Rely on the Dharma, not on the person

Relying on the Dharma means relying on facts and truth. This is extremely difficult, because when wisdom is insufficient, one cannot realize and verify the facts. That one's teachings do not conflict with facts is extremely important, and not conflicting with what the Buddha taught is of vital importance. Realization means attaining the facts and being consistent with them—this is the most crucial point of practice. So-called evidence means that you have personally verified it and become certain beyond doubt; only then may you trust and follow it. If a dharma cannot be verified, or if you lack the ability to verify it, then it cannot serve as the dharma and fact that you rely upon.

Relying on persons means taking famous people as the authority, establishing what is right and wrong in the Dharma based on persons rather than judging the Dharma purely from the perspective of its principles, meanings, and facts. If the names of persons were covered up, most people would be at a loss with regard to the Dharma, unable to make choices—such a fault is enormous. Studying Buddhism and practicing should rely on the Dharma and on facts, not on persons. Apart from the Buddha, no one can be followed one hundred percent; otherwise, the Buddha's dying instruction and earnest teaching to "rely on the Dharma, not on persons" would become empty words, and we would have violated the Buddha's teaching and his painstaking intentions.

If the Buddha has not certified that what a certain person teaches is such-and-such, or is one hundred percent correct, then one must choose and judge with caution. Only the Buddha alone teaches with one hundred percent correctness and can be relied upon one hundred percent; everyone else, including Maitreya, the bodhisattva of wondrous awakening, is not one hundred percent correct. Every sentient being and every bodhisattva has more or fewer defects and errors. When one lacks wisdom and sufficient evidence, one should not lightly pass judgment; when one has wisdom, one should present one's own direct-perception contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to clarify the issue.

Moreover, no matter whom one is evaluating, the evidence must be complete and conclusive—one must spell out the reasons point by point and articulate the issue clearly. If one cannot, it means one has no direct-perception contemplative practice and no evidence; then one should work diligently behind the scenes in private to raise one's level of wisdom and enhance one's contemplative wisdom. If one has no realization, no wisdom of direct-perception contemplative practice, then one should choose silence and refrain from evaluation and commentary. If one insists on saying something, since there is no evidence, the karmic retribution is also great; and if the commentary is wrong, the retribution is likewise great.

If one is incapable of direct-perception contemplative practice oneself, one has no choice but to rely on the words of famous people—but this belongs to relying on persons, not on the Dharma. Many people only believe in fame and authority; this is a matter of necessity, because lacking the wisdom to discern, they can only rely on fame and authority. If a famous authority has errors and omissions in the Dharma's principles and meanings, later generations will have to follow those errors forever, and no one will be able to make any remedy or correction to the Dharma's meanings. This is precisely how the Buddhadharma has been strangled and brought to a standstill. In the secular worlds of science, technology, and academia, no one relies on persons; science and technology are always leaping forward, changing with each passing day. Yet the rules of relying on persons practiced in Buddhism have caused the Buddhism of several thousand years to be unable to develop any further.