Rely on the Dharma, Not on the Person

Relying on the Dharma means relying on facts and truth. This is an extremely difficult matter, because when wisdom is insufficient, one cannot realize and verify the facts. That a teaching does not conflict with facts is extremely important, and that it does not conflict with what the Buddha taught is of vital importance. Realization means attaining the facts and being in accord with the facts—this is the most crucial point of practice. So-called evidence is something you have personally verified and are firmly certain of; 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 purely judging the rightness or wrongness of a dharma from the perspective of dharma principles, dharma meanings, and facts. If the names were covered up, most people would be at a loss with regard to the dharma, unable to make choices—this entails enormous fault. Studying Buddhism and practicing the path requires relying on the Dharma and on facts, not on persons. Apart from the Buddha, no one else 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 be violating 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 enlightenment, is not one hundred percent correct. Every sentient being, 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 bring forth one's own direct-perception contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to clarify the issue.

Moreover, no matter whom one is commenting on, the evidence must be complete and conclusive, spelling things out point by point and making the issue clear. If one cannot do this, then one has no direct-perception contemplative practice and no evidence; in that case, one should work diligently behind the scenes to raise one's level of wisdom and improve one's contemplative wisdom. If one has no realization, no wisdom of direct-perception contemplative practice, then one should choose silence and refrain from evaluations and comments. If one insists on saying something, since there is no evidence, the karmic retribution is also great; and if the comment is wrong, the karmic retribution is likewise great.

If one cannot perform 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 relying 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 or omissions in dharma meanings, later generations will have to follow those errors and omissions forever, and no one will be able to make up for or correct the dharma meanings in any way—this is how the Buddhadharma has been strangled and brought to a standstill. In the secular worlds of science, technology, and academia, no one ever relies on persons; science and technology are always advancing by leaps and bounds, changing with each passing day. Yet the person-reliance rules practiced within Buddhism have kept Buddhism from developing for thousands of years.