Daily Meditation: Sunday, May 16, 1999

When you study a face, both from the front and in profile, …

05/16/1999

When you study a face, both from the front and in profile, you often realize, even without knowing physiognomy, that this face and profile do not match each other. And this is normal, because they reflect two different realities. The face represents what we have inherited from our father and mother, and from our grandparents also, in other words all the qualities and faults transmitted to us by our heritage. Our profile represents ourselves as individuals. Our inheritance is a capital which human beings are spending continuously: the more time passes the more our individuality manifests and matches our profiles. When a face, seen from the front, is coarse, but the profile is noble and expressive, that person will live a mediocre and even depraved life during childhood and adolescence; but later, as an adult, he or she will begin to gain wisdom and overcome all these inherited negative tendencies. And the converse is also true. It is of course preferable that both the front and the profile be magnificent. But for the future it is important to know that the profile of a face is much more significant than the full face.