If you accept a setback for the time being out of a desire for future benefits for yourself or if you practice mind training expecting to cure illness and mental disturbances and ward off adverse situations, your practice is mistaken, like someone contriving magical rituals. Don't act this way. Whatever happiness or sorrow comes, meditate without arrogance, hesitation, fear, or hope. Gyal-se Tokme has said:

Mind training done with that kind of attitude should be considered a method for helping demons and disturbances. If you practice that way, it's no different from evil. Dharma work must counteract discursive thought and disturbing emotions.

With this example, consider the topic of mistaken dharma practice. Mistaken outlooks are outlooks based on eternalism or nihilism; mistaken meditation is meditation that clings to some sublime state; mistaken conduct is conduct that is not consistent with the three ordinations. Mistaken dharma denotes anything that is contradictory to the ethics or outlook authoritatively taught in the holy dharma, regardless of whom it comes from, you or someone else, the very best or the very least. It will propel you into samsara and the lower realms. It's like taking the wrong medicine for an illness or applying the wrong disciplinary measures.

There are individuals who call certain composed and revealed works "mistaken dharma" without examining the words or thoughts in a single chapter to see whether they are pure or mistaken. It would appear that they issue their pronouncements out of attachment to their own systems or from personal differences. It is said that no one but a buddha is able to evaluate the worth of an individual. So, even though you may not like a person who has arrived at a proper outlook and ethics, your dislike doesn't make the dharma mistaken. For example, a merchant may sell gold or glitter, but it doesn't make him a better or worse merchant. Buddha said over and over again:

Don't rely on individuals; rely on the dharma.

I make this digression here because it is so important to understand this point.

From THE GREAT PATH OF AWAKENING, by Jamgn Kongtrul, translated by Ken McLeod. 1993 by Ken McLeod.
Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.