Devotion and compassion are the greatest techniques, the most eminent means. They are a hundred times better than meditating on deities and reciting mantras. In the Great Perfection teachings, we generally say that only unfabricated [i.e., non-conceptual], natural compassion and devotion are important, but we must begin by contriving trust and compassion.
Though devotion and compassion are already present within awareness, your own essence, in the beginning you need to fabricate feelings of devotion and compassion because natural, unfabricated — or uncontrived compassion — do not unfold immediately. However, as you become increasingly stable in awareness, you will naturally feel compassion toward all living beings, thinking, “Sentient beings are unaware of this most precious nature, which is like [awakening] in the palm of one’s hand!”
Devotion is accompanied by thoughts like, “How fantastic to be able to cut through the very base and root of confusion. It is incredible, this perfection of all virtues, this exhaustion of all faults. Nothing is superior to this awareness!” Thus, you gain trust.
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
from Treasures from Juniper Ridge; The Profound Treasure Instructions of Padmasambhava