འཕགས་པ་ལྷག་པའ་བསམ་པ་བསྐལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.16

1.16

Dharma.

“They will even castigate them, saying, ‘The Dharma you have taught is the product of your own cleverness, not what the Thus-Gone One taught. This Dharma is just your own spurious creation. Since the Dharma that you teach is merely fabricated on your own authority, your teaching should be neither respected nor revered.’ This will cause many beings to reject their Dharma discourses, and because of such remarks, many will lose interest in the Dharma.

“They will go even further, saying, ‘Those monks are engaged in the material pursuit of donations, rather than in teaching the Dharma found in the sūtras and the vinaya. This is not the proper Dharma, so do not show reverence toward it!’

“Those with poor discernment simply will not understand that whatever qualifies as a well-spoken statement—no matter what it is—is the word of the Buddha.²² Because they are under the spell of Māra, they will reject the Dharma of those Dharma-holding monks, and so will accumulate the karma of abandoning the Dharma. Through accumulating the karma of abandoning the Dharma, they will fall into lower realms.

“Maitreya, in light of that, bodhisattvas who wish to safeguard the sacred Dharma must become skilled in method. No matter what, they must be very careful not to provoke feelings of hostility in those who have differing dispositions.”

The bodhisattva great being Maitreya then said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, in that way, during the final half-millennium, when the sacred Dharma is perishing, such bodhisattvas with weak sensibility will come to the fore. Though ostensibly pursuing virtuosity, at the same time they will take no interest in those who actually possess it; and while they seek as well the power of retention, they will nonetheless denigrate the Dharma of monks who do retain the Dharma. Incredible, isn’t it?