S. : There is no doubt that the Dhamma is our guide and therefore people should not be attached to teachers. It is very difficult to thoroughly and completely understand the Tipitaka, both as to the letter and the meaning, but we are able to acquire more understanding of it by listening to any person who can explain the truth of Dhamma. However, we should not accept what is not in conformity with realities. We should not cling to persons, we should not believe in persons more than in the Dhamma itself. We should really have confidence in the Dhamma the Buddha assigned as his successor, as our guide.
Everything which occurs does so because of the appropriate conditions. Nobody knows in the case of a particular person his accumulated conditions for such or such aspect of the Dhamma or for the performing of such or such task in the field of Buddhism. May everyone who has the desire to study the Dhamma help to make known the Dhamma in accordance with his own ability. If someone helps explaining the Dhamma, it is not necessary that there are many people who come to listen to him or her. People who have knowledge and understanding of the Dhamma can, each in their own way, help others who do not know the Dhamma to acquire understanding of it. There is no need to think, I succeed this person, or, That person succeeds me. Different people can each perform a task in the field of Dhamma, in accordance with the understanding and capability they have accumulated.
The way to make known the Dhamma is to first study it oneself, in order to have right understanding. It is wrong to expect others to study the Dhamma and not to study it oneself. Someone may say that Buddhism is most beneficial, that it gives solutions to the problems in our life and in society, but does he really study the Dhamma himself? The person who wants to study Buddhism should be quite sure when he will do so. Otherwise he will keep on thinking about the study he will do in the future, instead of actually studying the Dhamma. When a person is sure when he will study the Dhamma he should also know what exactly he will study and where, in which place, he will study. These are things people should investigate in the right way; they should not neglect studying and gaining understanding of the Dhamma themselves, they should not merely repeat what they have heard from others.
There is only one way which is the right way: everyone should be his own refuge by studying the Dhamma with the purpose to acquire more understanding of it. Everyone who studies the Dhamma and has right understanding of it, contributes to the propagation of the Dhamma, both with regard to himself and others. When people do not have right understanding of the Dhamma themselves they cannot propagate it.
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