འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའ་བསམ་པ་བསྐལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.12

1.12

and other useful items.

“Maitreya, it is like this. If, for instance, some person had hunks of putrid, rotting flesh hung around his neck, whether from the corpse of a dog, a human, or a monkey, he would wish to clean himself. And so, with embarrassment and revulsion, he would seek to rid himself of them. In the same way, those future teachers will be embarrassed and appalled by the prospect of offering the Dharma without obtaining material benefit. Once they realize there is nothing to be gained,¹⁸ they will be disappointed, refuse to teach, and leave.

“Wondering, ‘Why are they not giving us any food or clothing?’ and saying, ‘There is no reason for us to offer the Dharma; we really would rather not be stuck here for no reason,’ they will proceed to gather students for the sake of further adorning themselves, and not for the sake of attracting more and more beings to the Dharma. They will claim, ‘We gather followers only out of love, and so we have no need at all for them to serve and respect us. Because of our altruistic principles, in order to bring beings to maturity, we spend all our time visiting villages, towns, cities, states, and royal palaces’; and so they will promote themselves to many people. What they have in mind, however, is to go searching for food and clothing.

“Maitreya, now, I would not speak of a desirous mind bringing beings to maturity. Why not? Because, if one has not even matured oneself—a state that is not so easy to attain—then bringing other beings to maturity is out of the question.

“Maitreya, I would not call preoccupation with being served, and contamination from the pleasures of being physically served, helpfulness. Why not? Because, if one gathers followers in order to be made physically comfortable by their service, one is not concerned with whether they are practicing earnestly.

“Maitreya, I would not call such a hypocrite someone dwelling in isolation.