As far as I'm concerned devotion isn't measured in terms of empowerments or anything that can be added to your spiritual credit rating. Devotion is direct understanding – and that never has any need of being displayed. In spiritual terms this could sound too subtle, too abstruse to understand – but the same phenomenon exists in the world of the Arts. Almost anyone can enjoy world-class music – but only a proficient musician can know the worth of a world-class musician. The greater your musical ability the more astonishing a master-musician becomes.
JS Bach is a composer of marvellously intricate sonic adventures – until you learn something about contrapuntal composition. Then you gasp. Jack Bruce said “Bach was my greatest bass teacher”. So . . . Bach isn’t some dim and distant figure. Bach is alive and well – and his compositions are as fresh as the present moment. I'd describe that statement as ‘devotion’ – the gasp born of the inseparable nature of developed musical knowledge and critically inspired appreciation.
p19, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.
Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4