional mask, parent mask, teacher mask, etc. I don’t see that as masks. It is hierarchy. Ofcourse we don’t laugh out loud in front of strangers, and act shyly in front of the person we love. It just simply ADAPTATION.
every living need to adapt to their environtment in order survive. Maybe, sometimes when we are adapting to something, we don’t act like we really are.
That why we created in pairs, so we have a place to come home, place where we comfort in, and need less adaptation.
So true for me too dear Shahad, though I would add.. in the eyes of God.
and don’t you think that there are things we should overcome?
“those who will overcome themselves, I will feed from the tree of life..”
Revelation of St. John
love
Agnieszka
Hi
I have found that the thing most people like to talk about and explore is themselves. It’s a fundamental question, without a definate answer.
My favorite person Mr. Paulo,
*sigh* ur question hit right to the heart. unfortunately, we have to wear masks sometimes .. I think of my self is a simple person who is trying to find her own way in this life .. a path that can brings me happiness, love, satisfaction and peace.. i can’t think of a specific persona .. sometimes it can be a smile ..
I think i can be everything i want to be, but this limit ends when it comes to “hurting” other ppl, which i concerder them to be my family .. sometimes the things i want to do or be .. in society they are either “sins or shame ” ..
Persona? What is my persona? It is that calamity over there on the floor, in the corner. Those shattered slivers of earthenware, that pile of shards that looks like it once might have comprised a flowerpot–one that might have been worn as a hat–or a heavy clay mask, either ceremonial or processional, nuptial or funerary. I went to school once to learn to make masks, to learn to wear masks. It took twelve years, plus another six, to perfect my fear of my own face. It took red clay, wire and raw blood, blood of my own letting, blood of my own veins to make this thick river-mud from which the thing was constructed. I wore it, though it rode heavy on the muscles of my neck, though it made my shoulders ache, pushed my feet deep into the hot heavy sands of the earth. I wore it proudly. Even defiantly: “I am not me. You don’t know me. No one knows me. I am secret. I am mystery.” Then one day, not so very long ago, I stumbled and fell beneath the weight of it. It was a crushing blow, this loss of identity. All in a rage, I ripped the thing off my head and threw it against the wall. It landed in the corner there, just where you see it now, all in a heap. A pile of potshards. That’s all. Nothing more. I’ve been told I must pick the thing up now and repair it–put it back on, wear it. Collect all the disparate pieces in a dustpan and glue them ever so carefully back together. That is what is called “getting better.” That is what is called “becoming a contributing member of society,” what is termed “being sane,” being “normal.” But what if my contribution IS that shattered heap? What if I scoop it up, just as it is, and place it upon a pedestal, stand back and call it “art?” What if I make of that heap, not another mask, but a book?
Savita Vega
I think I’m my “secret” inside, and all the masks I used every day I’m afraid.
I think both are a side af the all, I feel good I wear a nice mask, I feel bad, I don’t wear mask, the bad character avoids it, what means, masks are use to agree the others, or to give them an specific view of yourself, what converse the mask in a usefull tool.
Being too autentic could be a serious problem, there is no need af saying the trueth if your are nos asked to do so, or to expose our feeling all the time…. Viva las máscaras !!!!
Dear Jessica,
I don’t think that “you don’t want to show…”, I think that sometimes you simply don’t know what you should or shouldn’t do. There are moments when one thing is to feel like doing something and the other to go for it; it takes a lot of understanding what is wrong and what is right, no matter what our inner self tells us,
“no man is an island”, right?
love
Agnieszka
Hi Paulo! is a question that I got a lot of time.
I think I’m in a lot, each has a different face and fight one another for balance.
Faced with society try to use the mask of sanity and balance that nobody knows that I lack, but I can survive and as soon as I can demonstrate some of my who was not frighten him or encasilla me .. .
So after a keyboard can be dreamer and poet, compared with a sensitive film (sometimes extreme jaja) in front of my passion or sexual partner, compared with the harsh reality: dreamlike. Faced with a weeping outside a smile that erased that pain … But among all that can not be even that is the mire with a cold heart, enjoying the sufriemiento and lies …
I am not alien to it, and like all … I have been a victim of that, but I prefer to cling to the good things that provokes a helping hand, the wounds heal faster …
One chooses that side, and when bottomed out and there is more where fall …
(who knows which had salt to taste test?)
Are these brands in our soul that we make every day … They prefer to keep what they give me the warmth …
It called wall that credible image to sell to the world, but all run as fast and look so fleeting … and perhaps want to know who is arrested one day and see something more than a gray position, and there begins the adventure of Defifered and spinning all my myself, to know at the end.
For now I drawing this conclusion … and seek to put into practice … which seeks to mirror that was reflecting.
Kisses!
Paula Riflou
Argentina
1.7.1980-lightning birth…still remembering
07051994-first dream which gets real one week later
dreaming
seeing
sleeping
falling
fightning
learning
04012001-first realdream one time
learning
seeing
growing up
11122004-stopping time for a run
falling
falling
falling
falling
now?
standing on the top of the mountain
How I am?
I am Nia Wind.
I can remember my birth, I know what the future will bring us. I know where the ways split. I can hear gods voice and I am the one who is awake by the breath of the holy-spirit. Jesus came along my way and washed me with his blood.
My dreams are getting real. Every day. Every moment.
I am the one who comes down on Earth with the lightning. Also..Still remembering.
but I learned.
I learned how to love.
The wind is hearing on me and the clouds follow me if I want. The deaths are with me, holding my soul with their lights, so it couldnt demaged.
Also: I am the one who have no problem to go down on my knees in front of an angel. I will not lead, but I am the fastest so I must. But I go on my knees.
My sword?
thinking..i guess :-)
Opcoming?
*justkidding*
Nia Wind
hello paolo? everything ok? i think the most benefit a human being can develop is to realise that the “mask” usually is something which has been got from parents, to make you adequate to society. and the second benefit is to realise that the most real part you have inside is much powerful and positive, and that yo u don´t have to sacrifize it anymore. Anyway, all these requires to look inside. Romni
when all is quiet and im alone i get a glimpse of who i am..the guilt of denying myself causes me to turn the telly on and fill my head with enough distraction that will help me forget the reality of who i am and the guilt i feel for abondoning myself and becoming one of them..there is an emense feeling of self betrayal and shame so much that i must keep moving because to stop and ponder gives me deep sadness..why do i do this to myself?? the reason is because i would have to accept responsibilty and pain for all the mistakes iv made..to forget about them is to forget about who i am..that is the price i have to pay..
I think Maria has really nailed it!
Our persona is all the things we wish we were and pretend to be, all the things we wish not to be and it is the image we project to the world – basically the way we wish to be perceived.
Over a lifetime we strip away all our nonsense and the nonsense that we picked up in our family lives – if we are lucky we can learn to observe the world and ourselves and start to find out who we really are – I think the finding out part is the adventure and my real persona is all the things I have been over my lifetime.
I think thats what we mean when we say ‘get real’
Regards
John
London
bo0om paulo,
a perception of a vibration , , ,
a _ _ _ state of mind. . .
bo0om___shiva___bo0om
love
fLUXman
en verdad es una de las preguntas mas interesante que has hecho en este blog. hace una semanas escuche -casualmente- sobre una teoria que dice sobre los diferentes yo que existen, por ejemplo mi yo interno -el que nadie conoce- solamente yo y el yo externo que es el que yo quiero que todo conozcan de mi , aparte estan los diferentes yo que existen en la mente de cada persona que conosco y que me conoce. entonces , yo por mi parte trato lo mas posible de mostrar mi yo interno – mi verdadero yo- , sin importar lo que diga la sociedad de como una persona debe de ser. no me gustaria llegar a los 70 años viviendo con una mascara tan solo porque las demas personas querian que yo fuera asi.
peace.
ismael.
We need many masks to achieve something…Sometimes you need a certain mask to be respected or to be loved to be convincing or to be heard or to be Loved or just to survive! -Tho’ I think the “mask of wanting to be Loved” is vain in the end. If Love is under some condition it stops existing! Love, agape is unconditional and all forgiving as in understanding the humanity in everyone of us.
My masks are: Wife-mask, mother-mask, singer-mask, politician-mask, professional-mask at work, humor-mask -when ever needed to escape!…Without masks I am sometimes sad,feeling sorry for myself (tho’ I can’t explain rationally why!), broken,small, scared, worried…Playful, childish, sometimes near God ,simple little 37-year-old girl.
One of my mottos are: If you show your cards, the hand you have -who would hit the knife on the cards? I mean, people do have too many masks -are they out of fear or insecure? I don’t know. I’ve lived so torn childhood with sick mom amd with no selfesteem what so ever that I try to use masks as little as possible.
I’ve come to the conclusion that thicker the mask is, the harder someone tries to break it in pieces. So, if yuo know me, you don’t have to “read” me. Tho’ I have to use certain masks to survive and also for behavior reasons, I try to be as real as I can get.
Actually when I break down and am small and weak…It’s the price of being genuine me? I give so much that the cup is emptied every now and then. Does that happen to you? You’re just…Empty and have be broken to be built again?
Love, Sanna
Another thing Paulo,
Since I started to tear down my masks I am more isolated and alone.
Alone yes, but not lonely !
People ask me why I changed when I answer their questions honestly and frankly, not nicely packed and politely embelished.
Worse of all is when I show my knowledge, inteligence (emotional one as well)and optimism, then I am condemned !
Well, my life is my responsability, I breaze freedom and liberty now, and if I have to pay it with solitude, let it be !
With respect and love,
Luce
Why to have a mask? By no means think that we have to disguise to survive in the society, “only to want to be generous”.
The term of “mask”, always I index it to hiding something, habitually not very well.
To hide something good from the wicked ones, or to hide something bad to the honest ones.
Ultimately, everything is negative in ” the mask ” or is ” an armor ” of the evilness.
We are like we are, and if really we use mask it is that we are not in a neutral place, a change be favorable.
On the other hand, the love, the family, the friends, the allies always will be ” our forces ” to survive.
The heap of total experience ” the way of behaving “, and to adopt the good thing or the bad thing.
” The society ” the way of the opportunity.
I answer to 4 questions on the mask.
A common human, a positive persona, the history, the work and the love. NO MASK! PLS!
Dear Paulo
I am wearing “persona” as you put it every day of my life, ever since I have conscious of my own.
It is not easy task sometimes, sometimes it just come very naturaly.
There are people that know only my “persona”.
I am oldest child and I was always put like example to younger ones: clever, good, brave, hard working, sweet, inteligent, etc, etc… so it became part of my nature to show all that I was and that I was not !
Now I pull any mask I need depending on circumstances and it is hard because I put it when I’m in pain, when it hurts, when offended, when humilated…I smile !
Since I started to read your books, I am more honest with myself, more contented and less clown.
I can say honestly that you have changed my life for better. Thank you !
Luce
I am a very sincere person.Also being kind of shy,if I try to act,or lie,soon I blush.This thing caused me many troubles,because is useles to hide my true opinions.And people expect that the other behave after one pattern.Nevertheless,for my greatest surprise,if happened to take courage and be myself,important persons do appreciate me.I think in the end the natural behaviour wins.
Exactly what I have been pondering lately!
Over the past few years, I have been stripping away the extra masks I used. As much as I’d like to say I never ever use a persona, it is not true.
I try my best every day to be me, my person, true and unapologetic. So, more and more, you will only see me. But, just last week, I was in an awful funk, and why should all around me suffer for it…so I pulled on the Happy Beth routine. Why? Did I save anyone pain? Did it help me?
I’d like to see a world where we all felt completely authentic all the time, without pressure to behave a certain way ever factoring into our persona. Maybe, someday…as long as people are discussing the concept…it is a possibility.
hi paulo,
i have very few words to describe maself am a simple n down to earth guy but am forced to b cool so tat i cud b noticed in society!
cuz if am not cool den i wont b noticed n if am not noticed den its really hard to survive in dis world n live lyf alone!
I feel like we carry around a bag of masks with us. Yet instead of putting them on ourselves we hand them to others. When someone is entertaining they give their guests a mask as they enter the door. We look at it and accept the role given to us. As parents we are constantly handing them to our children and they are rewarded when they wear it well. Thus we learn the system at a young age and rarely question it. It is nice to have it thrown at us and think about it so next time someone tries to hand it to us unconsciously we can decide whether or not to take it or switch it out for a different one of our chosing.
I am loving light.
As I see it, my persona is made up of my emotions, my thoughts, especially on the every day level and my physical body. It´s a combination of the roles I play, both the ones I play consciously and the ones I might play unconsciously.
Who I think I am has changed every time I have grown and outgrown a way I used to be. It depends of who I identify with being, f .ex my parent´s daughter, my husband´s wife, someone with the profession I have. I´m not so interested in thinking about who I am, I´m much more interested in finding ways of being and of expressing who I am.
I used to feel very oppressed by several circumstances in my childhood and youth, to behave and to behave in a specific way.
So I I did not live, I just survived then.
Today I do not experience being forced by anyone around me to behave or survive in society in any specific way. My own thoughts about my self can still force me to behave in certain ways,
and that´s a part of my persona, some of my own inner challenges to overcome.
For me, mask would be something so unbearable to wear for long.
It leaves me sweaty and uncomfortable.
I would really want to remove it but society that i lives in would end me up in eccentric list.
removing my mask and and people will see as soft and effeminate guy.
How i wish the mask is my face.
Or maybe practice is necessary.
Dear Paulo,
Thank you very much for your question.
Maybe the “problem” with me is that … I have been … I don´t know how to express it but …
What happen with people who find antinatural, strange and very difficult to have to learn to become a different person when being in the world?
Maybe that´s why I have been isolated my whole Life? Locked in a bedroom?
It´s scary, but it´s true.
I have to learn then to … to what?
To lie? To pretend things? To be a different one or something like that?
Otherwise I will be called autistic the rest of my Life.
I prefer to be an artist … (half sweet, half sad smile now … )
The artist of my own Life.
Accepting myself the way I am and Loving and Respecting myself; treating myself well. Not so hard like so far.
I have always punishing myself so much. I should treat myself better. There is nothing wrong with me.
I will find something to rebuilt my Life. I am sure.
And if not, I don´t mind. I have already arrived where I wanted to get: to my Heart.
I have been able to Know myself, to know who I am.
I´m close to my True Being.
I got there through too much suffering. Maybe that was my Way.
That´s all right.
That´s all right now.
Love.
It seems an irony – that the more we have to wear masks so to placate society, that the less we are true to ourselves… that is how it can sometimes seem anyhow. Masks seem to be purely for dignity, yet to wear one often involves sacrificing.
I used to enjoy the privacy of wearing the mask… yet now i associate it with not living openly or true to one’s rship with god. [however, masks are still necessary to bridge or nurture differences].
So who am i… aside from being driven through economics, envt, gender, etc as an agent – willing or not; is someone responsible for which mask i choose to wear.
My persona is always about seeing rightly – hence my favourite quote is “only with the heart that one sees rightly” … and since man makes rules and masks.. i am not afraid to transgress boundaries in place if truth demands this.
Most of all, i am driven by memories that guide / remind me of the souls path – hence the conflict : since not always shall my mask be the accepted one..
For me to be true to yourself is the most important role; it is what makes you feel..free.
You may of course behave certain way, be a little calmer, etc..but you stay who you are no matter how others may look at you. Anyhow what they may not accept many times is often what they are afraid to show themselves.
I can see it in my friends’ eyes that they would like to be more open seeing that I am not afraid to be who I am, showing my emotions etc, and.. it is somehow changing them, they become more and more open with time.
love
Agnieszka
I am every woman…a different persona for every second of life…
A mother, a wife, a lover, a warriar,an artist, a boss, an emploee but most of all, a compassionate human being. Sometimes the society has forced me to hide my persona and act according to their standards but this has not changed who I am and who I have become and what I believe in. I may hide but I won’t lie…I may hold my tongue and not respond in many situations…am I being political? or just smart? I don’t like confrontations so I treat ignorance with silence…. I am who I am….I make mistakes and I learn….I have fallen many times and I have picked myself up, dusted myself off and got ready for another action. I love adventure…I love to live on the edge of uncertainty….I see a bit of myself in all the people around me… we are all one….I defend myself when I am attacked…Sometimes I attack mostly to defend other people…
I try not to let my emotions and passions rule my life….sometimes I succeed….I am every woman…..
And recently I follow you, Master Coelho….
And I am Coelhean…
ArtA Kipiani
the world is a puzzle. the name of this this puzzle is God. and every Persona is slice of this puzzle.
we select our mask for showing our position in this Big puzzle.
خداوند ما را آفرید تا خود را تجربه کند د رواقع ذات همه ما یکی است اما ماسکی که برای ایفای نقش انتخا ب می کنیم متفاوت است
مجموع ماسک ها این پازل را طراحی میکند
I am what I am.
As I write this, who I am on the inside, is who I am on the outside, it isn’t always like this, I have had many different masks, different evolutions, (almost as many hair colours!).
I have also had experience of past lives, so this has helped me to realise that who you are on the inside is not necessarily what appears on the outside and that time is continuum and your soul is eternal.
The most important tool for me to survive in society, is to learn quickly to adapt, like a chameleon, but to be conscious of the inner at all times, and not to get lost in persona, or take it seriously. (sometimes tricky)
Thanks for the question.
Society, and specially family in general teaches children to wear the needed “maskes” acording to situations. Who has not been told, please smile to Mr. X, or do not look to Mr. Y big mouth.. and this are things that seems to be non important, but they are.
In my case, coming from a catholic fundamentalist family the masks of my younghood very pretty rigid, hipocrit, and meaning-less.
What I have learned from my experiences and on my own travel of self-knowledge is that as we become more honest to ourselfes the more happy we are. Coherence is the key for health & peace.
So, one of the objectives of my life is that my persona equals to myself. Sometimes masks are very easy to identify but in some other cases you have worn them on from so many time that you do not notice that you are using them. You need to re-invent yourself.
the good thing is that it is possible. And that when you learn about yourself and give thanks to the situation and start being yourself you notice that maskes are not so indispensable as you can think at one point. And this give you freedom, peace and makes you love you more than before.
Maria de Lourdes Eguren
http://www.mariadelourdeseguren.blogspot.com
ha ha ha !! a naughty question that paulo !
if only i knew !! may be i would start thinking / feeling in that direction.
by the way, why do u never, ever participate in answering any of these ‘puzzles’ u throw at you loyal readers, maybe u also don’t know and try to explore these questions through your books, a blog may not suffice for you, still why don’t you write your thoughts a few paras on these questions. not awaiting any answer.
love
aditya
Hello Mr.Coelho…
This question is a tough one indeed.None can confidently say that I’m a person without any “persona”.Well I am also a “Persona” but as long as I have control over situation I try not to wear any mask.Sometimes I am forced to behave in a very conservative, trational way,which I’m actually not and I don’t like either.But you have some people around you who are very close to your heart and you can’t afford to hurt them.Sometimes I’m an intelligent persona:) sometimes studious sometimes ultra-rock-star persona.The reason for this kind of variation is at this age I have different age-group of people whom I have to withstand.There are teenaged friends,My family,especially when it comes to grant-parents it’s too tough to behave according to them,Professors,Friends’ parents,too much pressure.But over all I’m a simple,down-to-earth PERSON,totally afraid of turning 20 and enjoying her late-teenage,flamboint and sometimes short-tempered.:)
It is one of the most interesting questions…could the masks we wear for others become the awakening tool to get to know the true self? Could the true selves be what we think our mask should be…based on the views of who we respect most?
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