The spiritual light of basic nature has no creation or destruction, no increase or decrease. Even though it be tightly covered for a long time, one flash of the spiritual light can extinguish a thousand evils and give birth to ten thousand virtues.
As long as you keep the spiritual light always present, how are you different from sages?
Some ask how to keep the spiritual light always present. It seems essential to be respectful. Only by respecting it can the spiritual light be kept always present. Carefulness and caution are certainly respect; industriousness is also respect.
…Since ancient times sages have transmitted the heart by these means. Nowadays people think that formal dress naturally produces respect. Respect is just a matter of being centered in oneness. When you are centered in oneness, you are naturally free from warp and bias.
The mind is the master of the body; respectfulness is an attainment of the mind. Nowadays when people enter a shrine they become respectful because there are sacred images there — why do they not think how therre are a real ghost and spirit in their own bodies, and do not know enough to respect them?
photo: my beloved brother Russell Bramlett
