No matter how long a wrong view is propagated, it will never become truth.

Question: How can one judge whether a sūtra is authentic or spurious? Among Buddhist mantras, which are in accord with the Dharma and which are not—what is the criterion for making such a judgment? The Tripiṭaka contains many classics of Tibetan Buddhism; if these are spurious sūtras, why would the Tripiṭaka include them? If some sūtras and mantras are problematic, why have they been transmitted for over a thousand years without dying out?

Answer: Judging the authenticity of sūtras and mantras depends entirely on experience and wisdom; it cannot be taught or transmitted. If you lack experience and wisdom, do not make judgments or pronounce verdicts. It is best to be careful and cautious, and to keep your distance, lest you create unwholesome karma without even knowing it. The Tripiṭaka was mostly collected, compiled, edited, and organized by ordinary beings (pṛthagjana)—but what do ordinary beings really understand? If the Māra king saw that the Tripiṭaka had great utility and set out to compile and print it, what kind of content would he add to it?

No matter how long a heretical and deviant dharma has been propagated, that does not show that the dharma being transmitted is correct. The reason it has been transmitted for so long is that sentient beings are foolish and lack the wisdom to distinguish the true from the false. For example, for countless kalpas sentient beings have regarded the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) as the self, believing the self to be real. For countless times countless kalpas they have believed this, and it has been passed down to the present day—yet this does not show that the notion that the five aggregates are the self is correct and free of error. For countless kalpas sentient beings have believed that one should grasp at the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates, that worldly dharmas are good and cannot be departed from even for a moment—but in fact this is not so. If the Buddha had not come to tell us that the world of the five aggregates is empty and not-self, would we not forever continue to grasp at the world of the five aggregates? Even given countless more times countless kalpas, it would be the same. What can time prove or change, for foolish and ignorant sentient beings?

By the same token, no matter how many people share the same views, a false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) is still not a right view. Truth is not established by the number of people who accept it; it is usually found at the top of the pyramid, not in the hands of those at the very bottom. Therefore, in an impure land like the Sahā world, truth is usually held by a few, by a very few; and at certain times, there may not be a single person in the whole world who possesses the truth—only foolish and ignorant sentient beings.