Reading this some thirty pages long mini ebook by Lulumineuse on ego – which she calls “Persona” or “Mask" – I could not help thinking of the eponymous Mask movie featuring Jim Carrey. Of course, “masks” in “real” life are not so grotesque, however that's the idea (and by the way, any irony with existing mandatory masks is purely coincidental).
As always, Lulu provides practical examples from her real-life experience to explain the mask concept, why it undermines all relationships (including the relationship with oneself), and how we can get rid of it for greater well-being both for us and for society. This reading was so enlightening, I felt urged to share it with someone I like a lot. Unfortunately he's not fluent in French, which gave me the idea to translate it with the author's blessing, who turned out to be as excited as I was at the idea. A challenge I'm proud to have taken up for myself but also for all those who will thus be able to discover these precious teachings in a language they can understand.
Below is a large excerpt representing approximately one fourth of the entire text which you may download for free here :
Download e-book (PDF)
Ey@elHow do we behave when we step into our persona or, inconversely, when we are ourselves? How can we avoid getting carried away by our own persona or other people's in everyday life? How can we keep a check on ourselves and align with our magnificent, luminous, and loving True Self?
Stepping out of the persona is the basis of all relationships.
At birth we do not wear a mask as we haven't built a persona yet. It is precisely because they are fully themselves that babies are so fascinating. Take my three-year-old daughter for instance. She is fully herself and devoid of any built form. She does have personality characteristics, but they're not locked into a persona or a role. The persona is actually the role we create for ourselves and retreat into.
This is not a bad thing. It is just an armour, a constructed identity we rely on in order to survive. But this is a real issue when people identify with this constructed identity only, which we may call persona hypnosis. This identity is growing increasingly detached from our True Self, from who we are deep inside. It could be likened to the Small I – the ego self.
In such a situation, we'll tend to endure life rather than perceive it. We'll entertain the belief that everything happening originates from outside, that we are separate from everything. Thus, we do not think we have created what befalls us and rather feel that life hits us. In so identifying with our persona, we cut ourselves off altogether.
We all have our unique way of sustaining this persona. Taking time to figure it out together is already stepping out of the persona. After a while, in our own time, we take off the mask of who we thought we were – the constructed persona. In doing so, we can see what is actually behind it. Right there is an entity, a primal energy. We reconnect to this energy and gradually choose to espouse this truly divine identity, which is way beyond our worldly identity. It is the light within each one of us. It may scare the persona as it could lose its identity. For we are gradually removing the various layers as a pilgrim would – “peeling off” the layers.
This is how we could introduce this concept of persona and True Self.
Incidentally, persona is a Latin word referring to the theatrical mask worn by stage actors.
When we step out of the persona, even though we may, of course, step back in anytime, we're getting better at not locking ourselves within. In addition, communicating with people stuck in their persona may be difficult. So we feel as if we were living in a great theatre play where we have taken our mask off and they haven't. Their persona thus still permeates their responses.
We want to tell them that the play is over, that they can step out of their role, but it's not possible as everything you say is then chosen and interpreted by their persona. It is therefore hard to talk with someone who hasn't dropped their mask.
The persona doesn't want to listen to what you're telling them because it finds it weird and makes everything about them. Do not feed the persona. It is never the gateway to what nourishes the soul. It seeks to respond, not to listen. Besides, there is no point in criticising the persona since we all are at times. The key for not stepping into and staying in the persona and hypnosis has been given to us a long time ago in The Four Agreements, which we will discuss right now. Then we will take a pragmatical look at those specific moments in our life when we step into the persona as well as look at all the keys and tools for not dwelling init and for embodying our true identity – our own unique identity.
When I created my blog, I wrote: “When Lucile becomes Lulumineuse”. Lucile Houssin is my worldly identity and I do not wish to keep this mask. This is not what I am. Beyond our names and surnames, we are all the Light.
Original text by LULUMINEUSE from Stepping Out of the Persona translated from French by EY@EL
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