We must try to have faith first, the genuine devotion first, then study, then practice, then meditate

Of course studying is very important but even more important is devotion. As of devotion, studying, hearing, thinking and meditation and everything is important; [and] everything becomes very useful and every effective. When you don’t have any devotion, [then] your learning, your hearing, your meditation are empty, empty form, not very useful. Therefore, we must try to have faith first, the genuine devotion first, then study, then practice, then meditate.

Of course, we can develop [faith] and we have good conditions [for] good faith because we’ve heard the reason to have all the benefits of having faith. Like I said, we have seen a lot of Tibetan monks who are very scholarly but they don’t have enough faith and devotion in the Three Jewels. They even do not believe in cause and effects. They even criticize the view of interdependent origination, cause and effect. In Tibet it happens right now. It shows that intelligence and smartness sometimes can turn into the bad cause. What can fix you in the correct path is the devotion. If you can investigate this honestly, only then you can understand.

 Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche, “DEVOTION IS ESSENTIAL – Not Intellighence or Smartness”