Role playing

in the struggle for human liberation, no question is more important than the question of identity. the conventional identity, so important in protecting our vulnerability during childhood, is the chief obstacle to our real identity, much as the dragon of myth and legend guards a hoard of gold. the secret to undermining the hegemony of this false identity is to understand it as an activity, not an entity, an activity comprised of a collection of roles we play in life. and in the attempt to obtain this understanding no approach is more relevant or useful than the study of acting, a study that explores how an actor learns to inhabit his character roles authentically. in the compelling nature of this authenticity we can discover an echo of what it would mean to inhabit our own roles consciously, as awakened and so authentic human beings.