In ordinary language, the word “mask” is synonymous with “false appearance,” hence with insincerity; this is plausible from the standpoint of ordinary psychology, but it is to lose sight of the fact that there are sacred masks and priestly vestments which express either what transcends the wearer, or on the contrary express his transcendent substance itself. It is thus, moreover, that in historical religions an upaya serves as the vestment of the “naked truth,” the primordial, perennial and universal religion: symbolism transmits the heavenly Message and at the same time dissimulates the provisionally unassimilable mystery. [GTUFS: PlayMasks, The Play of Masks]

Mask / Veil: By the veil one wishes to appear “less than one is” since one desires to “vanish”; by the mask on the contrary, one wishes to appear to be “more than one is,” since one’s intention is to express something that one is not, unless the mask serves to manifest the very “heart” of the wearer and to specify thereby a personal value – which actually is transpersonal – and which otherwise would remain invisible. [GTUFS: PlayMasks, The Play of Masks]