Nobody is ever satisfied with their face; even the most beautiful people are not satisfied. You may think otherwise, but you don’t know. Even Cleopatra was worried that her nose was a little longer than it should be. Marilyn Monroe committed suicide — a beautiful woman, but not satisfied, not contented.
There is something in it. All faces are funny, all faces are false. Deep down, your being is faceless.
That’s what Zen people call the original face. When a disciple comes to a Zen master, the master says, “Go and meditate upon your original face.”
And what is the original face? The face that you had before you were born and the face that you will have again when you are dead: find out that original face. It is not a face at all.
Have you ever thought about it? The shape of your face is given by the body. It can be changed by plastic surgery. And you will not be changed by the change of the face: your nose can be longer, shorter, your eyes can be different, eyebrows can be different — much can be done now. And you will remain the same. So the face is not your being, it is just the shape of your body. It is not YOUR face. Have you got any face? Sometimes with closed eyes go deep into it… and you will be surprised to see you don’t have any face. God has no face at all — and you are gods and goddesses.
That’s why one is never contented. One can never be contented with this face, howsoever beautiful. This face is not going to satisfy you unless you come to the original face, the facelessness of your being: purity with no shape, the formless, the attributeless. The form is of matter. The form is not of consciousness; consciousness is formless. Your body is a meeting-place of the form and the formless, of matter and consciousness. Your body is a container. The contained is you, and that contained has no face. So always, any face is funny. The very idea of having a face is funny because all faces are false.
Face as such is false.
You always have that feeling that you are bigger than this, that you are more beautiful than this, that you are more truthful than this, that you are more eternal than this. And because of this a great problem arises. Everybody looks at your face, and nobody can look deep into your being. And you are aware, a little aware of your being; you don’t think you end with your face. You may think you start from there, but that is not the end. But for others that is the end, the terminal point.
You love a woman, and whatsoever you do she will never be satisfied, because she always feels she is bigger than this, more beautiful than you feel her. And the same is true about you — the woman may love you very much but you know she has not yet known you; just on the periphery. ‘I am bigger than this, I am more than this.” So no relationship becomes satisfying — cannot be. It cannot be, in the very nature of things, because you know something which is very great, tremendously great, huge, enormous… and the other knows only the face, the body form. You are reduced to a small thing — and whatsoever his praise, it never comes to satisfy you. It cannot.
Many people come to me and ask, “Why do so many actors come to you?” My experience is this, that acting is one of the most spiritual professions in e world. Because an actor moves into so many actings — sometimes he is this, sometimes that — so many identities that he becomes loose. Then one day he suddenly starts thinking, “Who am I? One day I am Abraham Lincoln, another day I am George Washington, another day I become this and that,” and every day he goes on changing. In one film he is one, in another film he is another. Sometimes he is a saint, and sometimes he is a sinner. Only then can he be a perfect actor.
my sannyasins — by and by comes to know, a good actor comes to know, that all are acts. “Then who am I?” In ordinary life you are identified with one thing: you are a doctor, so you are a doctor — morning, evening, night, you are a doctor; for thirty, forty years, you are a doctor — you become fixed with the identity, with the role. It is a role too — but you never change, so you become fixed. You forget; the role becomes your being. When a person has to change many roles, he becomes loose. by and by the question arises: Who am I? All these are roles — then who am I? who is this man who some day becomes a sinner and some day becomes a saint? And some day plays the role of a murderer, and some day becomes a great lover? Who is this man? Who is this being behind all these actings?
To me, acting is one of the most spiritual professions. And if you take life as an acting, you will start moving towards spirituality. Take life as an acting, you will start moving towards spirituality. Take life as acting, a great drama. The world is a vast stage. You are a mother — that is only one role. You are a father — that is only one role. You are a businessman — another role. You are a brother to somebody — another role. You are a son, husband — another role… a thousand and one roles if you watch. And you go on changing your faces. When your servant comes to see you, you have a different face. When your boos comes to see you, you have a different face. Watch it, become a little more alert, and you will see you have a thousand and one faces, continuously changing. It is automatic. You need not do anything — they change automatically. You have become very skillful. Once you understand this, you start moving inwards where there is no face at all.
Do whatsoever you can do. And it will give you a great release; and you wills tart looking at yourself not as the body, not as the face, but as the consciousness. It will be helpful.
OSHO
from : The Divine Melody Ch. 2
