Masks and faces.

On the other hand and in a general way, it is obviously necessary to distinguish between the mask out of charity and the mask of malice; the latter is insincere, the former is sincere. In ordinary language, the word “mask” is synonymous with “false appearance”, hence with insincerity; this is plausible from the standpoint of ordinary psychology, but it is to lose sight of the fact that there are sacred masks and priestly vestments, which express either what transcends the wearer, or on the contrary express his transcendent substance itself. It is thus, moreover, that the historical religion, which is an upāya, serves as the vestment of the “naked truth”, the primordial, perennial and universal religion: symbolism transmits the heavenly Message and at the same time dissimulates the provisionally unassimilable mystery. 

The Play of Masks 

by Frithjof Schuon 

ILLUSTRATION SAMIA FARAH/PICTURE ANJA AICHINGER