Faith-Devotion versus Direct Experience

On the list Way-of-Light@yahoogroups.com jax wrote:

I would disagree with Tulku Urgyen on his statements above.
I will argue that we don't need to connect with the com-
passionate power of Buddhas in order to discover our
enlightened Nature. It's irrevelant. And to say that
we have to open ourselves to this connection or there
is no way this buddha nature can help us, is silly.

Thanks, Jax. 'Faith,' I always have felt, sidetracks from direct experience.
I suppose if you're a total beginner, it might be necessary the way a
so-called starter motor is required to turn over the main engine - the
so-called 'donkey engine' (hee-haw!). But in many religions it becomes
a major factor that detracts, leaving us as donkeys and direct experience
in the hands of the priesthoods (donkey drivers). And then we're REALLY
off track!

When our thoughts cease there is only this naked Presence
easily experienced. How does it feel? Observe the stillness as
being one with it, you are It.

Yes!

Without vibrational waves of thought, it feels serene and
spacious. When Being "vibrates" as the creation and energy
of thoughts... that vibration becomes the "experience", no
longer the serene and spacious intrinsic Presence of the
Stillness of Being with all it's infinite qualities.

Yes! Beautiful!

As Buddhas or Being, we "vibrate" or we are still. In the
moment of "Stillness" we must notice the initial primordial
first "vibration" that always spontaneously arises: this is
the Knowingness of Being (yeshe) that we don't notice when
we are "vibrating" various thoughts and energies that fill
our space of Awareness (like static on a radio).

I would only expand that to 'that we USUALLY don't notice when we
are vibrating"... Ultimately, stillness and 'vibration' just occur
as 'essence and expression' ( Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche). And ' the
initial primordial first "vibration" that always spontaneously
arises' is really always there, isn't it, in stillness? Like our
heartbeat, or like nuclear fusion in the core of the 'still' sun...

The first step is to experience the "Stillness" aspect of
our Being in between thoughts. In that Stillness all the
qualities of our Buddha Nature/Being are experienced
spontaneously... flashes of Wisdom as to the true nature of our
Beingness arise in the moments of total and complete stillness.
In reality there really is no total "stillness" as the subtle
energies of the Sambhogakaya are alway arising. These
arisings are called Wisdom (yeshe) and they are the radiance
of our Being. The "stillness" is called the Dharmakaya. In
Dzogchen the pure aspects of the Dharmakaya is called Kadag
or primordially pure essence, i.e. the "stillness". The
pure and spontaneous vibrations or energies that arise from
Kadag is called Lhundrub. In the state of mind as "no-mind"
devoid of the vibrations of coarse thought, this Lhundrub
quality and it's Knowingness (yeshe) flashes forth as actual
experience. That's our first experiences of our authentic
True Nature or Buddha Nature.

Let's start with "essence and expression" as described in Tulku Urgyen
Rinpoche's quote from "The Fourth Dharma of Gampopa" as quoted by roo
in another posting:

We have one mind, but we need to distinguish between its two
aspects; essence and expression. Understand this analogy for
the relationship between these two. Essence is like the sun
shining in the sky. Expression is like its reflection on the
surface of water.

COMMENT: Nice, although I prefer to think of 'Expression' as the sun's
own rays of light.

... Let's call the sun in the sky buddha nature, the unmistaken,
undeluded quality, this essence itself. The reflection of the
sun upon the surface of water is an analogy for our normal
deluded thinking, the expression. Without this sun in the
sky it is impossible for this reflection of the sun to appear.
Although here is actually only one sun, it looks as though
there are two. This is what is called one identity with two
aspects. Essence, buddha nature, is like this sun shining in
the sky. This expression is our thinking, which is compared
to the sun's reflection.

COMMENT:
Let's try to de-Tibetanize jax's excellent post, and also de-metaphorize
Tulku Urgyen's lovely metaphor, assuming, at least for the sake of this
posting, that my basic experience of spirit and matter as being basically
the same is correct:
-=-=-=
Between the arising of one thought and the next exists a view into our True Nature. From this True Nature shines forth spontaneous and effortless emanations and 'understandings' from the innate stillness of their origin (just like the sun and its rays).

Anyone can have this experience.

Everyone 'understands' and emanates in the same manner, and thus IS
HAVING THIS EXPERIENCE. In fact, inasmuch as spirit and matter are the same, there is no need to do anything other than feel how you, as The Solar Being, naturally produce light through your 'release of gravitational energy' as you continue to 'collapse into your core'. In actuality, the 'innate stillness' of your nature is a roaring furnace as your solar being continues to contract from a gas cloud (a 'thought in the mind of the 'galactic mother'?), compacting hydrogen into helium while releasing light particles (love) and neutrinos (consciousness that penetrates everywhere) as a by-product of this.
-=-=-=-=-=
Additional note:
Curiously, the understanding of both neutrinos and consciousness remain unresolved issues for science. Neutrinos, however, seem to oscillate between various states. Here's a quote from 'How Does The Sun Shine?, " a paper published in the Nobel e-Museum,
www.sns.ias.edu/~jnb/Papers/Popular/Nobelmuseum/paper.pdf

In 1998, the Super-Kamiokande team of experimentalists
announced that they had observed oscillations among
atmospheric neutrinos. This finding provided indirect
support for the theoretical suggestion that solar neutrinos
oscillate among different states... we do not yet know
what causes the multiple personality disorder [???] of
solar neutrinos. The answer to this question may provide
a clue to physics beyond the current standard models of
sub-atomic particles....Experiments are underway in Canada,
Italy (three experiments), Japan (two experiments), Russia,
and the United States that are attempting to determine the
cause of the oscillations of solar neutrinos, by finding
out how much they weigh and how they transform from one
type to another. Non-zero neutrino masses may provide a
clue to a still-undiscovered realm of physical theory.

COMMENT: and of course consciousness 'oscillates between various states
and stages,' so there we go! Neat, huh?