Sometimes you can be fooled, however. A person may have profound faith in his experience, but his experience may not be genuine. He may be deluding himself, and in turn, you as well. If he believes his expereience is genuine, then there is a strong possibility that his experience is false, because thinking in terms of genuine and false is still delusion.

I met a person in Taiwan who had studied Transcendental Meditation for a long time, and he had absolute faith in it. He believed his experience and wisdom were profound and claimed he could see everything in the world clearly. He visited me to share ideas, but he did all the talking. I could not get a word in edgewise. Finally, I squeezed in one question, and then he took over again, rambling on for another fifteen minutes. He did not answer my question, but instead repeated all his beliefs. I asked the same question again, but he kept repeating himself. For over an hour I listened to and analyzed what he said. It boiled down to a few points which he reiterated over and over. Eventually, I had no more time to talk, or in this case, to listen. As the man left, he said, "You should believe this. You have to believe this."

No one could refute this person because he would not give anyone the opportunity. He said he had visited many teachers, but no one could stand up to him. He thinks his wisdom is immense. Actually, it is not wisdom. It is fanaticism. He does not wield a vajra sword. His sword is false, because he does not test it.