Vipassana

Far from a mere festive disguise, the traditional mask is an ontological operator. It is not ​Effacement of the “self” and sacred possession: In sub-Saharan Africa (Dogons, Baoulés), in the Americas (Hopi, Inuit), or in Greek and Shinto sacred theatre (Nō), putting on the mask is equivalent to a temporary death of the individual. The officiant ceases to be himself in order to become the receptacle of an ancestor, a god, or a nature spirit. Bearer of the soul, a window onto the other and their individuality.

Mediator between worlds, the mask is the threshold that separates the visible world from the invisible, that of spirits and the dead. It protects the officiant from the abrupt breath of the sacred and offers the divinity to contemplation, to sustain its gaze which, if it were not disguised, would consume man; the mask interposes itself, creating a salvific boundary.