The Monk Mayo asked the Sixth patriarch: “What is Zen?”
The Patriarch replied: “when your mind is not dwelling on the dualism of good and evil, what is your original face before you were born?”
Your face before you were born.
In my quest for an emancipated mind, I found this Koan. It stopped me, figuratively speaking, mid-stride. My mind flew directly to the works of Don Miguel Ruiz, and the word “Agreements” appeared before my eyes.
I interpret the “birth” in this question as the forming of a personality. The emerging of a mature person from a childhood they had no control over. The birth process began the first time right and wrong didn’t make sense, but had to be adhered to.
As an example, imagine the child of a religious homophobe. That parent will teach the child his or her own prejudices, even though they make no sense to the child. So the child, most often, grows up with the same unreasoning hatred as the parent.
To find my face before similar (but not as extreme as the example) lessons were taught to me by the world, is the starting point of my journey. Re-learning right from wrong is my re-birth. I want to keep that face. That mask-less visage that loves freely, and lives joyfully, secure in the knowledge that right and wrong are not fuzzy constructs imposed by ancient texts that seem to change based on interpretation and translation, or social norms that have not evolved with society.
Of course, that last bit is just my opinion 
But I digress.
This question is now my purpose. To emancipate my mind, and find my original face. The tricky part, however, comes in keeping it while the world around me continues to dance to its own tune.