The Masks of Appearance

Appearances can dominate the mind and cloud our judgment because the mind is where appearance is born, takes residence and seizes control.

The mind gathers information about our environment through the senses using the sensory organs to do so. The sheer mountain of sensory input that is continuously being generated makes it difficult to end the dominance of both the sensory information and our categorization of that input in our daily life. It is the combination of the volume and the sorting of volume where appearance takes hold. It is far easier to assume with casual gathering observations than to uncover the truth behind the surface of those initial observations.

We can see a car, even drive a car, without any clue as to how the car is able to be and do. We can see a car that is a stationary and not realize if it was either simply idle but drivable or if it was broken down and needing to be carted off with a tow. Mostly, we don’t try to find the keys to someone else’s car to discover which is true. This is the same with most of our assumptions based on appearances. We elect to not take off the mask and explore what lay underneath.

We don’t challenge appearances easily. In fact, if we challenge every appearance, we would not be able to do much on this earth and in this society that could affect change on much of anything.

The amazing aspect of the mind is its discernment function. With exploration of the mind, we can begin to unravel how the mind works and why it works in the way it does. We can learn which mental expeditions are the most efficient and effective at retrieving the most rich, diverse data for the most useful and expansive mental functions.

Once we set off on one of these mental expeditions, we directly impact and affect what we are exploring. We change the circumstances. Sometimes, these changes can yield amazingly rich data on what lay underneath the appearance. Sometimes, it yields misleading or fallacious data due to our interference. If we were to walk away, it may return back to the previous state, or we may have started a process of continued adaptation without any further intervention.

Appearances are at the heart of our daily lives. Appearances drive our decisions. Taking off the masks of appearance can assist us in both.