Practice
Serviceable mask
Our book’s image for a reliable social or professional persona, compared in Chapter 5 to the legible faceplate of a laboratory instrument.
Also called: faceplate, impedance matching
Limit: A mask is a courtesy for cooperation; it must never trap a person in an harmful role or reduce a human being to equipment.
Many contemplative seekers feel that playing a social role at work or in the neighborhood is a form of hypocrisy. Chapter 5 of our book answers with the image of the Tektronix oscilloscope faceplate (Plate XIV). Without a calibrated faceplate, the complex voltages inside the instrument would be unreadable and useless to the rest of the bench; yet no one mistakes the aluminum panel for the whole machine.
To wear a serviceable mask is to speak clearly, keep our word, and offer others a steady interface they can trust, while remembering that we are allowed to set the role down when the day’s work is done. See our practice of The Serviceable Mask.