The Masks We Wear and Who We Truly Are

We all have different personalities. All day we put on the various masks we’ve learned to develop since when we were babies. The more we put on these masks, the more they become who we think we are. So, how do we integrate these different personalities? One of the most amazing experiences in yoga that helps us achieve this is Pratyahara, or drawing the senses inward. We want to bring ourselves to a neutral place so we can focus our senses in, but this is one of the hardest lessons in yoga. The difficulty is most evident when we look at our emotions, our personalities. Heightened emotions happen in life, and it’s hard to say, “Oh, I’m just being silly. Let it go.” Instead, the ego wants to come out.

The ego is responsible for forming the different personalities you put on: “smart,” “stupid,” “yogi,” “professional,” “father,” etc. The truth is that none of these things are really you. You are just pure consciousness in the middle. You must move your consciousness to a place that enables you to sit still and feel the essence of who you are. Who are you without all the things you’ve learned in life, everything you’ve felt, and all of the labels you’ve developed that make you who you think you are? If I tried to meditate and sat there thinking, “I am Alan, yogiraj, and master of yoga,” I couldn’t meditate. I have to be nothing to meditate! I have to be able to let go of the ego to feel my own essence.

Using the tools of Tantra and Kriya yoga, you can draw your senses in to feel your fragmented masks merging back into one being. You can feel yourself as who you truly are. When your consciousness moves into the center of the brain, you feel whole — in complete homeostasis — and balance and harmony fill your body. It is from this place of oneness that you can heal. The most amazing things happen when you become one: duality disappears, ego disappears, and you’re able to expand into Samadhi, the state of yoga. You’re able to move beyond your thought — beyond what you think you should be — and simply feel oneness with the intelligence of the universe.

Realize that we are born from a universal intelligence, and that we are less than stardust. There is a whole universe of billions of galaxies, filled with billions upon billions of stars. We live near one little star, and you are one little speck on a planet that orbits that little star. With the ego in play, it’s ridiculous what we make ourselves out to be. What a big deal we are making of ourselves!

Stop for a moment and feel how you are born from the universe, how you are just part of it, and how the universal intelligence is available to you. Just tune to it. It doesn’t come from an Ivy League degree, from material things, or anything having to do with the ego. The intelligence from which we are born is huge, much bigger than our little brains. We can tap into it when we are able to bring the senses inward, to integrate ourselves, and to sit still and meditate. We become inspired when we can tap into the intelligence that is beyond our minds, when we are in that state of experiencing all things at once. When we tune into that state of oneness and then bring that intelligence back into life, it is magic. Having this knowledge and experience creates miracles in life.

For more information on Alan’s course on YogaUOnline:
The Primordial Song of Life – Introduction to Tantra Cosmology