However 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 accordance with the Dharma and which are not, and what are the criteria for making such a judgment? The Taishō Tripiṭaka contains many Tibetan Buddhist classics; 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 conclusions. It is best to be careful and prudent, and to keep your distance, lest you create unwholesome karma without realizing 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 influence and set out to compile and print it, what kind of content would he add to it?

No matter how long heterodox and false dharmas have been propagated, it does not prove that the dharma being transmitted is correct. The reason they have 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 immeasurable kalpas, sentient beings have believed that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are the self, that the self is real. For immeasurable immeasurable kalpas they have believed this, and it has been passed down to the present day—yet this does not prove that the notion "the five aggregates are my self" is correct and free of error. Sentient beings have believed for immeasurable kalpas that one should grasp (upādāna) the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates, that worldly dharmas are good and cannot be relinquished 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 if there were another immeasurable immeasurable 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 believe and accept it; it often resides 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 often held in the hands of a few, a very few people—and sometimes, throughout the entire world, there is not a single person who possesses the truth; all are foolish and ignorant sentient beings.