A True Voice

[When the Master had once finished talking, he stood up and said, "If tonight you understand it all, get up early, seize a sword, and lop off my head: that will be the end of my chatter!" Then he pulled up his robe, shook it, and said, "How about this?"](https://zenmarrow.com/single?id=242&index=yun

In place of a monk he said, "I must not let you down, Master."

In searching for sword/blade/razor content, I found a second Yunmen flashing case. This time, he doesn't even have the excuse of "Late Night Giggles".

Aside from comedic outlandishness, what comes to mind is whether this kind of talk/behavior is compatible, at all, with concern about how one is perceived in the court of public opinion. Is speaking with one's true voice susceptible to half (or quarter, eight, sixteenth, ten thousandth) measures intended to placate or ingratiate oneself to listeners? Can you speak with a true voice if you derive some portion of your self-worth from the response your words elicit from other people - or is that formulation incompatible with true speech?

Submitted July 07, 2022 at 08:19PM by Gasdark https://ift.tt/X61zRuE