If a person repeats something he hears from others or reads in books, he is not spreading the Dharma but merely faking it. In the East we call such a person “the three inches scholar.” He only reads books or listens to people and then talks, and the distance between his eyes or mouth or between ears and mouth is only about three inches. Those who give speeches or write books on Buddhism without attaining the inner light themselves are working in vain.

*1 Chinese inch = 3.3 centimetres