If spiritual practice values the inner self, can clothing and appearance be ignored entirely?

Inner cultivation is important, and your outward presentation also affects how people understand you. Especially before they know you, appearance is often what people see first. Dressing well does not establish spiritual attainment, but you cannot assume others will immediately recognize your inner qualities either.

In my early years, I dressed casually because I felt spiritual practice centered on inner substance and did not want to devote much thought to appearance. I also looked relatively young. One client's mother initially even suspected I had come to cheat them out of money. Only after the matter was satisfactorily resolved did she apologize and tell me what she had thought.

After that experience, I paid more attention to presenting my role and attitude when meeting new people, and made appropriate efforts to dress with dignity. I did not abandon the requirements for inner cultivation. I simply understood that an appearance I found comfortable might not be immediately understood by others. Making suitable adjustments can reduce misunderstandings.

Being yourself still needs to be balanced with respecting the occasion. For example, I do not necessarily edit out touching my nose or yawning while recording, because I hope people can see my ordinary self. But when serving clients or appearing on camera, I still dress neatly and cleanly. If work has clothing requirements, those should also be respected. You cannot invoke being yourself as a reason to ignore everything else.