(Minghui.org) The number of Falun Gong practitioners who have moved from China to other countries in recent years has far exceeded the number of Chinese practitioners who came abroad many years ago. Many of the newcomers to the western world are still quite incompatible in terms of their thoughts, notions, and behaviors, which do not conform to the western culture.
Certainly, the majority of Chinese practitioners are very solid in their cultivation and work diligently to save sentient beings in China. On the other hand, some practitioners, even after living in western countries for several decades, still have not gotten rid of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) culture.
The pollution of the CCP culture is not limited to those in mainland China. It is carried around in people’s thoughts and habits. But when practitioners who have lived in western countries for a long time fail to remove the Party culture from themselves, they would become bad examples for newcomers. I heard some new practitioners saying things like “so-and-so has been outside of China for so many years, isn’t he still the same [not being able to assimilate into the western culture]?”
I disagree with such a comparison, which generalizes a small sample of practitioners into the entire population of Chinese practitioners living in western countries. It is going to extremes in my view. The traditional Chinese culture emphasizes taking the middle way and not going to extremes. But in the CCP culture, it emphasizes biased generalization of people to find excuses to cover up for themselves or not to do better.
In addition to comparing themselves to practitioners who are long-time residents in western countries, some of the newcomer-practitioners also look down on westerners, thinking that they are simple-minded. Master has talked about this issue in previous Fa teachings. Others took issue with how western society operates and complained about things they didn’t like.
Here are some of my observations of the manifestation of Party culture in practitioners who recently left China. These common phenomena reflect strong indoctrination by the Party culture, which prevented these practitioners from using righteous and kind thoughts to cleanse themselves in the western world.
1) No Respect for Others
Many Chinese practitioners living in the western world refer to the westerners as “foreigners” when they themselves are foreigners in those countries. Some talk loudly in public places as if no one is around. It reflects the mentality of being self-centered and not respecting others. In fact, such behavior belittles oneself as well. As a practitioner, one should be a good person and should be able to at least respect others.
2) Failure to Communicate and Tendency to Pass Judgment
Communication includes two aspects, “talking” and “listening.” Many Chinese practitioners don’t pay attention to what others say during the conversation but are busy defining and judging others.
In many cases, before others are even able to finish talking, those practitioners would interject to express their own opinion, or completely digress from the topic at hand, as if they didn’t hear a word said by others. They would only “hear” what they wanted to hear. They may distort and redefine every word others have said.
This kind of person doesn’t even care about what others think and are determined to express themselves and make quick assertions about others. The Party culture is so strong in them that their own kindness is buried.
3) Treat Cultivation with Human Thinking and the Standard of Everyday People
Some practitioners are unwilling to endure hardship and they often find excuses, such as having certain illnesses or physical limitations, to avoid working hard. Some claimed that they had suffered from injury before cultivation and some said that they couldn’t eat certain foods due to the sensitivity of their stomach. But if you ask them when they started cultivating, most likely they will tell you that they started cultivating ten or even twenty years ago. This led me to wonder whether they have truly been cultivating?
Such mentality isn’t only limited to the notion about illness, but some other attachments. We can’t use the excuse “I have always been like this” to cover up our problem and not to cultivate ourselves.
4) Unable to Take Criticism
Another problem is that some practitioners are not able to take in any constructive feedback or criticism. They could only hear the “comfortable words” and think they are smarter and know better than others.
Master said,
“...whoever cultivates gains.” (“Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
I hope fellow practitioners can pay more attention to these issues, so we all truly cultivate ourselves under the guidance of Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Improving Oneself
