How to Rely on the Dharma Rather Than on Persons?

Relying on the Dharma means purely trusting and accepting in accordance with the true reality of the Buddha-dharma itself, being able to judge accurately whether a teaching is right or wrong—if it is right, rely on it and cultivate and study it; if it is wrong, steer clear and do not study it, and pass this on in turn to fellow practitioners and study companions. If you can judge whether a teaching is right or wrong, then you need no longer pay special attention to whether a person's name is famous, and you need not care about who the person is—focus only on the meaning of the Dharma. If the meaning of the Dharma is true and correct, even if the author is labeled as Māra Pāpīyas, you should pay no heed; if the meaning of the Dharma is mostly wrong views, even if it is labeled with the name of Śākyamuni Buddha, you should take no interest in it.

For those who truly wish to rely on the Dharma and not on the person in cultivating and studying the unsurpassed Dharma: if we were to label a Buddhist sutra with the name of Māra Pāpīyas, claiming it was written by Pāpīyas, and then label the teachings spoken by Pāpīyas with the name of the Buddha, presenting them as a Buddhist sutra, how would you judge the contents within? How would you treat these two kinds of Dharma meanings? If we were to scramble all the names of the authors of all texts and writings, or label them all as anonymous, then how should you treat the contents of these texts?