"'The original face' is a Zen way of speaking about your spiritual reality, about your innermost truth, about your individuality. The face that you are acquainted with is your personality. The word personality comes from a Greek root persona. Persona means a mask.

"Personality is a mask, and you don't have one personality either, you have many, for different purposes. You are continuously changing your personalities every moment. As the situation changes, your personality changes. Your mask is not one, there are many masks. When you are in need and you approach a friend, you have a different face. when your friend is in need and he approaches you, you have a totally different face. These two faces are not the same at all, and for each situation you have a mask appropriate for it. and amidst this crowd of masks your original face is lost. You are more concerned with what people say about you. Why? – because their eyes, their opinions, their ideas give you your face. Your face is borrowed. If somebody says you are beautiful, you are happy. If somebody says you are ugly, disgusting, you are unhappy.

"Your face is dependent on what others say about you. If they call you a saint you start flying above the clouds. And if they call you a sinner, you are crushed below the earth. You don't know who you are, hence so much concern with other's opinions, so much concern with mirrors.

"Your whole idea about yourself is borrowed – borrowed from those people who have no idea who they are themselves. It is a very strange world, very insane.

"The saying can be understood very easily. That's what Casper Vogel has done, he thinks he understands.

Better to see the face than to hear the words.

"Thinking that he has understood it, he asks

Wouldn't it be better to see the face and to hear the words?

"Once you have seen the original face there is no need to hear the words. The original face is encountered only in absolute silence. words have no business there. Words are left far behind, far away. You have to go beyond the mind, only then can you see the face."