About This Answer
Can someone who has taken a bodhisattva vow stand outside the door to Nibbāna yet guide others through it? Ajahn Dtun replies that a bodhisattva whose pāramī (spiritual perfections) are nearly complete might indeed show others the path, but this is rare; more often the perfections are not yet strong enough and the teaching goes astray.
He describes the way of the Thai forest masters: they withdrew to mountains, forests and caves and practised until they had fully realised the Dhamma, and only then came out to teach monks, novices and laypeople. Someone who sets himself up as an important teacher without that foundation is like a person who cannot swim teaching another to swim, and both drown together. One ordains for Nibbāna, not for gain, respect, praise or status.
Because many teachers today teach with wrong view, he tells listeners not to simply believe him. They should use mindfulness and wisdom to test any teaching in practice, asking whether it lessens greed, anger and delusion and leads beyond suffering. If it does not, there is no need to believe it.