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The Masquerade Ball

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posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 11:49 AM
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The universe around you as a masquerade ball.
Do you take it seriously by putting a mask and playing a part?
Or are you aware that it's all make believe and decide to be true to yourself by wearing your own face?
Or even, you know it's just an illusion but still play along (either by choice or due to external pressure)?

Just like the fancy avatars we use on the internet, most of us put a mask on in our daily life when dealing with the external world. Or we can even have multiple masks, depending where we are or who we are with.
The thing about these personas, they can be used either as shields or as swords.
As shields, we can use a mask to blend in with the rest so as not to be left out and in danger.
Or we can use them to attack, when a sense of injustice creeps up, we use masks to make ourselves superior or to help us look menacing and strong.

I have put many masks on in my life, and I feel I'm running low on them, or better yet, I'm getting bored of them.

The thing for many, and I know there are a lot of people who feel the same, is, there doesn't seem to be a way out of the masquerade.
Be it for fear of disappointing loved ones and family. Or because it would mean starting from scratch, alone, and/or with no clear direction.

Have you broken the mould? What would you say to someone who's afraid to take off the mask?

Peace and love and all that



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 12:24 PM
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I watch the show .. sometimes laugh .. sometimes cry .. sometimes let loose a stream of expleteves in half dozen languages that peels paint off walls .. while wondering if humanity will ever grow up ..

Simple .. its your life .. live it ..



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 12:36 PM
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Absolutely! I get into the game. I play by the rules, stay in character, until bedtime, that is. It all melts away.

I am always discovering ways in which I have been using masks to create certain experiences for myself.

I recently discovered that I have created poverty for a bunch of reasons.
One of those being that I can express my excitement and appreciation of things without the hassle of being expected to possess them.

I love window shopping, going to art galleries, oohing and ahing at beautiful objects and being able to say, "I have no money" which blocks any further pressure from others to buy. Because I don't necessarily want to possess. In some cases I don't want the responsibility that entails.

Then I married a man who wants to please me and tries to buy all that I express appreciation for, and then we had more money so that that is possible, and now I have to repress my reactions, to avoid a surplus of material objects I don't necessarily want. I feel a bit resentful. I have to be all stoic and act nonchalant, when inside I feel like a little kid taking pleasure through observation.

Sigh. Another mask I have to put on. I guess I'll get used to it and learn that particular game, eventually.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 12:49 PM
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a reply to: athousandlives

Did you paint that? I like it.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 02:20 PM
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a reply to: athousandlives

Nicely done. But what if there is nothing behind the masks, what if the masks are all anyone is?



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 02:22 PM
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Even worse for those who search, when one was never wearing a mask to begin with.

strange times.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 02:41 PM
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What might also be interesting is that we act out things we don't necessarily believe in. We buckle to authority even though we know he is just another man. We have weddings, even though we know it is but a frivolous and wasteful custom. We know the truth but avoid it. Maybe this fiction is necessary.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 02:44 PM
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I would say 70% of the time I wear no mask. The other 30% of the time I have 1001 masks to wear.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 03:35 PM
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SnF. I can relate...

"We all where masks, metaphorically speaking"





I came a tiny juice filled sphere.

After that I came a crawling.

I ingested all that was given for the taking till I could crawl no more.

Then I became attached to that which had sustained me.

Cocooned, My surroundings seemed solid enough...

But then I had this breakthrough...

...I saw the light.

I bathed in it for a while, blinking, soaking it all in...

Then I flew... Free as a bird.

The butterfly mask.


"Out there" is amazing. Just do it.




edit on 27-7-2014 by Wifibrains because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:04 PM
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Good thread.
Nothing really to add.

It keeps putting this scene in my mind though:






posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:09 PM
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Its an honor to wear my Mask.

For life.

SnF just for writing about Masks.

MM



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:19 PM
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originally posted by: athousandlives


What would you say to someone who's afraid to take off the mask?

Peace and love and all that


1 would recommend they be themselves always no matter how perceived...

Can it be the observers perceptions of a mask is actually the observer seeing the actual observed.
And so perception-based on the evaluating observers level of awareness of the observed.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:23 PM
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Hi and thanks for the thread.


originally posted by: athousandlives

The universe around you as a masquerade ball.


Yes, amazing isn't it? Maya sure knows how to throw a ball. Except that it hurts! :p


Do you take it seriously by putting a mask and playing a part? Or are you aware that it's all make believe and decide to be true to yourself by wearing your own face?
Or even, you know it's just an illusion but still play along (either by choice or due to external pressure)?


I play along a little bit, but I also change and bend the rules a little bit. Maybe that's my role, who knows.


Have you broken the mould? What would you say to someone who's afraid to take off the mask?


I think I've broken the mould. Or at least, I broke something with all my meditation and yoga, lol.

Dunno what I would say to someone afraid. Hell, I'm still afraid. Taking off 'the mask' can be destabilizing. I guess I would say, go somewhere like Esalen or a reputable ayahuasca workshop to peek behind the mask.


edit on 935SundayuAmerica/ChicagoJuluSundayAmerica/Chicago by BlueMule because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:24 PM
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Thanks for the replies guys, I was just in one of those moments when all I want is to break away from it all.

Unfortunately not everybody has people around them with whom to talk about these things, a salute to those of you!



a reply to: HarbingerOfShadows


Great film, that scene crossed my mind as well, I should have put it in the OP!



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:26 PM
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a reply to: athousandlives

My response would be to find a way to have fun with it.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:32 PM
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a reply to: Aphorism

I think the fiction might be necessary, it helps alleviate the pain sometimes, and it keeps people grounded.
But I also believe it is a curtain, and we need to strive to see what's behind it.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:33 PM
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originally posted by: ImaFungi
a reply to: athousandlives

Nicely done. But what if there is nothing behind the masks, what if the masks are all anyone is?


I think that would be great!




www.abovetopsecret.com...
edit on 27-7-2014 by Wifibrains because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 04:35 PM
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a reply to: skunkape23

No, I wish!
I would give credit to the artist if I knew who it was. I just had it in one of my images folders.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 05:29 PM
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a reply to: athousandlives

And no one is indestructible mentally.



posted on Jul, 27 2014 @ 07:32 PM
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a reply to: Bluesma

Why don't you just be honest with him?

Share your excitement with him, but at the same time say something like, "As much as I love this 'thing' I could never be happy owning it when there are children out there going to bed hungry every night..."

Tell your husband that the happiest he could make you would be to donate the amount of the cost of anything he is ever tempted to buy for you (unless it is something you truly want).

This is what I did, and it was the perfect solution




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